I have found out that no matter who you work for at a trucking company, there are going to be problems. From stupid dispatchers, who couldnt get you a load if theyr life depended on it, to fighting to get home time, or trying to get a company shop to fix a truck. You tell the shop what needs to be fixed after having a inspection done and dot telling you what needs fixed, just to have the shop mechanic tell you thats not the problem, your stupid, just so he wont have to fix it. The company telling you they will give you all the miles you need,, yea right, then gripe about fuel prices, but refuse to put a apu on your truck, its to expensive, oh by the way you cant idle your truck they dont care if you freeze or roast while trying to sleep, and when all trucks do come back to the shop they are going to be turned down to 65 mph. There isnt an honest trucking company to be found, they will all lie just to get drivers. No wonder there are so many i dont care drivers on the road. It used to be fun to be out on the road in a truck and used to be fun to drive, not anymore, fuel prices, low or no freight in certain areas. to just plain i dont care companies as long as the driver makes them money. Being a truck driver now just makes me want to puke and think about slinging hamburgers for a living.

Good post peanut butter! You're exactly right. Things though are going to get worse before they get better!

What you have said is true, peanut butter BUT I can guarantee you will find problems at the hamburger slinging jobs as well. I know as I have a son that works in that kind of job. The reality is ANY company you work for, trucking or non-trucking will have problems. The only way to come close to avoiding that is to become self-employed and be your own boss. Then if you want to get ticked off at the company you can either quit or fire yourself.

Peanut Butter,

You are correct in what you say. It pretty much covers all of the big companies. Yet for some reason, drivers still flock to them in droves. Take heart in knowing that there are still companies out there where the driver excells. Trust me, I work for one. That being said, I still know that we are just the necessary evil that the company needs to make money. Whether you are covered under a contract like me or you are a right to work employee, the company wants to do anything to lower your pay and increase their profits. Thats just the corporate way. I hope you and all other drivers find the company that takes care of your needs.

Drive safe

While I agree that most companys (not just trucking) are questionable, they haven't come up with their tactics all by themselves. Insurance Co's are contributing more every day to the miseries of all of us. Giving Companies new ways to make things difficult for all of us.

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Being retired is cool if you're ready for it ... I'm not

No pickles on mine please!

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In the right lane at 62!

Finally...####### FINALLY!!!!!!!!!
Just one driver who tells it like it really is !
Look at it this way: I wouldn't be going back to school at age (going on-) 35, if, after 5 years of busting my ### harder and harder and harder, for less, and less, and ALWAYS less, I still saw even the remotest possibility of a future in transportation.

Attention all noobs:

GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN. THIS SITUATION IS HOPELESS. Yes, I am dead serious.

These are 5 years of my life that I will never get back, with literally almost nothing to show for it.
I.
Am.
Done.

Over 'n' out, from a soon-to-be ex trucker....

*(By far the vast majority of drivers, from what I can see.)

Who ever said life would be easy. I'm sure that before you got into trucking someone told you that it isn't what it is cracked up to be. I knew before joining what a hassle it would be and sure enough it was.. I just dealt with it, and while I wasn't impressed with the OTR companies, not all locals are up to snuff either.. I work for a local concrete co and sometime hate it. But until something better comes along that keeps me home every night I will stay put.

And look at it this way, at least you don't have a supervisor breathing down your neck every chance he/she gets, and you also don't have to listen to those piss ant co workers, complaining about not getting enough hrs, or this one hates me or this one thinks I'm a #####.. I hear from my dispatcher usually once a day, and that is to tell me what I'm doing the following day unless I need him for something..

Oh come on now. Why don't you tell us how you really feel.

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Team Players.....
It's hard for me to play professional team sports. On a minor league salary.

Difficult I can deal with. "Nothing easy is worth doing...," as someone once said. It's "Carrot-and-stick" tactics/cons--unending ones--that I have a problem with...And that is all I have ever gotten in 5 years of driving, local and long-haul both.

The perks you describe start seeming a little thin in light of that, year after year after year, driver.

Idiot supervisors and useless co-workers? I can handle those, too. On one memorable occasion, one of the former came very close to a trip to the hospital for getting in my face with his pathetic, overcompensating #### once too often...Does that count ?