Amazing

Thanks for the replies, folks.

Here's my take on the situation. I'll try not to make it drawn out, but some background might be helpful.

I've found myself on the wrong side of the power curve before, and as I get older I'm desperate to avoid that happening once again.

The company that is the "cat's meow" today, can be in the dustbin in a flash, often without warning. In the airline pilot business, company seniority
is EVERYTHING. It governs what types of trips you operate, and what equipment you fly, which determines your level of compensation. Ask the top-ten
senior pilots at any of the following airlines how their career turned out:
PanAm
Eastern
TWA
Braniff
Midway

and the list goes on and on.

But now things have changed in that industry, in just a couple of years. People bailed out, never to return, others calculated
the Return on Investment for training, and took a pass. Believe me when I tell you that I have NEVER seen an industry that
makes so many demands on so many different levels, and gives as little back as aviation.

Now let's look at another company we all know...

Wal-Mart

Love 'em or hate 'em, they're in a bit of a jam. Sales are down. Why?

Because they can't move their merchandise that last 100 feet from the stock room, to the sales floor. Why?

People my age (almost 60) don't want to do that work for minimum wage, and young people simply refuse. At least
here in the Chicago area, there are no longer Wal-Mart greeters at the front door. Where did they go?

Onto the sales floor to help where ever they can.

Anyone on this board who has a clue understands that in many cases they can make more money (and spent A LOT more
time at home) doing something else, somewhere else, for someone else.

Look at the threads about cheap freight. I personally despise cheap freight. There's no need to argue that point, but keep
in mind that at some point even the most hungry driver will do something else besides move cheap freight on a regular basis.

EVERYONE hopes for a better life...me, too. The statement about the constant revolving door of drivers is true and cannot
be denied. But at some point, the well gets pretty dry.

Don't we all agree that trucking is absolutely essential to the nation's economy and economic security?

You Men (and women) deal with the reality EVERY DAY. The "typical" young person does not want to get anywhere near this
industry, for a whole host of reasons. We complain about creeping government intrusion, and what we perceive as government
over-regulation. In many ways, this actually helps us. It doesn't seem like it initially, but drivers will be able to leverage these
rules when they refuse to start the tractor for peanuts.

This full-color advertisement is striking for the following reasons.

12 Pages of full-color copy.
Glossy, high-priced paper.
Displayed nowhere NEAR a truck stop, in a suburb of the third largest city in the county.

I've been wrong before, and I could be wrong now, but I am convinced that the pendulum is starting to
swing back in the other direction. As I mentioned before, it won't be overnight, it'll be more of a gradual
process, but I'll wager in about 5 years or so, many of the legitimate complaints you guys have about
the industry will mostly disappear.

The professionals on this board will get at least most of what they want, and the anti-social-pee-in-a-bottle
and-leave-it-in-the-parking-lot crowd will thin themselves out naturally, or be stuck at POS companies that
can and do disappear overnight.

With all respect, I hope I'm right, and at some point in the future we can all laugh about this.

Everyone stay well and drive safely.


WashedUp

 

Hey Scooter!

Yeah, that's just one of many potential problems with my theory. I have a friend who decided to become a Registered Nurse.

Nursing school is HARD...you bring your "A Game" or just go back home. She graduated with a BSN (Bachelor of Science - Nursing)
and went two years without a job, due to the economy. Nurses that would have retired, declined to do so to protect whatever income
they could. Meanwhile my lady friend can't get a job, even though everyone moans about the "Nursing Shortage".

So here in Ill-annoy, the financial catastrophe and laughing stock of the nation, one of our Senators proposed an amendment to import
nursing students from the Philippines, to "fix" the shortage, while newly-minted nursing graduates go without work. The REAL issue is, of
course, money. Hospitals would rather hire cheaper foreign labor, than hire an American.

Sound familiar?

Now my friend is being told that although she is qualified, since she graduated more than two years ago, her skill set is stale. Of almost 50
students who graduated with my friend, only 17 have jobs in Nursing. All the remainder are either unemployed / under-employed, or have
left the industry completely.

I agree with you 100% that we need to crack the whip with ALL our representatives, regardless of party to get this B.S. under control.