It pretty much boils down to this. Everyone deals with b.s. The trick to evaluating reviews is to ascertain whether the complainant ‘s grievances are in line with your tolerances.
Example, some care deeply about driver facing cameras. Others, couldn’t care less about them.
Why not avoid a bad company ?
Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by briantmiller137, Apr 20, 2019.
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I'm an unemployable malcontent because I know too much ? More likely you guys are intimidated by the idea somebody might know more than you.
I read, I listen, and I research. Have quarter century of trucking in my head. If i can help a younger driver avoid mistakes that is exactly what I'm going to do. Don't really care who likes it. -
Rocknroller4 Thanks this.
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Lonesome Thanks this.
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And that's the other main problem in trucking, isn't it? Bad carriers that manipulate the numbers or just outright lie about it and set false expectation... However, if they put those big, fake numbers out there enough times, 3 things happen:
1. Super truckers will claim they are making those numbers everywhere they go because they want to be cool and look like super truckers.
2. Gullible people will see those ads, remember SuperTrucker1234 said he was making that kind of money straight out of trucking school last year, and assume that is the industry standard for pay.
3. Otherwise honest and normal companies are forced to manipulate or "spin" their numbers to try to compete on the job boards without falling into bankruptcy.
Trust me, quoting honest and true CPM, and trying to explain how a driver making .47 CPM at Company A is making more than the driver making .57 CPM at Company B is almost impossible. It's just easier to drop the quality of insurance, start paying Zip code miles, start paying 1/2 cpm (or NO cpm!) for empty and bobtail miles and then promoting your NEW HIGHER CPM! It isn't really higher as far as income goes, but looks better on paper, and now you can put up flashy cpm numbers too! The same segment of drivers will keep falling for it. Those fake numbers are what becomes the "reality" and anything that isn't BS now seems like an insult. It's a vicious circle. As long as trucking companies have drivers focused strictly on CPM, the shady places will have most drivers by the short hairs. Since there is no "Standard" set for what "CPM" even means, there is no real way to compare one company's pay to another.
At the end of the day, most companies are paying the same. CPM, Benefits, Equipment are all included. One place might have the highest CPM, but they have bad equipment, no benefits, and don't pay detention, layover or backhauls. But that CPM looks pretty! Everyone is competing based on the same hyper-competitive freight rates (Thanks deregulation!) and the margins in trucking are razor thin.
Would you play professional baseball/football/basketball/Call of Duty/etc... everyday if someone paid you $60-$90,000 per year? If you love it, you would. The problem I have been noticing a lot lately is that many drivers I talk to don't actually want to BE truckers, but they can't make life work on a regular 9-5 job that only pays $30-40,000 per year. So they turn to trucking without considering the cost and sacrifices that truck drivers make. 90% of them don't make it through year one, and the ones who do hate every second of it. They are bitter, stubborn and refuse to turn back. They can't admit that it's just a hard job and its not for them- they have to lash out at anyone and everyone who loves trucking or isn't an angry maniac towards their employer. Terminal rats are awful. Rabid Terminal Rats are outright dangerous.
Everyone says we need to band together and demand more money and better treatment in our industry. I haven't had any issues with being treated poorly, but I'd be lying if I said I was against making MORE money. Duh. "If we would just all stop driving for a day, that'll teach 'em!"
But...There isn't a trucking pay issue hanging out in some vacuum of time and space, there is a nationwide problem with salaries and income. From waiters to attorneys, income has not kept up with inflation. As long as everyone's salaries are low, they will be forced to buy lower priced goods. In order to sell goods at a lower price, retailers have to keep freight rates low. Freight rates determine trucker's pay, so lower freight rates mean lower pay.
If you want the industry standards to get back to "the good old days", you need to either bring back Gub'mint regulation on setting nationwide freight rates (unlikely!), and/or support the bottom 85% of American Citizens, because it's their spending and purchasing habits that determine what happens in the trucking industry. Instead, our industry and drivers cater to the top 15%, the CEO's, the Investors, the Board members. We seem to make sure that the big shareholders are making profits, and we are putting their wants above the needs of the very folks that determine our pay. The bottom 85% of the country might not be signing our paychecks, but they sure as hell determine how much is going to be on them. The people you see at Walmart, Chik-Filet, Home Depot, Burger King? They are the majority, and their purchasing power is what drives the economy.
So even if you hate the poor, the lower middle class, the hustlers, by supporting ideas that increase their income, you are supporting truckers. Even if you hate all the other truckers too, you are supporting yourself. Call it "Trickle Up" economics if you want, but at the end of the day, we truck drivers are last in line when they hand out the paychecks. Everything that determines our pay comes from consumers. Support consumers, support truckers.
I love the free market, I love small government, but there are always examples and nuance to consider. Sometimes, the area is grey. Truck drivers made more when the government set the freight rates, the freight lanes, and determined what companies could drive where. Deregulation in our industry led to cancerous Hyper-Competition that only drove rates DOWN for us. Sure - it made the costs of shipping and buying goods go down, so for the economy, it was a win, but for us, the rank and file of the Transportation industry, it was a giant loss. The CEO's made out fine, the investors made out fine, and the loss was all taken by truck drivers.
Not all issues are black and white. Sometimes, we need to put aside petty partisan politics and just look at things from our own perspective, and not hypothetical. Look at history, look at facts, ignore the scare tactics that should only work on scared, ignorant people. Not us.
PS - Pre-Reply: yes, thank you for pointing out that one exception, that one guy you know, that friend who is a union driver (only 6,000 unionized truckers left in the US now!), the guy who turned his Lease Purchase scam into a lucrative career of millions. IDK what kind of mind can look at a small exception and have that erase the other 99% . Ugh. One time a kid was underwater for 30 minutes and didn't die. That doesn't mean you have time to run to the store before saving your kid if they fall in the water. Yes, I know that supporting ideas to increase the income of people who make less than $100,000 (the largest majority of America) is totally a socialist/communist/Liberal/leftist plot to:
" ________(verb) the __________(adj) _________(noun) in the_________(location)."
(Fill in your own OUTRAGE Mad Libs! oooh! it even says LIBS! Nice!)
Enjoy!Last edited: Apr 23, 2019
Reason for edit: removed unfair personal assumption that I made of a fellow driver. My bad. I hadn't had my coffee yet.Lonesome Thanks this. -
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(you know, the premise of this thread...)
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
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