Crete Bit Off More Than They Could Chew

Unfortunately, many in Management don't think it is necessary to "communicate" with the "workers on the floor." When they do it is in platitudes, or bulletin board stuff to straighten out a "problem." Their best communication is with other management in the form of long winded Memo's dealing with turf battles.

Companies of this size don't negotiate with labor.

 

Intuitively I don't see anyone dropping anything that has to do with Wal-Mart. They may have low-balled the contract and are scrambling to avoid defaulting. But you can bet they (or any transportation company) wants as much WMT as they can get. The volume and predictability is the kind of stuff you can plan and build around.

The salesman who landed WMT is still spending his bonus and probably got a promotion.

 

Therein lies the problem. Expecting OTR driver's to do a local driver's jobs at OTR rates.

Instead of demoralizing everyone, Crete should have bit the bullet and done the following:

1. Paid a prevailing hourly rate for the area.
2. Provided lodging at the local Super 8
3. Provided a daily meals subsistence of $20-$25.

These trucking companies just don't get it. They always want to make the Company's problem, the Driver's problem.

The company I used to work for ran "Overflow" for Schneider's WMT Wintersville, OH contract. I did it once. Sat their from 0800 until 1800 to haul a load to Monroe, MI - a couple hundred miles. I never volunteered for that again.

Every situation where driver's say "screw it, I am not going to be used anymore." Brings us a millimeter closer to a semblance of an equitable workplace.

Hat's off to all drivers who walk out singing Johnny Paycheck's legendary song


"that's why Crete can't fill seats to honor the contract - not enough local drivers to take it, and us national fleet guys won't accept sitting in a lounge and sleeping in a parking lot just to get a single 170 mile run each day."

 

Nothing will ever change in trucking, as it is too easy to replace a truck driver. If a company pisses a driver off and he quits, so what? He can be replaced easily with a fresh grad. Hell, companies WANT that kind of turnover.

Only when drivers take action en-masse will anything change. But the companies are too smart for this. The drivers who are abused are kept low enough so the numbers of drivers actually taking action is kept well below critical mass.

A truck driver is easy to please, and that is the problem. Smile at him and he'll eat out of your hand. Play emotional games with him and he'll do anything for you, no matter if what he's getting is really a turd on a paper plate.

These realities mean those runs in Sterling will continue to be there for your replacement to do, BB. You quit, sure. But did that deal disappear? Go to Sterling and find out. When ALL the drivers decide they aren't going to do that run and every driver refuses it, THEN it will disappear. Again, this is one of the big reasons I got out of trucking. Drivers don't stick up for each other, so these types of delicious little screw jobs will always be lurking in trucking. No thanks. I'll pass on it.

 

"Hat's off to all drivers who walk out singing Johnny Paycheck's legendary song"

Or the Tipmeister's version, a version that was written way back in 1995 after I'd been on a solo truck for only about two weeks. It didn't take long to realize truck drivers get the big shaft. Thank you for educating me, Swifty.

Here's some of it, anyway:

Take this job and shove it
I ain't drivin' your trucks anymore
My dispatcher's tellin' me lies
To get me do what he don't wanna do
But it's still what he asks for
You'd better not stick me in a truckstop a thousand miles away
When it's time for me to clean it out
And for the last time slam the door.
Take this job and shove it
I ain't drivin' your trucks anymore

 

Tip you are ok in my book!

Nothing lasts forever, including trucking companies using and abusing it's labor force. Perhaps that is why this Mexican Guest Worker thing keeps getting traction, despite the fact that the electorate is totally against it. The transportation industry has MAJOR clout in DC. It isn't ancient history that the the Robber, oops I mean Railroad Barrons raped and pillaged the country. They let them unionize, but when the benefits became too much of financial burden, the railroads conveniently dumped it back on the government.

Now we have the trucking industry. By all accounts it is vital to the national economy. Yet, the industry's labor force is about as disenfranchised from mainstream working standards as Mexican's picking lettuce in California. This is laissez-faire and capitalism at its worst and borders on criminality. What we have is the government and industry conspiring to depress wages to support a specific industry.

I'm gonna cut this rant short. Barry Bonds just cracked number 756.

 

Barry Bonds has a designated runner. Some pitchers have designated hitters. What about truck drivers? They're the designated losers, of course.

Somebody has to lose in the US economy. The key, if you are part of the ruling powers, is to make sure those who are the losers REMAIN the losers. Put your jackboot on the temple of these people and make them the "designated losers" and you just may be able to have a mere 100 IQ but live the Life of Reilly.

I always likened trucking to a boxing ring. In one corner of this boxing ring are the government, the DOT, the ATA, the docks, the media, the public, and even the trucking companies all whispering among themselves.

In the other corner you have one truck driver all alone to fend for himself.

Truck drivers are just some of society's designated losers, ladies and gentlemen.