Do you plan to drive... forever?

Once they calm down after a couple years of not being able to cover freight it becomes an annoyance and empty threat. The biggest issue for me with them is the jail time you face in an accident. Last outfit I ran at had 2 fatalities that went to court. Both drivers sitting in prison right now. Both of them had the cameras used against them. I wasn't there; however, one guy did something pretty stupid to be fair, the other I think was a miscarriage of justice from what I read about it.

It doesn't take anything to sway a jury of emotional house wives and lay-abouts (which is most juries) that you adjusting the radio, eating a slim jim, taking too short of time on a pretrip, having a close call on a redlight etc is something that could have saved some ####### from getting hurt or killed. I worked for a mega that had a drunk driver run off the road and hit a driver parked for a 10 on an on-ramp. Driver "shouldn't have parked there." So Mr. boozehound dies and his worthless family sue and the driver and company are on the hook for millions. Driver goes to jail and has his life ruined. Meanwhile there is no parking anywhere and the HOS has no flexibility. You drive over, you're ####ed. You park illegally, you're ####ed. You trip plan and a lumper takes 6 hours to pull off a single pallet and dumps you in New England at 10pm with no hours? You're ####ed.

I'm negative because I hate this industry and what it has become. You're expected at every single job to break the rules in some way. But you get burned at the stake for not being 1000% above board. It's always #### the drivers. The little guys barely scraping by working twice or more what the average worker works. You give up your life to work and get nothing to show for it. Local, regional, OTR. Everyone gets screwed. All for a pittance of a wage. My elders drove trucks their whole lives. It used to be a good job that could propel you into the middle class through sacrifice. #### now? Running out a 70 pulling double hazmat tankers paid me less than what my grandfathers pulle down in the late 90s being dry van company men non-union.

On top of that, the company removed the speakers from the trucks to not distract the drivers. They had 6 cameras on the truck at all times. They stole wages. They gave me a paycut without even a notice. They shorted my pittance of PTO time. They didn't pay for breakdowns. They expected drivers to wash the trucks on our own dime at blue beacon without any pay. They didn't reimburse DOT physicals. They wouldn't take DOT physicals unless it was from Concentra (the sleep study scam mill.) They counted a red light changing to yellow while you were under it against your safety score to cut your safety bonus. Loaded up 105k lbs of Class 3 Hazmat in tankers? Slam on brakes to not get caught by a red light? Safety score drops. Ride through it yellow? Safety score drops. Ride through it and it changes to red? Safety bonus gone for the year, call from safety, some pencil necked #### calls you and talks down to you like a child. A customer says he's going to beat your ### in the parking lot of a gas station and you just ignore him and do your job? CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT DRIVER! You let them threaten you and you don't say anything. EVER! We can't lose this account. Don't call me, management, the store, corporate, the cops, NOBODY! Everyone treats you like a second class citizen. They charge 20 dollars for a shower now. Paid parking is sweeping the nation. Nobody pays detention like they should. Shippers/receivers don't have bathrooms or maybe they have a feces covered portajohn if you're lucky. The truck stops all sell candy and heart attack food. The warehouses put the drivers in a cage and the desk jockeys behind bullet proof glass. The roads have been taken over by 3rd worlders who are desperate and will drive any white volvo missing a quarter panel for pennies on the dollar. The DOT has carte blanche authority to do whatever. And they all hand out warnings now to hit your PSP score without being able to fight it in court. Freight is being delivered for less than the cost of diesel to move it. Owner/Ops are being scammed by brokers and double brokerage schemes ran by yet more 3rd worlders shutting and forming LLCs by the day. Starry eyes kids are signing themselves up for predatory "Built to Fail" lease op scams by Megas whose sole purpose is to financially ruin ignorant/stupid/immature Americans trying to get ahead in life.

The whole god ###### thing is ####ed from the bottom to the top. It reminds me of Frank from The Wire. America used to be about making things and building things. Now the only way to get ahead is to steal from another man's pocket.

 

The world has definitely changed around us and we either change with it or become irrelevant. I have 38 extremely good years in trucking myself and I am on my way out in the next 3-6 months due to selling my equipment and retiring. Fortunately I no longer need the trucking income due to investing aggressively for 40 years and my pension. Possibly you need to get out too and find something you might be happy with.

 

WHEW,,feel better? It's okay, we've all felt like you do, and if I can add something,,,that's trucking. Trucking has always been this back stabbing, low lying cheapskate outfits, all the way back to the Fabrini brothers in They drive by night( When George Raft punched that broker was GREAT!) I've said many times, most of us went into trucking because it generally required no experience, the truck did most the work, and there was so much work, heck, I had 2 jobs in a week once. I'm not sure there's a "smoking gun" as to why the industry went the way it did. I too got out , ironically right when the computer came out. There's your smoking gun, but too late for any complaints, your best course of action is to distance yourself as far as possible, and let it run amok. The people taking trucking jobs today are usually out of options, and have no idea what is involved. The fact we have to "TEACH" someone, is the kiss of death right there.

 

No.

im almost mortgage free at 33.

Think imma work some bullcrap job like Walmart or home depot

 

Just seeing this now, my plan is to work until summer of 2027 when daughter is finished with her schooling sell EVERYTHING move to Florida and work part time with the Mouse have an Airbnb and possibly start an executive transportation company

 

Till they take meout of the cab feet first.

 

Im not trying to brag, but last week I made 15x in a week I ever made driving.
Maximize your 401k ROTHS and IRAs.
It pays off in the long term. Govt wont support you in old age. Buy your own security.

 

It's funny because i never really thought about this at the front of my mynd, yet i ALWAYS thought about this at the back of my mynd.

i don't know. i think i would like to start my own thing maybe woodworking related or car customizing related or a whole mess of other things. But driving pays consistently for me now.

 

Then dont

 

I alway encourage people to follow there own ideas...Go for it, good luck. Lots of professions now that will work out good, but mostly comes down to pesonal habit.