Blast from the past?

Did two loads of feed barley right in town from an elevator to a feed mill. $300.00 per load 3 miles each way. So $100 per loaded mile or $50 per mile for all miles.

 

Equipment is worse? Ever run OTR in a r model Mack 237 and 5 speed, no ac, power steering, not even a radio? No sleeper, I ran 7 years in a day can.
Now my truck has 600 hp, power everything, sat radio and tv, full size bed, shower and toilet and I do not miss the one stack Mack with the window in the back.
How about the old cabovers, stop on cool nite and the heat from the Motor would come thru the floor and cook your bed.
I enjoyed my time back then but we didn't know better.

 

2 Picks in Seattle 12 drops in S California $12,022.
2 Picks in S California one drop Chicago and five on the east coast $18,774.
Both in 2013.

 

By 89 I had been driving for almost 2 yrs and being young and dumb,.. I thought the grass was greener on the other side if I went to work for a real OTR company instead of the mom n pop operation that gave me my break and paid me very well.

I went to work for 2 weeks with JB Hunt in their 55 mph cabover International, doing team with another guy. The truck had AC,. but it didnt work. We shared a single sweat soaked bunk in the back. Partner told me he had been here 2 yrs and the AC was only working once for 30 days. It was a miserable hot truck. I got out at the Union 76 in Houston and caught a bus back home.

I went back to work for 6 more years for the same mom n pop,.. same old Mack with a roof top AC that dripped on my head all day,.. twin stick,.. pulling RGN's. Same old under powered Raggety Ann we called her.

Crazy thing is,.. I was paid more back then,.. than when I returned to trucking in 2009. When I did tow calls,.. it was $35 to hook,.. and $2 mi. for cars, $100 hook and $4 mi for commercial trucks. I was paid 25%. Fuel was under $1 gal back then.

Now today,.. the cost of living and services in general are so much more expensive,.. yet working class arent paid much more than back then. And I thought it was rough back then! I dont see how working people do it today. I understand why its easier to throw your hands in the air and go on the Obama plan. Socialism at its best.

Hurst

 

By 89 I had been driving for 15 years, things had changed a lot by then, I don't remember when the big fleets starting getting hoods. In 89 i had a 359 Pete working for IT, then Schneider bought them and screwed up a great job.All the lease trucks went from % to .80 a mile and the race to bottom was on.

 

Expense are higher, bought these for my trailer yesterday . Cost 23.08, OUCH!!

 

Yeah, the no A/C was bad but I didn't mind that heat that much back then, but when it comes to those old drafty cabovers in the winter time in the northeast my #### feet would freeze!

 

I thought those were free all night in the truck stops?

 

Those old Macks sounded good though. I started working on them in 85, my employer had 5 if memory serves me correctly. One was a 1969 R model 237 built into a 300+ 38k camel backs 5spd NO power steering. It was mainly a spare drivers hated it. We in the shop used it for what ever was needed. We would always drag the trailets down the road after brake jobs or what ever to check out the work.
The old 4" straight pipe turbo & tip turbine would really talk.