If you are a trucker please read and respond...drivers rights

You're absolutely right . If thousands of drivers would write letters to their representatives and to the media it might have an effect . Instead drivers just whine to each other or think they are doing their part by paying OOIDA dues and letting OOIDA be their "voice " . The voice of OOIDA in Washington is like the squeak of a mouse . ATA pours big money into publicity campaigns and support for Road Safe America . Their lies get published in all kinds of media . "Occupational Health & Safety " magazine as well as "The Trucker" regularly publish articles featuring ATA propoganda that is easily disproven . For example , in articles featured in both Steve Owings of RSA claimed truck driving was the most dangerous job in America . In truth it's a far distant 8th . But truth doesn't matter to these people when pushing their agenda .

 

You can't get 2 drivers to agree on what truck stop to stop at or what highway to take.

You are 100% correct in all your ideas but it's a fantasy of the ''old'' brotherhood of truckers.

''The knights of the highway'' went out when my grandpa hung up his spurs...lol

There is to many drivers that are cut throats and all about me,me,me,me.This is a proven fact...

 

That Dispatchers be held to their word. I hate being lied to
I guess that goes for Recruiters, Schools, DOT. Brokers.
Brokers need to recognize that we need a 10 hour break somewhere during the delivery. I have had them give me a Del. time 11 hours after pick up and it would take the full 11 hours to deliver. What about the 10 hour break????

 

Here is the sad truth to your dilema...

For every driver that says 'no'' i can't do this because of ''log rules''.there will be 1000 more that take the load..

Thats the way it is...I said no to landstar for $1.00 mile
load going to arizona...

1 hour later i called and it was long gone....

Weather you see it or not we are in a catch 22 as drivers.If you run ''legal'' and say ''no'' they take the food from your plate and they keep 'score'' and starve you out..If you want the food and say ''yes'' then you might get into possible trouble with D.O.T.So you just can't win.

Dammed if you do and dammed if you don't.

 

'77 to '81
Nothing high speed/low drag. I was 3531, Motor T.

In response to your post before that, with the suggested pay rates. Here's a thought. I worked for a company a couple of years ago. Real small outfit that made dump trailers. Me and two other drivers went out with a load of trailers and came back empty. The company gave us cash for fuel and we were allowed to keep $25 per day of that for expenses. We were paid a flat weekly salary of $850. Add the $25/day (cash under the table and still able to claim per diem on taxes) for 5 days out and we grossed $975 per week. Home usually every other night and all weekend. Yeah, sweet job. About a year after Katrina, sales slowed way down. We'd been delivering 30-40 dump trailers a week to the MS/LA/TX area for months. The owner said he'd have to let one of us go. I volunteered, because the other two guys didn't have a great driving record or experience.

If all companies started hiring at a weekly salary, you could count on three things happening real fast.
First, there'd be a cutback in the number of drivers. Everyone would be expected to run at least 2500 miles in a 70 hour week.
Second, everyone would be preplanned every load and there'd be no waiting for a load. With fewer drivers, that just makes sense.
Third, companies would be charging detention from the first hour, if you were on time for an appointment. Shippers and receivers would get their heads out of their collective arse's in a real hurry and start setting a real schedule and sticking to it. If a driver was late, the shipper/receiver would not have to pay any detention and if a driver made a habit of being late, he'd get the boot, most rikki tik.

 

WOW! I didn't know that there were companies like the ones you stated. It makes the company i work for look like crap! no wonder my company is classified as a driver mill!

 

When I started truck driving that was the idea that I had. Now time has went by boooooooy was i wrong!

 

ehh.... im not sure, but i think nancy grace would be the best bet, i seen a reprt she did on the " People Who Deliver America " ( truckers ), i could be wrong, it could have been someone els. but whoever it was seemed to be in favor of truckers. i would contact Road Dog Trucker from serius radio. that may be a good start.

 

DO YOUR RESEARCH !!!!!

When I was at WAL-MART I was never looking until I got the screws put to me then I got a dose of the real world in which I had forgotten about out here ON THE ROAD...

When you are chossing a company to drive for every one has its quirks (intisements to try to lure you in ) But keep in mind the grass is not always greener ...

Here are some things I asked every prospective company I was interested in

1. What would you say your companies turn over ratio is? Meaning driver turnover ... If they say I am not sure or I will have to get back to you then the number is not good.. If they had low turnover then they would boast it and make DANG sure the recruiting dept knew that number . Anything over 40% is too high in my opinion that means for every 10 drivers hired 4 leave not good in my opinion Me personally would look for 30% or below WALMART turn over is 0.07 % (includes death and retirement) Superior Carriers is 4.5 % So on average at both of these companies for every 100 drivers hired less than 3 leave and that includes retirment RETENTION RETENTION RETENTION .... the name of the game
2. What is your companies safe stat score . SAFE STAT grades companies based on equipment out of service, driver out of service, amoung other things . Neither of the 2 companies have a safe stat score REASON SAFE STAT does not give a score unless the company is in the FAIL catorgoy in 2 of the 5 Catagories so if the company you are looking at does not have a score that is GOOD ...
3. What is the average employement of your drivers as a whole . Look for a company with at least 5 years average Walmart is 9 Superior is 6 (but remember that includes retirment ) Some say Walmart is not big TRY AGAIN 8518 power units 45,613 TRAILERS 8108 drivers yes they are ... Superior not so big 977 POWER UNITS 3303 trailers 977 drivers but.. Superior Carriers is a small division of SUPERIOR BULK LOGISTICS which includes Carry Transit (food grade tank) Rail tanks, tank washes, Chemical Containers, and more so employee base is probally in the range of 2500 drivers or more and 3000 other employess logistically ..
4. What kind of equipment do you drive
5. What are your benefits package (health deantal etc) When does it start 90 days or 6mths thatas bad just my opinion. A company sets the waiting period based on their own peramaters so if they have 90 day or 6 mth period it tells me a few things . THEY HAVE TURNOVER FOR ONE Walmart benefits start imediately after 30 days Same at Superior Carriers This says they are not scared to spend the money to enroll you because they have a good retention ratio...
6. Do you have a Lease Purchase ? Run most companies that do this Most not all.. Try this to pass on the cost to you and make you live in the truck = NO HOME TIME = WAITIME = PULL their freight for them. = VULCHERS Most companies make their money not by pulling freight but by selling trucks ... GO FIGURE...
7. What are the health premiums for single/ family coverage and what is policy maximum limit . is it a 80/20 90/10 or ?? 1 million cap 5 mill ??
8. How many truck stop books you in ? Do a poll yourself pick up 4 big time books Truckers Connection etc if they are in all of them stay away for sure at 3,000 per month per page and some run 2 full pages per book this says that they spend more money to get drivers than to keep them. Belive it or not they save money by doing this because they dont have to pay benefits to you yet $$$ and most like Schneider / Swift / England / Werner ( and many others get grants from the FED government for guess what JOB CREATION and in order to get that grant they have to provide a certain amount of jobs per QTR, MTH, WEEK (not sure) so this makes what? YOU GUESSed it TURN OVER... Now some have their own schools also where they get additional FED dollars for educational grants etc to have the school then they charge the poor guys and gals up to 20% intrest to go to school that the FED pays for so think about this .. Do they want Quality experenced drivers... NO students is what makes them the money (nothing against them at all) but they simply do not know the industry well enough yet.. Hence they can take advantage of them and charge them for school and a $ charge to deduct it from the check conveintly for you .. DRIVER MILLS This is common knowledge you can google anything stated here

SAFE STAT ( google safe stat )
Look wisely these folks will take advantage of you

I know this is a long rant but hopefully helpfull.

KY24

 

1. Always looking to make it harder for a person to make a living in this industry with more rules and regulations. Pandering to special interest groups.
2. Too much invasion of privacy and access to personal information. Medical and financial history ect. If you pass a D.O.T. physical, drug screen, and submit 10 year work history, that should be all the info needed or accessible.
3. Allowing companies to submit lies and personal bias on DAC reports, making it difficult to remove and all the while losing opportunities.
4. Allowing on duty requirements to go uncompensated. Put that in the green rule book!!
5. On new HAZ MAT rule of finger printing and background investigation since 9/11. I for one was born in the U.S.A., have been licensed since I was 16. Have been traceable by my birth certificate, social security number, and taxes paid since I started working at 14 years old. And, have held a haz mat endorsement since 1992. Why not grandfathered like CDL was? Maybe because of the fees they can impose? I guess my country wants to treat the natural born citizens just like all the foreign immigrants. After all, we're just all outlaw truck drivers and a threat to our country, of which I still love and would fight any enemy who wanted to take away our freedom.