Old timer question. Before cell phones and load boards

Rates were set by company's, and you had to have printed tariffs(rates) for what you had authority to haul.
I worked for a good company that gave us $200 draw checks that any truck stop would cash and fuel tickets were hand written.
No elogs, no quallcom, no cells, no computers,no 34 hour resets, 8 hour breaks not 10, no private showers, trucks stops had restaurants, no McDonalds, subway, BK, no Pilots, No J's
How did we survive?

 

get unloaded in ca with 10 others from same co at same truckstop, all call dispatch every morn at 7.30 so payphones was busy, look on a tv like monitor at somewhat of loads might be avail, you call that number and hope you dont have to deadhead few hundred miles, call dispatch with all info so they can set you up and say go, pocket full of fuel money and exp and go trucking, paper maps till you get to any big city then stop and buy a city map or call police to get directions if cb was dead, keep ears open in fuel stops for leads, bol was sometimes plain notebook paper made out best you could with all info you had avail, carry your own tires and a jack and long wrench if going long,roadcalls super slow in areas if any at all, stop on some roads with a drive in to watch a movie if close enough youd hear everyones speakers, add gas to fuel to get speed across the desert, 2-3 sets logs depending, beat on windshield to get vacumm wipers to work, block off front radiator just to thow out in some cabs with doors about to fall off hinges, so much slop in 5th wheels you could almost catch another gear bout the time it hit lol,jakes was you hollerin when you had to brake fast, good ole days idk was what it was.

 

This could really get interesting......wish I was home way to much work on the phone.....but no matter what anyone may say....it may not have been as convenient back when some of us started out.....but we had way more FUN.....

 

Somewhere on this sight is a thread called REMEMBER WHEN. I beleive it was. lotsa good comments. even green stamps was brought up. Lol

 

Yep lots of pay phones. Not very many scale houses though. Gosh can't remember how many times , we would turn the lights out and go by the scale, lol...

Lots of changes for the refers though. You paid cash for the produce and u loaded it at the field, then u went to all the mom and pop grocerys and collected cash. Drivers always gad a few thousand in their pockets, most paid cash for fuel and you settled up when u got back.

Oh yeah it was.usually more comfortable to sleep in the seat rather than in a sleeper. I remember.I would stretch a hammock grom door handle to door handle, lol... no ac, and vacuum wipers, you should be thankful you were not around then

 

It definitely was a heckuva lot more fun back in the day. Nothing relieved stress better than a good "discussion" (read: fight) with dispatch. Money was better, too. We didn't make any more than today, but the dollar had better value in those days.

 

I remember the load board monitor's 20 guys would be watching and when a load popped up the race was on to see who could call first!!

 

Break down on the side of the road and another trucker would stop to help and if he didn't stop he was on the CB with you, writing down a phone number to make a call at the next available phone to send you help.

Stopped once at a farmer's house in the middle of nowhere, walked 1/4 mile up the driveway to ask to use their phone to get directions to a hard to find customer. Spent about 30 minutes convincing the farmer that if I used a newfangled thing called an "800" number he wouldn't get charged long distance.

Yep, had a box full of maps for cities or those map books by the county. Had to buy a new one if you went somewhere new and we had them organized by state and alphabetically by city or county. First thing planning a new trip we had to look and see if we had all the maps.

Roadside repairs you did yourself if at all possible. Busted a copper air line and got it over on the side of the road just before the brakes locked up. Popped the cab up on the cabover and found a 3" section of pipe missing. My brother was a plumber and just happened to have the right sized pipe to make a repair right there on the side of the road. We also carried a small chain saw and ropes just for getting into tight driveways for moving van deliveries, both of us had experience as loggers and arborists so we added value for the customer by beautifying their trees.

Lot's of wasted time at pay phones at truck stops or diners, trying to get through to dispatch.

Every trucker had a wallet chain, running from his belt to his wallet. Didn't want to lose road money.

 

haulin fish from NC to Boston
with a 41 ft reefer grossing 90000
671 238 hp 5 mph going up 84 from Hartford to Sturbridge
if a tire had air it was good
after that was a cabover pete with a 425 kitty
i was in tall cotton then
slept over the wheel so you didnt sleep too long
toll booth every 20 miles in Conn
yes and Secondi Bros was a dump in 1980 too
the Pilot was still the mayflower and the girls worked out of the motel
the only good thing i remember was they fueled your truck and parked it for you
my loads were always on the boat waiting on the truck
back to your question

 

When I started pulling a refer back in the olden days .
You called the company for loads and they would either send you after a load or give you a broker to call .
You called them and they told you the info you needed to have for the load and you wrote it down .
If you were high tech you had a small tape recorder that had a suction cup top stick on the phone .

After you went and got the load you had to go to the brokers office and sign a trip lease and get your signs for the truck and the permits.
The office was often in the back of the parking lot at the truck stop .
When I was running Chicago to St.Louis I had more than one trailer and broker skip the country before I got back the next day !!!!

If a customer called for a rate quote dispatch would get out the rate and tariff book and see what they were allowed to charge .
We had 40,000 lb minis and 40,000 full loads and all kinds of classes.
Sometimes if you had on a load that you didn't have the authority for in a state you paid someone to use theirs to get across a state and yep you guessed it you had to sign a trip lease .

For every trip lease you had to turn in logs and paperwork to your company and the trip lease company.
Of course we all used payphones and calling cards or called collect or reversed the charges to our home phone.

We didn't have to carry thousands of dollars in cash bock then we had comcheck and if we did carry cash it was just a couple of hundred because you could fill any truck out there for 200 to 250 max !
Heck when I leased on where I am at now back in 95 we would get a company check to cover our expenses for the week .
I would take 700 bucks and run 2800 to 3000 miles a week and that would feed me fuel the truck and any thing I wanted for the week and I came home with at least 100 bucks change every week .

Heck I remember when I went into a Flying J and they had phones at the tables them was really quite a improvement over the phone booth !!!
You heard a lot of call me back in an hour back then and we also looked at the load boards in the truck stops too .

There were allot more things in our permit book back in the day too !
You had bingo cards with a stamp from each state and the all came out at different times of the year !
Some states you had to show a fuel receipt or pay the fuel taxes at the scale house on the way out of they state.
We had stickers all over the truck and plates all over the front .
Heck we even had to have quarters back the to scale out at the truck stop because you weighed each axle or set of axles one at a time .
When I started it was 50 cents an axle so it was 1.50 to weigh .

Of course my first three trucks didn't have A/C or air ride 2 didn't have power steering and one had air assisted steering (all that did was empty the air tanks for you in a tight spot LOL )
I had a 72 Brockway that had the wet and dry road switch so you could turn off your front brakes and my 70 cab over Pete didn't even have front brakes at all !
Back then we knew that front brakes would cause you jackknife on slick roads !!!
Try that line today at the scales !! LMAO

Back in the dark ages we even hung out in the parking lots and just shot the breeze with each other!
We would help a guy tarp his load or bobtail into town for stuff to cook out with for the weekend.
Heck we even drank cold beer on Friday nights and Saturday nights!!! OMG !!!

We worked like men we ate like men and we partied like men back then too.
We were treated like men and nobody told us how to do our job we knew our job and we did it with pride .
We were not coddled or watched over or treated like idiots .

When you went in to get a job the man asked if you knew how to drive a truck and if you said yes he believed you and expected you yo do your job if you didn't you were canned and that was that .
You never called you never sent an application in the mail for most places.
You walked in to the office and you talked to the person face to face .
When you quit you took his truck back and told him to stick it up his .......well if you were mad at him anyway.
If he was firing you he would walk out and tell you to get your stuff and get off his place you were done .

These are just some of the things that come to mind from the dark ages of trucking .
Some I miss some I don't some things are still the same .

One thing I can say for sure it has been one wild ride and I wouldn't change a single thing !!!
I love it as much today as I did the first time I got in a truck and took it around the block !!!
I know allot of people cry and whine about what they miss at home and I missed allot myself but I can honestly say I have seen and done more than I ever missed by living the 9-5 drudgery !!!!

Life is what you make it and I have made it one heck of a good time by looking at the good and not the bad anyone can find something to ##### about but I find something to enjoy in every day I am out here !!