Youtube Bad For Owner Ops- What do you think?

To tell you the truth a whole lot of these youtube guys are just shill's for the company and once these new guy see what its really like most of them quit within a few months.

 

People used to working normal jobs can usually be brought to their senses by sending them to some place like Wakefern in NJ. Then they're ready to hop a bus back home pretty quick and never want to see the inside of a truck ever again. I mean it looks cool from the videos in control of that unit riding and gliding down the highway but most people just won't tolerate the generally poor working conditions and low pay that are the norm in trucking.

 

Yeah some of these media savvy companies see YouTube as cheap, easy recruiting.

 

It may cause a spike in people running out and getting CDL's, but, as mentioned above, when they find out the realities of life on the road, most of them will be back in their cubicles within six months. One good snow storm sends a lot of non-committed drivers running for cover. This life may seem glamorous from the videos, kind of like when the show Movin' On was polular in the 70's. Will and Sonny seemed pretty glamorous in that show but they were never backing into tight docks, slogging over a mountain in a snow storm or risking their lives in New York or New Jersey. The video's may increase recruiting for the big carriers but it won't increase the number of drivers on the road over the long term.

 

If you could only smell a video.

 

I subscribe to a few youtube truck drivers and to be fair they do show some of the bad side of the job such as being screwed by dispatchers, traffic, bad weather and other frustrations.

One team had their camera rolling in the cab when they were pulled over by a NM trooper who claimed he had seen the driver using a cell phone. Co-driver said he had video proof that she never got anywhere near her phone and showed the footage to him. I can't imagine they would have gotten off so easily if they didn't have that video evidence. It would have been the trooper's word against the driver's on a $2500 ticket.

 

where have you been, that cat is already out of the bag, smokey and the bandit, convoy and deregulation accomplished that already, you are kind of late to the party.

 

I also don't think someone riding down the road talking to himself in the camera is going to challenge me very much in finding loads.

 

I am usually working too hard or too much to care what anyone is doing, anywhere, youtube especially. And I don't see a whole lot of truck drivers really getting too giddy overy electronic/social media. Unlike some ways of earning a living, to make some waves driving a truck you have to work, you have to keep rolling. It's not like office work, or schools, government, there's not a lot of time for that. Have you looked at those "truck fails" clips? Believe me when I say it's always risky no matter how hard you try to do it right. It's dirty and greasy, smelly, hard work at both ends of a trip. Cruising down the highway with your satellite radio on? Sure, fun. Anyway, come on out and pull some loads if you want to know how it is in realtime. It's not about how many followers you have, it's about loads picked up and delivered on time. In other words, I don't anticipate a whole lot of change based on youtube clips.