OK I'm fed up with the BS and the back and forth.

I won't get into post 9/11 regulation. You at getting into stuff I know nothing about. I just knew about the 12 hours flight time after talking to a pilot. Other than that I don't know much about a pilots HOS rules or shifts.

I wouldn't say its arrogance. There are a LOT of problems in trucking. I have seen changes over the years. My dad has seen many changes as well. Many more than I have. But even the changes and regulation I have seen is doing more harm than good. Yes there are some drivers who cheat a log to get more on the paycheck. Pay the driver more money and he won't have to do that.

There are others who have time sensitive cargo such as livestock haulers. Weather it be hogs, chickens, or cattle. The HOS litterally screws those drivers. Cattle can only be on a trailer so long before they have to be let off for a break and food and water. Same goes for hogs and poultry I would assume is the same. 20 hours is the limit to my knowledge. If they book me from McCook to laradeo that's like 900 miles I won't make that in less than 20 hours running legal. So you have to get creative on the log. 10 hours of cattle sitting in that trailer and by the time I get up I'm going to have to pay $60 a head to get them taken off the trailer, not to mention find another job. I have yet to have a load like that, but I have already been told it will eventually happen.

So I wouldn't say its all arrogance. I'm not arrogant I know what I'm doing can get me in some trouble. Im also not going to play whoes me. Its my choice nobody else's. And keep in mind drivers that are on Elogs are only as honest as the person who edits their logs. You can still cheat one of those.

 

Well, this is a small company and I know the CEO and really like the people I work with and the kind of runs they been given me, but they were behind the competition on pay. I just kept patiently documenting the kind of work I was doing and the hours I was putting in and that it just wasn't adding up. I said I wanted to stay but would have to leave if things didn't change in 6 months. Other drivers said they will just pretend to listen and do nothing. So we had our quarterly meeting this morning and announced a pay raise, pretty much what I had said we needed. What a shock. They're not just blowin' smoke. Believe it or not these guys would never lie to us.

 

Go ahead and smack me over the head I got him started hammer. Sorry

 

30-year veteran drivers have no clue what it is to come in this industry today. No disrespect, but it's a lot different now, and with things the way they are with the economy, lots of ways to trip you up to make you fail, which is what they hope for. They got their money for hiring you, on to the next victim.

Probably more so, maybe you should have stayed in the military and done a full 20.

You will definitely NOT make 50k - 60k your first year. Especially not with one of the mega-carriers. Do the arithmetic where Hours Of Service is concerned. If you're lucky enough to have ALL long haul loads, and drive all clear interstate with no problems (traffic, construction, accident delays, weather), and you average 55 - 60 MPH for almost 11 hours (can't drive your entire 11 hours on the interstate, you'll need time to find a place to shut down), you might get 600 miles a day (about the best I've done). You'd be real lucky to run a 12,000 mile month - 144,000 miles a year with NO TIME OFF. Divide that by the starting pay: Gee Wiz, I ain't gonna make 50K.

"Brand new trucks" is a hoot. Lets start with the hundreds of miles some companies send you to get your issued truck. With most carriers, you're most likely going to get something almost illegal to be on the road. The Kenworth T-600 I was issued did not even have mud flaps on it, the shop was closed at the terminal, and I was expected to bobtail to pick up a trailer 100 miles away. ROFL - yeah right. You might get away with no mud flaps with a trailer, but not without one if an alert Trooper spots it. My truck also had starter problems it took THREE different terminals and FIFTEEN days down out of 45 to get it fixed. Yeah, there are little aggravaions like that. Then your Driver Manager might blame you because your truck was down so many days to boot.

Trainers: There's another joke. Some companies allow a driver to become a trainer with only 6 months experience. Yeah, that really enstills a lot of confidence for me.

If you have a wife and kids, OTR may be a serious mistake. I had no issues with being away being un-married, no kids, and no home obligations. I do not recommend OTR trucking for anyone with a family unless being away from them 3 - 4 weeks at a time and only 3 - 4 days home is the best thing for you (sick of the nagging spouse and screaming kids).

Recruiters are like Politicias. They're gonna tell you what you want to hear.

The driving enjoyment may end with the school. It depends on who you start with for the job.

Then when you are with a company, it depends on your Driver Manager. Some of them make your life a living hell. The prerequisite to being a D.M. does NOT include experience driving a semi. Most of them have never touched one to say nothing of having driven, so they do not consider some of the added problems of semi operation when it comes to running you.

I can give you a whole laundry list of what you should ask. But I guarantee those questions will be side-stepped or not answered. Also, if you ask certain questions, you might not be considered for the job because you know enough already to ask certain things.

Best of luck to you with what ever you decide.

 

Meh, you know how it is, some things you can't fix...

You think there weren't crappy jobs back then? You think this is the first crappy economy? There is as much change in the recruits as there is in the companies. Guys like 379exhd, Logan76, and a hundred others on here will do just fine. Why? Some grew up around trucking, some on farms, others just have common sense, and some all three. And I think you'll find that most of them have fewer dents and dings in their wake than the vast majority of the driving school grads. You can't take people with no common sense, little mechanical aptitude, and poor spatial reasoning skills and expect them to succeed in trucking! Are some of the companies dirtbags? Hell, yes! But they are not the only ones to blame for the current mess!

 

It's not as relaxed as you might have thought from simply being told 'I can fly 12 hours'.

I am well aware of the 'creative logging'. This creativity is also known by the D.O.T., which is why tighter regs keep coming down the pipe. As for myself, I refused to do anything 'creative' because I won't bend for anyone who clearly has no regard for me or my CDL (to say nothing of people on the highway around me). I can speak volumes about how a company will force a driver to do things he / she does not have to do, and should not do with their UNWRITTEN policies. Don't be too sure my notation of 0 - 1 year is what it may seem. Additionally, there is nothing about this industry that is rocket science. I have been through Federal Regulation books with a fine tooth comb. I did what most companies do not count on pople doing. I read and absorbed everything. There are no ambiguities until a company gets into a person's head. When I hear and read of the complaints about more and tighter regulation, in some ways you're preaching to the choir, but in another way the complaints fall on deaf ears after things I have seen and experienced.

Where time sensitive (JIT) loads are concerned: If I see I can't do the entire haul in accordance with the D.O.T. / F.M.C.S.A. regs, if the company does not have drivers to swap with, I want nothing to do with that company. Sorry, the D.O.T. can take my CDL for being 'creative'. There are other companies out there. There is only one D.O.T.. A company can not take my CDL, the D.O.T. can. I won't do anything at my total risk and sacrifice. The company is not interested in complete risk and sacrifice. Yeah, they are at risk hiring drivers. But my point is the company will be around after an accident I am in which I may be found to be at fault because of certain 'creative' logging. I'll lose my job, and my license - maybe not allowed to drive anything again - period, if I killed someone or several people out there which I'd also have to live with. A cmpany that has a problem with the D.O.T. needs to address that themselves without using me as a pawn. A company or driver's beef with the D.O.T. is their problem, and should not be mine.

I did not say YOU were arrogant - singling you out. I myself am quite arrogant when it comes to looking out for myself, and standing by what I say. As for E-Logs, I agree with what you say about them. I have heard of drivers' logs being altered by the company to make them work more. That's when I call the authorities (if it were ever done to me).


Now the OP being X-Military may also want to re-think things. I don't know what his background is, but if he has a certain discipline level, he will find trucking to be something that fights authority - using the driver to do so. I do not fight a higher authority even if it means I have to settle for mediocre pay. I just follow a book I did not write. If a company wants me to follow policies, I want a copy of the policies in writing clearly spelled out with no double-speak or ambiguities on a company letterhead and andorsed by an official. Not gonna happen, because too many company policies are ILLEGAL.

 

Okay, as I was off radar and this had nothing to do with me, I looked to delete. Can't seem to do so, only edit.

 

You realize if it wasn't for those 30 year veterans that have "no clue" what its like to come into this industry now you wouldn't have a job as a truck driver right?

Those 30 year veterans have forgot more about this industry than you or I will ever know. They lived it and were around it back when trucking was trucking. Before all the EOBR's GPS' and cell phones. Back when you pulled over at a truck stop with a phone number put a quarter (or dime) in a pay phone and called for directions. There were #### jobs back then too. Don't tell me there weren't. My dad started at silvery refrigerated carriers out of Omaha.

Yea they went out years ago old cab over k100 with arm strong steering. He PAID to drive that truck wasn't like today's lease purchase programs he leased the truck paid to drive it and didn't make ####. His last run was picking up a trailer full of butter because the driver got shot up in NJ. DO NOT say the 30 year drivers don't know what its like. We as rookies. Yea you and me are rookies don't know what they went through!

Trucking has changed. Yes the mega carriers moved in and they have high turn over, but it wasn't all rosey back then. My daddys dad drove as well back when 250 horses was king of the hill and the trucks had 3 pedals and 2 sticks. Aka suicide trucks. I've heard his stories they're no better than what we read on the forum now. Sit down with somebody someday at a truck stop and show your respect to him as a veteran driver. Buy him a cup of Joe, and talk to him about what it was like when he started driving. I met a driver in INA Illinois one night he was 72 he'd been driving since he was 16. You do the math at how many years he had. He's missed more gears than I'll ever get a chance to shift. Find a driver like that and sit down and ask him and then rethink what its like and how much things have really changed when it comes to getting into this industry.

We have it made now days. You can criticize drivers for cheating logs, say they don't know what its like getting into the industry now days, etc etc. But keep in mind. Its the new drivers that are taking the old timers jobs. And with the way companies are getting the 20 some things that are coming out of school are taking the job from the 30 year veteran because that 30 year veteran is costing that company too much.

So please feel free to tell me who's really getting screwed here? The new guys that come out of truck driving school and have to deal with the b.s. companies? Or the 30 year veterans that lose their job because the young kid with 2500 miles in the cab that the company decides to give a job and train and pay a dirt cheap wage? At least when you're running for that dirt cheap wage you're getting paid while that 30 year veteran gets to try to find a job. And guess what it ain't that easy to find a job even with that much experience. I would know I tried to help my dad find a job.

They'd rather hire some rookie out of school with no experience, than a 30 year vet with well over 2 million miles. So don't tell them how the world works.

 

That comment was way off your radar. Its something me and hammer would understand but the rest of you will not.

 

Yeah, lots of crappy jobs back then. Crappy economies have also come and gone, but if you do not realize this is the worst in 70 years, you've got problems. Watch who you assume are without common sense. Flame wars need not happen here because some DO have certain knowledge and experience of unjust crap happening in this industry that did NOT happen 30 years ago. In many ways, those in this industry more than 10 years have no clue of some of the unfair nonsense people trying to come in deal with today. I tire of the 'we gotta protect our industry', so let's shoot down the person with less time in this industry than me. It's things like that which make me even more vindictive to the industry and more inclined to stereotype every company and driver the same way. I've been down the road of 'you know nothing with your little experience' thing before. I won't deal with it again by playing the bickering game.

I already know the deal. I am not suitable for this industry because I won't sacrifice and risk it all for the company, I will not allow my labor rights to be violated, and I follow the regulations of a higher authority than the company to the letter. That's okay with me. But I am no idiot. I am what the industry did not count on: A person who reads the D.O.T book in it's entirety, not just enough to pass a written test for a CDL, and I will caution others about how many companies use drivers in ways that are completely unethical. There are some things 'common sense' has nothing to do with.