Can we turn the industry?

Here's how I see it. We as drivers have to make sure the company does what it says it's going to do per the hiring contract. If we don't then the company says to themselves they can walk all over us. E.g. CR England, Swift, and the rest. If we want a good company we have to make them uphold their end of the bargain. Document everything and hold them to it. You back down and soon we have only have worse companies to choose from.

Let me explain how I see this.
We as drivers have a contract with a company. A contract needs 3 items to be considered a legal binding contract. 1) an offer 2)an acceptance 3) an exchange of something of value.
The company offered the position and the terms of the position. We accepted that position and the terms that came with it. They paid us for our time in exchange for those terms (benefits and pay).

Now if we don't hold them to those terms and don't raise a stink when they flounder on them then we are part of the problem as to the low paying miles, and the crappy we are treated. Too many of us just up and quite then complain later when nothing can be done about it.

How many of us know that the trucking industry (we drivers) are still paid on 1980's wages while the rest of the population has had increases? What in the mid 80's minimum was around $3.15 and is now around 5 to 6 an hour. While we as an industry that supports that are offered .30cpm if not less starting out. We top out somewhere around 45 to 48cpm after 5 years in many cases.

We don't get home on time when we do nothing wrong and while abiding by all company policies.
We get tickets and fines in their equipment because they refuse to pay for the repairs after we repeatedly tell them it needs to be fixed.
We get fined in "no-idle" states because the company will not outfit the tractors with APU's or pay/reimburse for IdleAir. Yet, we are just trying to sleep so we can work the next day.
We get beat up on when the load is late yet the shipper took their sweet time or damaged the trailer.

Why do we let these companies do this to us? Repeatedly we just let them get away with it. There are a few good companies out there but they are getting worse also. And we let them do it.

Costs have gone up on everything. Food, water, supplies, clothing, home costs, everything. Yet we are paid today what we were making 20 years ago. We supply about 80 percent of the country. Yes some of us make good money on average. Most drivers make around 20,000 - 30,000 after taxes and road expenses. Nothing to sneeze at but a lot less in todays dollars than 20 years ago where the average after tax was 40 - 50. (U.S. Economic analysis report of transportation industry 2006).
Yet we accept this and say nothing.

We don't hold the companies to the fire when they breach the hiring contracts or tell the whole and exact truth.
"We pay .50CPM" is advertised.
"Only if you drive in this region and exceed 2700 miles per week"
"oh, and the average driver on the low end only gets 800 miles a week."

We say nothing and just leave after months of hoping it will get better.

"Home every weekend" is what is advertised.
Yet we are paid .28 cpm and have to work from 6 am to 10 pm. No over time, no flat rate pay, no guaranteed miles, nothing but hard labor for low (under minimum wage) pay.

I'm not advocating a strike or a union (Federal law prevents this if you didn't know that already. Same law that prevent's convoys if you want to look it up.)
So what do we do?
I say we start picking up a pen an paper (okay use the 'puter and word processor) and start firing off letters to news organizations. Senators, House Representatives (election year coming up) and anyone else you can think of.
Think about this. If we drivers, singley, yet as a whole, raise enough of a clatter, we can effect a change. Hold these companies accountable, stop the false advertising and gouging our side of the pay. Maybe get some of these ridiculous "idle for 5 minutes only" laws backed down so we can sleep decently in hot or cold weather without costing someone their life.

Let's earn a decent wage that should be rightfully ours to begin with with the work we do. Work for a company that does what it says it's going to do from the beginning. And let's stop treating all of this like it's the norm of the industry. The only reason it is like the way it is is because we let it get this way to begin with. Somewhere along the lines we drivers said "it's just too much hassle."

Pick up a pen, or click over to your word processor and start writing. Let's stop complaining and do something. Don't write about your company, write about the industry. Tell them what needs to change in the industry. More rest areas, better signs, better pay, show them the company promises and then show them affidavits (this site) to what really happens. Cite law suits, accidents from equipment failure, citations with noted complaints to the company. One voice at time until we create such a racket that AL GORE will say "we're killing the truckers."

Let's do this. If you want better pay, equipment, home time, you have to take control. We have the power to change this. We just have to go about it smart and do it legally. No calls for strikes (they don't work any how. Last one was a month ago and a whole 6,000 trucks shut down for a week. Think 6,000 truckers lost their jobs to.) No call for mass unionization, we can't do that. So individually we have to do this if we want to stop the companies from stomping on us.

It's your choice. Do nothing and keep hopping from company to company. Or start writing, keep writing, until we get heard.

 

I know what your saying but I'm not a union advocate. It works for some people, I don't agree with them so I don't belong to one. My personal opinion on unions.

I have a clean MVR and DAC. I run hard and put down the miles. I did over 3700 this week (slight carry over from last weekend). I love driving, I just hate seeing what is happening to the industry. More restrictions, more rules, more equipment standards. All equaling more expenses for us, the drivers. With no more pay to compensate.

All I'm saying is that if we look at these boards and what we allow the companies (our companies/the shippers/the receivers)to get away with we have a choice to do something, if we want to. Not saying posting on here to warn others is not a good thing. I to post on here with my experiences. Yet I don't let my company push me around. I expect no more than what they agreed to when I accepted the position.

Here is something I just thought of.
Who thinks its right for us the driver to have to pay for pallets? The receiver ordered the product. The shipper sold the product. Why do we have to pay for the pallets to transport the product? Shouldn't that be factored into the cost of shipping?
Who thinks its right that we have to pay for lumpers? If the the receiver wants the product they ordered, they should take it off the truck. Why does it cost me 120 bucks to take the product they paid for out of my truck?
See what I'm getting at?
I don't charge my mail man for opening my mail box. I don't charge the UPS or FedEx for taking my deliveries at the house off their truck. I ordered it. When was the last time you charged your waiter/waitress for bringing you your food?
It's the same thing on a smaller and simpler scale.

 

Missing my point.

I'm not harping on any one company. I'm a company driver and while there are things my company does that piss me off, it's still an okay company.

I'm not looking at trying to make companies bow down to the great will of ME.

I don't want a union

Please understand that. What I am looking at is how we are treated as an industry.

I'm not looking at trying to get paid for fueling, or paid for sitting at a dock, or changing out a marker light. I agreed to be paid by the mile. If a company wants to pay me for that time great. But I'm not going to require them to do that on top of my mile pay.

All I'm saying is that IF WE CHOOSE to we can get what is reasonable.
Yes, I do realize it's probably not going to happen. Yet, maybe it will.
I hear about all this stuff that is Industry Wide that we as truckers hate. Yet, to make a living and put food on the table and pay the bills we put up with it.

I too drive the 48. I love it. I stay out months at a time and live in the truck. My home is where the truck parked. I just think things can be better and little more fair to those of us who supply this great country.

That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying organize or unionize. I'm just saying that if you want a better industry. Then you have a choice. I do write to people and some of it has worked.
In my own state they are redoing the rest areas and going to build new ones because there were not enough of them. I don't like how they went about it by closing many of them at the same time. Yet, I did something. One person (that I know of) got something done.