My Son Fed Up With Stevens

Bub, you meed to learn to do more research before taking a job. There are milage based jobs out there that pay an hourly wage while performing non driving job functions. You can collect an hourly wage while fueling, doing pre & post trip inspections, being dot’d, sitting at a dock or a shop. Heck you can even earn a mechanic wage while wrenching on the truck. These jobs 100% exist. I had one and if it weren’t for the chemicals i had to deal with daily i’d still have it!

Bottom line is get rid of the box behind you & stop being a dumb freight hauler. Once you start putting your endorsements to work and get into specialized work you can make the big bucks people talk about.

 

I've had those jobs. The best one was hazmat/tanker OTR.

 

I (not the company) booked all in rates for my loads that I tried to account for any time plus getting detention pay. I ran out from the house and right back to it ASAP. Never came close to burning a 70 hour clock in 14 years of owner operating with about half of those years on paper logs and the rest on ELD. I rarely ever ran much more than 1500 miles in a week. Sometimes 2,000 if I was hustling. Did I log 15 minutes for loading and unloading? Of course.

Did I sit at some grocery places for several wasted hours and log it sleeper. Sure, because I was #### sure going back home to Tennessee when I got done with it. But I wasn't running tired cheating myself on sleep so I could maximize miles all week every week. I never ran like that in MY truck. As a company driver before I bought my truck, yes I did run like that. It was how we ran to maximize miles or those of us (which is most drivers out here) not in the rarer jobs that didn't compensate everything else. Everyone prioritizes cheating themselves so they could make a good paycheck running maximum miles because that's how most trucking jobs are.

It's funny some of you drivers like to pretend everything's all peachy everywhere out here in trucking when you know that's not the truth.

 

How much does your company pay you to decide what others should do and how they should do it?

 

Everyone else was jumping off the bridge, so I did too. We must stop those dirty bridge builders making good people do bad things.

 

I ain't pretending....it is peachy for me. This is easy. It'd be nice to not have to take certain shortcuts to make a buck, but that's the fun part of OTR. I love the game if figuring out how to get loads somewhere on time, especially when its a hot load, or after falling behind. I don't know why anyone wouldn't use the splits at shippers and receivers. I like the game of making every minute mean something. Y'all run 11 in 14, well I run 11 in 24 lol. Once drivers figure out "how to work," then trucking becomes so much easier.

 

I don’t pretend everything is all peachy. But I also don’t have blinders on just because I don’t have a truck anymore. You are well aware that in the for hire truckload segment the nut is only so big. When you had your truck you know what it made. Could you have afforded to put a driver in it and pay him everything you’re advocating for since you’ve been at Walmart? I agree that wages aren’t where they need to be. But when it only takes $300 to get authority what does everyone expect the outcome to be? If people have the drive and desire to make more money there are avenues to do it, but it usually takes time and work that some aren’t willing to put in. People want a lot of things but won’t do what needs done to get what they want.

 

Same here, mine was industrial waste

 

I know how to cut all the corners and make a buck like that. Did it for years. Glad I dont have to do it anymore.

 

Last couple of sentences sums it up. I'm not an advocate of anything really. I would've never put a driver in a truck I owned just on the principle I dont think any hired hand would take care of it like me or care about my business on the level or more than I did. And why should they really? But it just ain't in my DNA to be that trusting and I never desired for any more than the 1 I owned and operated myself.