Wonder why older drivers are Bitter???

I hate to say it but this is NOT a problem unique to trucking. I've got friends in IT, Resteraunts, Law, Publishing, Banking, Real Estate and Warehousing.

They all say it's impossible to find good help these days, (but they don't make much effort to keep the "good" people either). Seems like no body can come up with a buisness plan for longer than one quarter anymore. And something like 70% of the desk jockeys are on the internet all day? (what is a facebook? and why must it always be updated?)

If it's any comfort, I've got a lot more stuff that I can take with me on the road then my predecessors. Which will help durring the 14 hour layovers. And I'm gonna drive company, so that fuel and maintenence bills are someone else's problem.

 

Hey POS#2, you were talking about having to obey all those rules. Well that is true, we do have a lot of regs to govern us but most of the time it's a good thing. My driving background includes things like hauling rock building logging roads in northwest Oregon. Not many rules to follow when working off road like that. When your up in Gods country you are free. It's hard work but the northwest woods is some of the most beautiful country there is to work in. I can't remember how many times I stopped and shut the truck off and just sat admiring the view for ten or fifteen minutes, nobody cared we got paid by how much we hauled. I wouldn't trade those years for anything now.

 

I don't think the 'age' thing has anything to do with it...

One can be 'new' to the trucking industry, and be 'older'...

Stats say there are very few drivers below the age of 25 out here...like less than 2%...the bulk of drivers are between the ages of 35-55...

So i think new drivers, period, have brought about change...
But technology has a lot to do with that also...
Cell phones, satilite radio, ect ect...

This new technology gives drivers less reason to want to or need to interact with fellow drivers, and therefore many driving taboos, and mannerisms don't get passed down like they use to...

 

Well personally I think it really boils down to common sense and courtesy. Those are two things that are seriously LACKING EVERYWHERE in society today. Alot of "newer" drivers seem to think it's all "smokey and the bandit" or convoy out on the roads. Trucking isn't a job it's a way of life. If it's in your blood you can't get it out.....bottom line.

 

I don't thank us older drivers are better.but i believe that we had to work harder at trucking. We did not have the interstate system. We did not have as much traffic to deal with.You have all the nice modern equipment which make your job a lot easier. We had no power steering and a/c was fairly new and a lot of us never had it. We did not have bypasses around a city or C/B radio's
You have all the modern truck stop we had greasy and dirty truck stops.We had very low powered trucks on a windy day we could run 35 mph .We didn't have tubeless tire and had to change the our self at times. No air ride on trucks and no air ride seat.
Very low pay six to twelve cents a mile. Most of our freight was on the floor not on pallets driver had to load and unload his own trailer.
Produce haulers loaded in the field not at a dock. We had to ice our loads down in route.

I really believe if today's drivers had to do this that a lot of them would not drive a truck.Trucking was really hard back then.

I forgot about cell phones.Hey maybe you need to pay them to let you drive there truck.Lol

 

You mean it's not going to be like smokey and the bandit?

I'm calling my recruiter back!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnkk6if64mk

Or how about BJ and the bear...ye baby!

 

Ghost I cannot believe you dug that up. A friend of mine loves that show.

 

how gay was that show!

 

I never watched it I never wanted to.