Professional Drivers are they history ?

I think this is a very good thread! I like to see the differences of opinion on the subject.

Here is my two cents worth. I have been in the industry for 14 years come June of this year. I've been a driver, a dock worker, a yard jockey, a dispatcher, & a safety manager. I've worked for smaller companies and I've worked for the larger companies so I agree that it doesn't matter who you work for. I consider myself a Professional based on my experience, training, and knowledge that I have of the industry. I've always been safe, polite, clean, & neat in appearance whether I was provided a uniform or wearing my own clothes. I'll be the first to admit I don't know everything there is to know & I don't mind asking for help. I treat people who I want to be treated and I give 110% when I'm at work. I try to help people when and where I can without the thought of "what am I gonna get out of it." I'm pretty laid back most of the time and believe in following my chain of command if and when I have a problem. I believe that fair is fair & that nobody owes me anything. I get what I put into it - nothing more and nothing less.

I use to want the awards and regognition when I first started trucking. I thought that's what it's all about. But I've grown up over the years, both personally and professionaly. Despite all the negativity surrounding the industry I still enjoy driving a truck. As an earlier post stated - I truly think its about doing what you love, what your content on doing the rest of your life. If your not happy, if you wake up every morning wishing you were somewhere else, doing something else, then you probably should be. Truck driving is not for everybody & your certainly not going to get rich doing it.

If you don't like the way today is going it's probably not going to get any better tomorrow unless you do something to change it.

 

So what you are saying is that because it happens with you, that's the way it happens everywhere? You should know better than that. Sure, if a customer wants you to wear a pink tutu and rub butter on your body, you'll do it, or refuse the load, it's your choice. But to say that you need to wear a suit to do a drop and hook at Wallyworld, no.

So who was around when these megacarriers came into power? The new guys who have had their CDL for under 5 years? No. The old timers, old companies, and everybody who was around when they got started allowed it to happen. That's more to who should take the blame than the people who started after the megacarriers took over.

I'm just tired of listening to the grayhairs tell the kids to get off the lawn, and how back in their day they had to walk uphill both ways in 12 feet of snow in 120F weather 10 miles one way and 30 back.

 

The thread is about professionals which is what most of the new kids will never get to be . They aren't on the lawn . They can't get past they gate . They either pay thousands of dollars for a useless CDL because there are no jobs or they get a job and quit after a few months when they figure out 1,000 miles a week at $.28 a mile won't add up to that $40,000 a year they were dreaming of . The trucking schools could all close down today and there would still be too many applicants for jobs the end of the year . As long as there are desperate people out there begging for jobs rates will continue to drop . They're just cutting their own throats . Maybe if there was a few thousand less steering wheel holders out there drivers would get 2500-3000 miles a week instead of half that much . Why take a job paying $300 a week when you'll end up quitting to be relaced by somebody else that will also quit in a month or two ?

 

I never heard so many lazy &^%$ no count bums in my life! Some of you people are the very reason for the "CDL MILLS" . You company drivers are always talking about what you get paid to do..... When you work for a man, you do what he says to do as long as its legal! Tarp, unload whatever.... get your butt out there and work! If all you want to do is drive, then buy your own truck. Some of you ##### and whine all the time and then cant figure out why you dont get miles... HA you dont need to be a friggin genius to see the problem!

 

and that is why they are out of work. EGOs! I would rather drive for a lousy company than not work at all. Am I wrg, doesn't my family come first? Oh wait, that what happen in the 30s -40s right... Bring back the over-priced, underworked, spoiled, brat unions! Oh wait, thats what these companies basiclly did, without the fancy title and benefits. These so called mega companies are the future of trucking. They aren't going away and they have the money to last. More over..There are far more "NOOBs" coming into the busniess than professionals staying in it.



Now the question should be....How do we get the "NOOBs" to work professionally

 

I see the problem, it's right here in your post.

 

Once again, you pass the buck.

 

Yeah , you and others like you are really putting your family first by accepting wages that are the same they were 30 years ago . The reason the megacarriers have the money to last is they have a steady supply of people that think sleeping in a truck is better than sleeping in a cardboard box . When recruiters go to school in their minds they see a bunch of people standing there with signs . "Will work for food " . There are far more NOOBS coming in because they have to replace other NOOBS that quit .

NOOBS don't get to work professionally because they are too willing to temporarily accept the conditions working for megacarriers .

 

So how do we fix this problem when nobody wants to hire someone unless they have three years under their belt at crappytrucking dot com?

 

Wow. All I can say is wow.