TransAm Trucking, Inc. - Olathe, Ks.?

Sry to here that. By-the-way, does your name have any symbolic relationship to the "Crazy Horse Memorial Monument" in SD? I've been there. It will amaze anyone who see it.

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/01/167988928/the-slow-carving-of-the-crazy-horse-monument

 

I cant understand why they are making you wait so long. That just don't seem right. I cant believe that there are so many people trying to get hired at Trans Am that they cant fit you in.

 

That is the interesting part to me. The technology of a modern semi is really amazing. Since that study was done 11 years ago, communication systems have improved a lot. Even smaller companies that don't use satellite systems can use cell phone, text, etc. to get the same benefits of a sat system.

I usually keep the sound down on my GPS but I was driving yesterday with it up. As it read out instructions on where to turn in my automatic shift truck with power steering, advanced systems monitoring, etc. it made me think that soon, with a few more technology pieces, I would not even have to be there.

 

The two articles bring several questions to mind.....so I need to do more research! For the most part these are questions that only drivers can answer.

I really do not have a problem with the industry investing in more technology that makes it not only more efficient and cost effective but allows it to give more people the opportunity to become employed at a lower starting wage, we all have to start somewhere and learn. Along with that free pass on lower starting wages though, should be the responsibility of proper and better training..... which we all know that they have failed miserably at. Another problem would be that the cost of these advances are also passed on to more experienced drivers. TransAm passes that cost along by hiring experienced drivers as lease only.....that way they do not have to pay the cpm for a driver's experience level.....so are they being compensated twice for the same purchases of technology? Is the driver really making more money based on his level of experience? Once a driver leaves a mega carrier starter company and begins to make more cpm, has that pay really kept up with the cost of living? Or has this investment by the larger carriers had an effect on the wages that all trucking companies pay?

In the article that came out yesterday the figures from the Department of Labor and the ATA for 2013 said -

Those new truck orders, in turn, are helping drive the ongoing recovery for truck makers. And the fleet expansions have created more jobs for truck drivers. Since early 2010, overall employment in truck transportation is up 13 percent. And the average weekly hours worked in that employment segment is up 6 percent.

They also stated that the industry had moved 6.2% more tonnage in 2013. If a driver worked an average of 3000 hours per year before and in 2013 worked 6% longer hours that would be 180 hours more for the year. The questions are~

Did you make more money in 2013? If so, was it at least 6% more? Were you adequately compensated for that 180 hours of what would have been overtime pay in most other industries? In order to find the true numbers you would have to look at it based on ONE job .....so Pete and the King are disqualified from answering or have to base their numbers on the number of months that they worked for TransAm.

 

Oh, and just so you know.....I know I am a troublemaker! One of you guys tells me that on a regular basis! Truly, I am not implying anything with the questions, just putting together the data in my mind ......which has brain freeze from all of this nasty weather .....and requires more coffee today!

 

I am just a driver's wife and I am sure that you would rather talk with a driver ....but I didn't want you to feel as if we were ignoring you. Many of the answers to your questions are probably within this thread if you go back and read the last year of posts. Also there is a web address on the bottom of my posts that will take you to a blog for TransAm drivers. I haven't added to it in awhile because my husband is no longer with TA and I am out of date on new shippers and receivers. The basic information would be the same and may be of some help to you ....then if you had any specific questions I am sure someone on here would be happy to answer them for you.

 

Another resource for you ~

http://www.safetravelusa.com/

 

Yep.

 

I have no doubt that they would like to replace all drivers with robotic trucks and are already working on it .....I mean, who wouldn't want to replace you guys? You are paid so highly that you are sucking the profits right off of these carriers, they might as well go ahead and file bankruptcy!

Seriously, I do think they would like to develop that technology and some day may, but I think it will be a long time before it is affordable and profitable. Then there would be the liability issues .....I think Amazon has already had some negative press and feedback on the possibility of drone deliveries.

 

^ From Wikipedia re: Google driverless car
"In August 2012, the team announced that they have completed over 300,000 autonomous-driving miles (500 000 km) accident-free, typically have about a dozen cars on the road at any given time... Four U.S. states have passed laws permitting autonomous cars as of December 2013: Nevada, Florida, California, and Michigan.A law proposed in Texas would establish criteria for allowing "autonomous motor vehicles"...

The U.S. state of Nevada passed a law on June 29, 2011 permitting the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada...The Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012, and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issued the first license for an autonomous car in May 2012."

(I cut the quotes up a bit so it would fit better here, the full page is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car) .
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300,000 miles in 2012, not sure what that number is today. I hear people in the California Bay Area say they see those Google driverless cars running around all of the time. Daily and routine.

I had a few kids in their 20s at my CDL school. I told them they would be the last who could look at the title of "truck driver" as a life's work. I think us drivers will be replaced, so soon in fact I am not sure if someone in the 20s can get in a full career. The technology is around now to operate an driverless truck say from Dodge City, Kansas to the Walmart DC in New Jersey. It might cost three million dollars per truck right now, when that figure gets more cost effective like, $300,000 or less, things will change.

The younger generation is much more accepting of this type of technology. There are some videos around that show how modern aircraft take off and land. Some Airbus models don't need a pilot to touch a control once the protocol is all set up. These types of auto landings have been going on daily and routine since 2009. I don't know what the liability issues with the technology will be. I know human truck drivers are a HUGE liability issue as it is.

There will be plenty of jobs and money to be made in trucking in the future, I think it will be much more along the line of servicing the technology that drives the truck than as being a truck driver directly. Local delivery jobs will be around but the long-haul, OTR driver will be just an outdated job title like "telegram operator" in the not too distant future. Just IMHO.