truck driving jobs

[DAZ60L]

Ok seems to be a few truck drivers on JC. So my question is what is the best company you have worked for and why?

Mine was mayne logistics. Delivering KFC and pizza hut. At night when the shop was shut I use to turn the ovens on and cook a Daz special pizza or that my box freezer at home was full of popcorn chicken. Lol

[Rufys]

So you stole from them and are admitting it on an online public forum? You've got class!

[maginoodle]

Was finemores now toll(bought out finemore). I used to do a bit of interstate stuff but 99% of my work is shuttle so i am usually home within 14 hours of leaving. Only time i am any longer than that is when there is a breakdown/flat tyre(not allowed to change myself and no jacks etc) or when accidents bush fires/floods etc and have to detour. And the main factor is decent wages.

[DAZ60L]

Back in those days damaged boxes you could take home...and the store let me make a pizza as long as I cleaned up..why is there always a troll that's gotta ad his negative two cents on every light hearted topic...good work mate I was looking forward to reading posts from decent people in the industry that are on this forum about there experiences..... Lock this thread if you want ADMIN

[drewVHSS]

Untill i worked for Lidcombe ice, all my prev truck jobs were shocking (low pay, heavy manual labour, disgusting load materials with no "dirty allowance".

With Lidice, I get good pay throughout the year, and my weekly wage triples during summer with all the xtra o/t
Mostly all local multi-drops with the occasional run to muswellbrook now and then.
In a two man team which we self manage so I guess you could say we have no boss to answer to at any time.
Plus i get to retreat into minus 12 degrees in summer whenever the heats a bit too much for me!!!!

[DAZ60L]

Yeah I think the days of changing your own tyres are long gone thank god.....so finemores are now toll?

[DAZ60L]

Yeah ice would be huge buisness in summer hey.....

[drewVHSS]

Yeah I think the days of changing your own tyres are long gone thank god.....so finemores are now toll?

I'll be glad when it's only allowed by tyre joints.
Last month on my way south from wangi heading towards dora creek. A MR tipper heading the other way lost his near side rear wheels, first one flung into the bush on his left and when i saw it from 100m away i didn't click to what it was, 2 sec later the other wheel flew across my nose and into the bush on my side of the road, I nearly shat myself!!
Pulled over to see if the other driver was ok and he told me he only just done the nuts up on it this morning!!!
Obviously not tight enough!!! Could've killed me if i was going any faster.

This summer was a bit slow compared to last summer. Hoping the heat wave they're predicting for Feb comes true.

[DAZ60L]

Scary .... Roads a dangerous place sometimes hey

[maginoodle]

Yeah I think the days of changing your own tyres are long gone thank god.....so finemores are now toll?

Back about 8 years ago finemore sold his business to toll. About 3 years ago he started again. I kept working for vehicle division and still do on a casual basis, so no more loading out of elizabeth or broady but still get to drive which is what i like doing.

[jatsvl]

I have only had 1 truck driving job because I have had my licence for 10weeks, I applied for so many jobs to no avail and all came down to "not what you know but WHO you know".
so I am now driving a HR cement mixer for a small concrete company, and gain experiance driving those god awful road ranger gearboxes.
I went from a car licence to a HC which is a giant step, my goal is to get experiance then work for a bigger company for the bigger $$$$'s

I'm driving the biggest piece of sh!t in ther fleet, if I get a flat tyre I have to change it, I also have to repair my truck with assistance if it breaks down, I don't mind it is all experience.
my career change is on track..

[Rufys]

Back about 8 years ago finemore sold his business to toll. About 3 years ago he started again. I kept working for vehicle division and still do on a casual basis, so no more loading out of elizabeth or broady but still get to drive which is what i like doing.

There's a LOT more to the story than that. Doug Finermore almost ran "Finemores" into the ground so sold it to get out of debt. Ron Finemore has [relatively] recently restarted the company under his management with the branding of "Ron Finermore Transport" or something like that.

The couple of times I've met him, Ron has been a great bloke and his new company is on track at the moment.

Source: The Finemore family are friends with friends of our family.

[minux]

There's a LOT more to the story than that. Doug Finermore almost ran "Finemores" into the ground so sold it to get out of debt. Ron Finemore has [relatively] recently restarted the company under his management with the branding of "Ron Finermore Transport" or something like that.

The couple of times I've met him, Ron has been a great bloke and his new company is on track at the moment.

Source: The Finemore family are friends with friends of our family.

The company was not restarted at all, Ron Finemore co invested (around 35% share) into the ailing lewingtons? at the time. This was then rebranded to Ron Finemores. Finemores originally was not sold because it was "run into the ground". It was sold because Toll were on massive spending spree's buying anything that turned a profit to build up to compete with linfox. I know Paul Little (Purchased toll in the 80's for like 1.5 mill lol) personally and know quite a few details regarding some of the takeovers very well (given that we have some 20 contracts within toll divisions). Ron Finemore who was exec chairman at the time of takeover agreed to the takeover mainly due to only ever having a 50% share (part owned by K-Line?) and had no where else to go after toll purchased klines share.

On top of all this, Ron has really nothing to do with the new business, it is ran by Scott and ...not sure of the other sons name never met him. Also, former managing directors are also running the show. Fact is, many of the former Finemore staff are back, certainly not a sign that it was sold due to "running into the ground".

Source - A myriad of Toll staff, ex Finemore Finance and operation managers.

Sorry to go off topic OP. I do not drive trucks for a living, I do work within logistics and occassionaly head interstate for a trip (Have MC ticket due to getting sick of drivers claiming I didn't know what I was talking about...kind of stuffs them up now ) to help out any of the companies that may need a favour.

[Rufys]

Source - A myriad of Toll staff, ex Finemore Finance and operation managers.

Oh I'm sorry - I guess they know more than the owners. My bad.

[minux]

Oh I'm sorry - I guess they know more than the owners. My bad.

Just look for the take over release information. Easy to find. I can certainly see no activity of bad management.

I truly doubt Paul Little would go after a company that was so badly run into the ground it need to be sold. The company was not "sold" it was a forced take over.

[Rufys]

Well there was a lot of "tension" in the family based on what I heard. If what I heard was wrong, so be it. But it's also very likely that any negativity wasn't common knowledge. Anyway, too far OT. Leave it at that.

[DAZ60L]

I have only had 1 truck driving job because I have had my licence for 10weeks, I applied for so many jobs to no avail and all came down to "not what you know but WHO you know".
so I am now driving a HR cement mixer for a small concrete company, and gain experiance driving those god awful road ranger gearboxes.
I went from a car licence to a HC which is a giant step, my goal is to get experiance then work for a bigger company for the bigger $$$$'s

I'm driving the biggest piece of sh!t in ther fleet, if I get a flat tyre I have to change it, I also have to repair my truck with assistance if it breaks down, I don't mind it is all experience.
my career change is on track..

Just hang in there mate everyone had to put in there hard yards driving shit....are you in Sydney?

[jatsvl]

Just hang in there mate everyone had to put in there hard yards driving shit....are you in Sydney?

Adelaide, I payed $3,500 of my own money from my previous job and pretty much threw myself in the deep end with NO road ranger experience at all, I must admit it is not easy and a few times I thought I should chuck it in, no confidence! but I stuck in there and got better with more hours behind the wheel now I have a job with a road ranger and everyday getting more and more confident with every hour in the truck.
I don't mind learning in an old crappy acco 2350, because I have come to realise if I master this I can drive anything!

p.s. S.A. is the only state/territory in australia that will allow someone to graduate from a car licence to a semi. and it is a giant leap.
also it must be done in a road ranger not a synchro or auto.

[Low06VZ]

I have driven a water tanker for a few months for Millers. I then switched to driving a garbage truck for the shire council for a year or so.
Now i've settled down back near home and have been driving a furniture truck for the past 18months with Downs removals.

I love when people complain about a hard days work, lol. I do alot of heavy lifting, pull some long hours and occasionally i tell you i work in some absolute pig styes. It amazes me some people can let a house get that bad. And worst of all i have to touch all of it to put it in the truck, how-ever there is the occasional perk when you score some free or cheap furniture

I'm hoping to save enough up to go for my HC license and then start driving some bigger trucks.

[DAZ60L]

Minux -1
TROLL - 0

Lol......anyway minux good info and also the manager of the company that I cannot name was in the same boat as you with getting his MC licence. I was hoping to really hear about people best jobs and for what reason because in the 15 years I have been part of it the industry has changed so much as you can see by my first post. Now days i would be locked up. But the change has also changed companies for instance personally if you use to work for K&S or linfox or ? You had to be a good operator but now it's changed in my opinion.

[Troy711]

I feel sorry for truckers especially with dick head drivers on the road. Just 2 days ago I saw a Rav4 cut in front of. Loaded B Double on approach to some traffic lights. The only thing that saved the Rav was that the truck high beamed him which gave him warning to move forward about a car length. The truck ended up about 2 feet off the back of the Rav. I do t drive trucks (never have and I doubt I ever will) but it still pisses me off the amount of ignorant drivers on the road whilst in the vicinity of trucks.

[elmaso]

quite alot of my family have driven trucks all around vic, one of my great uncles tipped his on its side, forgot how, but he did. lol
my grandpa did alot of driving during the 70's-90's and met heaps of the big transport company owners. for example the owner of linfox is apparently a complete prick hahaha.

i've thought about getting behind one, but to young now, got many years to think about it!

EDIT: in my driving i am very considerate to trucks, after having been bought up around the drivers, so i've heard any stories of close calls.
sorta makes you think "i'll just let that gigantic slab of metal pass"

[drewVHSS]

Adelaide, I payed $3,500 of my own money from my previous job and pretty much threw myself in the deep end with NO road ranger experience at all, I must admit it is not easy and a few times I thought I should chuck it in, no confidence! but I stuck in there and got better with more hours behind the wheel now I have a job with a road ranger and everyday getting more and more confident with every hour in the truck.
I don't mind learning in an old crappy acco 2350, because I have come to realise if I master this I can drive anything!

p.s. S.A. is the only state/territory in australia that will allow someone to graduate from a car licence to a semi. and it is a giant leap.
also it must be done in a road ranger not a synchro or auto.

Ha ha ha, we palmed our old acco to the batemans bay depot for christmas.... I feel your pain as the ol acco was my daily truck too with no tacho, no working speedo (rely on gps for speedo only) the only thing i liked about it was the under dash fresh air vent you can aim straight up ur shorts to cool ur nuts!!!!

[jatsvl]

Ha ha ha, the only thing i liked about it was the under dash fresh air vent you can aim straight up ur shorts to cool ur nuts!!!!

and it works well too! also the air con (wind the window down) works just the same, pity the passenger side is jammed.
my fuel gauge doesn't work but all the rest do, I would find pretty hard to match engine revs to road speed if they didn't, crunch, crunch, crunch I better go back and pick up the pieces.

[drewVHSS]

and it works well too! also the air con (wind the window down) works just the same, pity the passenger side is jammed.
my fuel gauge doesn't work but all the rest do, I would find pretty hard to match engine revs to road speed if they didn't, crunch, crunch, crunch I better go back and pick up the pieces.

Jeez ur spoiled, our one was an ex garbo truck.
It's faults are: No functioning tacho (took me 3 10 hour days to be able to get perfect downshifts by feel) no speedo (gps isn't instant so you can't rely on it for accurate speed when downshifting.
8 spd crash box and the splitter switch leaks air so if you dont drop down to bottom box before you stop you'll have to force a 5th gear take off which isn't easy with 10-12 tonne of ice in the back.
on some of my routes, i have to stop and shift my load over the back axles to get up hilly roads like killcare or patonga
the turning circle is that bad that most average 2 lane roundabouts require a 3 pt turn if you're stupid enough to do a u-turn using a roundabout! Hell it's lucky to get around most smaller 2 lane roundabouts when turning right!
No AC
Gutless motor which is freshly rebuilt (cost the boss $10k when for an extra couple of thou he coulda dropped a bigger capicity cummins into it and it wouldn't be such a slug)
Feels like you need to shift gears with a lump hammer and the added bonus of having a cash safe right at your elbow (mounted on the risen section next to the drivers seat) so if you're not careful or if you're overzealous with the shifter you smack your elbow on the safe.
The seating position vs shifter and steering wheel with 53 kg little me at the wheel reminds onlookers of the guy in the indianna jones movie who was driving that tank (in the last cruisade)
The air ride seat is broken so you smack your head into the roof all the time
That horrible vinyl rooflining is falling to bits so the crumbling foam between it and the metal roof float around the cab and into your eye's
The rear brakes lock up when you've got no load onboard.
The dash looks like it's stolen from a 1960's leyland bus (sheet metal covered in fake woodgrain vinyl like old speakers, holesawed gauges)
and here's the kicker: it's a '96 2250D!!!!