Biggest Problem of the trucking industry?

I'm with Sho-Tyme. Unless and until someone actually has driven under the constraints we are required to, keep yer bleedin nose out of it.

Don't particularly care about automotive advances. People in cars need all that crap to keep themselves "safe" and ahead of the Johnsons. I would prefer more mechanical stuff and less electronic nonsense. A mostly mechanical Detroit Diesel 60-Series got over 7mpg on a regular basis. With all this emission control and electronic garbage onboard, we're lucky to get 6.5.

Big improvement, yeah?

 

Here's a thought for all the geniuses who try to haggle down the rates for hauling loads, each time they low ball us to haul cheap freight, they should only be able to collect 10% of what a cheap freight load would pay. That should give them reason to fight for the trucker.

 

It's a travel related business which means we deal with new people, new places, and neverending list of new laws with everyones fingers in the trucker pie.

A banker drives the same road to work, gets there at 9am, works with the same employees daily, knows them well, eats lunch at precisely noon, and drives the same road home at 5pm. Easyola.

Truckers dont know where they'll be tomorrow or next week. Many dont know when they'll be home or for how long. They'll drive to an unfamiliar area that has a local ordinance that prohibits idling to keep the truck under 125 degrees in the sun. Next state over you can idle. One state you can drive 70, the next is different. An auto loan the banker approves is pretty straightforward. A log book to a Diesel bear isnt. A new administration, like we have with the lawn jockey in the whitehouse now, always seems to want to put their own stamp on the HOS, and everything else. We just got the HOS finalized a few years back to where they're somewhat reasonable, but now obama has the FMCSA working on some really whacked and unworkable HOS "propasals". Next will be the EOBRs. Then we have the neverending regulation amendments from dips hit (D) senators. Kaliphornia feels they need to have their own special set of laws and fines. Read this post 10 years from now and it will seem as if in 2011 we lived in a free country.

Personally, I can deal with the basic job description of a truck driver and what it entails. It's the nonstop government BS that kills this industry. This country will never reach the point where it's government says "okay, we have enough laws and regulations and there will be no more".

Being able to adapt to changing business climate and market forces is what keeps the doers in the game of other industries, and it's also true in trucking, but I think the industry is about adapted out with government.

 

One word. Supertruckers.

 

Three words. Steering wheel holders.

 

to say what is screwed up with the industry --woud take so many pages--it would be infinite
you could always start with the ongoing battle between the railroads(which suck up government funding) and the trucking industry--yes the same trucking industry that will ship their cheap frieght and m/ts on the same rail road they fight with

 

Yes, those are a good choice too.

 

I would say the BIGGEST problem is the training (or lack thereof) that too many new drivers are getting.

Companies are allowed to make just about anyone they want to a trainer. Most companies consider you eligible to become a trainer if you've had 3 months (or less, in some cases) first seat experience. There are some companies out there (I won't name any names) that if you get your CDL today, then go out with one of their trainers for a month or so, then allow yourself to get suckered into a lease purchase deal, they'll make you a trainer right away!

If there were some sort of requirements....say a driver had to have 10 years verifiable experience operating a T/T, with the last 3 years driving for the carrier he intends to train for....well, let's just say it would take care of a LOT of problems. First of all, companies would treat experienced drivers a lot better, because they'd HAVE to if they wanted to have anyone eligible to become a trainer stick around. Conditions (pay, etc.) would HAVE to improve, because carriers would not be able to rely upon a constant flow of new drivers unless they had enough seasoned drivers to train them all...and the seasoned drivers would have to find their own situation at the carrier sufficient enough to stay with them long enough to become eligible for trainer status.

Why so long? A trainer ought to be able to answer any question the student may have...and time and experience is the only way to acquire the knowledge it takes to have those answers. A trainer also ought to be proficient enough on the job in order to TEACH the student anything the student may be struggling with....be it backing, shifting, etc. A trainer also ought to have sufficient knowledge of the FMCSR regulations so that he can give good advice to the student...not "I heard it from my trainer last week, who heard it from his trainer the week before, that it was OK to do this..." A trainer ought to know the job inside and out...and there just isn't any other way to do that other than putting time in on the job.

 

I agree with the problem being the never ending regulations and changes thereof - biggest problem being - we have very little control over our loads, destinations and schedules, but we are ultimately held responsible for all of it. How about we regulate dispatchers/shippers/receivers ?