On the fence - New trucks, thinking about leaving job

The two that do the truck ordering spend maybe two days a year running about 20 miles one way in one of the trucks during harvest. You can tell thay don't have a clue when they spec trucks out. Who in thier right mind would be specing trucks out at less then 450 HP when we spend most of our time loaded at 105,500 lbs and alot of us will push well beyond that. Heck my average gross is around 109,000.

They never camp in the trucks so they don't seem to have a clue that there is more to a sleeper then just a bed.

They are not the ones sitting at the pumps pumping the fuel into any of these trucks. They don't actually see that these newer trucks are not doing much better in milage.

They also don't understand that most of the milage issues I have are due to the MBN C15 Cat I am running rather then the hood design.

We have two new w900s in the fleet with cummins engines and they are pulling identical trailers and running identical weights as I am and they are pulling 1 mpg better then I am and they are getting almost identical milage to the small bunk 386s and the Volvo 670 mid roofs in the fleet.

We have a few prostars also and they are not pushing over 5 mpg either.

Some people just don't understand that hood design goes out the window when you are not pulling a box behind you and grossing well over 80K.

I laugh at 80,000 lbs because alot of times I have 80,000 in the box.

Below is one of my scale tickets when I was running a tad light for the day. I only had about 72,000 in the box that day.

 

The only time I pull a box is for short haul stuff running product from the plant to a cold starage facility about 20 miles away.

We call it light work. LOL

 

Tazz, we fuel up at a shop pump. We are supposed to write down the gallons on our pay envelopes. Alot of the drivers don't write them down because they think there is no point. Alot of the drivers that do write them down cheat a few gallons to try and get a fuel bonus. I know this because they all tell me about it. They tell me what they are actually getting and will show me the read out n the dash computer.

Not to mention that I have driven the different models we have and I have used the instant MPG readout to try and get the best mpg out of the truck when I have driven them.

But the main reason behind the truck switch is the milage on the 04 I am running. They don't like to keep them past 800,000. The second boss was talking 386s etc because it costs more money to buy a classic hood style such as the 389 and W900. The Volvos were even cheaper but they won't buy them anymore because they tend to live in the shop and they can't get rid of them come trade time.

We can go back and forth till we are both blue in the face but the facts are that you have no clue what we do etc. You won't or don't understand because you are not pulling one of these trailers hauling the loads we haul.

The guys running the 386s hate them, They are small, rattle like a lumber wagon, have no power due to the c13s that are installed in them, Hate the regen thing that has them parked along side the road doing standing regens etc. We have even lost drivers because of the 386s and the Volvos.

Many drivers have the same thinking as many of you here, it is just a tool for a job and you can tell by the condition of the trucks. Broken body panels, NEVER washed, you have to spend a min of 30 minutes just cleaning up the garbage in the cab before you even start the motor. The last one I had to drive I spent the whole day with the windows down because of the stink, even after I spent 30 minutes cleaning up all the garbage etc in the cab and even scrubbed the floor. And I am a smoker!

There are other reasons why I am thinking of jumping the fence. No benefits at all with the company, poor yield this past year has left many trucks sitting with no work because the lack of product to haul. Some of the new drivers are getting runs because the Boss is trying to make work look good to the new drivers so they don't leave right away. The 20 year vets get work but then I understand that they have the time put in so they should get more runs then the shorter term drivers.

But on average, there are not many drivers making over 40K a year. I did right around 37 last year according to my W2.

I have stayed with this job for 6 years because I liked the equipment I was running and I don't really mind the lower pay as long as I feel good about myself.

A little history about me. I have been fighting clinical depression all my life along with self esteem issues. Anything that brings my self esteem down drives my depression into a deeper state. I am like many truckers were it is all about the Looks and Pride, which drives our self esteem. I am happiest when a driver comes up to me and says he wishes he had my truck because it is sweet. Something that happens often. I just wish the crappy roads would dry up so that I can get the thing washed right now. I just have to live with detailing the interior daily for now. Since a wash would not last more then 10 miles up here right now.

One day you might understand that too many drivers a truck is more then just a tool.