How to Put'em All Outta Business

Now that I know what I know about the trucking industry, since I have a CDL, graduated from a PTDIA school that was the pits anyway, then got three months' experience with trainers who couldn't care less if they taught me anything or not, except how to accept various kinds of abuse if I wanted to keep the job -- well, I would hope that every experienced driver out there would LEAVE THESE BIG COMPANIES, as a protest. If you can get a good job elsewhere, just realize YOU are the ones supporting these outfits. If the only drivers they have are the ignorant kids, they will go out of business so fast with criminal lawsuits and accident claims it won't be funny. The roads have never been so dangerous, because these rookie truck drivers are pushing their luck. Even the ones who have been driving for a year are a hazard, as I'm sure the knowledgeable people on this board realize. If all the decent veterans, and there aren't that many still doing these gigs anyway, left SWIFT, WERNER, PAM, COVENANT, PRIME, USXPRESS, and all the rest of them, that is the only thing that would wake them up. Word-of-mouth has spread far and wide in the past few years. These companies can't survive. Sure, they're looking to hook up with Mexican transports and hire Mexican drivers. They're committing suicide. The other avenue for action is to CONTACT THE SHIPPERS AND THE NEWSPAPERS IN THE SHIPPERS' HOMETOWNS. Raise a stink about safety. Get the statistics. Put these jokers in jail for negligence, where they belong.

 

There's a saying they have down south for someone who quits a crappy job at an abusive employer... "He just don't wanna work."

When I first moved to Alabama, I heard that saying a lot when someone would inquire as to what I was gonna do for a job. They'd tell me, "If a man can't get a job down here, he don't wanna work."

Well, a man CAN get a job down here... it just doesn't pay enough to keep the lights on and feed your family--unless you want to work three consecutive jobs for minimum wage. And when you don't want to do that, they say, "He just don't wanna work."

That's what you'll hear Swift say when all the drivers finally get fed up with their BS... "They just don't wanna work." Then shortly afterwards, the Mexican drivers will come flooding across the border to replace those LAZY American drivers. Just as the Mexicans do the other jobs that us LAZY Americans don't want to do... (Read: get screwed doing) -- Pick peppers in the hot sun all day for $2 an hour... clean your house for next to free... pick tomatoes for 45 cents per 32 lb bucket.

That's ok though, eventually this country will go into meltdown mode... and we'll be able to start fresh again... albeit maybe under a new red flag with five yellow stars.

 

Unfortunately that is closer to the truth than most realize.....

 

I think a lot of people realize it, they're just too complacent to care. As long as they're living ok now, to hell with what happens in the future.

I currently assemble bikes and furniture for the number one purveyor of communist Chinese goods... it's making me sick to work for communists, so I'm going back to driving a truck.




All you need to do is pick up a few items off the shelf to see where they are made, you'll see who actually runs this country. I make it a point to tell everyone I show a bicycle to, where it's made... where they are ALL made now. I also make it a point to tell them that when I drove truck, I used to pick up Huffy bicycles from the plant in Miamisburg, OH--and that because of Wal-Mart, they no longer make bicycles there.

 

Cabhappygal. I see your point and it is a good one. Only thing is it is just about that way now at some companies like Swift.If Swift lost their inexperienced drivers they would fold really quick.I would guesstimate that about 90 percent of Swift drivers are newbies. A big portion of their trainers are not even dry behind the ears yet.One time I went into a small truckstop around Boston,TX.In came a swift truck with two young drivers. After about two hours of trying to back into a parking space they finally got it parked,and it took both of them to do it.And oh yeah they had all kinds of room and it was just a straight backup.

 

Well if you go back to driving you will probably being hauling a lot of communist Chinese goods since that is where most of our products come from.

 

Where'd you get that Wal Marx picture? I love it!

 

Let me start off by explaining I am not an apologist for Walmart or the Chi-coms. But the world has changed drastically in the last 40 or so years. The U.S. is a consumer driven economy fed by "Supply and Demand". When I was a kid you could get a pair of 501's for $10 and sometimes for $5 when the store put them on sale. Things were cheaper then (but from a perspective 40 years later). Ask someone who grew up in the 40's and 50's and you'll get the nickel candy bar story. Americans want their products cheap. They wanted Nikes for under $30 a pair and Nike couldn't sustain itself paying high wages and outrageous workman-comp claims. This is true for just about every product that is produced in America. You can't have a Scwhinn bike for under $200 unless you have it off-shored, quality cost plain and simple. If you want auto-workers to be make $40 an hour, than don't complain that your F-150 will cost over $40k. The manufacturers won't eat the cost, nor will their shareholders for that matter. If you want a car that's under $10k than buy this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Nano

Walmart exists because the consumers think that Walmart has the prices (as in good value) they want for the products they want. If that wasn't the case, Walmart would cease operations over night.

The Chinese are only a part of the competition we face. What about India, Brazil, Mexico (what will happen if Africa and the Middle East can put aside religious radicalism and join the rest of us in the 21st century?) Those countries are emerging economies and with that emergence, a middle class tier will soon form and they will become as we are now, a "Consumer Driven Economy". KFC has been operating in China for over 15 years, McDonald's has a huge economic effect for both employment and consumerism in regards to the Chinese economy. Eventually things will have a way to even out and soon there will be no working class because people will figure out how to become educated and work with their heads instead of their backs. I suppose robotics will eventually do the heavy lifting.

Now I am just like everybody else when I "have to" buy some piece of s*&% product that has "Made in China" on the label. But for those of you 45 and over, you'll probably remember when "Made in Japan" meant piece of s^%$ too. Now look at Japanese products, Hell, quite a few "Japanese" products aren't really made in Japan anymore either.

 

Nahh, if the company I'm looking at works out, I'll be hauling good ol' American cotton and paper. Then it'll get shipped over to China so they can make us T-shirts and cardboard boxes.

I stole it off the net, of course. <grin>

 

There's a lot to respond to in your post Ron... and I won't quote the whole thing or try to go point to point.

Your post brings to mind a few things though:

1) Although I'm old enough to remember LBJ on tv, I was just on the tail end of the era when Japanese meant junk. I'm not insinuating that all Chinese merchandise is junk. Given where I work and what I do there, I see a lot of Chinese-made merchandise--some of it good... some bad... and some you just say, "WTF were they thinking?"

2) My problem is not with having a global economy, it is having ONE country making 90% of our consumer goods--especially when that ONE country is holding the threat of dumping its $1.4 billion reserve of US dollars over our head. China would not have to bomb us to take over our country... they wouldn't even have to set foot on American soil or shoot even one bullet. All they'd have to do is close down the pipeline of goods that we don't make here anymore... our "Consumer Driven Economy" would go right in the toilet. Japan never even came close to that kind of power.

3) My problem with Wal-Mart is many-fold. Wal-Mart has driven manufacturers to China by the boatload. Sure Americans like cheap goods, but at what cost? They NEED the cheap goods because they can't afford anything else. And those that can afford to pay more, would be retarded to do so.

In 1972, I was 8 years old. I had my eye on a new 10 speed bike at the local K-mart for the longest time. I finally convinced my parents to let me put it on layaway... I'd use my allowance and lawn-mowing money to pay it off. Long story short, the end of the layaway period came up and mom and dad had to chip in some cash to get it out of hock... the bike cost $55.

Corrected for inflation, that same bike would cost approximately $283 today. At my store, we carry a few bikes that approach that price... and they collect dust. People have been conditioned by the likes of Wal-Mart to accept the cheapest junk at the cheapest price. When it breaks, no problem, take it back and get a refund... buy something else, and when it breaks... get a refund. I joke with the customers and tell them about Wal-Mart's new "Borrow a Bicycle" program. Parents will bring back a bike that their kid has absolutely trashed, demand a refund... and freakin' get it! Kids are no longer taught to take care of their things because, "Wal-Mart will give you your money back" when you wreck it. Sometimes I wonder what the hell business model they are using... it makes money, but I can't see how.

I guess you really can't see Wal-Mart for what it is until you actually work there once. It's more like a religion than anything else... or a cult, complete with daily brainwashing (Gimme a W, gimme an A...). Yep, we face Bentonville and give our daily praise to the God of Sam--everyone but me that is.