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YA'LL are going to think I"m crazy............but it seems that our Combine has hit a dead end when trying to find a driver for our OB season...........I figured, what the heck, MAYBE I could get lucky and run across someone here or someone that KNOWS someone who might be interested. I won't go into a lot of detail. Basically, it's every week end starting the first week end of April for 8 weeks. It would be every Friday night driving and every Sat. releasing birds. We start in Spartanburg, SC and go all the way to Evergreen, AL. I can give more details IF anyone wants to talk about it. There would be a couple of Thursday pick up with Sat. releases. If we don't find driver, we don't fly OB's................ANYONE??
PS: You will need to live in southern VA or NC
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 Renee www.lovebirdsloft.com People have the right to be stupid, but some abuse that privilege. For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness. If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. Mark Twain Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes.------ Frieda Norris 
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Have they tried advertizing in the local papers ? I actually did a race once for a large club in Baltimore. Once, I made that road trip, and figured out the hours, it did not seem worth the work for what they paid.
The UPC in Pa. and Md. pays almost $500 a trip, which if you figure out the hourly rate, it ain't half bad for a husband and wife team. Of course that means the 100 mile race is really a sweet deal, the 500 mile, not so sweet. But, that is an average based on a contract for 18 races. Out situation requires a CDL driver, and a "helper". I have always thought the solution was to figure the hours, and base the pay on union scale, and then you won't have a problem finding a driver. But, in the case I went on, after I figured the hours and work, plus a day to recover from 24 hours of driving..it was not worth it. Might mean, biting the bullet, and coming up with more money till you get some takers, can't believe if the money is right, that the local Teamsters could not find a driver. Could be just me, but if the money is great enough, they will come out of the wood work. Right now, we are charging about $180 a loft for OB's. So, if you are working with $1500 a race, there should be something to work with. Of course with us, OB's is a money losing operation, and takes us about $4000 into the red, due to the longer races.
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Well, it's actually not my place to find a driver. I'm not the race secretary but she sent out an e-mail today telling everyone she couldn't find a hauler. Her husband did it last year for OB's and YB's but he has a new job that won't allow him the time. Our combine is spoiled. They got away with paying "not much" for so many years and then got a new President and he changed some things........it's a long complicated story. LOL I'm sure you've heard it all before anyway.....we pay by the mile based on what the gas price is and the "per mile pay" is adjusted if the price of gas goes up from week to week. I'm the combine treasurer, so I do take care of the paying part of the job. It will sure be a shame if we are not able to race OB's. I can see the end of road coming for us. I've banded 64 youngsters already and I can see the same problem coming up again in YB's. And this year we actually have a full OB team to start with. It's actually a late to be trying to find some one. We should have known about this a few weeks ago. We are suppose to start racing in 5 weeks??
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Renee www.lovebirdsloft.com People have the right to be stupid, but some abuse that privilege. For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness. If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. Mark Twain Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes.------ Frieda Norris
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Sitting out the seasonQuote:
 How or what in the world does a person's labor have to do with the price of gas ? I suggest that the moron who invented that ideal, actually go drive to a few race stations, and see if they think that is fair !!Apparently your combine members would rather sit out the season or the year, rather then face the economic realities. I did drive the birds to a short race station, and for me, it was very hard work and long hours. Anyone who has spent 24+ hours in a car on a long trip, should know what I mean. Except these pigeon transport trucks, are not as comfortable as a nice car. I feel for you Love Birds....I can't imagine such a "deal" flying up here in an industrialized pro union state. Where minimum wage is typically a couple of bucks over the federal minimum wage. And union wages are 4 or 5 times that amount.
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Ok.......you say that you all pay $500 a trip? No matter what the mileage is? Understand, we joined this combine in 2002 and flew our first race with them. Have been members ever since, because that's all we have here, so........they way they "pay" their driver is the only way I've ever known. So if we fly 8 races, A & B every week, we would pay $500 per week, or $4000 for the season? Regardless of whether it's a 150 mile race or a 500 mile race.....I"m asking because our driver made $4689.84 for hauling 8 races last OB season. So I"m not sure why your way is better than ours.........but I'm willing to listen!!! LOL Oh, another thing..do you pay extra for the long races that are shipped on Thurs and call for a lay over? This is very interesting to me and I've never had a converstion about it because I've never known how it was done other places.
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Renee www.lovebirdsloft.com People have the right to be stupid, but some abuse that privilege. For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness. If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. Mark Twain Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes.------ Frieda Norris
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Hello Love Birds !
 No, they pay like $9000 a year, to do the 18 races, I was just giving you an average, which would be $500. They do pay all expenses like meals, hotel rooms for layover etc. But based on you number, I guess we can't be that far apart. Oh well...you know good help is hard to find. I suspect when our 70 something driver "retires" we will be in the same boat then. I was thinging about the $128 I was paid to do that one race, way back when, and I said to myself...never again. Friday from about 6pm till Saturday about 1PM and no sleep..I mean I was beat !! 
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Our combine pays the trucker by the mile - plus hotel expenses when needed. We've used the same guy for -- oh, I don't know how long - his son drives for us mostly now, but "dad" often goes along for the ride
 It takes a special sort of person to do this job - one who loves to travel, doesn't mind long drives, grumpy old men (pigeon fliers... lol), and being away almost every weekend for the entire summer. My husband and I have considered doing it for a a year or two, sometime in the future (probably after he retires). What a fabulous way to see the countryside! haha Too bad we're in Canada - or I might offer to help! 
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