Hi guys,
Last night I got a call from one of our transit drivers and he and I were chit chatting and he told me he was in the process of getting his Tanker and HAZMAT and finger prints (All things I already have) and getting ready to hang it up after 28 years and go over to one of the union LTL companies.
He said and I have not experienced this, but I know the older guys have, that as the years have gone by a lot of the benefits and fringe extras the guys back in the day had, well a lot of those have been slowly stripped away and our health insurance isn't really that great, our 401K is okay we have profit sharing, but that can be rolled into another companies 401K. Things are not what they used to be and will never be again.
Many of probably do not know this, because I do not talk about it, but I was in the process of trying to buy a home, but because I never built credit that's been stalled so I am not really in a position nor do I really wan to change jobs and employers, but....there is a mortality rate to all of this and we need to talk about that.
The driver I was talking to last night told me he said "I can't stand for real long amounts of time and I know it's from all the 20 years of hard lifting I have done." I mean lets face it 20,000lbs a day 5 days a week 49-50 weeks a year for 20 years on end that going to catch up to anyone. Well it caught up to him and it's caught up to others.
Now he was lucky to get a transit spot, but I don't know if that position is going to be available to me in my time frame and I'm not against working nights if I know eventually it will lead to days, but with our transit doubles it's nights and holidays for ever and they have been trying to eliminate as many drop yard transit drivers as possible they won't be able to get rid of all of them, because you always need some coming back, but our yard has gone from 6 transit drivers to 4 and could possibly go to 3 when this guy quits. The company in our division right now has to many transit drivers as it is and they do not have enough work for those guys so they have been breaking up doubles sets and run a lot of singles and stuff so one guy leaving would probably be welcome to management.
Well where does that put me? After a while I think some of the work I have done may catch up to me years from now in the form of physical pain and while I don't have any issues at the moment, I am thinking about the future and see a volume truck bid probably won't be available to me unless I want to move to the warehouse and a transit spot is nice, but who knows how long till early set transit comes and night transit is okay, but you'll be working nights and holidays and this particular driver said he's just had enough of working nights and holidays.
It got me to thinking about my own mortality and how long I can realistically do this or should do this. The answer is probably 5 more years and if by that time an early set transit spot hasn't come up or a night transit spot isn't available, because I doubt volume truck is going to happen. Then it's probably time to move on.
For a couple reasons, one I know for a fact the union outfits like ABF and the like have better health insurance benefits then we do and the work isn't nearly as physical and they have pension and 401K we have 401K no pension. Bascially the union LTL outfits like ABF are probably a better deal long run. This particular driver told me that's where he plans on going is ABF after 28 years at GFS. We had another guy a veteran transit driver quit to go work at Old Dominion and has never looked back.
So that makes me think gee uh there maybe a better benefits deal and quality of life deal out there. I'll tell you all right now the one thing that is going to eventually break the camels back for me is the getting up at 1:45-2:00am 5 days a week eventually that's going to be a deal breaker it isn't yet, but it will be.
I sometimes think you know there are other places where I can go and might not have to work as hard. I mean my second best option in my mind right now would be Anderson DuBoise the McDonalds supplier around here and if there warehouse was still where it used to be I may have already been there. If Martin Brower was in this area I would have already been there, but there warehouse is in Cincinnati and they do not do this area. So I mean it has to all play out, but mortality rate wise I mean I know @2wheeldriver and @Lazlo this comes up a lot I mean what are your guys plans or second choices?
Last night I got a call from one of our transit drivers and he and I were chit chatting and he told me he was in the process of getting his Tanker and HAZMAT and finger prints (All things I already have) and getting ready to hang it up after 28 years and go over to one of the union LTL companies.
He said and I have not experienced this, but I know the older guys have, that as the years have gone by a lot of the benefits and fringe extras the guys back in the day had, well a lot of those have been slowly stripped away and our health insurance isn't really that great, our 401K is okay we have profit sharing, but that can be rolled into another companies 401K. Things are not what they used to be and will never be again.
Many of probably do not know this, because I do not talk about it, but I was in the process of trying to buy a home, but because I never built credit that's been stalled so I am not really in a position nor do I really wan to change jobs and employers, but....there is a mortality rate to all of this and we need to talk about that.
The driver I was talking to last night told me he said "I can't stand for real long amounts of time and I know it's from all the 20 years of hard lifting I have done." I mean lets face it 20,000lbs a day 5 days a week 49-50 weeks a year for 20 years on end that going to catch up to anyone. Well it caught up to him and it's caught up to others.
Now he was lucky to get a transit spot, but I don't know if that position is going to be available to me in my time frame and I'm not against working nights if I know eventually it will lead to days, but with our transit doubles it's nights and holidays for ever and they have been trying to eliminate as many drop yard transit drivers as possible they won't be able to get rid of all of them, because you always need some coming back, but our yard has gone from 6 transit drivers to 4 and could possibly go to 3 when this guy quits. The company in our division right now has to many transit drivers as it is and they do not have enough work for those guys so they have been breaking up doubles sets and run a lot of singles and stuff so one guy leaving would probably be welcome to management.
Well where does that put me? After a while I think some of the work I have done may catch up to me years from now in the form of physical pain and while I don't have any issues at the moment, I am thinking about the future and see a volume truck bid probably won't be available to me unless I want to move to the warehouse and a transit spot is nice, but who knows how long till early set transit comes and night transit is okay, but you'll be working nights and holidays and this particular driver said he's just had enough of working nights and holidays.
It got me to thinking about my own mortality and how long I can realistically do this or should do this. The answer is probably 5 more years and if by that time an early set transit spot hasn't come up or a night transit spot isn't available, because I doubt volume truck is going to happen. Then it's probably time to move on.
For a couple reasons, one I know for a fact the union outfits like ABF and the like have better health insurance benefits then we do and the work isn't nearly as physical and they have pension and 401K we have 401K no pension. Bascially the union LTL outfits like ABF are probably a better deal long run. This particular driver told me that's where he plans on going is ABF after 28 years at GFS. We had another guy a veteran transit driver quit to go work at Old Dominion and has never looked back.
So that makes me think gee uh there maybe a better benefits deal and quality of life deal out there. I'll tell you all right now the one thing that is going to eventually break the camels back for me is the getting up at 1:45-2:00am 5 days a week eventually that's going to be a deal breaker it isn't yet, but it will be.
I sometimes think you know there are other places where I can go and might not have to work as hard. I mean my second best option in my mind right now would be Anderson DuBoise the McDonalds supplier around here and if there warehouse was still where it used to be I may have already been there. If Martin Brower was in this area I would have already been there, but there warehouse is in Cincinnati and they do not do this area. So I mean it has to all play out, but mortality rate wise I mean I know @2wheeldriver and @Lazlo this comes up a lot I mean what are your guys plans or second choices?