Canadian good and bad trucking companies

If you're unhappy with your job, get a new one. If you're unable to foster a healthy relationship with your family while on the road, find something else to do. If yo can't figure out how to add exercise into your day, find something else to do.

If you want a union job, go work for the gov't. Or some other place that has a union. If you want your level of pay to be determined by how long you've been somewhere instead of how great your work is, then go find that union job.

However, if you choose to drive a truck, you need to realize there is a certain lifestyle that goes along with that. You can accept that, or you can move on. However, crying for unions to protect you isn't the answer. The answer is in you being more proactive with your life. Don't work for bottom feeders. Choose where you will work, and for who. Choose your lifestyle, isn't of letting some company choose the lifestyle for you.

As for your idea that health and pay are correlated, I say Hogwash. If you want to be happy, then design the life you want, and execute on that design. If that includes doing something other than driving truck, then do something other than driving truck.

Too many are like you, and want more pay without being able to show why you deserve it. Time with a company doesn't mean crap. Results are what matters. Find a way to make the company more, or save them more, and then you show why you deserve a raise. Until then, you don't deserve ####.

 

OR I can chose to change it. Quitting is too easy. The reason you even make what you do in this industry is because of all the drivers that came before you. Union and non union. You still insist they aren't worth more and in turn are admitting you yourself are over paid,you sound like you would work for less.


You still haven't told us how to be more healthy in the truck. You just say were all pretty much worthless,how can you possibly care about our health. You contradict yourself with opossing views.
Enlighten us.

 

You see what you want to see. If you've read my posts from the health area of these forums you'd see I've given advice on how to be healthier while in the truck. But, you've got it in your mind that I'm wrong and you're right. And you're entitled to that opinion. However, you're wrong. I feel drivers don't make more by crying that they should make more. They can make more by showing they deserve to make more. $65k to drive a truck up and down the road is fine. I don't feel that this is some sort of trade. Anyone can get their license. Anyone can drive. Just like anyone can become a mechanic, or an accountant, or anything else.

If you want change, by all means, fight for it. However, change is usually done when someone is exploiting someone else on a large basis. Although there are bottom feeder companies, no one needs to work for them, unless they haven't taken care of their license, and not been getting tickets or DOT infractions or the like. Don't take care of your license, and you work for whoever will hire you.

If you want to be paid better, buy your own truck, and do things right. Or, better yet, find someone else to do that pays more, and that you'll enjoy doing.

 

Just quit go find something better......hmmmmm. Most drivers have families and bills to pay,switching horses mid stream doesn't really work that well for them. The responsibility for weeding out bottom feeders shouldn't rest with the driver.
You talk of drivers health but something you might not realise is that I have lived what you report to preach. I carried a bicycle in the bunk and built my day around riding that bicycle,I even hit the odd race while travelling. I have pretty much figured out a riding route around every truck stop in the U.S.(even the TA in Los Angeles!) So when you go off on a driver and say they're wrong or they don't know what they're talking about it pretty much sums up which of the two would be wrong.

What I came to realise is that many drivers are just to busy to take time for themselves to live better and that doesn't neccesarily mean exercise,sometimes it's just an afternoon nap or playing a guitar or relaxing while watching a movie. Anything that reduces stress for a driver is beneficial to their health......Mental health is completely overlooked in trucking and people like you tend to see health as one dimensional. Taking care of a drivers bottom line helps give them the time to at least looking at taking better care of their health. I am talking from experience and applied knowledge,not some idealistic pedestal. I actually practice what you preach.

You can't tell drivers to take better care of themselves without giving them the tools to do it.

If any driver out there wants the routes I have for riding,you tell me your lanes and I'll give you the routes and what times to stop as not to it hit traffic while driving. I'll help you maximise your down time and get you to your delivery on time. I care about drivers health and their families.

 

Again, you're seeing and reading what you want to see and read within my posts. To say it's not a driver's responsibility to control his own life and his own destiny, is ludicrous. To say he has bills and a family, so he can't change what he's doing is completely asinine. Too many are like you, and want to blame everyone else for the misfortunes in their life. If your life isn't what you want it to be, it's up to you to change it. That goes for ANYONE.

And yes, it IS up to the drivers to weed out the bottom feeders. If no one would work for them, they wouldn't be in business. Supply and demand. End of story.

Back to a driver's health. Why does it rest with a company to give a driver the tools to be healthy? If you run 11 hours in your day, plus whatever fueling, loading, unloading you do, you still have 10 hours off. Take some of that time to unwind. Play a guitar. Go for a walk. Read a book. If you can't figure out how to make yourself happy while on the road, then it's your own fault for not taking the time to design your life for happiness while on the road.

If more people would take personal responsibility for the results in their own lives, then they would have happier lives, whether driving truck or not. Quit crying that companies won't let you be happy, and design your own life of happiness.

 

This is exactly what I have been saying,DRIVERS need to take control.

I have never said I have any misfortunes. I am fortunate enough to have a good standard of living,I think others should also have the same. I see an opportunity to improve the quality of drivers lives.

I would expect this ranting from a driver that yells and screams into the radio,what I find hard to believe is that you preach health and can't connect quality of life on the road to it, yet somehow find the ability to look down on drivers that you really are no different from.

"Let's" implies you and me. You have no real interest in "let's".

"Changing the health of drivers" You offer not one solution to the challenges simply because you have no real experience at it. If you do,tell us how your day unfolds.

"One driver at a time" Implies a personal sense of sympathy toward one individual which clearly you don't have,you'd rather just rain down on the driver for not wanting to change and not considering the inability to change.

As a driver that takes care of ones health I find this offensive,you're pretty much just mocking every driver that isn't you.

 

It was meant as a general statement. My apologies for your not understanding that. Perhaps my words were not clear enough.

Quality of life on the road is up to each individual driver. As is one's responsibility to take care of one's self through exercise while on the road. As for "ranting", look at your own posts for ranting, my friend. I state my opinion, and am willing to defend my position. If I was stating dribble without backing up my opinion, then it would be ranting. Somehow, you want to label my posting as ranting, whilst all you have been doing is trying to attack my position, trying to label me as an enemy to truckers and their health. You also say I look down on others. How you got that idea, I have no idea, but then again I really can't understand some of your convoluted thought processes that seem to be geared toward some misplaced anger towards to me and my idea that personal responsibility is the key to anyones happiness and success in life.

You don't know about my interests, nor do you care. I have taken a stance that drivers are responsible for their own lives, and you have taken one that companies have to give drivers whatever a driver feels he needs. Somehow, you're taking it as a personal affront that my opinion is different than yours.

As for solutions, go and read some of my posts in the health section. If you disagree with some of my suggestions there, bring it up in those threads, instead of continuing on with our hijacking this one.

Inability to change? That sentence alone tells me you don't believe that everyone is responsible for their own lives. You don't believe in personal responsibility. If you did, you would feel that ANYONE can change to better their life. Besides, it's not just an idea that anyone can change. It's fact. Anyone CAN change. They just normally CHOOSE not to. Again, it's all about personal responsibility.

Somehow you're the only person that has ever said this about my postings. Therefore, I can only conclude that you're the only one who is misinterpreting my posts. Possibly others are too, but not saying anything. However, since you're the only one saying what you're saying, I'm going to work on the premise that your thoughts on my postings are in the minority.

I admit I do mock some people. I mock those who aren't willing to take personal responsibility for their own choices and actions within their lives. I mock those who think companies and/or gov't should be taking care of them, instead of them taking care of themselves.

If you're one of those people, consider yourself mocked. If not, then keep on keeping on with what you're doing in your life.

 

Look familiar? Too bad you don't practice what you preach.

There are drivers out here paying alimony and child support,they can't walk away from jobs and for you to think they can or should makes you absolutely no better than the bottom feeders you preach to avoid. You have zero understanding of the psychology that goes into drivers lives. Ask most drivers that don't have wives or families to go home to and the number one issue they'll come up with is Lonelyness.

There are drivers pushed in through unemployment and have no understanding of how the industry operates,how are they supposed to know a bottom feeder? Trial and error?
Ask guys like you that think they know what's going on?

You throw an 11 hr day out there like everyone runs Texas and California and has 10 hrs of downtime. Many guys run a 600 mile radius of their terminal,with loading and unloading they're looking at days upwards of 18 hrs. Not many local jobs run under 11 hrs,then add in commute time,some are up around 16+ when all is said and done. Companies come and go in this economy,no job is secure,any seasoned driver will tell you that.


You can say I "highjacked" the thread but look at the number of posts and views in regards to "good vs bad". Your opinion of how drivers are to blame is the same opinion that bottom feeder companies hold. Your lack of understanding of this industry is evident.

If you owned a comapany with your philosophy what type of company would it be?
Sounds like you would take full advantage of drivers.

 

When my dog was a few years younger he went with me all the time, he's a Shih Tzu. I took him for walks in the mornings and when we stopped along the way. After I parked for the night, it was time for food and play, and yes a walk. I loved having him with me and I got out of the truck more then I do now. Charlie is almost 11 now so I leave him at home with the wife.

 

Think what you like, Trade up. I never said drivers are to blame, however it's worth looking at that statement.

Alimony and child support are part of some people's lives. Not everyones'. Not even the majority of drivers I've ever talked to have those issues. So now you're going to bring up a minority of drivers with these issues as the lot of drivers that cannot change circumstances. WHY can't they change? Because you say so? Who the hell are you to say no one can change while paying alimony or child support? Why can't people devise and execute a gameplan to better their lives? Once again, you feel people can't better themselves once they're driving truck. No reason given. Just that you say it can't be done. You have so little faith in people. And here you go saying on one hand you want to help others, while basically saying on the other hand that no one can help themselves to a better life once trucking. Just what the hell are you trying to say?

As far as people running 18 hour days, first off, it's not legal. Second off, it's a choice they make. If they chose not to do it, then it wouldn't be an issue, would it? Again, you seem to think no one has a choice once driving truck. That if they signed on with a #### carrier, they're stuck to that carrier. You have little faith in drivers, or so it seems to me. You think we're all idiots who can't change our lives for the better.

If I owned a company, I would expect my drivers to drive the time they're supposed to drive, not drive when they're not supposed to drive, and let me know of any issues that may affect their performance so that it can be addressed and handled however it needed to be.

You really don't think anyone can look after themselves, do you? Everyone needs protection. No one can make better choices, according to you. One day you may learn that personal responsibility is the way to better yourself. Others can better themselves that way too. Crying about crappy carriers isn't going to change things, when there are great carriers to go and work for.

People need to grow a set, and make the hard choices in life you need to make, to make your life better.

I'm done this little tete-a-tete for this week. Time to get my stuff together to go run east and back.