Call to action! Raise the bar !!

Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by chalupa, Nov 17, 2010.

  1. chalupa

    chalupa Road Train Member

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    Drivers !
    A call to action ! I would like to start a movement to raise the bar for our profession. For to long our wages have been stagnant ( if not declining ) all the while new regs take a tighter grip on our industry.

    Lets push back, as a group and as a team we can accomplish this.

    One of the reasons we get abused by motor carriers is because we don't stand together..... so lets start here!

    Starting A.S.A.P. start refusing low wages, cheap freight and freebies. Set a personal goal to raise your wage package by 3% in 2011. If your guy is stubborn then look elsewhere. Lets strive to get that bottom feeder rate of .32 up to .36 for rookies.

    For O/O's, know the value of your services and don't sell them for any less than that. Find out what the FSC is and see that you get it. Know your hub cost and get it ! Some of my O/O's pump off a load for $25.00 with a Roper or compressor. That's too cheap and that rate is from 25 years ago. Refuse the load !! Also boost your mileage rate to cover the loss taken in the maps. Make them pay or move the truck elsewhere.

    We can do this drivers, we really can!

    Keep this thread going and report your progress for all to see. Success is contagious!!!:biggrin_255:
     
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  3. leanright

    leanright Medium Load Member

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    Here yee hear yee !!! I second the notion ! The speaker has spoken and I hereby declare WAR on the unfair nature of the business ! We shall rise up like the o/p says and demand better arrangements across the board ! The time has come for reckoning !! Stand United As One ! ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL ! VOTE YES !!
     
  4. Moosetek13

    Moosetek13 Road Train Member

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    Will that really get you anything except unemployment?
     
  5. ambivalence

    ambivalence Medium Load Member

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    Anything worth having is worth fighting for. Wouldn't you agree? There is an element of risk in everything that we do.
     
  6. Rerun8963

    Rerun8963 Road Train Member

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    you may now step off your apple box town crier.....

    it'll never happen.......the students coming out of schools want to work, they WILL accept the wages because it's all they are worth, even less sometimes in my opinion as they DO NOT HAVE the experience. it's like this, you call a plumber to your house, but an apprentice shows up and does the job...does HE GET PAID the same as his boss the master plumber..?? no he doesn't till he works his way up the ladder of licensing. would you even pay an apprentice a high wage and HOPE he did the job correctly.?? i mean after all, that's why he's an apprentice, he's LEARNING.....he's NOT a professional yet.

    i can remember when I WAS a trucking school student over 23 years ago. we had a discussion on wages in the classroom, and the instructor asked "what do you think you are worth..$10 per hour, $12 per hour, DEMAND IT".....

    yeah.....ever see the guy behind the desk laugh so hard....???

    you GET PAID WHAT THEY OFFER, or someone else WILL take the job while you're still searching for the job that not even Fantasy Island can provide.

    there will be no "raising the bar" because WE DO NOT STAND TOGETHER, we never did, we NEVER will......oh sure as i have said so many times, "we will talk the talk at truck stops, message boards, at the loading docks, but as soon as we part ways, the talk all comes to an end, and we say, i got no time, i'll let HIM take care of it".....

    every once in a while someone gets a bug up their arse to start something, only to fall flat on his own face......it does nothing more than to add yet another thread to a board of going no where's (in taking action at least) threads.
     
  7. rocknsand

    rocknsand Medium Load Member

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    ReRun...in your example of the plumber, when they send the apprentice out to do the job, the company still charges you as if the master plumber came out...sound like trucking?????
     
  8. Rerun8963

    Rerun8963 Road Train Member

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    yes, but the apprentice will NOT get paid the same....what was your point...the profits of the trucking company....?? which if there are NO profits, doesn't any company run in the red....?? and eventually close its doors, whether it be a plumbing shop or trucking company...??
     
  9. walleye

    walleye Road Train Member

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    Some of us stand together everyday to get better wages, benefits, and working conditions,....

    It can be done,....

    Are you willing????
     
    chalupa Thanks this.
  10. Rerun8963

    Rerun8963 Road Train Member

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    no, i ain't got the time, "i'll let him do it"..........

    because no matter how many people "get involved"....?? it'll never materialize......and that's the truth of it all right there...

    any one of us would just be here to "talk the talk" and frankly, walk away....which is what i will do from the very start.......and YOU KNOW, many WILL later on, but will not have the brass to admit it like i would....
     
  11. Nootherids

    Nootherids Light Load Member

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    Something to this effect has already been done before...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMUuXn-sMgE

    It was a handful of people and they did cause problems on the highways but I'm not sure how much effect it had. It is an ambitious proposal to call for all truckers to bond together, but that will not happen. The owner operators will band together because they can afford it since how much they make is up to them. But employee drivers will not band together and put their jobs at risk. Especially in this state of the economy. The best you can work towards for that is to stimulate the economy so that jobs will become available again and the drivers that are only doing this now because they have nothing else to rely on will leave the industry and go back to something else. At that point companies will have more trucks than drivers and then employee drivers might be able to band together.

    The power to strike is the primary reason why unions were set up. Trucking drivers have associations but not unions. If they did then this might be possible but in return they could also have a very strong impact in affecting the entire GPD in this country as a whole if the union demands too much. It's a touchy subject, to unionize or not to unionize. It can be as equally beneficial as it could be damaging to its members and the rest of the economy.
     
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