Scary side of trucking

QUAD 4 x4

Related: 2019 Ram 2500/3500 First Drive: Going for the Beef

As the torque wars wage on, engine output surpassed the capability of manual-transmission clutches. GM dropped the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra's manual transmission by 2008, followed by Ford for the 2011 Super Duties and then Ram HDs for the 2019 model year. With new buyers opting more and more for automatic transmissions, investing research and development time and money into manuals stopped paying off.

Sure, truckmakers could easily design a strong and smooth-shifting manual transmission with a heavy clutch to handle today's torque outputs, but the demand is so small, it's not worth the investment.
Why the Full-Size Truck's Manual Transmission Is Dead | PickupTrucks.com

that's what i think it was, the clutches could not handle the torque of the diesels.

so in effect, blowing up

 

That's why this generation - the one paying your SS - is "unprofessional", right?

 

And I didn't call you a super trucker. I respect what you've accomplished, and the reason I quoted you was that you're not one of the retired welfare cases talking down to working drivers.

I may have been out of context, but your word is a pretty good counter to someone telling me I'm making #### up.

 

Not to burst your bubble there buddy because you do seem to have the right attitude, but respect needs to be a two-way street and trucking. When you first start out, yeah you can take a few low blows and turn the The other cheek a few times but eventually you will absolutely need to learn to stand up for yourself. Freaking dispatchers and fleet managers figure out real quick who the pushovers are and they do and will take full advantage of you if you let them. You will probably have to threaten to quit more than once before you get any kind of respect. It’s just the way it is in this industry.

So learn, pay your dues, become a true truck driver, but just realize part of that process is not allowing yourself to be stepped on.

 

I'm retired, however, since I do not draw a cent of "welfare" I will assume you were not speaking about me. I try my best to give everybody an equal chance to yank a stupid before I talk "down" to them. I have been around trucking since the middle 60s. As a very young kid I made a lot of short trips with my father and at least one long trip with him during my summer vacation from school. I know about all the drug use. In fact the largest drug pusher in my hometown was our family physician who prescribed my father his "diet pills" and in some cases things like prescription cough syrup with codeine. Drivers back in the 60s and 70s were involved in fatal accidents too. In fact, I have vivid memories of some of the drivers that died. One of the deacons at my mother's church was a local driver for a thread mill. He was killed out on I-85 somewhere in Northeast Georgia. ALL ERAs of trucking had bad dangerous and terribly unprofessional drivers. My contention though is in today's world there are MORE as a percentage of the whole. I have with my own eyes seen these changes. This is one reason I detest movies like Smokey and the Bandit and some of the TV shows like BJ and the Bear. They glamorized this industry and it has gone downhill ever since!

 

Yep, I would add that in my case NOBODY is paying my SS because I am not drawing any AND may never do so! In fact, I am still paying into FICA even though I am retired.

 

You have some good points.

But how would you feel if I said overall safety is up, with negative perception increased by the nature of the news and news cycle?

 

So I don't need to say you're not active in trucking or aware of current labor market conditions.

Thanks.