Fewer truckers are going the distance

Ok..I have to ask a question and please don't bite my head off...

First of all I have to say that it's human nature to tell people sniffing around all the bad stuff first. When people come and ask me about the daycare field I usually smell my future competition and my natural inclination is to tell them all the negatives first. But I've been doing it for 20 years so something must keep me in the business.

So... saying that..

Why is it that every truck driver I talk to has so much negative to say about the business. And yet so many of them stay in it year after year after year.

One of my uncles has done it at least 30 years that I know of. Another uncle has been doing it 10 years or so I believe.

How much of what is being said here is old timers actually wanting to discourage new people so that the companies will eventually have to pay more?

Also.. As I read the requirements for the schools and jobs I'm shocked at how many say that there should be no more than 3 accidents in the last 3 years and no more than 3 moving violations in the last 3 years! It seems to me that a new driver that is wanting to drive an 80,000 pound weapon should have a better record than that.

I have some experience with companies that lie. So I can understand how people feel. And I can see how the insurance and repairs and gas could eat a person alive as an owner/operator. But isn't just about everything in life about gaining the right experience and then negotiating?

It's been said here that if companies would pay better good drivers would stick around. I've been saying that for 20 years in the daycare business. But eventually I wised up and just started charging more. It took awhile for me to get the confidence to demand better pay.

Right now I bring in around 4000 per month with about 3000 of that being what I clear give or take a few hundred dollars. I'm a little hesitant to start over in a new job for less. But I work 7 days per week, 24 hours per day and I NEVER get a real day off unless I plan it for months in advance. I have had one day off so far this year and I will have one more in August and then 2 at the end of the year. That's 4 total for this year and it's a GOOD year.

I guess I am just wondering how does the industry react over time to the older, more experienced and better business minded drivers/owners/operators. I really want to be able to call a lot of the shots like saying get me a load to California sometime in the next month and I don't care when. Or get me a load to some other place sometime in the next month. I'd like to say yeah, I'll work 20 days in a row but I WILL have 3 days off every time I go home. Could a good and safe driver that delivers on time and does the job well demand X cents per mile and get it?

I really need to decide if I'm barking up the wrong tree. If so I am going to have to figure out a way to build more time off into my current profession.

Suzi

 

I can only answer for my hubby: why does he do it - He loves it! I think the complaining and bs is just one of the fringe benefits for him - ha!ha!

 

Its a life style, ther are very few good driving positions anymore..
I 4 1 have worked for good co's, u dont know hat you had til its gone... But the majority of these co's are driver mills

 

roflmao driver shortage everytime they close or move a factory to mexico most of those people join the trucking industry... Between this and the newer HOS you cant find parking in a truckstop after 4pm. The new truckdriver is a solar powered truckdriver. Even a few years back you could easily pull into most truckstop and find parking on the weekends not anymore... Sure people might be making a little more per mile but how can you survive running 1700-2300 miles per week? For the last 3 year I've been on a dedicated NW run I pray for winter so all the fair weather drivers go south. I cant even stand to run I80 anymore after 3 years of 90/94 so peaceful and quite. You can almost run all the way across south dakota and montana and not hear 1 peep on the radio!

 

Wow! That report differed a HUGE amount from the one I saw in 05.

It claimed we were 350K short. But, then again they hadn't greased the NAFTA wheels in 05.

 

It does feel like I'm hearing some contradictory statements on here. I've been reading from many people that most companies will never send you home unless you remind them that you haven't been home in awhile.

I've read that if the truck sits more than 3 days it will be taken away from you on the 4th.

I've read that most companies will never allow you to take a whole week off at one time.

I've read that a company can and will call you in even after you just got home after 3 weeks on the road.

I've read that they will never send you home if you don't want to go.

I've read that most days are 14 hour days.

I've read that company drivers are loaded and unloaded first because these companies need to keep these trucks on the road. After all they are paying for the truck and the expenes. When the truck sits they are losing money.

I've read that a lot of companies will look the other way or even want you to fake your reports so you can go over the DOT regs and keep working.

And yet...

I keep reading the miles are not really there.

As for the shortages the reports all talk about...

Let's face it..

1) A lot of truckers are getting old and retiring.

2) Others are getting fed up and quitting.

3) Random drug tests will cause others to be fired.

4) Accidents will cause others to be fired.

5) More and more products are needed to keep growing these cities and feeding the population increase.

6) Lower pay will attract less and less people to the business.

7) Since most people won't make it out of their probation period without quitting or getting fired, then it stands to reason that a ton of people will need to be hired.

This is not new... Say a restaurant is opening up. If it's a large steak house they will likely need about 30-40 employees with a mix of part and near full-time. They will hire 100 people to open that place knowing full well they will fire 2/3rds of them before the end of the first week.

It's not hard to believe that hundreds of thousands of people will need to at least start in the business.

Every day new daycare providers start up daycares all over the country. Many of them are young mothers that think they can do a better job and do it cheaper. But the truth is they will usually quit within the first month or two. They don't know what they are doing and people will walk all over them because they don't know how to stand up for themselves. They don't know how to handle the kids and they don't even know how to keep up with the kids and keep a clean house. Many of them don't even know how to get up on time and answer the door in the morning! Kids will get hurt, parents will get mad and then they call me.

I'm nice to all the newbies because I know that only a few of them will survive but only God knows which ones.

The moral of my story... If a person is willing to stick it out long enough, get as much stuff in writing as possible, keep great logs, visit a lawyer when they need to, be polite, careful, and do the research up front, they can and should be able to stick it out. The truly professional drivers will get their miles (eventually). Be nice to the dispatcher, buy them some gifts, grease the wheels with kindness. Pray. Be good to people. What goes around comes around. And above all.. be willing to jump up and go when they need you or they won't call you first in the future.

Do I have this about right?

Suzi

 

Too many TRUCKS, no shortage of drivers.

The article touched on drivers waiting at shippers & consignees, but failed to identify the reason for the delays. Two of my four orientation mates left OTR, citing the absurd 5-8 hour wait while being unloaded at grocery warehouses. The other two left OTR for the myriad reasons others do.

I left, but came back, ONLY because 7on/7off exists. It's the only work schedule in trucking that fits me. If you are older, and don't need a large income, consider it.

Once again, as for this shortage talk, I say baloney. I pass terminals of the BIG 3 (schneider, werner, swift) on a regular basis. These lots are FULL of tractors and trailers any day of the week, not just Sundays. The last time I was in Marshfield, Roehl had rows of new shiny tractors collecting dust as well. Navistar, Paccar and Volvo are just making too many tractors. If they all stopped manufacturing for 3 months, the only problem incurred by the trucking industry would be the loss of shipments to them.

 

What I believe 2 b true.
1.) is correct.
2.) is correct.
3.) wont add 2 much.
4.) wont add 2 much.
5.) not a clue.
6.) Im border line on.. People are duped into the adds they read.
7.) wont add to much.
Sorry but looking at your stats, i wouldnt bet on you.. It aint meant to degrade your belief nor mine, but the majority do rule.

And i read the first sentence of your ideal business, day cares..
I couldnt read anymore...
Though Im sure alot of us out there mite need 1.
But i belive trucking co's, use these figures for grants and tax right offs, imagine a co. gettin 300,000 xtra to train from gov. plus the trking co. now got a piece of meat, who signs a contract and dont complete.. they now got a loss at the end of the year..

 

Here's what I see about this business and lots of the drivers.. I'm not saying this about most of the drivers or making generalizations. But I do see some behaviors here that are very reminiscent of my past experience.

When I started with Schwan's I was forced to drive with a trainer that absolutely HATED the company. Ok..he supposedly hated the company. He is still with them today. He was a trainer but he didn't want to be. He made it clear every single day he hated that I was in his truck. He was an ex- Depot manager but they demoted him back to driver. He used to be an over the road truck driver but he got tired of it and spent hours per day telling me about all the ills of the business and why he went to Schwan's in the first place.

This guy smoked in the truck which was against the rules and choked the heck out of me. He gave discounts to his customers constantly which was supposed to be used sparingly. He disobeyed so many rules and ran down the company the entire time. He taught me to disregard company policy in many ways. He also told me that I wouldn't make it. Looking back I now know he had absolutely no desire for me to.

After 2 weeks of being indoctrinated into the attitude that the company was lousy and the pay stinks I went out on my own. At first I did ok and had a good attitude. Then I found out that this guy still had access to the computers from his day as depot manager and was allowed to get up every morning and steal all the new customers from other peoples routes. He did so if they were big spenders as their first order was attatched to the new customer so he knew if they were worth stealing or not. He demanded constantly that he could reroute all the routes every time someone quit. The company allowed this man to change routes around until all the new people had the worst routes imaginable and the entire time the man continued to run down the company, the drivers and us.

I let it all get to me and when the company started telling me that they were going to replace anyone that had not reached a certain level of sales by the end of their 90 days or they had to run with a trainer again, I just gave up. This had been my first time working out of the house in about 17 years at the time. My mother had kept the daycare and the home fires burning in case I wanted to go back to what I was comfortable with. My husband was making 6 digits then so it was easy to bounce around.

My big mistake was that I let the old blow hard rattle me. I listened to his lies and I took them as gospel. I actually made it longer than any other recruit had in awhile. Many of them quit before they even got to the end of their first or 2nd week. I made it to my 90 day mark. I was finished with my probationary period but by then I didn't care.

It's not that I don't believe that there are problems in the industry. I know that many people have been royally screwed over. But.. I can tell now that there are people in this industry that simply can't stand having new competition and they not only don't want the newbies to succeed, but they will do whatever they can to set them up for failure.

So tell me I will fail if you want to. All you are going to do is P me off enough to make me more determined.

I made some serious mistakes the last time. I have more confidence this time and a lot more time to prepare. Also, before I missed my girl. I couldn't spend any time with her. 70 hour weeks are hard as you all know. Schwan's would never allow her to come and back then she really was little more than a toddler. This next time around I'll be mucho more prepared and I'll get to spend time with my angel baby.

Suzi