Why does it seem like the big companies have brainwashed all the drivers...

Sounds like me. I did travel to Kansas to find out that Trans-Am was a scam then come home to a real job however.

 

Care to point out exacly what is 'glaringly ridiculous ' about my post?

I addressed your seeming inability to deal with being away from home for long periods. I suggested that if you are truly an OTR driver,then you should have an atlas,which would clearly show you the vast size of this country, and how improbable or impossible it would be for someone who embarks on this job to be home as often as you think normal people should be. So you are not an OTR driver. Have you never seen a map of your country?What about that is glaringly ridiculous?

I also addressed your apparent childish attitude of belittling people who are different from you. I understand that people have needs to be home. Usually it is family. Nothing wrong with that. There are also other compelling reasons why people need to be home often or regullarly. My problem is that some people like yourself apparently get some pleasure out of insulting and and being contemptuous about people,like myself, who ,because of one reason or another,do not need to be home often.You are the one who suggested that someone satisfied with hometime that you deem unacceptable for yourself must have been brainwashed. Apparently you can't wrap your head around the fact that different people have different needs in life and thus make their own decisions as to what they will or will not do or accept. You seem to have this notion that your standards are what everybody else should be judged by and whosoever does not meet your standard is deserving of your contempt.

My company requires drivers to be out for a minimum of 2 weeks. I am on my 6th week, and that is my choice, but by your way of thinking, I must have been brainwashed ,to want to work that long. You also said in the quote above that I live to work. (1) You don't know me,so don't make assumptions about me based on your life. I stay on the road for extended periods ,but I do have a life outside of trucking ,which involves friends and relatives and activities which I schedule around work.And such a life doesn't afford me the time to go around judging and insulting people. (2) If indeed I live to work,it is neither a sin nor a crime,but I think I can understand why you would think that there is something wrong with living to work.(3) If indeed I do live to work, then it is a choice I have made , but again ,I doubt you can understand the concept of somebody making a choice different from one that you would make for yourself.

You want to talk about ridiculous? Compare your post above ,which I have quoted, and your initial post. At one and the same time you are questioning why drivers have to run as many miles as possible to make money, then you propose that drivers who don't run miles should be fired.

Just do you,and allow others to do whatever they want to do. And when you are posting stop saying "we" should get this or that. I don't know who appointed you the truck drivers spokesman,but I am quite capable of speaking for myself. For the life of me, I can't see why some people have to be offensive to others who chose to do something different. If those drivers at the werner terminal seem content with their hometime what is it to you?

I hope your 'life' outside of trucking keeps you busy enough so that you don't have time to be minding other people's business and insulting them, and that business you are saving to set up? I hope its a trucking business,so you can show us how it should be done.

 

Labagiamf, It's great that you enjoy being on the road for extended periods of time however you are the exception not the rule. Why do you think trucking has one of the highest turn over rates of any industry, especially the mega training companies like Swift or Werner?

A huge number of newbs think it's somekind of paid road trip. Then they get into the cab of that truck and reality hits them in the face. The ones that do make it a year move on to local or regional jobs.

I personally love being home every night and would not have it any other way unless I was absolutely forced to.

And no, you don't have to be on the road two or more weeks to be an OTR driver, my first driving job I was home every 6 or 7 days and still pulled in 4200 miles a week.

 

I hear you Owner's Operator ,& I understand .The problem I have is being insulted for a choice i have made, and am happy with, by people who think they have been appointed to speak on the behalf of others. This is a job & life I have chosen , & gotten used to. If I could find a local job that pays me as much as I currently make running OTR ,and which perhaps allowed me to do more driving and not so much warehouse work and multi-stop deliveries , as a lot of local jobs do, chances are I would take it, but such jobs are not easy to come by. Some people would give the impression that such jobs are abundant and for someone to go OTR instead ,then that person has to be stupid or brainwashed or some societal misfit or deviant. I had the local job where I was paid for every thing I did,since I was on the clock,but I made the decision to go back OTR,because that local job which had me home every would not pay me as much as I now make on the road.

 

I especially hated dealing with the home office types that went home every weekend. Or didn't bother to work up a load for you after 4pm on a friday because they were "all about the weekend". So you ended up sitting from 3pm Friday untill 10am monday because weekend shift was a skeleton crew. Look, if you've got approximately 1800 trucks on the road at any given time, then you either staff dispatch for the weekend or you plan for drivers (if they want to) to get home more often.

The company didn't seem to have a problem with a 200 mile dead head when they screwed up. But they couldn't at least run you near your house/home state on a Friday?

 

I started driving 12 years ago, because I had a wife and 4 daughters, who were at the time 10-14 years old. They say men are the ones that start wars, and there would be peace on earth if women ran things. I know better. I have 4 daughters. Girls are anything BUT peaceful. If women ran the world, the world would be a nuclear wasteland, take my word for it. One head of state would steal another head of state's boyfriend and we'd all be toast.

I saw them big trucks with the sleeper behind them. A great paying job, and peace an quiet for the whole week? Sign me up!

 

When I was referring to time off I was referring to actual home time, not a restart on the road. Just to clear that up.

My weekend dispatch is essentially my boss, or his brother, or brother in law.

If I go home (as long as I give them a heads up and time to plan), I can pretty much take as much time off as I want. There are times when they have to slipseat my truck if I want 4 or more days off, but oh well that's the price I pay. One of the very few disadvatages of working for a small mom and pop outfit.