What ever happend to the ole days

Why yes, it was nice back then. Thank you for for acknowledging our skills and intelligence.

Mistakes? What mistakes? I was born with a stick shift in my pants. Natural born trucker...

 

2 examples this week im backing into parking spot straight in slow and easy im in no hurry if i want to go fast ill do it on interstate dumb ### next to me pull out fast goes around me.2nd example im parked watching the world go by in monroe mi.another moron backs next to me well he does ok till he gets straight then wide open in spot,oh it gets better looks over smiles gets map out lays it out on steering wheel roles a joint in front of god and everybody and smokes it.

 

How do you know it was a joint?

Many smokers have resorted to the act of rolling their own for their habit of tobacco.

 

Snowblind, you must be an old stick hauler, being from Conover.

 

cuz he held it up like want some........yes i am stranger 28 years hauling sticks single drop flat before that.but back to you roadmedic yes could have been he wanted to share his cigg

 

Most likely not in that case.

 

still haul sticks love it just do it with my own truck now dont work as hard now just coasting

 

We were all new at some point and we all made some mistakes. The fundamental difference is this, When we were coming up there were no schools and there were no big bottom feeders that would hire anything with a pulse and try to turn him/her/it into a truck driver.
You had to want to do this and you had to know someone that would show you the ropes and help you get into the business.
When an older hand would tell us how to accomplish something....We listened and learened!
These days it seems that when an older hand tries to tell a newer one how to get something done, The newer hand wants to argue that he/she/it knows the best way to do it because their company or their trainer or their school already taught them how.

Never mind that their trainer in most cases is someone with only a few months behind the wheel that was trained by someone else that only had a few months behind the wheel.
The schools only teach you how to pass a test and aquire a license and the rest is up to the "so called" trainers and the "so called" trainers are more interested in the money that they are paid to train rather than actually helping someone learn the ropes...That they don't really know anyway because they were inadequately trained themselves.

On and on it goes! The self perpetuating monster of ignorance that is the modern truck driver training industry.

So...Now the new driver is out here with an almost total lack of knowledge and skill and he encounters one of us older hands that can see him/he/it coming a mile away.
Many times that new driver tries to pass themselves of as being much more experienced that they are which we see through in mere moments when the new driver starts talking to us.

Sound familiar?

It was brought up in longbedGTs's post...They are too proud and don't want us to know they're rookies!
We can tell but they don't know that.

After us older hands tell these "knowitalls" how something is done enough times and are told that the "knowitalls" know better enough times, Our attitude becomes...."Let'em fail and then maybe they'll listen."

Sometimes it works and one of these newer drivers will fail and decide that they want to figure out why and actually correct the situation and make it in this business. That is when they start asking real questions and wanting real answers and that is when they begin the process of really learning how to do this job well and start on the path that "with a little luck" will turn them into a "professional driver" and not just another "wheel holder".

New drivers are not "professional drivers" like they are told they are by the bottom feeders that survive by abusing them.
They are "new drivers" that are in the process of learning to be "professional drivers" and it is the responsibility of all of us older hands to try to help them attain this goal...

It is the responsibility of the "new driver" to learn.

Some never will "get it"....They are the ones that are simply "not cut out for this".
Others will fail due to the frustration of never being able to get the information that they need to make it in the industry.
Still others will "do OK" and get by in the industry.

The "real drivers", The ones that are cut out for this work and can't imagine doing anything else for a living have the potential to flourish in this industry and do very well for themselves.

But....It will take a LOT OF HARD WORK and the drive that it takes to make it in any business and the path won't always be clear and sometimes you'll have to "Do whatever needs to be done." to make it.

PROUD?

#### right I'm proud! So are a lot of other hands that have gotten to the point in life where I am by their own hard work and preservereance.