Research_Occupation

Research Occupation 6/10/2011 When I grow up I want to run my or own my own trucking company. I have been around the trucking industry since I was sixteen years old. I started first at Welder Services Inc. I was responsible for filling your gas grill tanks and for the delivery of them to all the gas stations that used our tanks. Then at the age of eighteen I started working for my father at his truck stop. At the age of twenty-one, I started working at American Freight on the docks, and I would spot trailers at the doors. I was classified as a driver apprentice for them. Throughout this paper I will attempt to gather all the information needed to not only learn more about this occupation but help others learn more about my career path. The nature of the work is fairly extensive. You can also expect to do some of the following plan, coordinate, and direct a broad range of services that allow organizations to operate efficiently. They might, for example, coordinate space allocation, facilities maintenance and operations, and major property and equipment procurement. They also may oversee centralized operations that meet the needs of multiple departments, such as information and data processing, mail, materials scheduling and distribution, printing and reproduction, records management, telecommunications management, security, recycling, wellness, and transportation services. Administrative services managers also ensure that contracts, insurance requirements, and government regulations and safety standards are followed and up to date. They may examine energy consumption patterns, technology usage, and personal property needs to plan for their long-term maintenance, modernization, and replacement. All of this information was taken from www.bls.gov/oco/ocos002.htm. Depending on the company you work for is if you will do all of these things or if you will have assistants. Working at American Freight as I did the terminal managers do have people that assist with some of the things listed above. The level of your education directly effects how high you can rise in some company’s. American Freight which is now Fed Ex Freight you can become a terminal manager with little to know higher level education. Now if you want to move up in the company and have more responsibility you will need a bachelor’s degree. I have spoken to what they call at Fed Ex Freight, an operations supervisor. His job description include, taking orders for pick ups, scheduling what drivers go where, and the dispatch of all drivers. According to him you can also start out like he did, which was as a dock worker and then progress thru the ranks that way, now he does have a degree but it is in criminal justice. The terminal manager there does have a degree also but was hired because of his history in the trucking industry in which he started in that business years ago. The working environment for managers in the trucking industry can vary drastically. Most of the time as a terminal manager you will be in your office working, or as a operations manager you will work out of the dispatch office. Some of the times you will be walking the dock making sure trailers are getting loaded properly, with the correct freight, to the correct destination. Also as a terminal manager you will have to do some traveling for different meetings and prospective clients to learn about the types of freight they will be sending on your trailers. Knowing what I know personally from working at Fed Ex in the past. As a terminal manager you can move between terminals all over the nation if you so choose. When I was twenty-one working there one of our terminal manager, who was doing a great job with our location was contacted and decided to move to San Francisco California to help turn that terminal around. According to www.payscale.com an operations manager for a trucking company can expect to make between 40,951 and 65,720 depending on experience. Those numbers will vary between companies also, and can vary from location to location. Another one of the perks to being a terminal manager for some of the companies is a company car, which can translate into even more money in your pocket since it will save you from having to have an extra car payment. After doing this research I believe that this is the job for me. I have plenty of experience in the trucking industry. And I have experience in management at different levels. I would love to be able to work for Fed Ex since talking to the operations manager there, learning about his job a little better and learning about some of the perks with that job. But there is plenty of other trucking companies out there like Estes, Con-way, Yellow, and Holland just to name a few. The only bad thing about being a terminal manager at any of these trucking companies is that if the numbers are not there those managers will get let go. But if I went there an operations supervisor the job is so much more secure. Jason Rethlake is who I talked to at Fed Ex told me he has been there the better part of twelve years and has seen terminal managers come and go. That is one of the reasons he never explored that position even after being offered it in the past. Plus he likes being more involved with the drivers and the day to day dock operations.