Tuesday, August 7, 2018

I'm not happy with work right now.

In the last 5 runs, 4 of them have been Cheniere, including being sent out on this waste of time run today at 1:30.  I texted her asking about it, she didn't reply with anything but the load information.  So, I told her it's almost always more than a day trip and I only have 13 hours left on my clock.  Oh that's okay, you're getting 7 over night.  Great.  So, I have 20 hours to waste on a trip that doesn't pay anything.

I verified that by looking at my most recent pay stub.  Wasting 2 days going down there and back, I got less than $400.  Using 2 days going down to Browsnville I got almost a grand on one particular run, tho admittedly that had some detention pay in it.  Since I know I'm not going to make it home tonight - even if there were the chance of having enough time, I wouldn't get home until 4 or 5 am and I'm not going to waste an entire day feeling like s*** because I stayed up all night long trying to get home - I'm not going to say anything to anyone when I get down there. I'm just going to pull into the lot and sit there and probably go to sleep,  If they want to make me wait for 10 hours, great!  I'll get detention pay at least and make the waste of 2 days worth something.

Last trip - which I got home yesterday from - I had 5 hours of it.  Just not enough to make that particular run worth it.  In fact, in this case? I'd just as soon something happens at the loading plant.  And make me wait 5 hours there.

Whatever the case, I got another company newsletter from this company of which I absolutely laughed at.  The CEO is complaining of driver retention and that they are going to start a "new" program to find ways to keep good drivers.  I have several suggestions but giving them will probably get me on a "list" so I'll refrain.  Or maybe I'll send it through an email that isn't associated with my name.  Of course, there is the ID that goes along with those email addresses that can be traced back to other email addresses.  I wonder if they'd go that far with it? Probably just best to keep my mouth shut.

The thing says  "In 2017, even though we hired almost 2,000 Drivers (sic), we also lost Drivers due to various reasons.  Most of these Drivers left within the first 6 months of being hired".  I could give them several tips.  Don't hire people on and then not have trucks available to drive when they are done with orientation.  Don't use orientation as a tool to instill "fear", make people feel welcome to be there instead of telling them how many ways they can get fired for doing this and that and leaving out the welcoming party stuff while doing so.  Don't promise new drivers new trucks and then not only not give you one, but also diss you to your face while doing so, that's a BIG no-no in the trucking world.  Don't dump drivers from one truck to another to another, drivers want to have their own truck, not be moved around like US Mail going from one truck to another.

Don't play favorites.  It will get back to those new drivers eventually. Don't make new drivers go unload cryogenics, giving them absolutely NO training whatsoever on how to do it. "You'll figure it out".  Can you imagine the fear of unloading a substance that is highly flammable, explosive, volatile, kept at around 150 below zero and can give you freeze burn upon contact and can also suffocate you if a big spill occurred?  Yeah, that.  And more, much more actually.

I'm here, stuck here for at least a year, in my mind anyway, to get at least the minimum experience to be able to move on to another company, make the same wages and get better treatment.  I sit at a table at the loading plant and we all talk among ourselves - drivers from all kinds of different companies. And here it is, yet another snail mail from the company wanting drivers to recruit new drivers.  In a pig's eye I will, not with the crap that's going on here now.  Sure, you get a couple thousand dollars but you are recruiting someone to a place that doesn't have their s*** together.  And then that driver blaming me ? No thanks. 

Well, that's that for my crying episode today.  Meanwhile, grin and bear it.  Go into work in a couple of hours, get the truck loaded and get on the road to that miserable place.  At least my bank account is happy, tho with these runs my paychecks will be significantly smaller, which is my gripe about this run.

Of all the things my mind has wandered about to spend money on, I have actually done none of it, at least, nothing more than what I've already reported on this blog.  New TV, boat, 4 wheelers, etc, none of that stuff.  If I could get my savings up to 10 grand, that would just propel me on to wanting to save another 10 grand and then, I could get the property I want or perhaps a start on rental properties.  I needed a "new" vehicle, I'm comfortable with that.  I am looking at ways to reduce my monthly expenditures, got a start on that yesterday with complaining to ATT about over priced services. They were all over it, amazingly enough.  Oh we'll help you out with that! They actually did, too, I was amazed and shocked at the same time. 

Direct TV is next.  All the movie channels we still have here, Donny was paying the additional amount for those, but he's over at the other house now and I don't need all of that extra fluff. I'm not even here long enough to enjoy all of that.  I figure to cut out the movie channels altogether, that should save around $75 per month, maybe more.  They wanted to dump Direct TV altogether, but I'm not at that point.  I want certain channels - they aren't premium channels but they are cable channels. 
It's optional services I can save on, things like water and electricity not so much. 

Well I'm gettting off here.  Finish laundry, take a shower and go deal with this junk. 


























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