Old School Trucking..

Unfortunately "woe is me" is the in thing now, and society coddles it. The days of old are past.

 

I started at CR England in a classic XL. They were a trash company then too.

 

Your right ..
It was kinda the same song then .. sort of ..the big thing I use to over hear alot was .. ( I've been out 10 days and they want me to take another load
I used to say to em hey MoFo.. you signed up to drive a truck didn't ya .what did you expect ?

 

I think their sister company was Pride. Looking from the outside in, they were a class act in the 80s.

 

I also remember in the 80's Prime.. out of Springfield Mo. was a class act they had some nice rides they hauled alot of boxed beef before IBP sold out

 

Prime trucks use to be in the ditch a lot as I remember. I-40 and I-44 popular places for them to run off and roll over. Of course they use to run around 80+ mph everywhere.

 

Back then if you were a good Driver, with a good work history, once you turned 25 all the best jobs were available. If you were Lucky, you got one. I remember my Dad after getting laid off from his Local Driving job at Chrysler, getting another job the first day he looked. It was a Teamster job pulling doubles. .33 cpm in 1982. Pretty close to $1000 a week. Sometimes more. They ran him constantly. Only off work for 8 hrs. On the road, a company employee at the terminal drove him to a motel, they gave him a wake up call, and picked him up 8 hours later. When at home they started calling 6 hours after leaving the Terminal. We used to leave the phone off the hook. His wife blamed it on us teenagers in the house. How it worked is usually you ran the open board for 90 days as a casual. Top pay, but no benefits. The Company did have to pay into your retirement though. Then after 90 days they had to hire or fire you. If hired for the first 6 months you were what’s known as a “70 percenter.” Making 70% of top pay, and full Insurance benefits. After 6 months you got a raise to 85% After 18 months from hiring date you had full parady. Top pay. ( Same rate as casual Drivers pay) .33 cpm. Every 3 months runs came up for bid. Drivers could request any run they wanted. Runs were assigned based seniority. It was a good job, while it lasted. Deregulation eventually caused them to go under. One day he went in to do his bid run, and the gate was pad locked. No warnings, no reasons given. None needed.

 

I won't disagree with you .. I think they hauled swing'n too .. but I can't swear to it. I know they weren't governed trucks ..lol

 

Prime used to be an outlaw bunch with rides that cut a fair clip. Now….

As far as what’s changed….everything. Finding a pay phone, doing check calls, com checks, party row, tooth picks, two sticks, good money before deregulation, they have sucked all the fun outta this deal. Just a job these days and jobs are for hoes

 

Yeah pride was owned by one of the other brothers. Nice trucks, never drove for them. Lots of kool aid drinkers at CRE aspired to work for them. I wouldn’t work for another England if my life depended on them. Should’ve gone with Dick Simon