How much better was it back in the day

255 air

 

They were great days

 

Honestly I ran too hard and started at 18. I grew up in a trucking family, and was going to show all the old dogs how it was done. Thank God I matured and didn’t hurt myself or anybody else. Hard to admit, and not proud of it. I haven’t used an alarm in many years, I go to bed when I’m tired and wake up when I wake up.

 

It was fun, and better. I ran team miles by myself, and never had one accident. You know what we had back then? Comradery. We looked out for each other. We took care of each other. I retired one year ago and I do miss traveling, but I do not miss trucking.

 

Comradery is easy and natural when 85% of the community is similar. When half of the "community" is from overseas, or just out of prison, can't speak English the "community" operates according to prison rules.

 

I drove a 86 WhiteVolvo that looked like this one but Yellow with blue accents that was a condo. That truck did not know what 40,000 lbs was, other guys swore she was a triple digit truck +20. I was way up in northern Michigan one night and I got her to about 97 on level ground with 47k on and I got scared and backed off. I had RPMS left.
My boss bought it used off a guy who used to turn the west coast with it. Had crazy big custom fuel tanks on it, like 190 gallon each

 

I won't lie, I ran the crap out of the book, tossed it out the window and kept going, Used to run from Salinas to Amarillo, then sleep. or to Rock Springs. Na fo rthe most part the drivers I knew in the refer world ran long and hard. Safe we thought so then, but I have a different view of it now. My son drives I would not want him to run like me and his grandad ran...No I believe the new elogs are much safer, dispatcher, companies and brokers cant push you nearly as hard. My dads saying was gear'um high, run'um hard. Stop when you need fuel, if you did need fuel there was not any reason to stop.
I for one am glad to have the elogs put the brakes on the madness. The good ole days were that great, and I for one am glad I survived them.,

 

ha ha ha, my brother in law, is 100% Mexican , great guy, but there moving back to Mexico. Don’t let any of them fool you, once they have a cash flow, they are out of here. I guarantee it.

 

Ha ha ha , you got that right. Cement truck suspension, fan on the dashboard, was the air conditioning.

 

i don’t want to go back. After 45 years, I’m done. Soon one day , wake up, turn off alarm, go back to bid.