Deregulation specifics

I think it's worse than that for Owner Operators. The recent AB5 in California comes to mind. Make em pack up and leave the state. Wonderful take their revenue with them too. Oklahoma will be bountiful.

The people in state houses are not the people we had in the 70's or ever. Laws made today are pretty interesting if one remembers the freedom previously in life if you lived long enough to remember it.

 

I pulled my records from 1983, $40,000 as a company driver, w/health, eye & dental insurance paid in full, ran between 1500-2000 miles a week. That $40k is $106,074 in today's money...

Inflation Calculator

 

I may be somewhat off with my napkin economics. Oil prices did not reach 20.00 until the Embargo and the 80's there is a certain price for fuels 3 months after purchasing at whatever pricing today which I think borders on 56 or so dollars per barrel.

 

If I remember one DOT man it would be one in the area of Clarksburg WVa scales I think, I need to go back over the stuff. Anyway. There we were. Trainers logbook was perfect. Mine was sanskrit because it was my first week OTR of that kind of logging. I knew nothing. Its one thing to run a day but quite another OTR until I learned.

The DOT man looked over the stuff and said to the trainer, Im a light this smoke break. If I still see you after...

we hit 70 at the end of the merge ramp leaving. The following three weeks was log school First the right way, the company way then the multi way.

 

So, maybe outdated but you have completed research. A truck driver with or without highschool diploma could easily achieve middle income before deregulation.

 

Yes, as long as you weren't a schlub driver working for a schlub company….

 

I have never failed to pick on Dispatchers. One of the biggest reason is omissions of information I could very well use tactically (I hate that word.. but it fits in english when one considers the problem for time and distance to customer) Or they leave me sit all day until 5 minutes before going home after they make the dispatch dump to qualcomm with it's flaws and problems within that information.

And you wonder why night dispatchers hate me when I call in early on their shift with questions requiring solutions at that level before I move a inch. I finally developed a sort of a fatalistic attitude that I no longer gave a #### how bad the infromation was, I'll call the customer myself and get the scoop.

"DRIVERS DO NOT GET THIS PHONE NUMBER< HOW DID YOU GET THIS NUMBER!!!"

here we go again.

 

Clarksburg WVa towards the Hurricane WVa bound for Ky. I think I-79 towards Huntington for I-64 for Kentucky.

It is one of several inspections I remember. That was worth story telling. Many of my inspections were routine but some were not.

One day Im the Pike out of Midway rest area with a doghouse covered in Sbarro Heaven Pizza with everything on it. Coffee in the holder, smokes burning in the tray, settling in at 70 mph for the rest of PA to come. Here downgrade a DOT man waving me down in my own lane coming at him at 75. What a idiot.

There he did a full inspection. Never mind the food all over the tractor including the box of doughnuts for morning meal the following day. It was a rolling diner. Several thermoses of coffee and so on. It was nuts.

Poor Smokie. Inspection was fine. But getting out of that hollow upgrade loaded was a #####. Its good to have 500+ horsies.