Common Misconceptions About Trucking???

Misconception: All we do is drive the truck. To be successful at it you have to be your own accountant, secretary, attorney(at times), customer service agent, and mechanic. Alot more to it than just driving the truck!

 

Ain't that the truth!

Of course, it's kind of hard to believe that "hot load" was really hot when you have to wait 6 hours or more for a door.

 

They just want to know it's there in case they need it!

 

Try unloading every box by hand off your truck and 2 wheeling it to the customer every day. I'd say you have it easy "just driving".

 

About 10 years ago I started carrying an MP3 player loaded with podcasts. My current setup is a Sansa Clip MP3 player, about the size of a digital watch or a box of wooden matches. I've played them through the truck radio with FM transmitters, cassette adapters, and some truc k radios have an Aux-In jack. I now just carry a small battery-powered speaker that is loud enough to use in the truck. This setup is independent of the truck and portable.

The MP3 player costs about $30 and the speaker costs about $20. I carry a few weeks worth of full-time listening inside the tiny little player. It's like a loaded DVR of radio programs.

I listen to what I want, when I want, and whatever my schedule is my programs are waiting on me. If they are beating the same dead horse I can just skip to the next program or one of the hundred hours of "backup" radio shows.

Many radio shows are available for download so you can carry them with you. My philosophy is if the shows have useful info it will be useful when I listen to them. I don't listen to shows just to have the same watercooler conversations everyone else is having. I try to listen to shows to give me knowledge for the future and for context. I can't stand how many radio shows are 30 minutes of commercials per hour and the other 30 minutes are mostly explanations that they only have a few seconds until the next commercial. The podcasts either have no commercials or I fast-forward past the commercials

The shows I like, ymmv, are below

Rush Limbaugh
Secure Freedom Radio
Mark Levin
Dennis Prager
NPR Talk of the Nation
NPR Fresh Air
WHYY Radio Times
Clark Howard
NPR Car Talk
NPR Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me
NPR This American Life
WGN Radio Extension 720
International Spy Museum SpyCast

 

I see things out there have not changed...

And whomever said that mechanics tell the truck drivers what to do? I don't I was in those shoes so I understand the frustrations of the truck driver. Now I will give this advice. I am now the mechanic that was in the drivers shoes and I hope I never treated the mechanics the way these drivers treat me. We work on your trucks and we can either just get the work done after you disrespected me or I can be treated good and I will point out some things wrong with your vehicle, give advice on how to fix that simple item yourself by saving you a lot of money, or go 10 minutes out of my way and fix it myself. I understand some mechanics out there are bad. I have seen it. Then you get "technicians" like myself who will treat the driver with respect and do the work right, the first time. I learned real fast that respect can go a long way and save or possibly make you money in the long run.

Oh, great posts everyone. I might be returning to that white line myself. The shops in my area are realy slowing down. I was just laid off and I am looking to return to the highway. Companies are running shops on skeleton crews paying very low wages. People like me that are trained and demand a higher wage are getting laid off in swarms. Cheaper to hire 2 mechanics at $9/hr then 1 experienced, trained tech at $16-20/hr. All my offers are $10-11/hr. I can't provide in my area for that low of a wage at flat rate where some weeks are 32 hours and others at 60+. It just can't happen.

I will say this, good thing about this CDL is it can open many doors and it can also return to some other previously opened doors. They may not be great, but I can always feed myself and take care of my family with it, as long as I keep it clean and do what I am supposed to do. If I know then what I know now, I would have still gotten my CDL, but thought twice about driving. It was a hard life not watching my kids grow up... Everything happens for a reason and I don;t know it yet, but I soon will, I hope.

Stay safe everyone.

 

Check out The Wilkow Majority on Sirius Patriot, from Noon-3PM EST.

That boy has a gift not only for analysis, but also for explaining it in a way that males complex issues make sense to anyone.

 

Probably the most common misconception is that there's no money in trucking.