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Floyd Johnston, Clovis CA is a construction company. They install cast in place concrete pipes for storm drainage. Almost all of their jobs are government contracts. They have several trucks and allot of heavy equipment for digging and repaving the streets they dig up. Floyd has one yard, in Clovis CA. [near Fresno] |
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| Getting the
job None of this could have been possible without the help of Tom. Tom worked for this company for a few weeks, and noticed that drivers here were having a problem coming into work everyday. They would call in sick very often. None of these guys have driven over the road and did not have the discipline that we have about showing up for work everyday and working hard. One day, the boss came to Tom and said, "You are here everyday and work very hard. Do you have any friends that would show up everyday, and work as hard?" Tom told him that he did. I saw Tom at a motorcycle run in June 2001 and he told me about the job. |
Unfortunately, I had to leave town the
following morning very early and could not get my resume into their office. As soon as I
got back to town, I updated my resume on the computer, then went down there. I filled out
an application and then they told me that they had just hired a driver the night before. I
asked them to file it and let me know if another position came up.
Monday, August 27, 2001 (8am) Tom calls my cell phone and tells me to get back to town,
there is another opening here at the construction company. Two drivers had quit over the
weekend. I told him that I was in Pasco Washington, and I would be back there as fast as I
could. Tom said to hurry.
I had gone back to training at Knight and I had a student with me. We delivered in
Spokane WA and picked up something else and headed back South. The load we had went to
Stockton Ca. We dropped the load in the yard and we bobtailed to Merced. That is where my
student lives. He got off the truck and I bobtailed to Clovis. Straight to the new boss's
yard and parked the Knight truck right in the Construction Company's yard.
It was Tuesday at 4pm. The office people were still there. I told them who I was and they
were happy that I hurried back. They said to be there at 6am for a road test. Come ready
to work.
I went to the yard at 5:45 in the morning. I saw Tom, and met some
of the other drivers. Then my road tester came in and we drove around the countryside for
a while. When we got back to the yard, we talked with the dispatcher and found out that a
dump truck was down and wouldn't be ready to drive until the next day. I sat in the office
while they figured out what they would do with me.
At 8am they sent me home and told me to report back here at 6am tomorrow. I went home and
unpacked my lunch box and rode my bike down to the job site to see what I would be doing
the next day. Just watching the trucks run around so I would have an idea what was going
on. I have never worked construction...
I went to a job site and saw the guy who rode tested me just 2 hours before and asked him
if I could watch. He was happy to show me. The number two man with the company, came by
and told him to take me in the truck with him and show me what to do.
He was running the water truck doing dust control. His job was wetting the dirty streets
with a water truck so when cars and trucks run over the dirty streets around the job site
it doesn't kick up allot of dust, which is air pollution.
He showed me how to do it. Then I did it while he rode with me. After about 30 minutes the
big boss told him to take the truck back to the yard and then give the truck to me, then
for me to come back to the job site and do it for the rest of the day. I followed him on
my motorcycle back to the yard, after one little stop at the house to repack my lunch.
My Job Description
Floyd Johnston Construction Company puts flood control
pipes underground. First they tear up the road and haul away the asphalt and the dirt.
They dig trenches as deep as 25 feet, and wide as 15 feet across. Then they put forms down
into the trench, and pour concrete into the forms so when it dries it will be concrete
pipe. Then when it is dry they cover the pipe with dirt and repave the street with
asphalt. That is about the easiest way to say what they do. Of course there is allot more
to it, but you get the idea.
Floyd Johnston owns the construction company, and all of the heavy equipment, which is run by all union labor. His wife owns Sierra Vista Rentals, which is all non union labor. She is the owner of all of the trucks and the rest of the equipment needed to do the job. Forms, tools, and stuff like that.
I worked for Sierra Vista Rentals, my job was to do whatever they needed me to do at the time they needed me to do it. Some days I would run a double bottom dump and move dirt from place to place or go to the plant and get asphalt or crushed rock and bring it back to the work site. Sometimes I would drive the water truck and do dust control, drive around and spray the street with water to keep it damp so when cars and trucks drove on the road it wouldn't kick up allot of dust and dirt. Dust in the air is a big deal around here. It is considered pollution, and the company can be sited for it.
Basically, I go to the yard, which is 1/2
mile from my house at 5:30 am, drive a truck around town all day, then drive back to the
yard, and get off around 5pm everyday. Monday through Friday, with weekends off.
This company has water trucks, dump trucks and bottom dump trucks. The water trucks and
dump trucks are 3 axle, 10 wheeled trucks. The bottom dump trucks are 5 axle, 18 wheeled
trucks.
I started working on Wednesday, August 29, 2001
The Good Points
The yard is 1/2 mile from my house and
it took me less than 2 minutes to drive to work. My car didn't even warm up before I got
there. Some of the guys traveled 45 miles to work. I liked the idea of being home every
night and off on the weekends. I was paid by the hour and it was at prevailing wage, which
was more money than I had ever seen before or since. It was a good job.
The Bad Points
The only negative things I could say
about the job was that the equipment was old and the air conditioning didn't work. When it
was over 100 degrees it really got unbearable. The thing that really got me was the
supervisor. His name was Rick. He didn't have a kind word to very many people at work. He
mostly yelled at people and always wore a sour face. That was probably the only way he
knew to motivate all of the workers to work harder.
Why I Stopped Working There.
As Winter set in, the rains came. We
would all come into work at 5:30am like everyday, and then get sent home, if Rick told us
that there would not be anything for us to do that day. One day, he called 2 of us into
the office and laid us off. He said he would call us back when work picked up again.
The other guy's name is Gene. Gene and I have been friends since we worked together there. We found out later, that one one the guys that worked there was a brown noser and decided he didn't want us working there anymore and told the boss things that were not true about us. We were never called back. They hired other drivers when work picked up again. The brown noser's name was Tom. He was the same one that got me the job in the first place.
I was so upset that this happened, that after waiting several months to get called back to work, I filed a claim against them for payroll shortages while I was working there. If they called me back I wouldn't have done that.
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Richard's World
www.oocities.org/trucker_rich
This Page was Created in June 2003
