Where are the old timers at?

Well RollinthunderVet....... Ups n Downs number 1.
You can thank 2018 for MOST of this- Everyone jumped in-Or bought Tons of equipment and hired drivers-

It'll pick up again- this is kinda whats needed right now- It will Naturally Remove the Carriers that are hangin by a thread.

Keep your head up- Thankfully....I can afford to slow it down-Which I do, I worked my Butt off for a very long time- But there are Many that Are in This with unpaid Assets and in the Red.

 

It’s not as bad as some of you make it. I could have followed my fathers footsteps and worked at the steel mill. Wait. That industry almost completely shut down.

Could have been a coal miner. Got big mines in this area. Wait. That industry almost completely shut down.

Could have worked in the glass houses. Wait. That industry did shut down before I was born

I did the oilfield. Made tons of money but worked more than OTR for it. And the safety rules there make the trucking regulations seem like small potatoes.

So trucking is the only steady job I have had. I still find a way to make really good money. Regulations aren’t exclusive to just this industry and we are not all out here starving. Sometimes you old retired drivers need to hop down off the gear shifter. The picture you guys paint isn’t the reality that I or a lot of others live.

 

You're right, trucking has always been a "what you make it" deal. Through the years, as you mention, jobs have come and gone, but trucking is still out there and will be for years. I guess my biggest gripe, is you can't be an outlaw anymore, and that was the fun part.

 

Well said!! Us "old timers" have great memories

 

It's always been feast or famine.
Bust your #### when the money is good and put it away for the slim times that lurk around the corner.
When things go to crap plant flowers around the truck till the profit comes back.
Guys constantly start out over leveraged where they gotta make that big bank note every month. Then they will run for break even or less when times get tough to keep something coming in.
Better to go broke fishing every day than trucking for free.

 

Hopefully it will remove some of those idiot Russians who pull for 95 cents a mile

 

Not with a big truck payment, you can't. It's why my trucks were used, but good condition, and wasn't so strapped and if I wanted time off, I'd fake a repair. ( that was usually bad karma, as something would break later when they needed me).
BTW, where in N.Wis. are you? I came from Phillips.

 

Not too far away from there. North of Brill and West of Birchwood.
Just past where the good farm ground peters out and turns to mud an rocks. That's Me!

 

I take it hauling containers on a step deck hasn’t paid off. I guess the ramps ain’t worked out either.