Before deregulation?????

That was before my time. What changed? Was it a Federal thing or state by state?
What was regulated? Just wages or was it safety too? How were wages determined?

When I started in the early 90's I heard a few drivers talk about it but never really
understood much about it. Sure would appreciate some older guys that lived it
tell us young guys about it.

 

That was before my time as well in trucking but from what I can tell I would say everything has changed and not for the better either.and its still changing every yr.

 

There was Federal and State for running intra state.
They wording was very strick, you might be able to haul paint in 55 gallon drums, but if not asked for or given, you couldn't haul it in 5 gallon buckets. It was a very controlled market. Sometimes if you were an east coast based business and you had authority for west of the Mississippi River you had to go through let's say St. Louis aka Gateway city. Stop and your term and time stamp your bills for proof or fuel in that city

 

You might be able to del in Cook county, but not in Joliet county

 

Like the airlines, the Feds determined rates & possibly which companies served trips to/from certain cities. It was much more expensive for customers & profitable for trucking companies that had permission to do that work. Deregulation at airlines & trucking was to make it easier & cheaper for passengers & shippers thus helping the economy. It's done that in spades.

 

So how were drivers wages set? Was there a living wage set or how did
the Feds determine drivers wages?

 

Flying now costs more I believe
I wish it would go back to regulation. Get rid of brokers. We trip leased back then ir just bounced back to our home yards
Money was made then and I had a good wage

 

Feds DIDN'T set driver wage they set a freight rate which was much higher and that left a lot more money that COULD be spent on driver pay.

 

I am 81 years old.Drove from 1951 (Junior in High School) to 1953 (Graduated) on week ends (Friday noon to Monday 1 AM) hauling livestock from MS to Indianapolis and ear corn back. No DOT then, was ICC. Above comments on restrictions were typical. Agricultural products were EXEMPT??.
Ha, we could haul cattle up and ear corn back. BUT. if we dropped over to Memphis ,TN and unloaded the ear corn at Allied Mills, and they shelled it and ground it to "corn chops" (a chicken feed) we could not haul it on down to West Point, MS. It had become a "processed feed" and had to come on Robinson Truck Lines who
had the rights to haul Memphis, TN to Macon, MS via US78 and US 45. I ran livestock, produce, and seeds until
1957, all EXEMPT. Went team with Beneke Corp and put my hands on my first logbook, running Columbus, MS to San Diego, LA, Frisco, and the occasional Seattle. Was a lifestyle change for me.

 

Airline tickets cost a fraction of regulated ticket costs. I lived before & after airline deregulation. The day airlines were deregulated discount airlines took off. Southwest was in biz flying unregulated inside Texas. Deregulation allowed them to fly nationwide.