A month in at Messer

I’m almost a month in at the new job and thought I’d pay it back (and forward) with an entry since I don’t see a lot out there about industrial gas delivery.

Also thanks to @lual for bringing this job listing to my attention…all had to do after that was submit quick apps through the company website (and their Indeed posting to cover bases) and they reached out pretty quick. Can’t speak for any other location, but this one used to require 2 years of tanker experience and I got hired on with only 1 year of reefer. Seems to be a good time to get into the industry if somebody is looking for something local that pays pretty well.

The first three weeks have seemed long, but I think that’s always the case during “training day” when you’re trying to figure everything out. It started with three full days of the standard computer training…both the topics you find at any company and also a lot of additional training specific to the job…and two days of riding along with a driver on a route and observing the process. Then two full weeks going out with a trainer, at first switching back and forth on the driving, progressing to where it was me doing all the driving and almost all the delivery tasks. Lots of repetition on trailer loading and delivery at a lot of different customers. Mostly hospitals, industrial and food facilities. I’ve been out alone three times now, including once to Canada which was more straightforward than I thought.

The plant here is mostly nitrogen and oxygen, with some argon here and there but most drivers only deal in the first two. Local is a bit of an adjustment from OTR with more city driving, sometimes backing in to customers off of the street and just having to do a lot more maneuvering in parking lots or wherever the tanks happen to be. The days are generally pretty long, but from what I’m reading that seems to be the case in most local jobs. From talking to the experienced drivers, 11-12 hours is pretty standard, usually not less than 10 and rarely pushing up against the 14. Something else I was not used to with OTR was that you get paid for EVERYTHING. Mileage while driving and hourly for everything else. If there’s any kind of delay, you mark it down and get paid for it. If there’s a car blocking the tank or any other kind of problem and you can’t deliver, you still get paid. Another nice thing is rarely dealing with customers. Some places might have time restrictions to deliver, but otherwise there’s no appointment time and you just show up when you happen to get there, deliver and leave.

20 drivers at my location, and shifts start at all different times throughout the day and night. Like most local gigs it goes by seniority and I ended up with a 12pm-1pm start time, which will usually finish up close to midnight. My “weekend” is Wednesday-Thursday, which is good for me. Yes there are cameras and I know that’s a deal breaker for some folks. I personally don’t care. No touching the phone while driving, must be safely stopped. I plug in to the USB and set my podcasts to play through before heading out…some guys listen to the radio or XM or whatever.

Overall I think cryo is a good opportunity for folks looking to go local and it’s “clean” hazmat, no coming home smelling like fuel or anything. Hours can be long but again, I’m used to OTR so it’s not terrible.

 

@lual actually sent it to me in a DM right around the time I left Prime in March. I think he saw that I was changing jobs and had seen the listing since he's plugged in pretty well in the hazmat tanker world.

 

My location actually used to be Linde and got bought out by Messer, at least that's how I understood it.

I'm still not 100% sure how it all fits together since the different cryo companies all seem to come in to load up at each other's locations...

 

After my first full week out alone, I'll say this has been a humbling experience. I liked to think I had figured out a good trip planning routine to be pretty efficient while OTR, but this is a completely different animal. There are a LOT of different customers and they range from a flat wide open lot to a blindside back off of an active street into a narrow alleyway up a hill...and everything in between. I'll say that a day cab with the back windows does help to make it not quite as blind.

Going into Boston at night is challenging...I can't imagine trying to do so during the day. The tough part for me has been looking at an assigned trip to somewhere I haven't yet been and determining if I have enough time left on my clock to get it done. I can follow the procedures to deliver safely but it takes me a while at this stage, especially if I'm going into the city. I've been consulting the suggested route in the trip notes, looking at the map and then figuring out a viable way to get to the next stop and ultimately back out of the city while making sure to avoid tunnels and hazmat considerations. This has NOT been a quick process so far for me.

It's happened two out of the last three nights where there were two trips and the second ended up busting through both my 14 and 11 which is obviously not good. I've befriended another driver who has been loading at the same time...he's given me some tips for getting in to specific customers which is very helpful, though I'm sure I'm still painfully slow to complete some of these trips. He and another driver also told me that you can simply tell the planners at the ops center that you don't have enough time on your clock and they'll just roll it to someone else. I'm just not yet at the point where I can look at an unfamiliar customer and know if there's enough time or not. I need to figure that out though, and soon.

Today and tomorrow are my "weekend" and it couldn't have come at a better time. When I go in on Friday I'm sure one of the bosses is going to want to talk about my log violations...nothing to do but come clean at this point. I really don't want to be that "high maintenance" driver causing headaches for the boss, but it is what it is. Just go in there and own it.