The Old days are dying and the New drivers only smell like they have.

Have you been listening to your grandpa?

God bless Texas!
The State where they don't mess with dirty Big trucks.

So, are you tellin' us that as long as the immediate area around you is clean, you feel good to go?

Can we say dry out the rubber on the tire side-walls and streak the aluminum?

Why spend your hard earned money on a shower? Just wait 'till you get home.

WhY!?

I'm sure you're aware that SOME folks view being 'inked' as defiling of the body. SOME even consider that trashy.

Bummers holmes. Some of those tats ARE pretty cool. Ever wonder how day doo dat in prison?

Have you tried consuming mass quantities of adult beverage prior to making an appointment?

Would you take a ##### and a half?

HaiL!
I'd do no less for you. More or less.

OOoopps!
Did you fall in?

You have one of those Bow-Flex bodies?

Who are you?

Are you sure you heard your grandfather right. He mighta been tellin' you to run AWAY from Big truck truckin'.

Well, grandfather might be right on that one.
Shux Howdy!
Just stretch a wire betwixt two tin cans -- and wall-LA, instant communication.
It's a beautiful thang.

Now, there's a thought.

I suggest a Bow-Flex workout, four times a week. You'll be able to whup that ol' man in short order.

YeAH!
21 to 60 --- goin' on 18.
Class is a clean Big truck and can be like a fountain of youth.

Obviously

"Couldn't"?
Or SHOULDN'T?
Big difference.
Gettin' IN is one thang -- it's the gittin' OUT that matters.

How 'bout for US?

Give yourself another year out there. If you can still honestly say that, you just might be a wimp.

Picky, ain't cha?
Do you carry a bucket of yellow paint and a paint brush with you? Might be a good idea to consider if you don't.

My hee-row!

Well seasoned Big truck truck drivers call that "Party Row" or "Land-0-Lizards".

Be careful, Lost Boy --- if you keep dropping pounds, you'll be down to nuthin' in no time flat.

Ain't that like the (former) "lardarse" callin' the kettle black?

Well,.......... except for me.
I don't work.
Just ask my employer.

Rock & Roll!

Are you braggin' or complainin'?

I hear, if y'all ain't part of the solution, y'all are part of the problem.

One thang for sure.
You'll be enjoying the higher cost of living as a direct result of those rising diesel prices -- right along with the rest of us. Only difference seems to be is that WE'LL be enjoying it from the inside of a CLEAN Big truck, while your pig-pen exterior company truck shakes dust on the highways.

It's a pride thang
doncha know.
Take Pride In Your Ride.

Think of your Big truck as an extension of yourself. And remember --- you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Seniority?
Shux Howdy.
I have so much of that --- I'm senile.

 

I'm new to this fourm and I do more reading then posting but I'm not new to trucking.
I want to start out by saying Muleskinner is right his first post says it all.
I started driving when I was 21 I'm 54 now pulled trailers for Western Express out of Fontana Ca. to NY and drove a White 180 W/b cab over no cooler no microwave and no TV just 2 seats 1 being air ride and a 30" mattress. I wonder how many of you young kids would have driven back then.
We had pride and we showed it trucking wasn't a job it was somthing you loved.
I went to the local truck-stop the other day been thinking about driving again and I gotta say I thought sandals were for the beach slip on's to for that matter.
I see now why big companies take advantage of so many drivers if you can't respect yourself don't expect your D/M to either.
As i read some of these post from new or almost new drivers I can tell they don't have a clue about trucking.
If the guy I drove for saw me in sweats a tee shirt and sandals he would have first kicked my *** then bought me some clothes and said put these on and be a MAN.
For a 20 to 30 year vet it has to be vary annoying to have to deal with the trucker of today and before all of you get your Twinkies in an uproar take a look around you the next time you hit the truck-stop you'll know what I mean.
Oh by the way seniority dosen't mean anything cause when you hit that post there goes your job and the O/O he will be a waving at you as he passes by

One more thing O/O's didn't do it to themselves big companies did.

 

I'm are glad you are here and you SHOULD start posting more often, because your opinions are formed from years of squinting through a windshield instead of what a "training engineer" told you 3 months ago.In my opinion,your outlook on the current state of affairs is very valuable.

You are so right about the 0/0 being screwed by the big companies.There used to be a decent living in this biz back in the day when a young man could buy an old truck and over time, work his way up to paying for a better truck and know he had all the work he wanted to make the payments with plenty left over to live on.

He could buy a modest home and know that he could afford to pay for it.He could drive down the road feeling secure in knowing that his wife was driving a decent car that wouldn't break down on a daily basis and his kids were well fed and comfortable.

Companies like P.I.E. ,C.F. (how many of you brainiac 90 day wonders even know who these giant companies were?)and others couldn't stay up with the work THEY had,much less hurt a young 0/0's chance at making a good living.

Flash forward 30 years and with the help of bribes ( Donations?) to politicians ,the big companies have just wholesale raped this industry.We could debate for weeks on how this happened, but the facts would end up being a moot point.It's happened is all that matters and 0/0's ain't the ones who did it.One thing is sure too,you idiotic morons out there driving for these big outfits,staying out weeks at a time(sitting mostly) and only netting $300 a week sure as hell helped buy the tombstone for this industry.Every time they screw YOU around,you were warned over and over about them,so enjoy what you've brought on yourselves is all I can say.

 

Skinner thanks for the welcome
My dad worked for CF years ago a mech. as well as a yard dog.

As far as making a living the guy I drove for did just that nice house great wife and 2 sons.
He was smart enough to set an LA to NY and back each week so we got to be home on weekends.
It's not a bussiness anymore just a game and everyones welcome to play
and the only ones loosing are the O/O the back bone of trucking ,America for that matter. The newb's need to stand up for whats right they need to go on strike show big companies they stand behind the founders united as one group "truckers of America" not a bunch of puppets on strings.


Newb's beware your just stepping stone to another newb.

 

I second what the Skinner said, 642.

I'm domiciled about 20 miles S/W of Fontana.

 

Geeze you old guys do bring back the memories. CF lets see now, was that Consolidated Freightways, or was it Chicken F***ers?

And if I remember my cherry PIE that was Pacific Intermountain Express was it not.

These were quite a bit before my time, in trucking that is. But I can remember as a little kid standing on the corner of Main St. & US 50 in Fowler, CO and watching PIE go by. But I just couldn't get a piece of it!

But I think that was when I first wanted to be a trucker. Sheesh, a six year old wannabe. Shoulda stayed a wannabe I guess, considering where I'm at now. . .Ah well. . .

I've never understood how a guy can go for days on end without a shower and clean clothes. How can they stand themselves?

 

I was one of those 6 yo wannabes too.I used to see those P.I.E. doubles rolling across 80 in Wy as a kid....Wind blowing a hundred mph,combo looking like a snake and some skinny old man with a cigar clenched in his mouth staring straight ahead with his knuckle bones sticking through his hide.Them was REAL drivers.

 

I heard "Corn Flake" and "Constipated Freightways.

I think you're correct.

Perhaps some think they HAVE to run like that to make ends meet?
Kinda sad either way.

 

Half cabs had one for 5 months 8 yard mixer and a Western Star with a 5 and 4 transfer rig had it for a year.
Now those were trucks to die for

Put a newb in one of them and see how long he lasts

 

Half cabs... you talkin' about the old B-model Mack with the passenger side of the cab missing? Dang I remember those! Ugly as sin.

There was a Corn-Flake yard right across the parking lot from the old shop where I used to work as a mechanic. Most of the old cracker-boxes they used in the city ran 6-71's—they'd fire 'em up in the morning and the whole area would be filled with blue smoke and the sound of a few dozen "Screamin Dee-troits" building up air at 2100 rpms (or maybe a tad more if they slipped one of us a $20 to take a wrench to the governor).

I was unloading in Houston last week and a guy came out and fired up an old Capacity spotter with the unmistakable sound of a 4-53. Man, the sound of a Detroit brings back memories! One of these days I'm gonna locate a 6-71 and mount it on a stand in my yard—just so I can hear it run every once in a while.