After returning from the Sugar Factory, Li Long called Liu Jianhua.
The One Hundred Tons of cement they had agreed on had not arrived, so Li Long wanted to find out what was going on.
"Well, you hadn't called, so I thought you wouldn't need it until the Start of Spring at the earliest," Liu Jianhua said with a laugh once he learned it was Li Long. "Besides, most of my company's drivers have gone back to Inland China.
"Let me put it this way. Most of the drivers I hire are from Inland China. They work in Northern Xinjiang for ten months a year, and they're real workers. But once January comes and New Year's approaches, they take time off and go home."
Li Long thought that made sense. There really were not many local truck drivers in Northern Xinjiang at the time. Vocational schools spent at least a solid six months training drivers, who had to learn both repairs and driving from experienced instructors. Graduating and getting a license was no easy matter either.
And truck drivers who managed to get licensed naturally had real skills. Though they might not be able to afford trucks of their own and mostly drove for others, they made their living through expertise, much like chefs in later years. Unless they had terrible tempers or demanded too much, they never had to worry about making a living.
"Even if I can find drivers now, freight will be expensive. I do have trucks, though not as many as before. If you need the cement now, thirty to fifty tons a day is the absolute most I can deliver, and freight will cost twice as much as before."
Liu Jianhua was being quite frank with Li Long, mainly because the car he had bought