Old School Trucking vs. New School Trucking

When I first got my cdl my dad told me "You'll be fine honey, your truck has cruise control. Not like when your husband first started." And definately not like when my dad first started.

 

I must be an old soul because when I hear these stories they make me wish I could've been doin this job back in those days. Or it could be the way I was broke into trucking. I've changed my own tires on the side of the road and I've slept on a piece of plywood laid across my seats. My first boss came from the old days and believed in breaking a new driver in the old way as much as he could. I'm thankful today for the way I got started in this business.

 

15 years ago, a solid cando attitude and appropriate license got you a good paying job.

Today, you need a license, a medical certificate, a gooberment background check, a certificate of (in)sanity, and a note from your mommy for a job that MIGHT pay you enough to eat three times a week!

 

didnt read all the posts due to lack of time...lol, but it has all changed and NOT for the better...jan will be 21 yrs for me and this aug was 28 for CB...truckin sucks now...lol... period!!!! love my truck and still love to drive but the rest SUCKS!!!!!

 

Who knows what the hubometer is the fuel pumps ask you for the reading from ? Do you also remember getting out at every state line to read it ?
Yes , I started in a cabover also . '73 IH 4070 with a 318 and 13 speed .
Even Monfort had cabovers when the bean counters took over .

 

You could tell where the 318's were parked by the oil slick on the ground.

 

The driving is what keeps me in it. The times that I'm not dealing with shippers and recievers or morons at a fuel desk. When I got my load and my fuel and riding down the highway is when I'm at peace.

 

Yep. Had a hubometer on the first two or three trucks I drove. How bout the compression release on an ol 290?

 

Uncle Sam still considers truckers "UnSkilled Labor,,nothing has changed,,,

If your getting a paycheck well then i guess your employed,i for the life of me cant believe Im still doing this,But I will have to say compared to JUST 15 years ago I take NOW compared to then...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Du5oIleCKPo

Trucks: just coming out of the Cabover Era(unless you drove for SNI & JB)
Engines: 350 hp(or less) many less than 13 liter
Condo's: were just catching on,many companies still used flat top sleepers
We Had park & view,NOT laptops
We had phone Cards ,NOT Cell phones
We had Rand Mcnally's NOT GPS units

Pilot was the smallest Truck stop chain(and their wasnt a Subway In everyone)

We had No Pre pass and or EZ pass(unless you were very lucky)
Trucks were a novelty on the Ohio Turnpike,,and a constant flow accross US 250 & US30 andSplit Speed Limits were the Norm in the Midwest and hey Texas had their own Nighttime version of this

But some things never change,So Truckers that are "OLD SCHOOL" SCUMBAGS that left their crap anywhere they wanted back then as they do now,and parked where they were not suppose to ETC.......

YEP! Some things were better then,then they are now but most has not changed one Iota,,,just the names

 

23 channel CB's. If you ran the Pa turnpike you could hear drivers hollering on the cb asking someone to swap toll tickets with them, in an attempt to match the toll ticket to the log book. You didn't have to dodge pee bottles walking from the truck to the restaurant in a truck stop.