I don't want to start an argument here, but... more screening of new drivers

Poor pay attracts poor drivers.

Truck drivers should be making minimum of $60k a year as compensation for the time they spend on the road away from home and the over 8 hour work day.

Instead you have Mickey D fry cooks fresh out of the company owned big rigger school moving freight for 20k a year, but they only make it 3 to 6 months before they jump ship or die in a fiery accident, then there is an endless supply of them to take his place.

 

I graduated from school in April....we started with 26 people. ....12 weeks later 9 graduated.

Most didn't make because the school refused to pass them on to the next segment and some just couldn't hack it.

When I got on the road I was worried that I wasn't .good enough. ...after a few weeks I realized that there were a heck of a lot of drivers on the road that were no were near professional.....newbies or 30 year vets.

Some people just don't belong in this industry....I've always wanted to be here.

 

I graduated from school in April....we started with 26 people. ....12 weeks later 9 graduated.

Most didn't make because the school refused to pass them on to the next segment and some just couldn't hack it.

When I got on the road I was worried that I wasn't .good enough. ...after a few weeks I realized that there were a heck of a lot of drivers on the road that were no were near professional.....newbies or 30 year vets.

Some people just don't belong in this industry....I've always wanted to be here.

 

Trust me, You haven`t seen nothing yet. You still have a fresh set of diapers on. Go into the big city, and they`ll fill them up.

 

how would you explain that to someones family if one of those days seriouslly injured or killed someone

 

I've been in downtown chicago just off the Stevenson on Ashland 5+ times between 8am and 6pm....Dallas ft worth twice....Pittsburgh and minny several times.

I'm not worried about me so much...I take my time and plan well...its the other idiots that scare the hell out of me.

Or maybe you mean NYC. ....no I'm not ready for the NE corridor and I'm OK admitting it.

 

cubsdad, you ain seen nuthin' yet. Ashland might as well be out in the country compared to the Fulton Market area in Chicago. Look it up, it's the general vicinity of the intersection of Fulton Street and Morgan. Look it up on Google Maps, then use the "street view" and pan around. Imagine going through there with a 53 footer and a sleeper cab. Better have them tandems forward, and also have your "driver carries no cash" decal on the window.

 

There still is alot more the country that you will see not to mention the special occasions like the fresh road kill accidents and everything else that you will encounter. If there was a flat scale for "noobs" let's say $38k coming out of school and someone with maybe 5yrs was 55k and went up 2500 for every 5 yrs exp a driver had or something along those lines we'd have a better class of drivers. As long as we're on this arcaic system of run hard til you drop, cheat logs, cheat dispatchers, scheme around appt times and this cut corner for a dollar mentality the industry will always have a dark stain on it. Remind me again why I drive please???? Oh yeah no college education!!!

 

The one problem with the flat salary pay thing is that if you don't incentivize performance, you'll quickly wind up with a whole raft of drivers that do as little as possible to keep their jobs.

That sucks hairy *****, but you know its true, and the only way to combat it from a business perspective is to tie a driver's wage to the amount of work they put in, either by the hour, by the mile, or by the load. You and me and a hundred other guys could run honest and work hard for a salary, but there'd be a thousand others that wouldn't.

Now, granted, that's not to say that the incentive pay shouldn't be higher...

 

Those guys are called "Teamsters"