• Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!

Finding qualified help

AzIron

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2016
Messages
1,541
Location
Az
Dont get me started on poor planning that's the biggest reason I work by the hour I have been to one job off and on for the last 2 months we have moved the same pile of dirt no less than 3 times

I have some customers that are just a breeze to work for even on the really complicated stuff cause they know what they want and how to accomplish it and I have others that can't figure out how to layout a job let alone have it ready before I get there
 

thepumpguysc

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2010
Messages
7,445
Location
Sunny South Carolina
Occupation
Master Inj.Pump rebuilder
I know whatcha mean.. The ER I ended up at isn't known for saving lives if ya know what I mean.??
I could go to Charleston for the "bone" stuff, but I'm not so sure its worth the hassle??
The other hospital has all the xray's & write-ups already.. & whats the worse that could happen, they cut it off ?? So I pick my nose w/ the other hand..Lol
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,436
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
Our local hospitals are Triage only setup, they align you for transport to one in the Columbia or STL MO large hospitals some 60-80 miles away. Hurt enough to be crippled by delay and you may as well count on losing functions.

My back surgeries were done by the presumed best in the state. He was pretty straight forward in warning of age related arthritic issues he saw while inside, gave me around a decade before gets to where will be a major issue(two years ago now). Then the SI joint issue came up where I most likely had carried that over thirty five years and could not feel it damaging it a little more each year where now it has feeling and lets me know when I am doing too much as well the insurance company Will NOT pay for repair. Aging is a trap and a trick, you still see and think as you have for decades, just the body will/can no longer make it happen.
 

Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,558
Location
WWW.
The qualified truck driver and just finding drivers has another side to it, especially when it comes to OTR refrigerated freight. My boss just like many others constantly cry
about finding drivers and has complained to us in the shop {I don't know how many times} why drivers are so hard to find. DUH? My response-The driver shortage started
about 3 years ago as the percentage of unemployed dropped not helping the situation. Good drivers started picking up close to home jobs {Prevailing Wage} which really
shrank the pool and at 3.7 percent unemployed employers are raising wages to keep the drivers they have and stop them from jumping companies. Which causes inflation.
In the frozen/refrigerated trucking business you don't want to see employment percentage fall below 5%. Good times or bad just average employment figures of 5 to 6%
are what you want to see. With 3.7 percent your going to get the dregs from the bottom of the barrel for drivers. Next thing to rise is your insurance cost from the new hires
damaging your equipment which he has already seen and admitted to. JMHO. I'm sure this will bring a sour response. lol

Truck Shop
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,436
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
Are seeing that in the bulk commodities divisions here, the guys and gals shops want to hire are already working, that leaves those just coming off driving school yards or as in my case retirees looking for a boredom breaker. All too many do not or can not do the hours the employers want or demand and play spin the bottle as to the Next employer. Good people that work hard are out there working hard, those that slough are not and at best are slightly damaging machines not destroying them.

Don't know how to jump from here and in no way have any answer on how to fix.
 

thepumpguysc

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2010
Messages
7,445
Location
Sunny South Carolina
Occupation
Master Inj.Pump rebuilder
Regardless of the responses TS.. "I THINK" your dead right.. I really hate to see unemployment at 5-6% but in THIS situation, {drivers} I understand..
 

4x4ford

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
237
Location
Las Vegas Nevada
Occupation
aunts on the strip Currently drive a 1951 chevy pa
I’m a driver and what truck shop said is exactly right I ran 2.5 years reefer and currently run flatbed and am starting to seriously look at something closer to home I know the first good snowfall we get along 40 from Oklahoma eastward it’s going to look like ww3 with all the new drivers supposed to get 3-5 inches this week in Missouri at the house and I’m sure that will be interesting
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,436
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
Was rough along the 44 corridor yesterday, had a pair of Tractor Trailers get into a incident at Chesterfield MO on I64/US40, both burned one driver died. I got tired of working around the idiots when I was still driving the Grain haul, saw enough ignorance accidents to fill a encyclopedia and in under a year.
 

cuttin edge

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
Messages
2,692
Location
NB Canada
Occupation
Finish grader operator
My favorite line is I can run anything that moves, and another good one fed to me by a hoe man was " diggiin's diggin". Just because a guy can pull the controls and make it work, doesn't mean he's an operator. Technique and common sense comes into play. One of these I can run anything guys came with us on a private job. I cut out the material with the grader and he took the material away with the backhoe. The customer had a hole he wanted to fill. He moved the material away as fast as I cut it out. Went to check on his progress..... Nice and level, but instead of filling the hole, he filled the ditch draining the hole. I like the guy, or girl who says little, and asks questions
 

oarwhat

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2009
Messages
826
Location
buffalo,n.y.
My favorite line is I can run anything that moves, and another good one fed to me by a hoe man was " diggiin's diggin". Just because a guy can pull the controls and make it work, doesn't mean he's an operator. Technique and common sense comes into play. One of these I can run anything guys came with us on a private job. I cut out the material with the grader and he took the material away with the backhoe. The customer had a hole he wanted to fill. He moved the material away as fast as I cut it out. Went to check on his progress..... Nice and level, but instead of filling the hole, he filled the ditch draining the hole. I like the guy, or girl who says little, and asks questions
My favorite line is I can run anything that moves, and another good one fed to me by a hoe man was " diggiin's diggin". Just because a guy can pull the controls and make it work, doesn't mean he's an operator. Technique and common sense comes into play. One of these I can run anything guys came with us on a private job. I cut out the material with the grader and he took the material away with the backhoe. The customer had a hole he wanted to fill. He moved the material away as fast as I cut it out. Went to check on his progress..... Nice and level, but instead of filling the hole, he filled the ditch draining the hole. I like the guy, or girl who says little, and asks questions

We had a guy just like that. He was filling a dump with stone that had to go a short distance. While the dump driver and I were talking he kept filling. We heard stone falling and looked up to see every sq inch of the box full. It was piled so high when he dumped on top it ran off. He did a few other dosies before we let him go.
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,436
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
Been involved with someone as that loading grain. Ended up pulling out of a farm grossing 89,730 but only had sixteen miles to get to the elevator. Tarp would barely roll over the mounds! He was being helpful and loaded the truck as I was taking the other one to the elevator, had planned on going to the Grain Depot in IL some 108 miles away to offload but that was NOT happening.
 

wrc

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2014
Messages
156
Location
Topeka
Well I'm back at the hamster wheel again. Put the ads out yesterday. Got on reply today. "I've got no experience, and should I wait a while to go for the post test? It's not clean right now."
Where do these guys come from?
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,436
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
That is a BIG problem these days, idiots using dope and still want to get a high pay job KNOWING they will be tested, SO Stupid. Wife's co-worker husband has a Felony record, been hard to find work but IS a qualified welder, idiot refuses to stop smoking dope which he also has to purchase with REAL money and cannot pass testing to get better paying jobs. And Yes, you CANNOT fix stupid.
 

JD955SC

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2011
Messages
1,349
Location
The South
That is a BIG problem these days, idiots using dope and still want to get a high pay job KNOWING they will be tested, SO Stupid. Wife's co-worker husband has a Felony record, been hard to find work but IS a qualified welder, idiot refuses to stop smoking dope which he also has to purchase with REAL money and cannot pass testing to get better paying jobs. And Yes, you CANNOT fix stupid.


This state is full of people who won’t give it up for the sake of a career.

I don’t have a problem with that. Being able to pass a drug test at any time puts me ahead of so many. Add in my skill set and it’s even better. It sucks for employers needing help but I will not complain about any factor that helps to make me a more valuable employee
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,436
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
Pretty much sums it up. The guy I spoke of also tried as my Sis in Law has the garbage 'If you eat or dink this will pass and still can smoke' cures. Sis In Law in Co lost her license some time back, was involved in a SLIGHT fender bender, cop asked for her insurance card where as she got In her car he was close and could smell the pot smoke residual, asked her if she was a user, she stated "I smoke once in awhile in the car but never when driving", her license was surrendered and she has to take a Clean drug test to get it back. REFUSES to stop smoking the crap and is trying all the stupid faux cleans it up techniques, four times to the clinic and four times re-failed. Wife's friend's husband similar, even tried to get a CDL and failed the DOT screen after drank some concoction "Guaranteed" to get a pass.
 

BigWrench55

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2018
Messages
1,176
Location
Somewhere
There’s no cure for stupid. I’m of the opinion that what you do in the privacy of your home is your business. But when your business start effecting others then it’s not no longer your business and then we now have a duty to say something. It’s simple to me but then again I’m not in there shoes. If you have to stop doing drugs in order to get your freedoms back then do it! Stop trying to get around and blaming the system that has you hemmed up. You lost your license, job, children! Is nobody’s fault but your own. That is the problem with the world today. Nobody wants to except responsibility for their sh!t. I could go on and on about this forever. The only thing that we can do is to start holding people accountable.
 
Top