Can social media be the demise of bottom feeder companies?

They don't know how to use it at all. You just have to look at the social media sites to understand that. I am aware that there are spaceships, doesn't mean I can pilot one. What good is being aware of something without the knowledge of how to use it?

 

If it happens, and if - should it pass - a way to circumvent it isn't quickly discovered and implemented. Expect a substantial amount of money to be thrown against it, and that hasn't exactly been known to be an ineffective means to influence politics here.

Well, we can disagree on that. It kinda takes a distant second to them being the ones who know the industry and how to manipulate it.

 

I might be 100 percent off topic and wrong but I'll add my one cent anyway. I don't think truckers are necessary computer illiterate, I think a lot of independent contractors running under their own authority have utilized social media to make connections in the trucking industry. With that said I believe the world wide web has empowered mega carriers with more advertising power, when unemployed folks see a great add for a driver job they don't do proper research as mentioned before in this thread.

Do I think social media will hurt these megas? Not at all because they know how to sell their company to people looking for just a "decent" paying job. Their intentions are not to recruit a career trucker because they know a career trucker will tell them where to shove it.

 

I shouldn't even validate that comment in any way by replying to it, but whatever. If your social media skills parallel your powers of perception, then you're not making a great case for the power of social media.
What I said had nothing to do with "wanting to keep the status quo from changing" or any such horse ####. I just don't share in your optimism or faith in what a bunch of keyboard crusaders are going to accomplish, for reasons I've already explained, nor do I think that your or anyone else's Twitter posts are going to make a suitable substitute for the legwork which people who've influenced the industry have put in, nor will they change the perception of a general public which is largely apathetic to the situation of drivers and the trucking industry as a whole.

 

You're not understanding what I am saying...Those in the industry and know the game RIGHT NOW are failures at social media. Those coming around the bend will learn the game AND know how to utilize social media to destroy companies reputations, and remove their spamming from craigslist, and many others ways to screw them over. Social Media is just one tool in the toolbox. Social media is not just Twitter, Facebook, & Youtube either, It goes way deeper than that.

 

They will? The unfortunate truth is that most aren't going to last in the industry. I'm sure you've read about turnover rates and such.
No trucking company which has been in business for any duration has done so without knowing how to cover their assets. Are they not utilizing social to its full effect? I agree they're not. But, do they have any real need to? Not really, for the moment. And when the time comes that they do, you really expect they'll sit by idly? They have teams of PR personnel, teams of lawyers, they can certainly bring in teams of people who know how to exploit social media. Now the companies who can't afford this - they're the ones who'll ultimately get the #### end of the stick.
Do you remember what happened to Arrow Trucking, or were you not in the industry then?
If not, it's easy enough to read about. Back to the bit about the general public being apathetic to the trucking industry - what was the response from the general public in regards to that? Crickets.
You wanna get their attention, you know what you need to do? Keep the products they buy daily off the shelves. But there's a caveat - they're not going to find themselves faced with that and come to be sympathetic with the drivers - they're gonna hate the drivers for it. We're a society which revolves around convenience, and woe be to anyone who dares inconvenience us. That spreads to how the general public assesses such a situation - since it's more convenient, they're going to take the path of least resistance, and where's that going to lead? To the company CEOs? To the ones regulating the industry? Nope - it's going to take them straight to the drivers.
Not to mention that, in order to make that situation happen in the first place.. well, I've seen attempts to make that happen come and go. I shouldn't have to spell out what the end results of those attempts were.
So, with that being said, hopefully you'll understand if I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for the end result you're predicting to happen. But time will tell. Guess we can start waiting to see which prediction pans out.

 

I have only seen a headline about the CEO getting busted for fraud or something I didn't really look into it, I'll check it out.

They can & they will very easily, I just removed 5 Uber ads in all of 30 seconds off craigslist. I am only one person when you have thousands and thousands doing the same, it will counter any of their efforts and drain their resources unnecessarily. Also I understand the high turnover but that will just sweeten the pot. Bitter, Pissed off ex-drivers will be causing the most ruckus of them all.

 

Craigslist isn't the only advertising outlet bottom feeders use, the more ways you try to shut them up, the louder they try to get and they usually have enough $$$ to be heard. These companies have enough equity to operate at a loss and still be successful at recruiting. At the end of the day it's up to drivers to decide if a company is a bottom feeder or not. The only way a new driver can figure this out, is to research what they are getting in too.

 

Sure, There's a lot more than craigslist but there's even more ways to quickly & freely shut up them with little effort, while it cost them more & more money to keep advertising. Will it bankrupt them? Of course not, that's not the point. It just weakens their efforts to recruit. The smart ones will go to the good companies and the scrubs will go to the bottom feeders. Problem right now is the lack of effort from current drivers to smarten up the new drivers and steer them clear of the bad ones.

I been checking on some of these industry tweets, they even have one let me grab it http://truckerslogic.com/new-truck-...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Here's an excerpt "Anything below $0.28 cents a mile is a joke. We won’t put any trucking companies on blast, but they’re out there. As a rookie driver, you have to stand on your own and stand up for what is right. Median wages for rookie truck drivers is between $0.27-$0.29 cents per mile."

These places like truckers logic also will put on blast and amazingly not a peep from current drivers about how full of crap they are and how there's plenty of 35-40 cpm even 50+ cpm for rookie drivers. all it would take is maybe 5-10 drivers out of how many drivers are employed nationwide to chew them out and make them correct it. I have worked with and helped grass root effort groups in the past and it's amazing what a small group of determined people can do to a larger problem. Drivers are like ghosts on social media right now though, just dig through it yourself.