Schneider (edwardsville)

Lonesome · May 9, 2021

gentleroger said: ↑

With the risk of sending this thread to politics, here's my response.

For too long we as a society have denigrated manual labor. The ditch digger has been maligned as being worth less than AB negative while the Bridge Builder has been derided as a fool. There's a great film called "Breaking Away". When I first saw it, I was but a tyke playing with legos while the Cubbies were waiting out a rain delay on WGN. At that point it spoke to me about the underdog rising above and beating the odds. A few years later I had to watch it in English class - a 32 inch screen seen from the back of the classroom, over a 4 week period. It made little impact. 6 years later I was in college, and I came back from the Bars and accidentally hot boxed myself while playing Mario Kart. Realizing that going to my room and awaking my girlfriend at that point was a BAD IDEA, I settled in on the couch in the common area with WI Nachos (shredded cheese on potato chips, nuked for 30 seconds) and caught the last half of Papillon on TCM (a great flick). "Breaking Away" came up next, and I was still no where near sober enough to crawl into bed without consequences, so I reloaded my WI nachos and settled in. I was not prepared for the profound experience which resulted.

There's a scene where the short townie kid decides to get a job at the local car wash. He gets dropped off by his friends and the manager maligns and insults him. The punk kid wraps his hand in a rag and punches the time clock. The first time I'd seen this scene, as a 10 or 11 year old, I'd glossed over it. It had nothing to do with the ultimate underdog makes good theme. As a highschooler watching the movie, I don't remember the scene - small screen from the back of the room, with no real work experience, it's little wonder. But as a 21 year old, who was just trying to sober up enough to go home and get laid, the scene spoke to me. So much that after the movie ended, I went upstairs and started downloading a pirated copy (which woke up the girl, which started an argument, which ended up with me not getting laid). It was a paradigmatic change for me - not the least of which was there are more important things than sex.

Regardless of the job you do, it has value to society. The CEO of McDonalds has value. The guy cleaning the showers at Pilot has value. The CEO of McDonalds makes $7,000 an hour, while the guy cleaning showers makes less than $10 an hour. How many people could do as good of a job as the McDonalds CEO for $1,000 an hour? How many would work for $2 an hour cleaning showers?

The problem is we have denigrated the average navvy to the point where he feels there is no pride in his labor while at the same time requiring needless qualifications for semi-skilled workers. There is absolutely no need for a 4 year degree to work as a shipping lead making $20 an hour, yet that is what's required. I am firm believer that people should read Proust, Thoreau, and Kant, but only for their own edification and growth. Yet we put people who can blurt out random intellectual phrases to the same effect as "4 legs good, 2 legs better" in positions of authority while people who actually know what the frick is going on are ignored.

I believe that welfare rots the soul. I also believe that corporate welfare that allows a company to pay a worker below a living wage rots society. We have engaged in a paradigm that denigrates labor while simultaneously rewarding privilege. In your previous reply you said "None of this effects me so I don’t really care what they pay or don’t pay. But, the law is clear. Minimum wage must be paid". Wage theft is the largest form of crime by dollar amount. Depending on how you calculate it, reported wage theft far outstrips all other property crimes combined. Yet we live in a world where stealing a barbie knock off results in a multiple unit, violent arrest while stealing several thousand dollars results in no criminal charges.

We get what we pay for. If OTR payed the same wage - adjusted for inflation - as it did in 1980 you'd see a different caliber of driver. Then again, in 1980 there was less traffic, more places to pull off, and a lot more drugs - so it's hard to make an apples to apples comparison.
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Amen, brother....

Sleep Anea mostly a scam · May 16, 2021

Chinatown said: ↑

Is the job for you? Cassens Transport is hiring and has their own training program for drivers with a cdl-a. New grads. welcome. What type job are you looking for and any experience?
Hiring in S/W Indiana. $1.27 per loaded mile.
View attachment 370251
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Oh sorry yeah the job is for me! I might have found a company I'm hoping is a good company. If not I guess I'll be back here haha! If you find anything good please let me know! I thought about applying at some bigger companies but they're too restrictive and have too many policies that are very time consuming and they're very picky about who they hire etc. I wish there were some kind of publicly owned/operated trucking companies with less restrictions/requirements. I'm going to test smaller companies out megas suck. Thanks @Chinatown !

haz-matguru · May 16, 2021

markealy said: ↑

We tell a 18 yr old to go kill the enemy but say you can't drive a semi truck
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Where did you get that from. A 18 yr can drive a semi. Hell I got my CDL at 18. However most states restrict cdl holders under 21 to intrastate driving.

gentleroger · May 16, 2021

haz-matguru said: ↑

Where did you get that from. A 18 yr can drive a semi. Hell I got my CDL at 18. However most states restrict cdl holders under 21 to intrastate driving.
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It's not "most states", it's the federal government.

88228822 · May 17, 2021

Opus said: ↑

Minimum wage doesn't apply to trucking.
You learned a very valuable lesson. You are responsible for that truck. If you say it don't go, it don't go....simple as that.
I'm sorry you had to learn the hard way.
Best of luck. You should be fine
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Of course it applies. But good luck getting it without a legal battle:
PAM Transport to Pay Truckers $16.5 MILLION to Settle Class Action Wage Case

dieselpowered · May 19, 2021

if you dont mind heavy labor you can drive a semi without having cdl just gotta be be farmer john most farmers and helpers dont do just one job though you be doing little bit everything I used deliver the cotton,and grain when was younger i didnt much care for the life

HiramKingWilliams · May 19, 2021

Sleep Anea mostly a scam said: ↑

Pay should be hourly. There's no reason why even new drivers shouldn't be making bank when in the 70s brand new drivers were making 6 figures as company drivers. They need to bring back % pay at 25% or at least pay like $20/hr minimum. I mean time away from home sucks. Pay by the mile is a huge ponzei scam for company drivers.

Cops make up to $100/hr that's like what 2 months academy training they're unregulated can do pretty much whatever they want and easily make 250k a year.

Truck drivers are gone from home can get arrested and fined for wrecking and are lucky to make $500/week as company drivers because of scam mileage pay

@Chinatown do you know of any driving jobs near 47708 or 47591 ? I don't know how you find all those driving jobs you're a pro!
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Your username is amazing.

Brandonpdx · May 28, 2021

I seriously hope English was the thread starter's second language because that one really made my head hurt

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