Back in my day...

If we could only cherry pick. I'd rather run older equipment with 25+ year veterans and have a couple of the conveniences. I can and do go without GPS but Google earth is nice to check for parking at the shipper/receiver.

Instant weather and road reports are nice so you don't have to rely on the CB weather man from Mississippi about how bad it is snowing and if you need to chain up.

Other conveniences are a distraction or aren't helpful. A lot of the parking apps are off. Drivers that can't back will post 'no spots' because they can't back into them. There are always one or two.

It's nice to listen to the CB now. Most of what's on it now is what needs to be said. It's still sad a drive can ask a question and no one answers. Once you start getting closer to truck stops it's still the same carp.

 

Back in the good ol' days you had to rely on other drivers for help, pay phones when you could find one, no up to date information about anything, obtaining (trying to, anyway) city maps for every city you deliver to instead of a GPS (and the space to store those maps), using said GPS to find the best route instead of taking a lot of time with an atlas.

That has all changed.

So, which is better?
Perhaps you would like to list how bad it really is these days.


And how about those that came before our 'old timers'?
The original truck drivers that didn't have air seats and power steering or brakes or power windows and mirrors or self adjusting brakes or air conditioning...? Probably no phone access at all most of the time, not to mention maps.
I'll bet they were also wishing for the good old days as well. Because you are not a real trucker, or even a man, if you enjoyed any of the new fangled crap that made your life easier and safer.

 

Excellent viewpoint.

When I was in truck driving school, this old timer came through and told us how it use to be. He wore it like a badge of honor. Super complicated shifting, horrible heating, very small sleeper berths.

This job has now become a PROFESSIONAL type of job. My truck is my office, my sleeper berth is my apartment, and I expect to be treated with a certain amount of respect. I'm not in the military, living close to the ground, waiting for the enemy around every corner, with Sergeants and officers demanding of me unrealistic expectations.

I drove in the year 2000 for Swift and the technology that is now available has made my life 500% better than it ever was even 16 years ago. It's a good thing. I'm definitely against inward facing cameras and I've always been irritated by the ridiculous HOS rules, but for the most part, truck drivers have demanded a higher quality of life on the road, and many companies have delivered. It's the truck drivers that think of this job as a bivouac job that make it bad for everybody else. Raise your expectations.

 

Lowered expectations have made your job possible.

 

Technology has dumbed the driver down. Today you don't need any more ability or talent to drive a truck than you need to drive a modern day pickup and trailer. You can gross some of them out at 45,000+ and have 40'+ trailers. You can even get Jake brakes. It will come to the point when the machine has become smarter than the driver and the driver is no longer need.

Until we go to war with a country that has EMP weapons and anti satellite weapons. Wait until we are under constant hacker attack, attacking ELDs to gain access to your trucks ECM. Wait until they attack credit card processing systems and fuel pumps. No fuel, no GPS, no WiFi, no cell phones, no modern trucks and very few truck drivers.

Before you say it won't happen,this is a very simple on that will jam GPS signals with in 60 feet. You can make them as powerful as you want.

GPS Jammers and Signal Blockers for Sale

They say it isn't possible but they brag about their security. They say it would be impossible.Later they say it would be very hard to do.
Hacking trucks: Cybersecurity and the ELD mandate

If you attack the control center, you take down all the trucks in the network. Imagine if truck and engine reps had to visit each and every truck to do software updates wherever they died....thousands of them.

 

It's a medium-to-small hill in a largely flat area that is highly traveled. It's a big hill sort of like being the prettiest girl on the Bulgarian swim team. It can be true, but meaningless.

 

I think it's a sad state of affairs when a so called driver doesn't have an actual map and no how to read it. I learned to drive with two sticks 6x4 in a 359 with a 1693 Cat. I've driven without power steering. Was that fun? No but it made me a stronger person. I miss some of the things that made us (IMHO) drivers. Some things are better some are worse. I personally, would rather have some respect like we used to get rather than the disdain that we get today.
(Disdain as a noun means something not worthy of respect)

 

Every generation seems to get more submissive , sheep don't get respect they are preyed upon .
The generation before me were old WW2 , those guys took no crap and were highly respected .
My generation was more just go with the flow , enjoy your job and make your money .
We enjoyed this industry and the freedoms those guys earned for us .
We now see our mistake and how that caused big changes in the industry .
You see most of us pushing back anyway we can before it's to late.
The new generation is even worse , they support the things we were indifferent to.
They don't have the perspective to see where this will lead.
The things that are happening now would have never been tolerated , those older generation would have had strikes and broke skulls to enforce the strikes.
I don't think we will ever go to those extremes but we must find a way to get some respect back into this industry.

 

It's amazing how many truck drivers can't do simple things or want to. I carry a lot of stuff in my truck so that I don't get stranded. I have a 25 foot, 4 gauge set of jumper cables to jump my truck and reefer back and forth when I need to. They were like $70. Best $70 ever spent.

I was at a large dirt pull over in CA where a lot of trucks spent the night. By morning,it was me and a mega. The mega had dead batteries. He asked if I had cables. I told him I did. Jokingly I told him I wasn't going to charge him for jump starting his truck but I was going to charge him $70 for using my cables. He actually ran back to his truck and came back five minutes later with a com check for $70. I thought "OK". I got him started. I took his check and gave him my cables. I'd buy a new set later. He said that he didn't want them and that he'd just call breakdown if his batteries died again. His check was good. A fool and his money....