Then vs. Now

Yep everything has changed in that 15yrs...

I talked briefly to a woman that I used to be related to. My mother was married to her uncle several years ago. He passed away about 17 yrs ago. The last I remembered, she was only 5 or 6 yrs old. She now works in the scale-office of one of the quarries we load from. How's this relate? Here's how..

I need to talk to her father. He's worked for the same elevator driving a truck since.....1967. That's right, 45 yrs. Sadly he'll be retiring this year. The elevator finally sold out, and will not be continuing the same operation. The way his daughter put it to me.. "He'll be retiring whether he wants to or not". So when you started driving he already had 30 yrs driving experience. I can only imagine the changes he's seen.

 

Sooo many things have changed! I got my cheuffers(sic) license when I turned 18, just a written test back then and was able to grandfather in when the CDL came about.

Drove cabovers for my first 7 years driving, except for a 2 month stint in a volvo while pulling reefers for a defunct carrier. Most of those cabovers had the old style 2 stroke Detroit engines. You knew a hill was coming up before you saw it because you would be downshifting at the sniff of a hill.

Trailers were 38 to 40 feet for flatbeds when I started. Vans were 45 ft long.

We ran Dayton rims on the trucks and trailers and had to change out flats ourselves, no one complained, it was just the way it was. Always carried a tool box on the truck to make repairs too, even though we didn't own the truck.

We used to do alot of wildcatting. Hauling freight with no authority and getting paid under the table. We also used to put 70-90k on the wagon, sleep during the day and run at night.

Bought my first truck in 1994....fuel was around .75 cpg and it was around $20 per hour to get your truck worked on at a garage. Of course pretty much anyone who owned a truck back then could do 90% of the work on their trucks themselves.

These are just a few......My dad started driving in the 1950's....he told me they used to hang a hammock under the trailer during the summer months to sleep.....now thats being dedicated to the job...lol

 

I started with a 1972 Brockway . Spring ride seat no air conditioning no power steering . I was lucky I had the fancy air assisted steering all it did was use all your air as you fought the 28" hard plastic steering wheel .

It had a 1674 cat rated at a whopping 270 hourses a 13 speed and 4:11 rears Dayton wheels running 10 hundred 20's with good old inner tubes .

It had a batwing hood and steel fenders that you could stand on or lay across to work on the motor . If you had to you could take a bolt out by the cab and swing the fenders out to the side so you could get to the motor better.

Oh ya it had the old Hendrickson walking beam suspension that would wear out two men and a boy as it kicked your kidneys out .

But my second truck was a real truck it was a cab over Pete with a 330 cummins and 13 with 3:90 rears on the four spring reyco . I thought I was billy big rigger LOL . Still no A/C or power steering

Bingo cards and trip leases ICC and DOT rate books that told everyone what the rate was . Mileage was looked up in the household movers guide .

Full service fuel stops free steak dinners with fill up or an oil change. Christmass goodies and calendars .

Just a few memories off the top of my head .

 

Sadly, the drivers have changed also.. Sure miss the Ol Crusty Guys...

 

About 7 yrs earlier I worked in one of them full service truck stops (S & S, on W. Hwy50 in Emporia, KS). I was only 16 then. Fixed plenty of those tubes and tires. We had a real hi-tech way of breaking them down. It was called a BFH. Stand on one side and commence to beating on the tire to break the bead. Truckers would pull up to the fuel pump, tell me to fill it, and park it. They'd go into the restaurant, which was real close to the pump.

One driver after seeing me back his rig to park it, (had to back blind-side off-set, then between 2 others), tried real hard to talk me into going with him. He needed a team driver. If I recall, I think he was driving for Sooner Express, or something like that. I told him better not, I was only 16, and didn't know anything about driving a big truck.

 

right after HS (1971) my uncle threw me in his Autocar 10 wheel dumptruck no power steering 16 speed quad box. A quad box had 2 sticks 1-4 so u shift first 4 then put your arm thru the steering wheel shift one stick into second then go thru the 4 again, You just hopped you didn't hit a pot hole with your arm stuck thru the wheel.
My first big truck was a 72 International cabover with a 671 detriot 10 speed only time it saw 60 was downhill fuel gelled every time it was 20 degrees and in mass we had plenty of those nights. Coming out of NJ with 80-90 thousand back to boston going 5 mph up the hills on 84 north of hartford
So enough of that truck i said i need power bought a 79 long nose Pete with a 1271 detriot and 90 series injectors would do a 100 on jersey pike loaded sparks would fly out the exhaust I was the man
then I bought my first new truck a 82 kenworth with a 425 cat 13 speed of course cabovers were king then i didnt care everything fell on the dash when i checked the oil
in 86 went back fishing full time until 2010 now i am back where i started but it is just a tad bit different plus i am an employee OMG how do u stand it Satelittes sending you messages day and nite trans flo your bills dont kick the lumpers ### as he asks for 160 to unload 12 pallets with a electric jack and still takes 3 hours to do it
THOSE THE KIND OF STORIES?

 

I started in 1987 driving for a John Deere dealer driving a 1978 GMC Astro with an 8V-92 and 13 speed, spring ride pulling a 45ft double drop trailer, I had to work on it about as much as a drove it, but I got it cleaned up, restriped, wheels polished and looked good. NO AC and drivng on gravel roads to get machinery.

Drivers back then looked out for each other, now days they dont' even look out for you when they try to run you over in a truckstop parking lot.......

 

Let's see. I started driving in 1997 too, I have also noticed a lot of change. Most of it bad too. Pay had dropped or stayed the same since 2007, what is a CB for these days since no one uses them. A lot say the trucks are nicer but I disagree there too. The fastest truck I've driven is 71 mph and that's considered fast these days. Working conditions have declined and you never get home or you sit more. Truckers always helped each other out, were friendly to one another and stuck together. Let's not forget about the rules and regulations that keep us from being able to do our jobs. They just keep tightening the noose a little tighter every year. CSA, scales and cops. I mean come on!

It has become a joke. Most of the big dogs that were out there are gone. If a driver has a fast truck they drive slow to save fuel so they don't go broke. Trucking to me was running the CB, radar detector, bear scanner and running hard and fast. I made good money post 2002, had a dedicated team run from CA to NJ and back. Was home every weekend and my truck was a Peterbuilt with a 550 CAT 18 speed that was wide open. I was a company driver too. That company no longer exists like many other good ones that were out there. Those days are gone! They are also forcing drivers to run teams more and more now. I have always found that in general, the smaller the carrier the better the job. I was forced to go LTL because of it. I sure miss the open road and the old days. The last OTR job I had was good but I was always scared of breaking some rule, like big brother was always looking over my shoulder.

 

Started in 78 with a 76 freightliner cabover, team driving, hauling twin pups. No log books, just a tack card. had to do our tire changes on the road also unless you could limp it to a shop close by which there never was. Thank god those days are past, but learned real fast how to survive on the road.