Overtime pay ! Make it happen .

I've never cooked in the truck and I eat great on the road. I wish I enjoyed food preparation but I don't. I let my legs get me to good food if I can't park by it.

The guys that whine about food choices are usually the same guys that have to park at some mega truck stop every night.

 

Ambition. Determination. Successful folks in this industry possess those qualities. Put in the effort and reap the rewards.

 

I enjoy cooking food. At home. For more than just myself. I have a hard time preparing more than a peanut butter sandwich or a bowl of cereal on the road. Even burger joints have decent salads with chicken on top. I make conscious poor decisions I know I shouldn't make and make too often. That is my choice and I have to live with it. I don't want to live in a place where it is decided for me what my food options are for "my best interest/health".

 

I mainly agree with you. The problem though is when most people go out and eat they see the bad stuff that and order that instead of ordering the good stuff. We have all seen it. The reason I purchase most of what I eat and cook it myself is because I prefer all fresh food. I do not want anything that came from a box or can or was unnecessarily frozen. That's just me though.

 

I bet you don't need anyone to tell you when you should be asleep so that you will not have sleep deprivation either. See that's the other problem in the industry...just because one person can't do it must mean that it's impossible, right? We've all seen distracted drivers. The sign says RIGHT LANE ENDS, and some truck is rolling in the right lane. You're behind him and you know that he's about to screw up. He will finally see the lane disappear, panic, hit the brakes and check his mirrors. "And you're thinking, "Yep, this one is from Dumascus." Plain and simple, he shouldn't be driving. But if you put enough gadgets in a truck, and monitor him with a driver cam...riiiiiiight. Cattleprods and handholding will make a non driving moron into a safe driver. Well, those cattleprods and the professional handholders cost money. Hey, why not pay the driver $30000 a year, and pay the handholders $40000!

"But Six, drivers back in 1980 made more than they do today, if you adjust for inflation."

Of course they did. Drivers back in 1980 didn't need cattleprods and a handholder. Add in the Armstrong steering, spring ride, and a two stick transmission, and the hours the guy could run and you had someone that in today's standards would be almost superhuman by the standards of the modern driver. You had a much tougher, more durable driver.

And there are still drivers that get paid based on performance. Most team operations nowadays is just an attempt by a mega to take two losers and try to make a solid driver. We call it the Dumb and Dumber program. 2 numbskulls that don't make the money of 1 solid driver. And on the other end of the spectrum is the team that's pulling high end freight for stupid money harder and faster than any solo driver could do legally. Fast truck, big motor, 2 solid drivers. You're looking at a $350000+/yr gig. Or for company drivers, $100k each. They're not working by the mile or by the hour, they get paid by the job. Overworked and underpaid? Nooooo, they live for that next critical load.

In the industry there's such a broad spectrum of ability that setting rules and regulations and pay is almost impossible. I'm on a percentage contract. If I don't like the rate, I don't pull the load. Years ago, we were running wind turbine blade out of Little Rock to Houston. There were crews who were stretching this run out to a 3 day run,(pick up Monday, deliver Wednesday) reset, back to Little Rock. I talked to my crew, load up on a Monday, get into striking range of Houston, (wouldn't make in before the afternoon metro curfew), deliver Tuesday morning and hammer back to Little Rock to load Wednesday. Deliver Thursday, load Friday for Monday delivery.

Would you believe that the other drivers were pissed off? They went calling and complaining to the office and the deskjockeys of course, want to do the communism thing and level the playing field by trying to schedule our next pick up so that all drivers make the same amount of money so that everyone would be happy. Fortunately for me, the shipper was a capitalist, "Driver, do you have 3 trucks here ready to load? Then we will load you."
I like capitalist...they're much more fun than communists.

"Oh, but if OTR drivers made $25/hr, everything would be fair."

Really? Fair for whom? Some drivers get 12 hours a day sleep. They get up at 0800 run a couple hours, stop for an hour break, run a couple more hours, then they cram into a Loves to get a fat boy parking spot by 1400. They run 300 miles a day. Some drivers consistently turn 600+ miles a day....YET they should make the same money. I disagree.

You get quite a few people coming to TTR that have enrolled in a driving school and have questions. If you tell them to not go a certain route and avoid a certain company, they will still go with that company because that company sent a recruiter who promised them a job. They don't have to do any more research, they don't have to beat the bushes, they just accept a job, get a bus ticket and show up for the slaughter...I mean orientation. They put forth ZERO effort into their career. Yet they are whining about their pay. Did you really think that sunshine injection that recruiter gave you was free? Someone has to pay for that CREngland rap song!

 

When we haul bridge beams that will require an overnight stay you should see the feast that comes out of daycab trucks. 4-5 of us are usually running together on these hauls and the grills and cast iron come out and the fenders on the beam trailers make excellent cooking stations.

Steak, chops, potatoes and an assortment of veggies. Sometimes I think we eat better on the road than at home. The pilot trucks also bring the beer.

 

You're living the high life!

 

I still think the [much] higher costs of new trucks and their required engine and transmission BS, as well as higher insurance costs and lower rates are what is consuming MUCH of what otherwise might have been given to the driver in the form of better wage hikes. $10,000 more for a new 2016 then a 2013 engine? The payout for the new truck MUST happen, the income is still stagnant at 2014-2012 rates due to too many trucks chasing too little freight ... Guess what. The driver probably won't see much of a wage increase.

And the government keeps adding more BS every year which further increases real equipment costs, and often works to reduce productivity. Distracted drivers keep running into the back of stopped traffic and killing dozens each year causing many millions in settlements every year. And it's still a mystery why driver wage increases are flat? Wake up Amurica! And wake up drivers! The actions of a few who keep doing stupid crap and creating new mandates have an effect on all who can only be paid from what is left over.

Sure some high placed officers get their huge salaries regardless, and maybe a few in the office see good salary increases, but drivers constitute the gulf of the payroll and as such will absorb a bulk of the negative consequences of poor bottom lines. Is this fair? Depends on your view of your status as a "worker", I guess

 

What do you use to cook in?Alot of drivers are limited to a ciggarette lighter inverter.Of course you can still eat heathy and never have eat any of that truckstop garbage.I very rarely ate from truckstops.Maybe once a month if that.I bought all my good from Wal-Mart.Sometimes while at a customer like Wal-Mart Dc I would bobtail to the nearest store.Drivers always have access to a store sometime during the week.I also slept real good in the trk,better then home as a matter of fact.