Pay 10 years ago vs pay today, more work for the same money!

Totally agree. Wages definitely have not kept up with inflation by a longshot. That said, I've done better in trucking than I have in any other line of work. Many other folks have too. Even at 1000 bucks a week, it can make a living. It just won't make you rich, and trucking has never made anybody rich. What's made truckers well off is how they spend their earnings. Many of these drivers try to eat steak every night when Wendy's will work..or even getting some groceries. As far as where to start, you pose a great question. People go in to big time debt to better themselves. I gotta a state grant to get my license. I also had to work a lot of jobs just to pay for college before that. It wasn't til the final year of school til I had to get loans. Sometimes when the resources, aren't there, one will have to work 2 jobs to get the cash up. Or if the time isn't there, because of kids or sick parents, I think one has to accept their lot in life an get on a different trajectory for life and/or career, and do the best you can with what you have.

 

In my 35+ years, and a myriad of deliveries, I am proud to say, I never once paid a lumper to unload my truck. My 1st boss, Paul Schmit of Brookfield, Wis. who lived to be 94, told me my 1st day, "son, you are responsible for that truck FRONT TO BACK,,,including the cargo. If you don't want to accept that responsibility, you can leave now", and I took that to heart. I "fingerprinted" more loads than most, truck tires were the worst, but I felt it was good exercise, and showed you were responsible. I learned a lot from that man.

 

I don't belong to Facebook but I took part in a charity raffle last year with a younger bunch of people and they got the word out almost exclusively through Facebook. They didn't use TV or radio, just Facebook.
I felt old and out of touch.

 

I figured out several years ago how to configure my Facebook feed to minimize the BS and maximize my enjoyment of it. Among other things, I (mostly) stopped posting political stuff. I mostly post or repost things that make me laugh, or music I enjoy, or stories from my day to day life. I shrunk my friends list to people who are actually my friends, and the ones who sometimes post stuff that raises my blood pressure get unfollowed (but not unfriended). I don’t usually leave comments on Reels or groups, because life’s too short to get into it with strangers.

Facebook is far from ideal, but it does give me an easy way to interact with people I care about but wouldn’t otherwise be in contact with. I have family and friends scattered all over the world. Besides, I spend most of my time alone in a truck!

 

I deliver bagged livestock feed on wood pallets to stores and ranches and a majority don't have a dock. I have to use a electric pallet jack to unload and sometimes have to use a liftgate trailer to roll it off the trailer. It's not too bad and not terrible if the weather is good.
It's just another part of the job but I'm a local hand and not OTR.

 

Once, I delivered bags of fertilizer to a farm in SE Wis. When I got there, something didn't look right, no tractors, machinery of any kind, what gives? Opening the doors, 730 bags on the floor. I said to the guy, what is this place? Oh, we're Amish, he said, I have a crew of "brothers" on their way. They did have a skid steer, we'd load 10 bags in the bucket, and he'd be gone, I said, why do you have a skid steer but nothing else? He said, they can't have anything with a steering wheel. I was there most of the day, but they fed me and were great folks. The little ones, fascinated by my truck, when I asked if they wanted to sit in it, they all ran away. One of the more rewarding times as a truck driver.

 

First job in 2004, Schreiber cheese loads. I got paid .32 cpm to drive, but got 6-10 cents per case to unload and split the pallets into Ti-Hi for the customer.

A multi stop load to the northeast or southeast , the unload paid more than the miles driven, the cases were 20lbs at best.

$800 -$1000 paychecks were attainable, and at 29 years old, fresh immigrant, the best $$ I’d made in my life.

At that time the lumper outfits would do everything they could to discourage driver unloads. I’m guessing it’s worse now.

 

Me too, I left last year. Don’t miss it one bit.

 

start asking them math questions,

What is half of two plus two.

3.


In 1990, a person is 15 years old. In 1995, that same person is 10 years old. How can this be?

The person was born in 2005 B.C. (Before Christ). Therefore, he was 5 years old in 2000 B.C, 10 in 1995 B.C, and 15 in 1990 B.C.