just left knight

I finally had to call it quits after five years. I guess that makes me somewhat of a veteran, and in that context, have to say much of what is said here is true. Near the end my wife was actually sending *me* money to work. Wasn't making enough to be even worth it, and running harder than ever, sometimes to the point of safety risk, what with fatigue, etc. (Cuz real drivers never get tired, right? Showing your macho trumps public safety every time, right, kids?)

I am heartened to know I was not the only one that saw the incompetence and cluelessness. Yur a piece of meat out there, worth less than the load or the truck. You're family doesn't matter either. Your health? meh. A hundred more where they found you. Die after you deliver the load, plz. So even my wife said enough. We aren't here to subsidize Knight's profit line. We just as broke, but least it's going to overdue bills, not scale tickets and crap food.

To the company quislings out there: save it. I seen it, I done it, I lived it. Positive attitude only covers so much. If it really changed anything, we'd be in paradise now. Sometimes things really are as bad as they seem. Living in a happy bubble doesn't change that, no matter how loud the fairies sing. This company is everything these guys say it is. The only consolation is I didn't have to endure as much as some here, but I can verify many of the stories..

 

And nope, NOT looking for another truck job. Had it with OTR. Forget all that open road romantic tripe. I have a home and wife for a reason, and it's not so I could spend my life away from them. It's a job for single people or people who just cannot sit still. Anyone who wants a life and intelligent people to talk to, not so much. It was an interesting ride while it lasted, but seriously not a job so much as a sentence. I am happy if I never see LA again. Ever. In life.

 

Yup. That about the size of it. At some point you realize you can only run so hard and there just isn't a payoff. i was literally researching prisoner psychology to understand how inmates cope, cuz it was basically the same thing: live in cage, crap food, enemies all around, and a real possibility of death at a given moment. Cept I think inmates make a little more for their work.

 

Oh, aint that da troof. I actually was fighting back. A week could not go by without me arguing with my DM over something that could have been easily solved if he had just listened to me before we got into the mess. They think they know more than the drivers. I love the part where they want you to deliver an eight hour load in six hours. "No, you can do it". They really think you can do 60 everywhere in the country.

It's kids who grew up playing Gran Turismo and think that's real life. Gets old but quick. No, mook, if we wreck out here we can't hit 'reset' and play it over. They love to gamble with your safety, the public's safety, and your CDL to deliver a chump change load. Screw that. No seriously.

 

Then if you do wreck, nobody know who you are. That's what the safety training is for. It has nothing to do with safety whatsoever. It's CYA, so when the cops and lawyers come around they can say 'we never told him to do that, it's on him'.

 

I think I mentioned it was also becoming a financial struggle to even work for them. My wife was neglecting real bills to deposit money for me to stay alive out there. And they love giving you heavy loads, 44,000 or more. CAT costs 9.50 now for first weigh. Might not seem like much, but when you got 25 bucks til you get paid you feel it. That's before meals. And God help you if you gotta pay a toll or fee on top of it. You shelling out but not getting back. 70 hour weeks to make less than a fry cook. But hey, least you're 'busy' right?

And I use get paid in the loosest sense. Many times I've run my arse off and got a 20 dollar paycheck. The wife loved that. We were working for the health insurance, irony being your health is put at risk to do it.

I have no idea what I'll do next. It'll be a struggle, but no more than it already was. But I'm not literally fighting for my life every day.