The negativity

I spent 10 months with the post office as a clerk and a carrier. Until you become a "regular" and have union protections and benefits you're basically a slave that is on call and treated like absolute crap. It can take years to become a regular especially with the post office downsizing.

 

In some ways the regulations were worse compared to today. (think pre IFTA) The DOT were not as hot on logs as they were about fuel taxes. Truck drivers were actually arrested over non payment. Your right about the drugs. However it was not coke in those days, it was legally prescribed and illegally obtained amphetamines. To this day I blame them for contributing to my fathers death. The biggest problem today is these driver mills hiring people that really don't have the basic common sense to operate a tractor trailer safely. In the 60s and 70s you did not see the right sides of tractors crashed and pushed in fuel tanks parked in truck stops like you can today. I think most here know what causes that. I took a walk once while waiting on a dispatch. I looked in a place were wrecked fenders and whole cabs were set. Almost everyone was damaged on the right side. Trucking took a bad turn somewhere. My posts in this thread are not designed to cause war between the old school and the younger drivers. They are just trying to show how things have changed by someone old enough to remember those days. And yes I stand by my statement. Today's drivers are spoiled.

 

I'll say. I told my old my man I was getting my CDL and going on the road. He laughed and told me about having to take his driver's test in an old KW 3 stick because that's what his buddy had. No thanks!

 

4/34 Armor HQ Scout Platoon. Lee Barracks, Mainz Germany. Only thing I drove in Germany was a 113 and a Motorcycle. lol
88-91. 8th ID was disbanded. 4/34 is no more

 

76th Trans Co Pirmasens, 80-81 - part of 53rd Trans BN at Kleber.

503rd Trans Heidelberg 82-85

 

There are more failed drivers in this industry than there are successes.

People come here either out of desperation or because they always had this strange desire to be a truck driver.

Many of us would rather discourage those people for the right reasons than to waste their time in pursuing something that will end up in failure.

Those who are serious about a career or profession doing this are the ones who know how to listen and how to learn.

 

Not soft. I said spoiled. I am a big supporter of the things drivers have today. I enjoyed my APU and inverter when I was driving. Things like transflo make getting paperwork much easier. I in cab scanned my paperwork. However because of things that has happened over the last 20 years today's carriers don't treat the drivers the same and because of it the turnover is horrible. It is not seen in these boards but I spend a lot of my time helping young drivers. I don't give the kids hell. However it is a fact that trucking has changed. In some regards it changed for the better, but on the same token it has also changed for the worse.

 

Best of Luck!