How do you get your own tug boat and a job pushing barges up the the waterway?

Question

im tired of my job and i want another one. one where you dont have to fight hiway traffic to get to the jobsite. one where you cant get blew up at the jobsite by other workers who dont pay attention to details. one where you dont have to get into any smelly sewage filled escavations. i want my own tug. i want to pushe 20 barges of grain up the mississipi and make money. i already tried the internet and monster.com, i got nothing.

Answer 1

I don't know where you are at in Illinois but there is a place in Burlington Iowa (Matson Marine) looking for just that a driver.  Check out The Hawkeye.com (newspaper) for the help wanted ad.  Good Luck

Answer 2

You'd have to work your way up through the ranks for several years before being able to attain your Captain's License. You'd first have to work as a deckhand, heaving lines and pulling cables. Then you could move up to mate, occasionally with some wheelhouse duties. Only after considerable time on the river would you be experienced enough to run a tug on your own. And then you have a huge investment to make in a tug and barges.

Answer 3

their used to be only two schools for working on a barge. One was in New Orleans, the other Cincinnati, Oh. Just type it in on a search and see what comes up. I checked into it in Cincinnati years ago and found the pay was great but the hours were long. It was pretty cool though they would be on the barge for a week or two or longer at a time but then they got a large amount of time off. I forget the exact hours but it should be easy for you to find out. Check out Ingram Barge System. The have an address where you can contact them on the net and I'm sure they could let you know.

Answer 4

Thats a cool Idea but I have to agree the hours would really suck at times.  After 20 years in the military I discovered too much time away from home is detrimental