Owner operator outlaws

I shudder to think of a new company driver with a pen and paper log book and the ability to make his own decisions. Actually I think the EOBR's are a really good idea for company drivers that have only been around a year or two.

After that, game on lets roll do whatcha gotta do.

 

Solo or team...

 

I only wish drivers would get employed with companys that paid them an then games on..i run on percentage with my trk/trl about 1500-1700 per week miles???

 

Dont want to be the bad guy but if u pull someones trl an they run u arent u a company driver that pays 4 the fuel??Drop n Hook??Sounds like a eobc waitn to happen

 

Good to see theres truckn going on on broke back mtn..

 

Wait. What?

 

You can spend all 10 on line one, or you can spend five on line 1 and five on line 2, or six on line 2 and 4 on line 1... any combo on lines 1&2 are accpetable as long as they equal 10hrs. I know you can split break too, but why the hell would you want to???

Now I'm sure you already knew all that, and I am being a bit of a smart ##### here too..... but I agree, deregulation is deff what we need, not more laws to raise prices at the grocery store and lower pay for everyone.

 

Oh lord, here we go again. You GOT deregulation, it's what got you into the mess you've got now.

Regardless of the rose-colored glasses, 90% of the truckers out there are not capiable of regulating themselves. Most have no clue about running a business and have less about their own operating costs and such.

Dereg was a godsend to the carriers we now know as Megas. They immediately drove their rates down and bankrupted most of the small and independant carriers who couldn't match them. Like a shark in a school of herring they gobbled up little guys to their hearts content. They can and would do it again in a heartbeat. Lay aside the BS and ask yourself how long you'd be able to run if they pushed the rate to 50 cpm for a year or so? They'd survive, even if they had to idle half their fleet, you wouldn't.

Guys like SP was were and are extremely rare in anybody's day. Most of us old guys can remember friends who died or burnt their brains trying to "make that load". Most of us can remember sitting someplace shaking like a leaf from lack of sleep or realizing we had no memory of driving the last 50 miles or so. Most of us can remember being desperate for sleep but the bennies in our system won't let us lay down...... and realizing that we'll switch off like a blown lightbulb eventually but we're still under that load. Most of us can remember running down the road sweating like a big dog but with blood running from the sides of your mouth cause you're so dry you're chewing your mouth and tongue into raw hamburger.... with your heartrate pounding in your ears like a drum and your mind going crazy; seeing stuff that ain't really there and not registering things you should be seeing.

"Running Wild" ain't the path to guaranteed riches people. For far too many of ya it's the path to bankruptcy or a lonely hole in the ground.

Been there, done that and thank God every day that I survived.

 

So what you are saying is we need more regulations??? Since deregulation was a terrible thing? I'm confused here..... but obviously the MEGA carriers want us to have more regs as they are all pushing for EOBR so they can "compete on a fair playing field" as they put it to congress, with the owner operators...... this is just total BS as it will never be a "fair level playing field" since they get fuel for dollars less than us, insurance for pennies to what we pay and all the other things they have that they will never "share" with the rest of us to make it "fair"

I highly agree that most people out here have no idea on how to run a biz, but that does not pertain to all of us. I don't need a computer in my rig, but if that's what they want, then so be it. I don't work illegally at all. I only run 10hrs a day and it's not for 91cpm. I know how to run a nice easy operation, make plenty of money to pay my bills, save just as much and play even harder. It's not rocket science, but then again, most the guys out here driving can barley operate a can opener

 

All I've got to say is that you should've had the nads to tell the broker or dispatcher to go pound sand.. No load is worth dying over. And no jobs is worth putting yourself through that much risk.

Maybe jobs were harder to get in those days. But not so hard today. As long as you don't have any wrecks on your record, a lot of companies are hirering.

Not to mention, the insurance factor. Today, the insurance companies pretty much dictate who a company can hire and who they can't hire. But thanks to the regulations we have in place, now the DOT has that authority. Which pretty much takes any freedom and independence of running your own business the way YOU want to run YOUR business. An insurance company is one thing. But the government having that much control over a business is something else..

If an insurance company does it, and you don't agree. Then you can always find another insurance company. If the DOT does it, and you don't agree, then your up the creek, without a paddle.

You drove the way you did, because you wanted to. Because you could. Luckily you survived your OWN decisions. Now a days, you don't have the right to think for yourself and make your own decisions.