New Orleans Dirt Hauling

[rich]

Has anyone worked in the levee project in new orleans?? I need some work but all i hear is low prices and no pays. I think the army corp is incharge of the work and i see on craigs list there is a great need for dump trucks!

[let it loose]

Bringing back an oldie here! I was looking into this as well, does anyone have any information about New Orleans dump trucking?

[theakerstwo]

Some guys from here was down there 3 years ago and said they lost money on the job. They said that like most gov. jobs the money was spent stupid. Too many inspectors and middle men and no hauling. He said the inspectors was the hold up. Just goverment supid nosence and i can belive what they told us.Some of the thigs they told me was for show and tell. Like on a 20 mile haul they would be held up for more than one inspectsion for as long as 2 hrs per load.

[randyp]

Bringing back an oldie here! I was looking into this as well, does anyone have any information about New Orleans dump trucking?

I dont know much bout New Orleans, but I surely do like your truck, Let it loose,,,randy

[let it loose]

Some guys from here was down there 3 years ago and said they lost money on the job. They said that like most gov. jobs the money was spent stupid. Too many inspectors and middle men and no hauling. He said the inspectors was the hold up. Just goverment supid nosence and i can belive what they told us.Some of the thigs they told me was for show and tell. Like on a 20 mile haul they would be held up for more than one inspectsion for as long as 2 hrs per load.

I'll be heading down there next week to find out more information. I have spoken to one company and was told i could not see the job site untill i signed a contract. Funny thing was i had only asked if there was an office or a person i could meet with.

I dont know much bout New Orleans, but I surely do like your truck, Let it loose,,,randy

Thanks man, the DM is a beast!

[convoyduel]

I'll be heading down there next week to find out more information. I have spoken to one company and was told i could not see the job site untill i signed a contract. Funny thing was i had only asked if there was an office or a person i could meet with.

Thanks man, the DM is a beast!ATh

Save yourself a lot of time and aggravation and stay in St. Louis. We went down after Katrina in late 2005 thru mid 2006, brought in a whole heaping bunch from St. Louis and Minnesota. You don't understand crooked until you work in New Orleans and the surrounding area.

Basically, there are a handful of guys down there who do nothing but double, triple and quadruple broker trucks. Even if you don't think you're dealing with this small knit group of clowns, you'll soon find out that their hands are in the very pot you're working on. You'll see a lot of iron sitting around down there, most of it because they made it down there but didn't have the funds to get back home. You'll start working for someone and things will go okay for a week or so, then your pay gets held up, or they start telling you that your truck needs to have a liner to work or some other thing. Also, all of a sudden you find another broker or two inserting themselves between you and the contractor. In the end, you'll get shafted out of weeks worth of pay.

The contracts they have you sign are worthless and don't hold up. Not only that, but you have little recourse to sue as a Missouri company against someone who lists an address in Mississippi but works you in New Orleans. You'll go through all sorts of hoops getting ID's issued by the Parish Constable, but never need them. You'll also be asked to pay for the right to work, not only by the broker, but also the contractor and even the Corp of Engineer inspector from time to time. I'm not exaggerating. I was there and experienced it first hand. I refused to pay bribes and that was the end of it.

The worst part about down there is that the Corp and the brokers put out a call on any given day for say 200 trucks on a job. Trucks are lining up at 3AM or earlier for a 7AM start. The Corp inspector or contractor comes along and selects the 50 trucks they need for the day and tell the rest of the trucks to go home. Most of the guys are starving and sit lined up along the roads to the jobsite. You don't want to get caught alone or broke down.

You may run 20 or 30 loads for the day but only get paid for 15. Again, you have absolutely no concept of how crooked things are until you go down there. Even though my experience was 4 years ago, some others from around St. Louis have tried it since and experienced the exact same thing. I still get calls maybe every 6 months or so from a guy named Mac and another guy named Jefferson asking me for trucks. These are two of the very guys that screwed me and others VERY hard. I'm stupid, but not that stupid. Once again, no matter what you hear otherwise, everything moving down there winds up going through a select few guys and every one of them was crooked. It's not like up here in St. Louis. I would really think twice about doing it if I were you. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[let it loose]

Wow, thats just the kind of info i was looking for. I have a free ride down there next week so i'm going to go check it out. So far it sounds like nothing but trouble but at least i'll have some recent news to tell when i get back.

Thanks man...

You just explained this for me too: http://neworleans.craigslist.org/trp/1983740774.html

Edited October 9, 2010 by let it loose