Closing up shop or thinking about it? The latest…

An Amazon truck imagine that. The worst paid and hardest pushed drivers in trucking. Crazy tight scheduling on everything. Hard to believe how easily and cheaply they get people to run that freight for.

 

Sorry but I watch everything going down the road. All I see is rag bags going to New England. Every truck looks like it came out of a junk yard. Only decent trucks are super ego and Amazon trucks. I think it will be another 2008 soon. Buckle up folks, I want to be wrong. Please I hope someone a year from now says I was wrong. Really really hope so. Good luck.

 

It's because it's very easy to get into. I would say 80% of drivers there barely speak English, there is no need to own a trailer and you can book loads from an app. So you basically buy a truck and get going. Those drivers usually have overseas dispatchers who sit all day at the computer and book loads for 1-3% of the gross amount.
They also book team loads for solo drivers, that's why you see so many accidents with Amazon trailers

 

Lots of foreign or newly arrived outfits. With their English broken it is hard to get set up with a customer or negotiate with a broker. Click and cover on an app is the way to go for them. Amazon wins immensely.

 

I don't doubt that. There should be a massive effort to rid the industry of anyone can't read and speak english. It's a real safety concern but safety has never been priority #1 for the trucking industry. It always takes a back seat to profit. There's a thread on here from a recruiter at K&B Transport that's pretending to be a driver who says sometimes they have to wake drivers up in the middle of their 10 hour break to have them swap out trailers with another driver.

 

Speaking English is really not the main problem here. Look at Canada, all the Indian drivers that come there with "student" visa speak English, that does not mean much, they are still the cheapest labor available and their employers can undercut everyone else.

 

I haven't been on that stretch for 5 years or so, but it was like that even then although probably to a lesser degree. It's just too much traffic to have one lane going each way. 97 through Oregon into California is like that too.

 

Considering we may be going into a war with Iran this time next year or sooner, I wouldn't hold my breath. Don't believe we've hit bottom just yet.

 

Was at a BNSF ramp parked off to the side of the ingate lanes waiting for the billing to go through so I could ingate and this foreigner pulling a you guessed it....Amazon container pulled up behind me half assed. Half his truck in the parking area and the other half in the ingate lane blocking people behind him. Spent about 10 minutes sitting back there until he came up to my door pointing at his phone asking in some of the ####tiest English I've ever heard if he was in the right place. Told him he was, and he proceeded to spend another 30 minutes at the gate. Needless to say, whoever was working that night had a field day with him. I know the company that hired him ain't paying worth a #### either.

 

When I was hauling steel out of a local plant, I constantly ran into some of these drivers.

The plant has very strict rules on the dress code in there, the first sign you see walking up to the guard shack is “No Shorts”. Along with no shorts, is steel toes and metatarsal boots, eye protection, brain bucket, and no muscle shirts or tank tops style shirts.

Been hauling out of there for a few years and the plant is only 3.5 miles away from my place so I’m a regular. One day I walk in and the guard is having a bad day…. he takes this driver out and around the building then comes back in after about 2 minutes.

When he walks in I can tell something isn’t working well for him. He immediately turns around opens the door back up and yells to the driver who is walking to his truck…. I MEAN WHAT I SAID!!! THEY CALL ME BECAUSE YOU AIN’T WEARING A HARD HAT AND I’LL ESCORT YOU OUT THE GATE!!!

It was obvious his blood pressure was high! While I’m signing in I ask if he’s ok and he responds…. Ya know, we have strict rules here because of what we make and what’s laying around on the property, when some guy like that tells me he’s not wearing a brain bucket because it won’t fit on his head wrap thing just pisses me off. I took him outside and told him he better find a way to wear the hard hat or I was escorting him off the property along with his truck!!

Another day I’m in there and another guard is having a time with this driver, no communication capability at all. Driver finally calls someone and they communicate for the both of them, I kinda have a problem with that myself, so many what if’s in a bad situation…..


Oh, and the guard shack has a selection of proper boots for the under prepared steering wheel holders, I find that odd, a truck driver with no boots for when they are needed…..