Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So I was at work all day on Halloween. I was trying to get out early, but that was a long day. I didn't even get home till the next day.
[00:00:12] And.
[00:00:17] There's no accountability in the workplace.
[00:00:21] I live in South Texas work.
[00:00:24] I live in South Texas, specifically Corpus Christi, Texas and I work in this area.
[00:00:31] Sometimes I work in the Three Rivers Kennedy area, the Helena area, and I go different places and there's no accountability.
[00:00:43] There's some accountability, but for the most part there is.
[00:00:47] There's always a constant struggle between the workers that work by the hour and the workers that work by the load.
[00:00:54] So the drivers get paid by the load and the operators that load us, you know, at the plants, they work by the hour and there's no accountability because they, the operators can waste our time.
[00:01:16] We have a stat, a government mandate that we have to follow as drivers. We have to follow a clock.
[00:01:25] Once our clock runs out, we can't run anymore. We have to wait eight hours or 10 hours. Instead of Texas, you wait eight hours and then you start again.
[00:01:37] So operators can wait, literally waste your time while they're getting paid. You know, they're basically milking the clock. That's what you call it.
[00:01:49] So they're milking the clock and the driver, you can, they could just leave the driver to sit there for hours on, on a load that they're getting paid $150 for.
[00:02:04] And.
[00:02:10] They pay for wait time. We get paid for wait time after like an hour or after two hours, depending on what they want to pay.
[00:02:20] But yes, but anyways, I was there. I was, I was there all day for Halloween.
[00:02:25] So get this, I went to this one place called Etc. In King Ranch.
[00:02:31] I think it's energy transfer company.
[00:02:34] Anyways, in King Ranch all the operator needed to do was open the gate and change my information from my old company to my new company.
[00:02:48] And that took about six hours to do.
[00:02:58] I waited there six hours.
[00:03:01] That's half of my, my driving clock. That's half of my clock for one load from Fremont to Victoria, Texas.
[00:03:19] So I get that, that load done. It takes about eight, nine hours. It takes almost my whole clock, you know, two thirds of my whole clock.
[00:03:29] Then from there I have to go to. Okay, by the time I finish from Fremont, I. Sorry, from Victoria, it's already about 2:00pm Maybe 3:00'. Clock. I drive to Valero in Three Rivers.
[00:03:50] I get there at 4:30 during shift change.
[00:03:56] So I get there at 4:30.
[00:03:59] I know because they get out at 5, but they leave at 4:30.
[00:04:05] Because they want to get out as fast as they can, right? Obviously you work by the hour. Once five o' clock hits, you're ready to go, you're ready to leave, you don't want to be there anymore.
[00:04:14] I get there at 4:30, the operator is in his shack and I know he's ready to leave because every time I go at 4:30, they make me wait for the next guy to come in, get loaded.
[00:04:30] So I get there at 4:30.
[00:04:33] This is Halloween, I'm trying to get home to take my kids trick or treating, right? Of course I have a backup plan. They're going to go with my parents to go trick or treating.
[00:04:44] So 4:30, I get there, the dude's already coming out with his lunch bag and all his stuff, get going to his truck, ready to leave. So I get there and I wait for the next guy to come in. Five o', clock, he comes in, 5pm and then I go and tell him, hey, I gotta get, I gotta get, get pro loaded with propane because I have to drive from Three Rivers to Kennedy. Unloading Kennedy.
[00:05:12] So I get there at 5 I, I let the guy know I'm there, Hey, I need a load propane. He tells me, oh well you should have asked the last guy on duty so he could sample the tank.
[00:05:26] And I'm a mind, I'm like, dude, y' all leave at 4:30.
[00:05:30] Y' all aren't gonna go want to go sample the tank?
[00:05:34] Because you leave at 5.
[00:05:36] How is that possible?
[00:05:38] You're just gonna tell me to wait? Y' all have done it before in the past.
[00:05:43] So the new operators tells me all that stuff and I'm like, okay, whatever, you know, because it's no use in arguing with them, it's just wasting my breath.
[00:05:52] So he goes to sample, he tells me I gotta sample the tank. It's gonna take another hour and 30 minutes.
[00:05:58] Mind you, I'm on my driver clock. I've already used nine hours, 10 hours.
[00:06:04] I mean, I've only got 14 hours left on my driver clock.
[00:06:08] I mean I've got a total of 14 hours on my driver clock.
[00:06:13] And then I'm like, okay, I gotta wait another hour and 30 minutes. So I stay there until seven, almost seven o' clock PM. I got there at 4:30pm I didn't leave Valero until 8pm Three and a half hours, 536, 373. Three and a half hours.
[00:06:41] Three and a half hours of my time for one load.
[00:06:47] Don't. And I'm not getting, getting paid by the load, not by the hour. So. So the dude basically wastes my entire clock.
[00:06:56] Both of them, the operator from ETC Energy Transfer company and King Ranch and the operator from Valero at Three Rivers, you know, and these guys don't have to wait for us to sample a tank because guys come in throughout the day, they take all the product from one tank and the tank is empty.
[00:07:22] The op. It's the operator's job to be like, okay, this tank is empty. I know somebody's coming in for more propane, so let me sample the next tank. Let me get ahead of it, do my job and sample the tank ahead of time.
[00:07:36] They don't have to wait for us to come in there and be like, hey, I need some propane. Oh yeah, okay, let's sample the tank first.
[00:07:44] Dude, how long has it been since that you've been out, since your product's been out from the, the other tank that was used since I got here?
[00:07:57] I don't know, but seems to me that they wait for us to get there. Oh, let's sample the tank. That way they can milk the clock longer, you know, and it's. There's no account. The reason why I say there's no accountability is because these operators, they don't really care about our time.
[00:08:10] And there's a constant struggle between us because we're frustrated with them.
[00:08:17] And so there's always this bumping heads between operators and drivers because we're not on the same page because one's working for the hour and one's working by the hour and one's working by the load.
[00:08:31] Even dispatchers, dispatchers, they'll use your time knowing that, that it, it's wasting your time like that. Like, okay, so Halloween night, it's our. I leave there at 8pm, I drive to Kennedy, unload. I get done, I get done there about 10 o', clock, sleep there overnight. So I slept there at night, overnight, Halloween night, till November 1st, because the next day I had a low, a load in the same area.
[00:09:06] So I get to the load spot at about, at about 5am.
[00:09:15] I get to the load spot at about 5am, call my dispatcher, text them I need the load number four. And I tell them. So I drive to Helena to the Helena stabilizer, my dispatcher, It's Friday, it's Sunday, it's Saturday morning.
[00:09:35] Dispatchers are not going to be awake in the morning.
[00:09:38] They send me my load information without the information that I needed to get loaded.
[00:09:45] So I'm there Texting them at 5am in the morning, like hey, where's the load number at? I need to get loaded.
[00:09:53] So the dispatcher wastes my time for almost two hours.
[00:09:57] Cuz I didn't leave until 8am so I'm there from 5am to 8am for three hours of my time.
[00:10:06] The, the dispatcher could have put that load number on there at the night, the, the day before, which is when they send it.
[00:10:16] So I'm here texting them early in the morning at 5am and they don't, of course they don't wake up until 7am So I don't get a, I don't hear it from them until 7am get loaded, don't leave till 8am So I drive from Helena to Pawnee, which is a 20 mile difference.
[00:10:35] So I could have been done. So and then I get there at 8:30, load from 8, unload from 8:30 to 9:30. I'm done by 10:00 o', clock, I'm done by 10:00am in the morning. November 1st, mind you, I still haven't got, I still haven't been able to see my kids, which I wanted to see all day the day before on, on October 31st, on Halloween, to see how their Halloween went. They're, they're little kids, they're 4 and 10 years old.
[00:11:08] So those two, those three loads that took me 14, that took me 20 hours. We'll say could have taken, Let me see. Okay, so it could have taken. So load, load at Valero, unload at. I'm sorry, load at. Etc. Unloading Victoria, that's two hours. The drive time alone is two, five hours. Right, that's, that's the first load. The second load is drive to Valero, which we'll say takes two hours.
[00:11:52] Load at Valero, eight hours drive to Kennedy, unload at Kennedy, that's 10 hours for the first load. The first two loads 10 hours.
[00:12:03] And then from Kennedy to Helena, that's another hour. That's 11 hours load, that's one hour and then half an hour.
[00:12:13] Would you say an hour and then unload? 14 hours. So a total of 14 hours for three loads. And it took a total of 20 hours, say probably more because, because you're not, you know, adding the sleep time. Right. I had to, had to stop for eight hours within there. So what basically took 24 hours plus five hours, 20 will say 30 out. What took 30 hours could, could have been done in, in 15 hours.
[00:12:43] 15 hours of my life wasted.
[00:12:53] And then of course I, you know, I got to be patient the whole time. I got to, you know, use my time wisely.
[00:13:00] And there's a lot of wait time. You know, of course I find stuff to do. I'm on social media. I have several pages that I run.
[00:13:08] I do my social media. I find. I find stuff to do. I'm working on a book. I'm reading the book while I'm reading the draft of the book while I'm out there waiting. And.
[00:13:19] But it's just frustrating, man, because there's. There's no accountability with the operators, with dispatchers for driver's time. And on top of that, I see these billboards, like, from lawyers, like, you've been in a semi accident, will pay you money.
[00:13:36] I mean, it's just like teachers, like, like any profession that.
[00:13:41] Any profession that can be stepped on will be stepped on.
[00:13:46] Teachers, drivers, paramedics.
[00:13:51] I mean, there's. There's no accountability, and it sucks. And I wish there. And I'm not saying the drivers are the most fun to beat, to work with, because I know that. I know that there's drivers that. That take it out on the operators and treat them badly because they're treating. Operators are treating us badly at the. You know what I mean? That's why it's a constantly revolving battle between the two.
[00:14:14] So I got to try to remain patient, remain calm, and just be like, okay, you know, I know that it could be a lot easier than what it is now, but you're still, you're not make. You're making it harder still.
[00:14:27] Y' all are difficult. I don't tell them that, but I have to think that in my mind, okay, I understand this, this and that, and what the bad thing, too, is. Like, when you're like that, they know that they can use you for that, too.
[00:14:43] So there comes a point where I have to be like, look, I have to speak up and say something for them to get some kind of accountability behind them, because you can call their hr, you can call their Matt, talk to their manager. You know, there was this one guy at Valero, real young cat, and he was very rude, very arrogant, and he wanted things to go his way.
[00:15:16] His name is Frank. He's not there no more.
[00:15:20] And he wanted things to go his way. And there was one day I was just like, you know what?
[00:15:27] I'm gonna. I'm.
[00:15:31] I'm basically going to tell him no, because everybody gives. Tells him yes, like, gives him his way.
[00:15:38] So he wants me to go into the shack. I don't feel comfortable with him. I told him, look, I'm not going to Go in that shot. You need to come outside and come get my information. Because they take our information down, right?
[00:15:48] He's like, why? I was like, because I don't feel comfortable around you, to be honest.
[00:15:52] He's like, well, why? I was like, I just. I. I don't need to explain myself. I don't feel comfortable around you.
[00:15:59] And he kept on pro. Prodding. I was like, you know what, bro? Call your supervisor out here.
[00:16:06] And then as soon as he heard that, he's like, all right.
[00:16:11] So he comes outside, gets my information. I get loaded, I leave.
[00:16:15] I go up to the front where the scale is. The supervisor basically is there. He's like, hey, what's going on?
[00:16:21] And the supervised name is Scooby. He's a cool dude in at works at Valero Three Rivers.
[00:16:27] Scooby understands because I think he's been. He's been a truck driver for some years, so he understands this. The truck driver's side.
[00:16:34] Truck drivers like him because he gets his. In his. Out of there. You know what I mean? He knows. He knows the game for truck drivers.
[00:16:41] So Frank told Scooby what happened. And of course, operators, they talk and tell each other, oh, this driver's bad. He's this and this and that. And Scooby finds out what happened between me and Frank. And Scooby's like, jesse, Jesus.
[00:16:57] Because I've talked to Scooby. He's cool. We. We chat. And so he. So he couldn't believe Frank, like, what? Jesus is not getting. He's giving you problems?
[00:17:06] And then I told Frank, look, I'm not comfortable. I told Scooby, I'm not comfortable being around Frank, especially going into the shack with him alone.
[00:17:15] I mean, he could. He could say anything he wants to me, and I could tell you or anybody else, and nobody will believe me because you usually take the side of the operators. So that's why this time I was like, you know what? Come outside, then. Get my information here, out in the open, in public, where there's cameras, this and this and that, yada, yada.
[00:17:33] So Frank ends up getting fired later.
[00:17:36] Probably not for that, but just because of his attitude. His attitude sucked. You know, it wasn't a good attitude.
[00:17:41] And anyway, so just, like, stuff like that. I bring that up because there's. There's no accountability between the operators. They could do whatever they want, you know, because they're usually taking their side. And drivers, when we go in, they really. They don't believe us. They take the side of the operators because it's easier, you know, because they could just kick the driver out.
[00:18:04] If you have to deal with the operator. Oh, you got to talk to hr, you got to talk to the manager, you got to do a write up. It's less work for them, the driver, you could just kick them out. And for us it's like, dude, this is our money, this is how we make money. You're going to kick me out of here, you know, which is a way that I make money through loads.
[00:18:22] So now I have to depend on my company putting me at other places to work, which is fine. Like I, I work anything other, other areas, other loads to work. But I can't go over here back to Helena because this operator says bad things about me, which could be untrue.
[00:18:39] You know, it's frustrating, man. And I just wish and hope that there's more accountability in the workplace.
[00:18:47] And if you're going through this, you're struggling with this from your workplace. If you're a truck driver or in any area that you're at, let us know in the comments. Thanks a lot you guys.
[00:18:59] Check out the blog post at Jesus hilario h.com where I put these blogs on written form. I clean them up, put them as a written form.
[00:19:10] I'm also going to start a newsletter for you guys that are interested in getting these, these types of thoughts and stuff on the more instead of just through social media. You get them directly to your email. Thanks a lot you guys. Have a good one. Bye.
