Your not entitled!!WAKE UP,ITS NOT THE COMPANIES

But I still want my Company Hat!..... LOL

 

I agree with you. People get this sense of entitlement from their paerents and the school system. Its never their fault when there is a problem and nobody should ever loose. Total bull!!! Doesn't prepare them for the real world and working.

 

Very well put. I think a lot of it is too high of the expectations people put on this industry. Be it from recruiters, ads, or so called truckers telling them stories. Time for a reality check!

 

I go to my terminal wearing the one from the old company still even wear the Jacket that I got from being a safe driver for over 50,000 miles. They just laugh at me....
Kinda a joke thing we keep playing, Someday I am going to get my own made when the fair comes back to town.

 

Amen brother.

I met one of those 'kids' yesterday—said he was going to quit because they left him sitting in Orlando without a load for ONE WHOLE DAY! Incredible...

When I first started out, I remember sitting on the street across from the Hunt Wesson warehouse in Bayonne, NJ for a whole week—eating breakfast, lunch and dinner from the gut wagons that would come by. That was a lesson my dispatcher taught me about running out of hours.

As for trainers, I had the roughest month of my life with that guy back in 1991. The last two weeks we were out, the only time I would sleep was when we were in a dock or stopped somewhere for a few minutes. He couldn't stay awake more than 5 minutes and was always scaring the hell out of me, nodding off for a second and running off the road. Add to that, the bonus that he never took a shower the whole month we were out.

But once my month was done, I was ecstatic to have my own truck—a spring suspended Freightliner cabover with well over a million miles on it. It was beat to hell, nothing worked, no A/C, no heat to speak of. I drove that truck for a year without ever once complaining to get a "hood" like the other cabover drivers were always wanting. Then one day, they asked me to bring an old truck from the Chicago yard, back to Salt Lake City. I delivered it as asked, and was given another truck to drive upon arrival—a brand spankin' new zero mile FLD 120.

I must have sat out in the yard for at least a half hour... just breathing in that new truck smell. Air ride, A/C that actually worked, bunk heat, and best of all... actual storage space so I didn't have to transfer my stuff to the front when I wanted to go to bed.

So now I see the new guys coming to work for my current company. I can tell how long they're going to last by how they talk about their previous employer... "Man, I told them if they didn't git me a load I was gonna leave their truck right there in the truckstop." A month goes by and I don't see 'em around anymore.

I would imagine these are the guys that are sitting on a cooler and duffel bag outside the truckstops, begging for a ride to the next latest and greatest gig.

One of the mechanics at our shop summed up the state of the industry when he referred to the drivers working for us...

"We got this tiny little fraction of drivers that you can always depend on." Then, stretching his arms wide, he indicates the "giant pile of crap" that make up the other portion.

 

And this whining, complaining, and sense of entitlement isn't confined to the trucking industry. I'm not affiliated with trucking in any way (except through friendships), and I hear it everyday.

Some folks just plain need a slap upside the head.

 

​

FSTrucker,

You could not be more wrong on this one. Yes, there are some posts from drivers who want to be coddled, but those complainers are usually called out pretty quickly by the other posters here.

Most of the complaints here are legitimate and they aren't based on a sense of entitlement. I don't hear about drivers compaining about their trucks not being tricked out. I hear them complaining about having to drive equipment that is not roadworthy and could end up killing them or worse, innocent motorists. That is what we all fear in the back of our minds when we drive, and if that fear is not there, we should not be driving.

I hear drivers complain that they are being lied to by their companies. If a company says they are going to pay .40 cpm, they should pay .40 cpm. That is not entitlement.

I hear drivers advising new drivers not to sign onto a lease purchase agreement. That's just good advice, not complaining.

The difference between when you started 35 years ago and when I started 15 years ago and today is that there is a whole industry set up to rob unsuspecting new drivers blind who are just trying to support their families. From the scam schools to 'training carriers' to the fleece purchase carriers, you and I did not have to deal with any of that. This board does an excellent job of letting 'newbies' know what to do and what not to do. That's not entitlement, that's helping others learn from our mistakes.

I don't think it is entitlement that causes someone the be scared that the person training them has only 6 months of experience. My trainer was a complete jerk, but he was a jerk with 25 years of driving experience.

My first truck was a piece of junk, too. No AC, not much heat, armstrong power steering. However, when something went wrong, my company didn't ignore it, they fixed it. Again, I have not ever heard someone here complain that their truck didn't have enough chrome on it.

I think you are just trying to make a generational political statement, but that glove doesn't fit. This industry has changed for the worse since you or I started driving. There are many more pitfalls for the new driver. How many drivers did you know that had MULTIPLE DWIs when you started driving? You need to acknowledge that things have completely changed in trucking since you were a pup.

Save the "entitlement" lecture for Rush, that's his bread and butter.

 

Dead giveaway alter ego lol