If I've learned one thing about trucking that is...

...you're expendable. Trucking companies don't give a #### about you. Trucking companies only care about one thing and that is if THEIR truck makes a profit and if you can't make THEIR truck turn a profit then you're terminated and quickly replaced with another driver. If you're late with a load, have an accident, get the truck stuck and require a wrecker, or let the fuel gel and require service you've now caused their truck to not turn a profit for the next several loads and to the company that is not acceptable. They only care about the profit that comes from each load. And if you can't make their truck turn a profit then there are 100 other truckers waiting at the door willing to have a chance to make a profit with the same truck you are driving. You're just a means for their truck to make the company money. If trucking companies had robots drive their trucks that were 100% efficient there would be no jobs for us driving. Don't think you have a permanent job as a trucker, once your truck looses a profit you're on the way out the door.

 

Mostly all true, sorry ,

 

What's going on at Roehl? Just curious!

 

What I've said in my OP is unbiased with my experience with Roehl, with most trucking companies they seem in my opinion concerned only about the profit their truck makes, not their drivers, the driver is just a tool for the company so they can make a profit off of their truck. Just my personal experience with the trucking industry in the last several weeks. If you think you have job security in the trucking industry, you're wrong, one f' up and you're out the door and the company has 100 drivers waiting at the door and one of them may make the profit the company wants.

 

Many jobs are that way, especially NOW !!!!!

 

Ok, just to be sure I understand...you think that if you get in an accident, are late on loads (loss of customers) don't look after their equipment, and they should keep you on cause your a nice guy?? There is no business, trucking or otherwise, that will keep employees like that. Yes their bottom line is profit. If it weren't they would not be in business.

 

There's a flip side to that too though. Most businesses just want someone that's reliable and productive. You don't have to make the most profit, you just have to be consistent. Trucking is a high cost business with little margins for profit. The costs are always fluctuating much more so than most other businesses and it has an effect on all other industries because there's not an idustry around that doesn't depend on trucks to some degree.

It's not all that highly skilled but it does take skill and a certain kind of person to do the job. Not every person can do it. The reason the drivers are so disposable now is because the demand for freight isn't anywhere near as high as it should be, therefore they have to be a lot more cost conscious to stay afloat and hopefully make a profit at all.

When/if the demand for drivers pick up, the companies will have no choice but to put up with more driver demands as they won't have a choice either work with them or risk losing them in a market that dictates that drivers can jump ship today and be in another truck tomorrow. This won't change the job necessarily but management will be more willing to overlook things and deal with drivers more fairly.

 

On the other hand if you owned that truck and trailer, paid for the fuel, and was losing money would you keep a driver in it that can not turn a profit?

 

Yeah...and? Every business cares about profit. Making money is the reason behind being in business. If I had a business, and an employee was costing me more money than he was making me, that employee would be gone. It's not fair to me as the business owner, or to the other employees of my business to keep a non-productive employee. Simple fact.

 

Well everbody knows that. These trucking companies spend a lot of money hiring rookies and training them. It takes a while for a rookie to even turn them a profit at all and most rookies are going to have a parking lot type of incident costing even more. It's all baked into the cake though.

Hell I got stuck in a customers lot one time backing into a hole, should they have fired me because a wrecker had to come pull my steers out of the mud hole? I mean it was a gravel parking lot.

Or how about the time the truck gave me a warning that I need to stop the truck immediately. Just doing my job like I'm supposed to right? What should I have done ignore it and potentially risk an involuntary shut down potentially causing an accident? They made the decision to tow it and it turned out to be a false alarm yeah that cost them a bit but probably not much because the warranty may have covered it.

I do understand what you're saying though, if a tree doesn't produce fruit, you cut it down to allow for one that will.