Hard times: I worked as a truck driver in the county town

The county transportation station's vehicles cannot be driven at will; they can only be dispatched for particularly urgent matters.

Jiang Cheng started working at the transportation station a little over a week ago, which is almost the end of January. He only worked three days last month, or more precisely, only two. On his first day, he reported for duty, registered, collected his work protective equipment, and stayed at the transportation station for half a day before going home.

I've worked a total of six days so far, and last month I only worked three days, including extra reporting, but I still received half a month's salary this month.

That's how it's done in this era: anyone who reports to work before the 15th, even if it's just the 15th, will receive a month's salary the following month. But after the 15th, no matter which day you report to work, even if it's the last day of the month, you'll receive half a month's salary for working only one and a half days.

Since starting work, Jiang Cheng has only made one trip, hauling five tons of coke from the coking plant to the steel mill in the city. Because Yi'an is close to the city center, and the steel mill is located in the suburbs, a total distance of eighty kilometers, he could make the trip and return on the same day.

Delivering coke to the city was a mandatory task. But even so, the coking plant wasn't authorized to directly command the transport station to pick up the goods.

Only the county-level departments, which have the authority to approve vehicles and fuel, can assign tasks to transportation stations.

The Jiefang CA10 truck was a gasoline-powered vehicle, and gasoline was a state-controlled resource. In places like Yi'an County, there were no cars before, so there was no possibility of a gas station.

To put it simply, in the past, the only place in the county where you could find gasoline was the county supply and marketing cooperative, and even then, they only had a small amount of gasoline in tin oil drums.

The county supply and marketing cooperative had gasoline, but that was for emergencies. In case a car happened to be passing by and needed some gasoline. And these days, those who could drive or ride in cars were basically leaders.

There were no gas stations in Yi'an County. After the transportation station was established, a makeshift shed was built in a corner of the parking area. Inside the shed was a large metal oil drum, which could hold 100 kilograms of gasoline.

This 100 kilograms of gasoline is the station's monthly quota. In other words, once the 100 kilograms of gasoline are used up in a month, the trucks have to stop operating.

A Jiefang truck consumes 25-30 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers, which is about 20 kilograms of gasoline. This means that a truck can only travel a maximum of 500 kilometers under normal assigned tasks at a transport station, and then it can no longer operate.

Therefore, the only people who could mobilize this truck from the transport station were a few county leaders and directors of important departments. These people could be counted on one hand.

It's not that the transportation station doesn't listen to the instructions of other departments; the key issue is which departments have the authority to approve gasoline.

Only after obtaining a gasoline certificate can the transportation station go to the Commerce Bureau to obtain a gasoline permit. Only with the Commerce Bureau's permit can they collect the ordered amount of gasoline.

~~

"Master Jiang, you're busy."

"Station Chief Chen, whether I'm busy or not is up to you. Do you have any orders?"

Jiang Cheng smiled and said to Chen Minggang as he entered, "Now, when the two of us are at work, unless we're sleeping, reading the newspaper, or just wandering around, that's considered being busy."

"The New Year is just around the corner, and many companies will be on holiday. What kind of orders could you possibly have? I've brought you this." Station Chief Chen took an envelope out of his thick coat pocket and handed it to Jiang Cheng.

"Stationmaster, do we still have to work shifts during the Spring Festival?" Jiang Cheng asked, taking the envelope and placing it on the table. Inside was his salary for the past two weeks, along with some welfare vouchers.

"You don't need to be on duty here, but Mr. Jiang, you probably can't move around too much," Chen Minggang replied.

Jiang Cheng nodded; the two had discussed this matter a couple of days ago. This transport station only had one vehicle and one driver, and although he seemed to spend his days sitting in the break room drinking water and reading newspapers, his job as a driver was essentially 24/7.

The county only has this one vehicle, and it's the only vehicle the county will rely on for any emergency. So, the situation at the transport station is that the vehicle is parked, but the staff can't leave; they'll be dispatched immediately if there's a situation.

Therefore, Jiang Cheng had to work overtime every month, but in those days there was no such thing as overtime pay; instead, he was given a stipend.

This means drivers are always on call, and even if they are given time off, they cannot go to places where they cannot be contacted. Therefore, it's not just transport station drivers; drivers in many other organizations don't get any rest.

If you're staying at home and your workplace can contact you at any time, then you might as well go to work and get a stipend.

When Chen Minggang told Jiang Cheng not to wander around, he meant that during the Spring Festival, even if he didn't come to work, he should stay at home and not go out.

Now, the official holiday for Chinese New Year is three days, from the first to the third day. On the first day, people visit relatives and friends; on the second day, people go back to their parents' home; on the third day, people rest and do nothing, adjust their mindset, and go back to work on the fourth day.

In Jiang Cheng's case, he could only visit relatives in the county on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Visiting relatives in the countryside would take too long and would be impossible.

Also, Jiang Cheng is still single, so he doesn't need to go to his wife's parents' house on the second day of the Lunar New Year. But if they're not married, he should accompany his parents to visit his maternal grandparents.

In the second year of junior high school, Jiang Cheng was able to visit his maternal grandfather, but he had to be on time.

The driver is on standby to deal with emergencies, so it's impossible for him to be available every minute. Generally, it's enough if he can be contacted within two hours.

"Understood," Jiang Cheng replied simply.

"Master Jiang, you go ahead with your work, I'll head over now," Chen Minggang said politely to Jiang Cheng.

Although Chen Minggang is the station manager of the transportation station and is nominally in charge of everything in the station, his actual status is not higher than Jiang Cheng's, so Chen Minggang is quite polite to Jiang Cheng.

The station manager is in charge of all the procedures at the transportation station. If he doesn't get along with the drivers, they might cause trouble when dispatching vehicles for assignments. The station manager will be the one who suffers the most.

Chen Ming had just arrived mainly to pay Jiang Cheng's salary and issue ration coupons, so he left after saying a few words and returned to his office.

After Chen Minggang left, Jiang Cheng immediately opened the envelope and poured its contents onto the table.

Two large black 10-yuan notes, then five-yuan yellow notes, three-yuan notes of Jinggang Mountain, two-yuan notes of Pagoda Mountain, and one red note. There are also five-jiao, two-jiao, and one-jiao notes.

It totaled a little over thirty yuan. Of course, Jiang Cheng's salary for half a month was definitely not that much.

The wage levels for truck drivers were different from the eight-grade worker standard of that era. Drivers were paid according to a five-level, ten-grade standard, meaning there were only five levels for drivers, but each level had a principal and a deputy.

Jiang Cheng was a retired driver, but after all, his military service was only three years in total, so he could only have about two years of driving experience at most.

A veteran who has completed three years of service, unless he has received a technical award in the military, will only be eligible for a Level 5 civilian rank if he is a good driver.

In addition, Changcheng is a Class IV area, so the wages are definitely not comparable to those in cities like Beijing and Shanghai. A truck driver in Changcheng at the fifth level only earns 42 yuan.

Jiang Cheng calculated the money he received: thirty-one yuan and seventy cents. He wasn't given three large ten-yuan bills directly because in those days, if you tried to buy something with ten yuan, unless you went to a supply and marketing cooperative, you would likely face a situation where they couldn't make change.

This is 31.7 yuan, with 21 yuan as the basic salary. Although Jiang Cheng only drove one trip last month, drivers receive subsidies as long as they drive. If he drives long distances, he can earn more than 1 yuan a day in various subsidies.

Although Jiang Cheng only drives short-distance routes within the city, he drives alone without any escorts or crew members, so his allowance is higher.

For those engaged in transportation, the policy clearly stipulates that drivers must be accompanied by assistants or escorts.

But rules are rules, people are flexible.

These days, in most county towns with cars, there's only one driver. If it's a company or organization, the driver also handles purchasing.

Jiang Cheng made that trip at the end of last month. Because there were no loaders, he received an extra 50 cents in allowance, so he got a dollar.

As for the rest of the money, that's for New Year's bonuses.

Other units received New Year's gifts, which were in kind, such as meat, flour, sugar, oil, and pastries. These things were actually obtained by the county's Bureau of Commerce and Bureau of Materials first issuing various ration coupons to the units, and then the units' logistics departments went to the supply and marketing cooperatives and food stations to buy the goods and distribute them to the employees.

The transportation station now only has Chen Minggang and Jiang Cheng. The higher-ups directly gave Chen Minggang the tickets and money, and told him to buy them himself.

Jiang Cheng was a driver, and he received special treatment from his superiors, with better benefits than the station manager. He was given more than eight yuan in cash, and after buying the ration coupons for New Year's goods, he still had a few yuan left, which he considered a bonus.

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