One Part Of Trucking I Dont Understand ....

I've seen, both on this thread and others, people encouraging young, new drivers to "get an education" first. I feel like I need to say something here, and it might sound strange coming from a college professor.

Like G/MAN said, college is not for everybody. Now, I do think that everybody needs some sort of post-secondary education, but that would include trade schools. Over the years I've gently encouraged a number of students to drop out of a degree program and enter into a trade program. The few students who've done that and I've been lucky enough to keep contact with have been very successful once they moved into a program that better suited their skills and interests.

The push in the US to send everybody to university is one of the greatest disservices of our time. Society needs tradespeople. We could not function without drivers, carpenters, mechanics, plumbers, electricians and so on and so forth. Society undervalues, them, but we'd fall apart without them. There is nothing wrong with going to trade school to learn a trade you love. I applaud those young people who recognize that.

I personally do not care if the driver next to me on I-95 has a college education. I care that he knows how to drive a truck. I care that if one of the moronic Miami drivers does something stupid in front of him, he has the skills to avoid an accident. I care that he knows what he's hauling and knows how to take care of the load.

If my house ever catches on fire, I won't care if the firefighters that respond went to university. I'd care that they knew how to do their jobs and give me the best chance of getting out alive. If my house is filling up with water from a busted pipe, I only care that my plumber is skilled enough to take care of the problem. I could go on, but you get the idea.

So, JPearson, I'm glad you recognize your personal strengths and interests, and have a plan to turn those into a career. You are several steps ahead of many people your age. That's something to be proud of.

 

Ha Ha..Good for you Pearson!! Well said! You'll do just fine in the trucking business! Welcome to the club.

 

To be fair, your posts are difficult to read. I will suggest again that you try hitting the enter key twice every few lines or so, regardless of whether you think you're ready to start a new paragraph or not, as it simply makes reading and going back to review a specific spot easier.

This forum is a lot like trucking. You will get out of it in accordance with what you put into it.

I'll take another stab at answering your question. Negativity is a quirk of human nature that seems to manifest itself when people feel they are being treated poorly. Trucking companies sometimes think drivers don't care or treat their equipment poorly. Drivers sometimes feel they are being cheated. Both are true sometimes. Over time the industry has given birth to a bottom feeder mentality by companies, shippers, consignees, brokers, drivers and the public in general.

It's difficult to say exactly how it started, but I have some pretty good ideas, which go back too far to talk about in short posts. Try watching the movie Hoffa. Regardless of what you think of the man or Teamsters, it gets into the roots of the negativity you speak of. Truckers were fairly well abused in the early days. But not just truckers, try reading The Wealth of Nations (extremely boring tome on economics and power) and you will see how those in control can cause these things to happen.

 

Just from your initial posting, I knew trucks/trucking was in your blood, and you had all the "right stuff". You have a unique down to earth "realistic" approach to trucking that many new entrants don't seem to possess. I've seen a lot of students/wannabes post on TTR, but often you can tell when many are "barking up the wrong tree" when they are wanting to be a semi driver. I don't see any of that in the way you come off.

Well said, G3Truks. Had I caught it when you posted this I could have joined you, in stating that.... in "Stereo".

Tho I complimented the OP above, I must take some of that warm fuzzy feeling away , in saying I agree with you wholeheartedly. A multi-sentence block of lines, without any paragraph style break, surely does make reading considerably harder. It also makes it harder to look back to try to review words used for any particular part or point.

 

I'm sure you will do well grasshopper ... keep in mind ... we live as we dream -- alone. Keep an eye on the man in the mirror.

 

My Uncle used to drive for Matlack (PIPE LINE ON WHEELS) he retired in about 1978. In 1979 I lost my home due to a fire and he gave me one of old work shirts and had left a pay stub in the shirt which when multiplied out he was making $36,000 a year in 1973! WOW. Well that was a lot of money then and he lived pretty good on that back then. In 2000 I was driving for 40CPM all miles even for a bobtail from Iowa to Florida or Florida back to Ohio. They even paid 40CPM for each driver if we teamed YES each driver got 40CPM for all the miles we ran! Well this is 2013 and 40CPM isn't what it was in 2000 nor are the conditions we face with regulations.
Simply put with the living conditions, the regulations, the constant delay at shippers and recievers we can not make what we used to make in 2000. Truthfully a driver in this day and age should demand food stamps as a employee benefit so he won't starve.

 

OP: Here's the thing, Trucking ain't for sissies, Flat-bedding really ain't for sissies! That is a saying you will hear get thrown around here a lot.

Trucking is a hard job, it takes hard people to do that job. Just like the military from the word go we are weeding the weak people out. Otherwise you wind up with this:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4800026099072&set=vb.1848631153&type=2&theater

When experienced drivers give you guff, it is a test to see if you can stand up for yourself.

There is also a bit of hate and discontent from many of us out here towards the big companies that are nothing more than driver mills, when a company can train a guy in 6 weeks and turn him loose in his own truck, then in 6 months he can become a trainer, it is just bad for the industry as a whole and for our image.

You want to be respected by fellow drivers, you have to earn a place at that table, and once you have been driving for a while you will understand why.

As far as your family, pay no mind to them, families are one of the biggest killers of dreams there are next to wives and girlfriends, you want to be a trucker, you do it, you earn it, you pay your dues, you enjoy it.

But if you are going to do it, DO IT RIGHT!

 

Well said.

 

It's a dead end profession. If you have no other skills, or little ambition, you can survive driving a truck, as long as you don't mind putting up with being treated like garbage everywhere you go, and by your own employer, and not having anything like a normal life.
It's fun, interesting, and romantic the first few years. The longer you stay in trucking, the harder it is to get out, because you lose any ambition you once had, are afraid to take on a 'normal' job, and you probably don't have any marketable skills.

It is what it is. I'm being factual. Not negative. I could give you a lot of biased crap about 'freedom' and 'no boss' and all that other BS, but it's really not valid anymore.

We don't get paid enough for the time we put in, and the time we stay away from home.

With few exceptions experience doesn't mean much. You really don't earn much more with experience. You can be replaced by some bozo who just got out of truckdriving school, and who may drive a truck a few months, and quit....then whine about having to repay the student loans or for the truck driving school.