I drove for these ######## for two years. I would not drive for this company ever again. I kept putting up with there stupidity and I just finally got fed up with it. The saftey department is really screwed up. They would ding me for my logs and I would file a aggrievence and then they would have my driver manager audit them and he would not find any issues at all. All they had working in that department where a bunch of young college kids and women that have never even been in a truck. I have decided to quit driving for the reason that all these companys that I have worked for are cheating, stealing , ieing ######## that want to send a guy out on runs that have him gone for 7 days at a time and then when he gets his check it has all these ######## explanations of why your not getting paid for the job you have done. I advice any new guys that are thinking of getting into trucking don't. Just read all these post and they all tell a story and it is all true. You will get screwed by some fat ####### that sits behind the desk and goes home to his wife and kids every night while you are sleeping in the back of some truck at some truck stop by yourself not making #### for all the time you are putting in. Trucking industry sucks and is getting worse. I have worked for several companies through out my time and they all suck they are all the same. Where one rips you off the other will do the same in a different way.

Good riddance.

True, some companies out there are just plain awful, but not all of them, in fact many companies are very good to work for.

The impression I get from your post is that you just completely have the wrong attitude to be in this business anyway.

__________________
Proudly driving for John Christner Trucking.

Wow. Gone 7 days. Time to quit 'em. That's an eternity, or at least it was in Dave Dudley's time. Dave would keel over dead today if he had to sing the blues about being on the road for only 6 days back in '64. Some guys haven't even gotten their first shower in by the 6th day these days.

I've done 49-day tours and kept on keepin' on.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

That may be, but just how good is any OTR company that says you will go home 4 days a month with 350 to 400 hrs of work in between.

If you like working a 100 hrs a week for 50 hrs worth of wages, living in a area smaller then a jail cell, Forgetting what your wife and kids look like or risking loosing your career with every patch of ice you roll over or 4 wheeler you drive next to, then yea I guess their are some good OTR companies out their.

I always did my best in my years out on the road and saved lots of money to buy a house that I would otherwise wasted on rent, so I didn't complain and put up with it. Until these OTR companies pay you for all the work you do and not just part off it, I don't see any good OTR companies. Just varying degrees of bad. If OTR driving was such a great and wonderful job, then you would not have companies saying how great they are because only half their work force ran out the door every year.

And this is the reason I don't have a CDL anymore. I think you'd be better off working at a 7-Eleven as a cashier than driving OTR. If you take into consideration all the unpaid labor you give your company, all the risks a driving job brings, the sedentary lifestyle that may inflate your gut, and the fumes that come into a truck cab for you to breathe, I'd say the 7-Eleven job is cake.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

So....Exactly which Company are you bashing here again?


I know we've got our bad places (OTR Division) but please be more specific.

bigblue19,

4 days a month? I am happy that I am home every night and I do mean at night. I work around 55 hours a week Monday thru Friday. I agree with you in that I really don't see any good OTR companies on this site or in the trade papers at the truck stops. If I work 55 hours, I am paid for 55 hours. This week I happened to put in the maximum of 60 hours.

As I have stated before, like you, if the trucking companies paid their employees properly for all of their time, we wouldn't be here.

It is a shame that companies boast about having any type of turnover rate. They wear it as some type of "badge of honor". I have been at my current employer for about 4 years. We have lost 5 drivers since I started. One was fired, three retired and one transfered to Idaho.

I just hope that drivers out there will recognize that there are good jobs out there if they take the time to find them.

Drive safe

Ok, I have the wrong attitude. Then tell me what is the correct attitude to have. I gues I should just bend over and accept what ever a company throws my way and accept that as my fate and not give a ####. If this is the attitude I should have then your the one with the problem not myself.


I am talking about all of them, but the last company I drove for was Amstam. They all suck.


Thank you. I am gald to see that I have others that feel the same way I do. I was beganning to believe that the turn over rates at all these trucking companys was a myth and that everyone made 1200 a week like promised and that I was the only one who never saw the light at the end of the tunnel. LOL

What company do you drive for you have put then up on a pedistal like they are great but you have failed to share the name; strange?


Took the words from my mouth. This is the truth and nothing but.

I don't believe their there. I have been driving for five years and I have went from OTR to regional to local and they have all sucked. Local I would have to start at 1am or 2am every morning and wouldn't get done till 14 hours later and that was a good day. Regional, well this was not great but not horrible either. I did get home every weekend for 36 hours (WOW) I was doing great! I would come home and wash my clothes mow the grass, sleep and spend what little time I had left with my family. OTR, well I don't even want to go there. This was nothing but a new form a slavery. I always heard how great the open road was; how much money I could make; and how free it made you feel. I never experienced any of these things. I never made the money they said I would. I would schedule home time and I would never get it or it would be later then planned. I was always short on my checks atleast a 100 here or 200 there. Getting Loads; I would sit and wait then I would be dispatched with some crazy time schedule and bust my ### to get somewhere only to sit for 4 to 6 hours waiting to get unloaded and try to get that pay. Because dispatchers must get dinged for haveing to pay there drivers delay pay. I could never get my dispatcher to approve my pay with out a argument and a long trail of paper work to back up my calim. They would make it so diffulcult to collect pay like that; so unless you are ready to spend 2 or 5 hours chasing 2 hours of lost wages you just don't mess with it. So if I am the one with the problem then there is alot of problem people out there. Read the post through out this thread and read all the other's through out this site and it is all true. You are better off to go work at a 7-ELEVEN or a supermarket stocking shelves then to drive a semi. I have just listed some of my issues I could go on all day about the problems plauged by this industry.

whats the correct attitude to have here? Not share my experience and keep quit and walk away like 2/3 of the trucking industry. Sounds to me like you own a comapny and are not driving for one!

Yep, I am not pointing the finger at any particular company just the industry as a whole.

Freedom driving OTR? who are they trying to kid. You are at the companies beck and call 24/7 unless you want a Astrix next to your name because they know you hang your qualcomm out the window. USX even installed dash lights for the qualcomm because of drivers doing that.

See the country? Sure do, or what you can see from the hwy or a dock at least.

Steady miles? not a problem until you refuse that hot load that will run you over your hours, shut down due to bad weather, want to go home to often, do anything that takes the dispatcher away from their Internet solitaire game and requires them to work.

They promise to release you from the grind of 9-5 jobs stuck in a building with long commutes. Again true. Instead of 9-5 it's 9-11 grind or the 11-9 grind . Instead of being stuck in a building your bouncing around in a noisy box. instead of having a face to face with the office slacker your burning minutes off your cell phone talking to some collage punk who could care less. Instead of commuting to work your hoping you can make it to that funky toilet stall 100yds away before you piss your pants.

Get your time in driving and then get your butt home and live life. Because OTR driving is not living for the vast majority, it's just existing.

The newbies want the truth? Most of them can't handle the truth

Sometimes its just what you make it