New Gig

TruckingSurv · Oct 5, 2013

Landed a gig driving this medical equipment show vehicle, looks about like an expedite truck, but a fixed load, no freight, stay in hotels and pays per diem, not what I was thinking of doing, BUT as a new driver when something basically drops in your lap, take it. Not huge miles, maybe 40K a year, probably out about 40 weeks, flight home between shows and pays decent, all expenses paid.

Start training this coming week and then pickup a truck in the midwest and head to WV for a show.

See you on the road, I think there are only two of these nationwide, so if you see the truck, it is a 50% chance that it is me, LOL.

runrunner · Oct 5, 2013

Hey,that sounds like a great gig! Good luck!

zorry · Oct 5, 2013

Excellent gig. Enjoy it while it lasts. A private deal, or a private carrier, is usually a better situation.
Congratulations.

TruckingSurv · Oct 5, 2013

zorry said:
Excellent gig. Enjoy it while it lasts. A private deal, or a private carrier, is usually a better situation.
Congratulations.

The vehicles are owned by the medical equipment company and they contract the operation to a local logistics company, I believe there are only two trucks (possible a 3rd?) and one other full time driver plus a relief driver and the logistics company owner who also fills in, basically a four person operation that runs these trucks on the show/convention circuit, the logistics company owner, myself and the other full time driver all live within 30 miles of each other, seems like a good deal, time will tell. Saw this on the local CL, BUT not until about two weeks after posted, responded on Wednesday anyway and hired Friday due to a guy bailing that he had already offered the second driver job to, moving crazy fast! ISX500's I think (2007) with ZF 12 speed automated manual gear boxes, should be fun to drive! Find out tomorrow...

This a bit more than a driving gig, set up, clean and keep the truck up, must wear company uniforms, meet and greet at the shows, hand out drinks and be helpful and friendly, etc.

TS

zorry · Oct 5, 2013

On of the best jobs I ever had was with a chemical company that owned their own trucks.
I've also done show work while at Trl Transit.
A friend had an outfit paint his truck to match their trl and he did shows for two years.
Nice work. Hopefully when it ends, another like it will pop up.
You won't know how good this job is until you get another trucking job.
Nice truck. You should enjoy it.
Be safe out there. You'll need patience at show setup and teardown. Just go with the flow.

tknight · Oct 5, 2013

Roadie gig should pay min 1250 wk +50 a day perform if negotiated right ! Usually a very good type gig and great starting pay! I used to pay my tractor drivers on tour 1750 a week and he only had to drive 4 days a week city to city drop railed and hang out at the pool ya got to love rock n roll !

psm127_dad · Oct 5, 2013

Truckingsurv,

Congrats! Glad to hear you picked something up. I was just telling someone about you a earlier today. Good luck & stay in touch.

TruckingSurv · Oct 5, 2013

tknight said:
Roadie gig should pay min 1250 wk +50 a day perform

Not quite that, BUT close, kind of a flat rate deal, driving or at a show, BUT all miles over 330 a day pay an additional amount per mile, if you are down at a hotel for whatever reason, hotel and per diem are paid full rate and a lessor daily rate for wages, BUT you can at least maintain at a comfortable standby rate, time will tell, BUT it is supposed to work out to +/- $50K a year for about 40 weeks + about $10K a year of pre tax income for the per diem. They say even on a slow week, $1000 to the driver per week, should say this is W-2 also, no 1099. I think I could of done a lot worse, maybe a little better, BUT for my first real driving job (outside some small amounts of farm/woods driving) I think it will be OK, nice equipment that they keep in top notch shape looks like and I think they said these 2007 trucks only have about 230K on them. As a bonus for me, lots of down time to continue consulting and billing for my own business which will now be the part time gig, good years, I should be able to add another $10K to my income pretty easily off my consulting work, did $2K of that in the last 30 days alone.

TS

TeamCaffee · Oct 5, 2013

Sounds awesome! That is what we would like to get into some day. The show aspect of what we do is what we enjoy the most and someday like you maybe it will happen.

Enjoy!

geo · Oct 18, 2013

nice looking unit, enjoy new job and good luck

TruckingSurv · Oct 19, 2013

Week one solo (after a week of training) is in the books. Flew from Oregon to Kansas City and picked up a truck and then drove to Charleston, WV for a show, currently on my way to Chicago area for shows next week, 1025 miles for the week. Motel every night including a $237 room at this conference hotel, so far like the gig, a little stressful at times trying to negotiate tight areas with this long wheel base truck, but I am starting to get used to it, only thing missing is my wife, boss is supposed to be seeing if insurance would allow her to come out once in a while... Be running 1-64 to Louisville and then I-65 to Chicago area over the weekend.

tknight · Oct 19, 2013

Watch those hotel overhangs and parking lot islands o pleanty

TruckingSurv · Oct 19, 2013

WILL DO! It was marked 13' 6", but not a lot of clearance, the hotel folks were watching for me.

TS

spongebox1 · Oct 19, 2013

Great sounding gig, enjoy it!!

Sent from my VS910 4G using EO Forums mobile app

cheri1122 · Oct 19, 2013

What a great job - congrats! And take it slow with the getting in & out of some of those 'conference centers' [the Reagan Bldg in DC comes to mind, lol] because they can be mined with potential 'gotcha!' spots inside & out.
It looks like a really interesting job.

TruckingSurv · Nov 10, 2013

Four full weeks in the books now, have run 4642 miles since 14-Oct, 835 miles since Friday afternoon... Week 1, Kansas City to Charleston, WV, Week 2 in the Chicago area, Week 3 started in Cleveland area and worked south and east to western Maryland, Week 4 out to St. Louis for 3 days and then into Kentucky for two days and this weekend ran up to Columbus, OH from KY and then east to the western burbs of Philly, will work my way to upstate NY this week and then run to Nashville next weekend and then fly home for two weeks of home time. We tend to run short miles during the week with lots of Line 1 hours (off duty while the sales reps demo the instruments) and make big moves on the weekend, haven't reset in about two weeks and still have 35 hours left on my 70...

I have seen parts of I-64 and I-70 twice already, LOL.

Stopped at the Petro in Carlise, PA for a truck wash and dinner today, about lost my truck in the crowd there....

A couple of observations; most driver's of four wheelers as well as big rigs are courteous if you signal your intentions in heavy traffic, a few aren't and I don't just mean the four wheels either.

A huge percentage of four wheelers has one or more people using a handheld device and I don't mean just the passengers either, I have seen full on laptops in the lap of the driver, wow! Almost all texting drivers are all over their lane and have inconsistent speed, pretty easy to spot.

Until next time...

TS