ELD exempt trucks or gliders

Said another way.

If what you aspired to in 1975 was to get a Class 1 license and drive a truck for someone else, why should a person in 2018 who aspires to get a Class A license and drive a truck for someone else expect to earn any more in inflation adjusted dollars?

Yet they do earn more, right from the green rookie stage; and if benefits are included and the dramatically reduced hours they work combined with the far more luxurious equipment they drive they earn lot more in 2018.

What is the basis for lamenting this? If similar aspirations produce similar or superior results in this decade than in a previous decade I would think that is entirely logical and expected; I fail to see the basis for feeling entitled to more than any previous generation got for making the same life choices.

Some of those 1975 truck drivers became millionaires by parlaying their trade into owning their own companies with many trucks, some of those 1975 truck drivers drove for someone else for 40 years and retired; different priorities, risks and ambitions led them to very different results.

That is how life has always been and no massive government with library's full of regulations can make it better, they can only make it harder for the one with ambition to get started.

that is probably why some long for the pre regulation days, they did not have to bear watching their fellow workers do so much more with tha same opportunities.

 

Couldn't do what?

 

The income of $96,263.23 is $20,693.61 in 1975 dollars.

Trucker pay has plummeted in the last 30 years, analyst says

"Klemp, who spoke Feb. 26 on a conference call with investors and reporters, said truckers wages averaged $38,618 annually in 1980. If adjusted to 2015 dollars, that would be over $111,000 a year, Klemp said."

How much did truckers earn in past decades? 1990s? 1980s? 1970s?

This thread mentions that 1970 cpm was in the .10s. $400 would be easy to do.

 

What makes you think that a driver in the seventies couldn't live a lifestyle that is now a 100,000 dollar lifestyle?

 

Because I know what truck drivers earned in the 1970's and what lifestyle they could afford to live on those earnings, I also know what lifestyle a 6 figure income can provide today and it is a much better lifestyle than truck drivers were living in 1975.

 

Yeah just keep quoting these "experts" who have never been paid to drive a truck 30 years ago.

I don't have to ask anyone, between my grandfather, my father and myself we have been earning our living in the trucking business since 1942; and not one of us ever stooped low enough to join the Teamsters or beg the government to regulate us into prosperity.

 

The wages haven't kept up with the cost of living. My dad made 13 cents a mile hauling produce in the early 70s. Produce was 4th morning delivery, team or solo, so figure 3,000 miles, conservative a week. So that's $390 a week, $20,280 a year. In 1971, the list price for a pickup was $2,447, which is 12% of annual salary.

I've seen places advertising $0.51 a miles, which would be around $80,000. The msrp for an F150 is $27,705 which is 35% of today's wages, close to 1/3 the buying power of what a driver had in 1971. Wages have in no way kept up with the cost of living.

 

You know dude, this gets tiring.

The HOS isn't there to tell you - a driver - how long you can drive.

The HOS is there so you - a driver - DO not get abused.

Disclaimer - the following rant is not directed toward Rubber Duck.

There is a serious history to the HOS which we should respect. It was created back when there was desperation to make a few dollars (literally) to survive, people hired drivers and beat them into the ground, a lot of people were killed because they were falling asleep by working two or three jobs driving, especially in the West where there was a lot of open boring land. Maybe we need to put this in perspective with our own times and look around to see what people are complaining about when it comes to working for cheap POS owners or megas.

Just because some cowboy O/O can run 14 hours a day without a piss break doesn't mean he/she should or that they can for a month straight, every thing has a risk involved and the more risk, the more of a chance of being killed.

The HOS was a balance of driver power and carrier power for the work to be done but since it became an experiment to find how to control humans, we have had stupid rules and exceptions. We just need it returned back to the 1962 version with the same exact rules, nothing else.

 

I'm actually happy with most of the HOS regulations, except the 70 hour clock rule. If i get 10 hours downtime between every driving day, why make my life complicated by forcing me to take days off?

 

I wish i could like this post 10 times! The HOS regs were conceived at the height of the depression. If you complained about working 24 hours straight, there were hundreds of drivers waiting to fill your spot.

The problem now is the driver gets in trouble for breaking the regs, and most often the carrier gets off, Scott clean.