This Industry is Unbelievable

Yeah, my life is so tough as a truck driver. Not at all like the laid back 14 years of active duty I had. Those relaxing days pulling a refueling rig over from the oiler while being drenched with that refreshing north atlantic seawater in january. 48 hours of leisurely onloading/offloading ammo. Those 5" 54's are a measly 78lbs so its nothing to handle 1100 of them plus 1100 matching 58lb powder charges. The wild 14 hour working "party's" during stores onload. My Cozy little bedroom, just me and my 60 closest friends. And that was before I hit my 19th birthday. Speaking of which I spent off the coast of tropical Libya in the spring of 86'.

 

Kimberly
The first thing that comes to mind is your complaining about things that are at the bottom end of the trucking scale, working for a large company has little advantages when you act or expect to be treated as 'just a driver'. People don't get the whole organizational cultural thing to do more than what they are hired to do, you should know this 20 years in business, getting ahead isn't about just doing a job.

The second thing that comes to mind is this is a profession and like other professions, there are opportunity costs involved to get further ahead. NOT all drivers work OTR, and for those who do, it isn't an easy life unless they make it one. NO one forces them to do this OTR work and if they miss a birthday or something else, that's their choice.

The third thing is simply you only have seen a very very very little part of trucking, the industry is HUGE and is inclusive to a lot more than just semitrucks or SWIFT/England or whom ever the large company flavor of the day is. I worked for two large companies when I reentered this profession, both of them had over 7000 trucks in their fleet and they had a large diverse services that they offered the customer, which leads me to the fourth thing ...

THIS IS A CUSTOMER DRIVEN PROFESSION.

Without the customer, we have nothing so to understand why they don't pay OT, why they don't do this or that, it is simple, we have to move the customer's stuff and it is a competitive market (one of the most completive ones in the world) so if SWIFT doesn't do it, Juan's ltl service will do it for less then half SWIFT could without a profit.

Number five, if we want to see changes made, we have to stick together but we can't. We can't because we are a scattered bunch of misfits who have a license to drive a truck. Anyone can get that license which means anyone can drive which means that not too many will care what happens to the other guy, but just to do a job, collect a paycheck and keep moving.

AND finally, no one forces anyone to take a job and do the work, we all have choices.

 

10-4 on that one driver

 

Popcorn, for as long as it lasts..

 

There weren't any personal attacks against her. She doesn't know. Cant fault a person for not knowing. He SHOULD know better. There's no way in the world the guy has previous experience and didn't know about Swift. And that is the root of the problem. So she comes here with a view of the industry that came from a guy that for some strange reason cant figure out Swift...should I tell her the truth or should I continue the fairy tale? What is it that you think we should say?

If you choose to continue the fairy tale, be my guest. Just let me know and I will edit my posts on this thread to nothing so that your "quest" will be easier.

 

Bottom of post #11 were the attacks I was referring to, nothing you said.

Not sure who bleeding of heart is ... But I didn't say any of that.

 

I always enjoyed stealing ice cream during unrep! My friends, the cooks, took care of me with fresh baked bread still hot from the oven; tuck it under my shirt and munch on it during flight ops on the flight deck.

 

2 years in so far and this is my first time hearing of this...

 

Hey, go easy on G.Anthony, he's a bigamist with 3 wives and their their 28 day cycles have synchronized and happen at the same time; his life is rough!

Kimberly, your husband can change jobs within 48 hours. Lots of good jobs in California, if that's where you are.
Northern Refrigerated Transportation
KKW Trucking
Florida Beauty Express - Ventura, CA
Dynamic Transit

Do some research for him and submit some applications online for him.

 

Kimberly, mam with all due respect; your husband drove 7 years ago and comes back on the road to drive for SWIFT? I myself, have been on the road off and on since 2004. Swift had a reputation problem then, and Swift still has a reputation problem today; funny thing is, Swift's reputation has never changed for the better in all the time I have been on the road.

Why on earth or what on earth was he thinking and drinking, to return on the road (now married) and with experience, and go drive for SWIFT? and !
tell him I said to "aimhigh"