Hello. I’m a former hostler driver for Amazon. It’s really dependent upon staffing. My shift for the 6 months I was there didn’t have anyone with a CDL, so we had the same 3P driver on our shift, but keep in mind Amazon doesn’t want to use 3P hostlers at all if they could.
I appreciate your input and agree with everything you are saying. Most of these gigs I have done have been at places where there are several sick calls or some other short staffing situation.
Year round - no During holidays and other peak times, possibly. My record was six weeks last fall at the same facility, other than that, it is a day here and a day there. I just checked my email to see how many requests I have received, since 3/29/24, I have had nine requests at different locations (San Diego, Ontario, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and one from Vegas). Just because you get the request does not guarantee you the shift, you still have to get them to call you back to negotiate start time and rate. I definitely wouldn’t make the hostler shift your main reason for working with Amazon, but knowing they are available and occasionally getting one makes it a little more fun. 👊🏻🍻
@giorgiotribastone7070 I have no experience with a leased truck, definitely don’t want to misrepresent my knowledge base. Once I “discovered” trucking through watching CZcams videos, I was mesmerized with guys talking about making $10K/week and being their own boss but I quickly realized that these were under optimal conditions. After I spent about two days watching people tell me the good, I spent about two weeks seeking out the bad (why do trucking companies fail?). My takeaway from it was people overextend themselves into financial situations that are not conducive to their happiness and over time, give up. It’s the reason I started out with a 2016 Freightliner and not a 2022 Peterbilt. I definitely don’t mean to sound like I’m bragging but with my equipment paid off, I’m able to only work when the money is right and I never run for cheap. Do I admire the hell out of those nicer trucks? YES, but I also am very happy with my current setup and am glad I’m not married to a crazy truck payment. I would say get whatever equipment you can afford, leaving some cash set aside for maintenance and repairs. The “cool kids” in the industry might talk crap (plastic truck), but until those kids want to pay my bills, I don’t really care what they have to say. 👊🏻🍻
Usually I just leave it on “driving”, but if I remember (or feeling fancy), I will switch it to “yard move”. I run the CA short haul clock most of the time so I usually run out of time in shift (16 hours) rather than actual drive time (12 hours). I usually have enough time afterwards to line up a small load like I did here. I’m really not sure the DOT ramifications of having it on driving versus yard move, can you think of any? 👊🏻🍻
Big dawg! My question is do these yard hustler jobs happen often enough that you can just do that full-time
Hello. I’m a former hostler driver for Amazon. It’s really dependent upon staffing. My shift for the 6 months I was there didn’t have anyone with a CDL, so we had the same 3P driver on our shift, but keep in mind Amazon doesn’t want to use 3P hostlers at all if they could.
I appreciate your input and agree with everything you are saying. Most of these gigs I have done have been at places where there are several sick calls or some other short staffing situation.
Year round - no
During holidays and other peak times, possibly.
My record was six weeks last fall at the same facility, other than that, it is a day here and a day there. I just checked my email to see how many requests I have received, since 3/29/24, I have had nine requests at different locations (San Diego, Ontario, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and one from Vegas). Just because you get the request does not guarantee you the shift, you still have to get them to call you back to negotiate start time and rate.
I definitely wouldn’t make the hostler shift your main reason for working with Amazon, but knowing they are available and occasionally getting one makes it a little more fun.
👊🏻🍻
I been thinking lot about being owner operator but I can’t afford 60,000 dollar semi truck so thinking of lease what’s your opinion on that ?
@giorgiotribastone7070 I have no experience with a leased truck, definitely don’t want to misrepresent my knowledge base. Once I “discovered” trucking through watching CZcams videos, I was mesmerized with guys talking about making $10K/week and being their own boss but I quickly realized that these were under optimal conditions. After I spent about two days watching people tell me the good, I spent about two weeks seeking out the bad (why do trucking companies fail?). My takeaway from it was people overextend themselves into financial situations that are not conducive to their happiness and over time, give up. It’s the reason I started out with a 2016 Freightliner and not a 2022 Peterbilt.
I definitely don’t mean to sound like I’m bragging but with my equipment paid off, I’m able to only work when the money is right and I never run for cheap. Do I admire the hell out of those nicer trucks? YES, but I also am very happy with my current setup and am glad I’m not married to a crazy truck payment.
I would say get whatever equipment you can afford, leaving some cash set aside for maintenance and repairs. The “cool kids” in the industry might talk crap (plastic truck), but until those kids want to pay my bills, I don’t really care what they have to say.
👊🏻🍻
In what mode do you use ELD when doing hostler shift?
Usually I just leave it on “driving”, but if I remember (or feeling fancy), I will switch it to “yard move”. I run the CA short haul clock most of the time so I usually run out of time in shift (16 hours) rather than actual drive time (12 hours). I usually have enough time afterwards to line up a small load like I did here.
I’m really not sure the DOT ramifications of having it on driving versus yard move, can you think of any?
👊🏻🍻