Have I lost touch with this industry?

brisms you would have to show me some study that shows truck drivers get divorced more
everything you say is true but it is a societal problem in general
my nephew overdosed at 23 upstairs in his room
while the rest of the family was home
mom and dad work from home so that doesn't cure it either
i have a 35 year old that refuses to work his mom lets him in the house when I am on the road
but he best not be around when I am home
my grandfather slapped my knuckles with a wooden ruler teaching me to peg playing cribbage every time i missed a point he would be arrested for abuse today
i never miscount in cribbage
it is a different world with spoiled rotten kids blaming us for the better standard of life we were able to provide for them
that makes no sense in my little brain

 

Please. There are failed marriages going rampant in every walk of life.

 

Every new generation is considered lazy by the ones before it. Nothing new.

Take a look around you. The creativity of the youth today is the engine(Google,Facebook,Tesla,etc.) that powers today's economy. The youth you see around you may be lazy but the vast majority of us today are hard working but we prefer to work smart over "hard". The job gets done but more efficiently. This job requires A LOT of sacrifice and time....its shouldn't come cheap. A lot of jobs out there that pay $40-$60k and you can be home every night. There has to be a GOOD justification for being away from our wives, kids and a normal life.

Kansas, your insurance I'm sure requires you to hire drivers with only 2-3 years experience. It's on you as the boss to interview the prospective driver and vet his skills. A lot of good drivers out there that will do an excellent job. It's on you to have what it takes to attract them. The way these guys are talking, once hired, the driver needs to jump thru hoops to prove himself to you. Their work experience and history proves their worth. A lot of bad trucking companies out there, drivers don't have time to waste to "prove" themselves for a reward that may or may not come.

 

You are correct Truck Duo, most of your generation does prefer to work smarter rather than harder, and that is great, but that doesn't mean you don't still have to prove yourself. Now, it should not be hard to prove you are worthy, all most of us ask is for you to show up when you are supposed to and not tear things up, really simple. You don't have to "jump through hoops", just do a good job and you will earn our respect. That is all we are trying to say, your worth is not automatic just because you have a cdl, that just gets you in the door, your value comes from being a team player. It comes down to doing the job you agreed to do under the terms you agreed to, it is that simple. Yes, we as a whole group, have it much easier than say our grandparents or great grandparents, but if you choose to be a truck driver than you should expect to work like a truck driver. If you want a home at 5, weekends off type of job then look for a local gig, but if you choose to be an OTR driver then expect it to affect your life in every manner possible. What a lot of us "old timers" are getting at, and I don't know if I qualify as an "old timer" as I only have 23 years driving and am in my 40's, but what we are getting at is no one is holding a gun to your head saying you have to be an OTR driver but if you choose to do the job then do the job the way we as the employer expect for the terms agreed upon or don't do it at all.

Small business trucking like Stan and my company really rely upon having better than average drivers, people who will go the extra mile to help out instead of sitting there saying it isn't my job, we need people who take care of the equipment and customers, most of our customers are with companies like Stan has because of service not price, so we need drivers that can provide the best service even if it means a little bit of personal sacrifice. I understand not everyone wants to work that way, that is what it is, but then don't complain that the industry sucks and the job sucks, the job is what you make out of it. We as an industry, even as a nation, have allowed this attitude to grow, even foster it. So yes, my generation and my parents generation are to blame for the condition we are in today, but it is not too late to change it.

Stan, long answer to your short question, yes, I believe you are out of touch with the industry of today. It has become much more of a regional, short haul environment because a lot of people today do not want to be gone for weeks on end. There are still some out there, but it is getting harder to find. As said before, if you need that type of talent you need to really shine. I do believe you pay package and over all offering is very attractive, I've said it before, I would jump on it if I was a driver looking for a place to retire from not already a company owner. Again, I don't understand why it should be as hard as it is to attract the talent we need, there are thousands of drivers unhappy at the megas, yet they don't want to come to a small fleet where they can be truly treated like a person. Maybe they are scared of the unknown, like the anonymity of a mega, afraid or unwilling to work a little harder for a better return?

 

looking around the TS at what passes for professional drivers with experience
leads me to believe reinforces the belief we are grading on a curve
i know in truth i am just average

 

with my little company if i woke up the owner at 2 am because i had a flat
or was 12300 on my steers i would stand a better chance of being fired
then if i took care of it myself

of course next day in hindsight I would have done it wrong

 

But that's the thing, Pete, at least your first instinct is to try and take care of it yourself. For far too many it's to pick up the phone or qualcom. The megas and their infantilization of drivers hasn't helped, the few that have the desire to take care of things get it beaten out of them by the mega's hand-holding system.

 

Overall, a very good thread.

 

Lets face it, every generation has gotten lazier.
Society as a whole has gotten worse, we keep expecting more for less.


The fact is, that working for stan a person would have unlimited options, the sky is the limit.
When you work for a mega, thats it, you will always be a driver.

This generation seems to have less ambition then previous ones.

Thats what I see.