DOT initiates 4 Major Rule Changes

I see what you did there.

 

You don't?

 

Love ?

No

 

Then why are you doing this?

See, that's one of the problems with today's drivers. They aren't in it because they want to be. When I started, all I wanted to be was a truck driver. I loved trucks and I loved driving. Most of us did. I still do. I still get a charge, after all these years, out of looking in my mirrors and seeing that trailer following along behind me. I still have pride in the fact that I can drive that big ol' truck. In some ways, the current generation of drivers, whether they be snot-nosed kids or the older ones that got phased out of their original career before they had the nest egg set aside have taken the pride away from us that have a passion for this business. It may seem silly, but we were once a prideful bunch, proud to be truckers. Now, we're becoming ashamed to be in any way associated with the current generation so-called truck drivers. We can't relate to them nor they to us.
Nowadays, it's just a job to put food on the table and there's no pride in it for most of these newer drivers.
They (not sure who "they" actually are, but the mega-slave companies are a part of "them") have taken an industry where it took someone kind of special with a certain amount of self respect to do the job and do it right and with pride and turned it into a plain old job that, to many out here today, is just a short step above flipping burgers.
The new drivers get lured into it and then find they are trapped, with no good way out now that they have the time invested and can't feed themselves or their families if they quit, which they will in short time, anyway. They get a crappy attitude where nobody exists but them and they don't care one bit if they negatively impact the next guy. The brotherhood is gone. The pride is gone. The common courtesy is gone. Hell, even most of the communication is gone because nobody talks anymore and half don't speak English. Nor are they required to, for some stupid reason that defies logic.
I guess that's part of the difference; I was taught by guys that were trucking in the 50s 60s and 70s. I was taught by the best of the best and they were tough on me and made me learn not just how to drive the truck, but how to put it on and wear it. To be able to feel every little out of place vibration or thump and how to fix it on the side of the road if need be, or in the parking lot of a truck stop, if possible. These days, if you ask one of these new guys what engine they're running, they might be able to tell you what color it is, but little beyond that.
Sorry to carry on, but once I got started, I just kept going.

I do the same when I'm trucking, sometimes. I like the sound and feel of my truck. Sad that many these days don't.

 

One can have pride in doing a job, and still be fully cognizant that it is only a job.

Not one of you is out here doing it for free.