Finally Quit Trucking.

Now that you've listed your excuses, maybe you can list your experiences like you set out to do...

 

I dunno, this kinda appeals to me. Work the EC (since it's my area and most people won't) pick up trailer run them west for 6-10 hrs. D/H with somebody in OH. Sleep in the truck for the night. Deliver on the EC the next day, (and/or pick up the next one) spend the night at home. Repeat for 3 days, take a 34 at home. Figure if I could get $1200/week for that and the company pays for fuel, tolls and repairs? I'd be pretty good.

 

PS: I've become leary of these companies that offer "more home time" too often that means 14 hours in a daycab topped off with a commute. Only to be back 10 hours later.

 

You might as well be OTR in a situation like that.

 

Nice info! I wonder if the mega fleets lowering freight rates hoping to cash in on volume has effected this? I think the pay structure is what allows for this. Pay based on productivity used to be popular until the fair wages movement in the 1930's which created the wage laws. Truck drivers fought that hard fearing that an hourly wage would put a cap on their potential earnings. They made far more money from cents per mile pay then they ever could from an hourly wage. Truckers were able to get an exception from the law and were grateful for it. However, there were no logbooks or DOT in the 1930's. Those drivers could run around the clock. So the question is, is an exemption from the 1930's still beneficial today? Companies tell us that a CDL is still a ticket to the middle class. If we forced them to start paying wages then we could actually do a side by side comparison. The federal minimum wage is $7.25hr, if overtime is paid after 40 hours in a week then a 70hr work week would give that minimum wage worker about $700 for the week which is about what most company drivers make starting out in OTR. Of course if you dedicated yourself to the fast food industry then you'd eventually get promotions and raises. So is trucking really that good of a job? I think they should put their money where their mouth is. $15 an hour is middle class. I guarantee if they were forced to pay a wage then it would be minimum.

 

The problem is, you can get over $15/hr pretty easy, but then it's hard to get hours.

"Oh it's a set route, we figure it's so many hours, so we'll just flat rate you."

Or,

"Work Monday. Work Tuesday. Work Wednesday. What 39 hours already? Hey we'll put you on the on call list, take a nice 5 day (unpaid) weekend."

 

Trucking ain't for sissys

 

Got fired* in July (2015),
All good, gots 2k/ month State pension.

Still working my honey-do list though around the house.

* Fired for ten absences last one I was 84 minutes late, (counted as absence).

 

I didnt read the 30 page book you wrote OP, but it sounds to me you didn't do enough research and jumped into a bad company and now in your mind all trucking sucks and you will pass this off as a fact to anyone who will ask you about trucking. I did research and went to one of the best companies and always made over $1000 per week driving brand new trucks with respectable dispatchers.

 

Same here. Trucking has it's downside, namely being away from home, but I've never understood why some of these guys put up with miserable pay and conditions when there are some really good opportunities for an average guy to make twice what he could make at a normal job?? I think too many people look at the fancy brochures and fail to see the red flags that are flying everywhere at some of these outfits.