A month or so ago, I posted my resume on Monster.com. I've gotten a few phone calls from that, but they've all been people wanting me to sell insurance. Don't ask me why.

Anyway, yesterday I got a phone call from a company that rents construction equipment, needing a driver ASAP. The job will be picking up and delivering rental equipment. This is a local job, meaning I'll get to remember what it's like to sleep in my own bed every night, watch my own TV (and the commercials that go with it), etc. She asked me to go to their company site to fill out an application, which I promptly did. Within an hour of filling that out, I received an email to schedule a phone interview, which I again did immediately. The earliest option I had for the interview was for this coming Friday. About an hour later, while I was in the shower, my phone started ringing. I figured it was my wife and would call her when I got out of the shower. Nope - it was the rental company wanting to do the phone interview ASAP. By the time I heard the voicemail, it was too late in the day. So, I'll give her a call back this morning after I deliver this load.

When she initially called me, she asked the basic questions: Which class of CDL, tickets, accidents, etc. She then asked about the pay I would be expecting. First off, I hate that question. You're the employer and know what you normally pay. I drive OTR and know cents-per-mile, not local hourly rates. Anyway, I did some quick math in my head and said I was thinking in the range of $15 per hour. She paused and said that is definitely doable and probably will be paid a higher rate.

The funny part to all of this is that I had given Celadon my notice earlier yesterday. I was offered a job Monday afternoon by a company close to my house that would get me home every weekend (plus pay more along with more miles per week). When I received the call yesterday, I was parked for the day and in the process of starting the packing-up of all my belongings in the truck into some bankers boxes that I picked up yesterday morning.

I originally was going to be routed into Celadon's Richmond, VA terminal on Monday. Instead, I'm now scheduled to be in Richmond by Friday. Even though I have to rent a car to drive home, Celadon is paying me the cost of a bus ticket, which is almost the same amount of money.

I'm really hoping that everything goes good for the local job, even if it does mean I have to drive about 50 miles each way to work. Every local job I've had in the past hasn't wanted to pay worth a damn, plus had you in absolutely horrible equipment.

But then when given the opportunity to give a value to a prospective you give a figure of $15 an hour? They were obviously desperate, you needed to take advantage of their weakness. Anyways good luck sounds like a interesting job. Wonder if it is seasonal in nature?

From the way she talked to me yesterday the majority of their equipment is going to the coal mines & the gas well sites.

Good luck Mal.

If the company in question is RSC or United Rentals affiliated, you will be working with decent equipment.

I talked to a United rental driver about a year ago and he seemed REAL happy and I believe the pay was close to $20 an hour plus some good benifits includeing use of the rental equipment.

Good luck at the local job, Malaki. It sounds promising. Also, you probably know this already, but you can cut out TV commercials with a DVR.

It's RSC. Looks like they're opening a new lot since on their main web site, it doesn't list the city they're hiring for whatsoever. It's not in Google Maps either.

FYI, RSC is about to be United Rental. United is in the process of buying RSC out, they are just waiting for all the approvals to go thru before making an official announcement. United takes good care of their people from what I've seen. They had a place beside our yard, the lowboy driver was happy with them.

good luck, hope all goes well