Am I making a mistake leaving Werner?

Yeah... second day home will be Sunday, and everything will be closed, so the day will generally be largely wasted...

The weekends off thing is probably because they run short runs to destinations that are largely closed on the weekends, so there is no sense trying to run. 2000 miles per week will be the norm, and it really isn't very hard running; there is just a lot of dock time chewing up your 14-hour clock, every day, and you typically won't be paid for it, even if they tell you what to do and where to be, and whether or not you can idle, or even keep your keys.

It's true that a lot of gum-flapping is going on, for a guy who has had so little time to learn about the business, but he also hasn't had time to become indoctrinated, or resign himself to the lousy treatment that we have all learned to accept, but would likely result in a revolt, in any job category that has any sort of credible governmental or labor union oversight. He's right to be outraged at the "########" that he was expected to tolerate. We should be outraged, too, but outrage gets exhausting, after a while, especially if nothing ever comes of it. Ultimately, we either adapt or get out, which he rightly points out is the reason for the high turnover - and what remains are those few who are willing to allow this unbelievable volume and quality of employee abuse to continue with a minimum of protest or objections. Don't tell the man to shut up; let him shout it for as long as his endurance can carry him. We all know that he will eventually tire, and either stop yelling, or quit - but the more objecting that goes on - the more pushback that carriers are given - the better the chances are that things will improve. Not measurably, or in our lifetimes, or anything, I'm sure... but who are we to silence the man, when we all know that he's right, and that we have simply been defeated by the injustices that he is just now realizing are integral to the industry?

If your only alternative to trucking is poverty and homelessness, then you need to start developing new skill, or a scam, or something, because dammed few truckers roll away with gobs and gobs of money... Plus, the future of this business is constantly in question, and just about any little thing can either make you unqualified to work in it, or make it so miserable to be in, that you'd rather live in a cardboard box and collect cats. (I've already started my cat collection - I've got a lovely black feral I can trade for a nice orange tabby... )

It's a lousy job (in most cases), and nobody should have to do it. Regulatory agencies that are supposed to protect us, seem instead bent on collaborating with employers bent on making it more miserable, for no comprehensible reason or purpose. And, in a few years, very likely, a lot less of us will be needed to do it. In the meantime, carriers continue to recruit more meat for the grinder from every rat and rattlesnake hole that they can find, and they treat their recruits very much like meat for the grinder. Th-th-thats trucking, folks! And most of the people who last any time in it either find a comfortable way to sit on the pointy rocks, or miraculously discover softer rocks. The rest stand up and walk away, because nobody seems to have both the will and the sledgehammer with which to fix the seat. Not sure which you've done, but it sounds as though you've found a seat or a way to sit, that you're okay with, for a while. Don't forget, if you start to get uncomfortable, how very much worse it can get - and don't be too surprised if, when you stand up, you find a long pointy rock underneath you, with some poo on it...

 

Have to do it? I love to do it. You point out another job where I get to spend hours just roaming the roads in a roving apartment and get paid for it, I'm there. I have done a few jobs in my life, and none have fit me like this job. I can't possibly think of another job I would want to do...and it's so miserable. The horror, the agony, the stripped skin, the degradation. But, I digress.

I do agree that the government, in it's knee jerk reaction to public outcry, has over regulated the industry..perhaps beyond redemption. I also think that this career will go the way of the dinosaurs at some point. If we are going to get grandiose and and esoteric about high level viewpoints of a job prospect in the greater scope of reality,...well this job will probably go the way of many blue collar jobs.

I truly think you are over exaggerating the negatives, but I'd rather be dead than do anything else, so cardboard boxes are out of the question. If a person is lucky enough to find a job that fits them, being that working is fundamental to survival for the average Joe, hold on tight and ride it out..if you can.

Yelling and screaming about the imperfections of this business will probably go nowhere, but I never would stop such behavior. I'd only point out the current state of the reality of the business. Anything else is just a waste of my breath.

There are two consideration when thinking about a situation: the way it is, and the way we'd like it to be. Often the latter is a confusing mess, and the way it is..is obvious. For example, there are actually truck drivers that will work for a company that doesn't allow inverters on their trucks. These drivers just go ahead and live in the misery that twelve volt truck stop appliances provide. I can't imagine living like that, but they do. Do those companies continue to get new suckers to sign on? Yeah.

Then there is the 1 day off for one week out mentality. I have zero idea how this became the norm, but it is. This is the main reason why I'm a lease operator..the freedom it provides. Having been a company driver, there is no comparison. Home time, 34 resets, and turning down loads...these freedoms transcend any negatives that being a lease operator entail. I've also always made money and have actually saved a bunch.

So, this miserable job may ultimately be a finite blip on the history of modernity, but I've enjoyed it.

 

Actually, when I was there I got two trucks in a row with inverters and an apu. But, they were phasing them out at the time.

 

Werner stopped allowing inverters on company trucks, because a few were installed improperly, and it created serious electrical system problems. That it was unclear who installed them, makes me believe that it was their own mechanics. If it had been someone else, they would have been quick to point fingers. I was with them for a year, under those conditions, and life on 12vdc does not have to be miserable, but making it comfortable is expensive, and once you do, moving out of the truck is exhausting and time-consuming - and like most carriers, when you move out, they both want and expect you to do it in half an hour.

@kanidana - you may be the only lease operator I have ever met who was happy with that arrangement. Hats off, and bald spot showing, to you...

 

Head over the the John Christner thread and you'll see tons of driver happy with that arrangement. Some don't even pay off their trucks and just continue to lease newer trucks. Some have paid off their trucks and move on. But, it seems there are many drivers that are there for many years. So, logically, if that lease was horrific, all of them must be masochists. I know I'm not a masochist. I can't speak for the rest of them.

Also, making a truck comfortable without an inverter would be impossible for me. My main source of entertainment on the road is my laptop and my laptop will not run on an inverter plugged into a lighter. It just doesn't provide the necessary current to run my machine. I can't imagine life on the road without my laptop. It would be unbearable.

 

I know. I love to work anyways. It what's separates the boys from the men.

 

Must be a beast of a laptop. I've never seen one that drew more than 180 watts (12vdc X 15 amps; a conservative accessory port fuse limitation, mostly seen in cars, rather than semis). I suppose, worst case, you could tie directly to the battery... but then, if you have to do all that, you might as well just install an inverter, anyway...

I must be an old boy. If I could goof off, or sleep, all day, and still eat and live indoors, I would never go to work...

 

I wasn't trying to say you weren't a man. I was just meaning I wouldn't care the hardships of the job.

 

As a wise old friend of mine once said... Truck companies are like women, you will be all over one that you think is hot and sexy and your buddy will tell you "dude, put the bottle down"... Not everyone is going to appeal to everyone else and not every truck company is going to appeal to every driver.

Find the one that suits you.