How much better was it back in the day

Barely saw any wreck till elogs kicked.

It's tons worse now then 20 years ago.
And alot of then make you go WWW DDDD FFFFF

 

The so called old days, weren’t that long ago. Paper maps,no gps. I still pull the map out on occasion, especially if I’m going somewhere I’m not familiar, and running back roads. GPS, I use my phone, for everything. Still can’t believe the Guys I see with 2 or 3 GPS sticking on the windshield, I don’t want the screen in my face. How much Guidance do you need? Takes all the adventure away. Lol.

 

I will happily take my elog, air conditioned, power steered, air ride, comfy truck

 

This^^^^^

I started running for a farm machinery dealer in 2001. I was hauling $300,000 combines when I was 20 years old. Did a lot of it outlaw style, too. I spent much of my time on two lane roads in central PA. EVERY trip was an adventure! I've had to unload the very tractor I was hauling to drag the trailer around a tight corner more than once. It was not fun at the time, but I look back on it all and wonder how I didn't end up dead or in jail.

That's over now. I would never consider doing some of those things today.

However, I still enjoy what I do. I don't have elogs to deal with, no nanny camera in my face. Boss leaves me alone to do my job, driving a really nice setup. And he pays me well for what I do. I still stop when I want to, sleep when I need, .

It's not as fun as it was, but it's still close enough for me

 

I asked my ol' man (I'm 3 yrs in trucking solo so what do I know lol. He's 20+ years in) and here's what he said...

Truckers were closer back in the day. Technology has taken that brotherhood away.

Trainers seemed to care about whether a student could really drive and knew the "rules of the road".

The net income was higher.

Less intrusive regulations that change from dot officer to dot officer... depending on their moods.

Other than that, he says the job is still pretty much the same and as long as you didn't run over anybody or anything at the end of the day, you had a good driving shift haha.

 

Started in 2003 running bottom dumps of sand/rock to cement plants. Made from $200 on bad day to about $300 on a normal day. Remember this is 17 years ago.
Stayed within 70 miles as the crow flies of terminal so no logs needed. Just keep an eye on the BOL times.

You would call and listen to a message on where to start and talk to someone at the end of the day when you were done. That's it.

Less BS and more money sure was nice.

 

I dont know....I'm only 11 years in, long enough to have experienced paper logs. I always had the attitude that trucking is what you make of it, regardless of era. The money I've made, I mean, i would always take more money, but it works for me. I dont really think it's as bad as people think it is. I've never felt micromanaged. The experience has been much better for me, but I've done such to make it that way. The biggest thing I've done is to not talk to grumpy veteran truckers, and not talk to truckers who are overly stuck in the old days. Then you can focus on the road, the scenery, and the more positive things about our industry

 

2 log books?

I was a literal Statistician.
A Book Cooker with over thought scenarios.

Then we got loose leaf. Much easier.

I'm SO glad those days are over.
My health is 10x better... my relationships are better.. my performance is better.. my pay is better (because they had to!)

But we sure had a boat load of fun.
Man, did we ever have some good times.
I've got stories.

 

It was way better.

Candy Hershey bar = 5 cents then inflated to 10 cents in about 1970 finally hit 15 cents. They actually stopped making them for a time because it would have been too small. Eventually they put it back on the market.

Gas was .26 then up to about .30 or so gallon leaded too.

A dollar got you almost 5 gallons. Try doing that today.

You could turn in any silver certificate marked dollar bill into any major bank and redeem in silver coin. As in minted Silver Eagles. Redeemed them for silver basically, literal silver. Bank manager last year told me that they no longer recognize those bills as legal tender and send them to be destroyed. However they have something like a ten to one face value on Ebay if in good to mint condition. The larger denominations are higher. Much higher. I remember my first 100 silver cert at about 7 back then at home. That was a huge amount of money, you could eat a thanksgiving every day twice daily for over a month. Today we burn hundreds and for what.

I remember making my first 600 net paycheck after 5 days out of driving school at my first job. Ranging from 450 net to almost 700. Gas tankers routinely broke 1000 net. Weekly.

Get to where the bank smiles at you when you toss yet another bunch of money into a account overflowing with it. Not to mention where did you get all this money? Pull out the Class A license and say you are a trucker.

Oh. Ok.

My idiot friends were scratching on 110 dollar net pay in abusive loud and profane burger king that constantly cut their hours each week and for what.

Yes it was a way better time financially. Whatever the bills that came in were, it was meaningless. Some figure to write a check on and resend it as paid in full. No stress. Plenty more where that came from.

 

No. They just required that logs we turned in to the company looked good.