What is the difference in today's drivers, and yesterday's drivers?

I think to really understand this question, you have to ask, "What is the same in this job now as it was 20+ years ago?". Depending on how you look at it, it's not even the same job. EOBRs, GPS, Cell phones, Increased Traffic on road, Increase in Criminal activity, Ever increasing legislation and restrictions, changes in truck technology, and I'm sure I'm leaving out some other important factors.
We're not driving the same roads you guys used to. How much has traffic increased in the last 20/30/40 years..? It's not a slim margin.
We have more rules than you guys did, with stiffer penalties.
We barely drive the same machines anymore. Trucks all serve the same base purpose, but it's a whole different situation inside them now.
24/7 lines of communication. Gives your boss the expectation of communication any time, day or night. Has turned the CB into a tool with vastly diminished importance.

There's so many reasons not to pull over to help people now, that have nothing to do with time. There's the danger of being mugged or attacked. The knowledge that most people have a cell phone (and would likely flag you if they needed help). Besides that, unless a person is in danger of the elements or needs a cell phone, what are you going to do for them? The days of lifting the hood on the side of the road to fix a problem are nearly gone. Yes, you can list dozens of things that can be done road side, but computers are such an integrated part of todays engines, it's not even recommended to try anything other than simple maintenance. I'm a company driver, only been driving 6 months. I don't carry tools. What for? I'm not allowed to do anything with my truck, even if I did know how. Most my company would want is for me to change a bulb. That's another issue I hear directed towards younger drivers, we don't fix things our selves. I was never taught to do anything more than change fluids, and taught means I was told to. Had to call a friend the first time I was trying to figure out where to put wiper fluid. Like I said earlier though, these aren't the same machines, and we don't have the same freedoms. If I was an owner op, yeah, I'd be sure to try to know how to help myself more, but as a company driver, there's no need. From what I've read lately, it seems that Owner Ops are being pushed out of the game more and more every year, so I'm not sure that's something I even want to plan on aspiring to.

So, before you cast blame on new drivers for their actions, consider just how much different this job is now than from when you're comparing it to. Seems like the two eras ought to have different job titles for drivers, lol.

 

You make some good points, but I have to disagree with the part about computers making such repairs impossible. Things you wouldn't do on the road before, you wouldn't do now... never were you going to take an engine apart on the roadside.. that goes well beyond a roadside repair. And tires would be easy enough to do, except I've yet to see a freight hauler who carries a jack, 1" impact, air compressor, and tire bars in their truck to do that.. those things aren't going to be done on the road, and were never going to be (at least, not in a self-contained manner.. certainly the tire guy can come and service you by roadside with a service vehicle containing all the necessary things for replacing a tire). But if you have to, say, replace a boot in a brake chamber, the computer has nothing to do with that.
And I'm not ragging on you here.. that's the nature of where you work. But you can still meet them part of the way. Let's say you blow a steer tire. And let's say your steers are... we'll say Michelin XZA3s, which have 20/32nds tread when new, IIRC. So you blow a steer, and you have to call breakdown to get a tire guy sent out. Let's say you take a 32nds gauge, and measure the tread depth on your good tire, and you find out that you have 9/32nds tread left on that one. Well, you don't want 11/32nds difference in tread depth on your tires - especially not your steers, so you give the company that information when you contact breakdown, then they can decide to go ahead, replace both steers, and perhaps have your toe checked and adjusted in order to save you a trip to the company shop later on. Or let's say you're sitting in the company yard, the shop is pretty backlogged, but you notice a lot of exposed metal on your fifth wheel, and you know it needs to be greased... that's something pretty simple which you could do yourself.
And maybe it's not such a big thing when you're working for a major big box company, and perhaps you don't aspire to be a lease operator or owner operator, but maybe in the future you'll end up with a small fleet, or in the construction industry side of transportation, and you might be expected to perform at least some basic maintenance/repair tasks... sure, you can continue on without worrying about it for now, but it never hurts to learn at least some basic things. I remember stopping at the Bosselman truck shop at the Love's in Sioux Falls because I needed to either buy a replacement mud flap for the trailer I was pulling, or have holes drilled on the other end (which I ended up having done, since they didn't have the short mud flaps for the stepdeck I was pulling)... got to talking to one of the drivers who was waiting, and it turned out he had been there almost four hours to have some lights replaced... clearance lights on the power unit, and a tail light on his trailer, IIRC... those are 'plug and play' items.. you pop them out with a slotted screwdriver, unplug them, plug in the new ones, and pop them back in. I'm sorry, but there's no way in hell I would sit for four hours or more for that, regardless of who I was driving for.
I guess the point is that you should learn some of these basic tasks.. even if you don't use them, you're not going to lose anything by learning them.

 

I'm sure I could find benefit from more knowledge, but where am I to acquire that? There's no book, and it's certainly not part of any portion of the "training" process. I pick things up as I go along, and if there's a problem that I think I could take care of with a phone call or a google search, I'll do it. To generalize this problem as it pertains to the current driver population though, you have to realize that a large number of drivers are new, like myself, who've had no opportunity to learn these things. I have no idea what percentage of the driver population is made up of drivers with X or less years of experience, but I'm sure it's significant, and with this industries high turn over rate, I'd have to imagine that the percentage of drivers who stick around to learn and know things is significantly less than years past, and honestly, I don't see it as the fault of the drivers.

 

You just answered your own question. Pay attention, if you see something of interest going on in a truck stop parking lot or wherever, don't be afraid to say, "hi, I'm kinda interested in what you got going on, would you mind giving me a quick rundown of what you're doing?". You'll pick up on things here and there over time, provided you make the effort to. You seem to have a pretty good head on your shoulders, so I don't think you'll have any difficulty with it.

I wasn't around in the heyday of trucking, either. To someone who got their start in the 60s, 70s, or 80s, I'm "today's driver" as much as you are. I pretty much started off on the same footing you did.. some differences in hours of service, and yeah, I did have a solid background in the old 'hillbilly engineering', but that only goes so far, especially when you have an emphasis on being safe and legally compliant.
But, a quick example.. last Tuesday, I was running my little side gig, taking a truck from Colorado Springs to Kremmling to get loaded, and coming back loaded to Co. Springs. The truck's a 99 Kenworth T2000, and one of the first things I noticed as I got into the cab was that the switch for the marker lights was busted... this one has a switch for the headlights, and a separate switch for the marker lights, which is typical of Kenworth.. well, I had four scales to cross (Monument x2 and Downieville x2), and Barney likes to sit at those scales sometimes, plus he likes to set up at Powers and Research in Colorado Springs, and also often prowls the north end of Powers/CO-21 in Colorado Springs.. right next to the busted switch are several other compatible switches.. so I just found one which went to something I didn't need, took the panel out (used my bit driver to remove the two Torx bits), popped the switches out, put the one I needed in place of the busted one, plugged it in, bolted the panel back in, and voila.. not even five minutes to keep the fuzz off my ###.
Little things like that can save you a bit of hassle at times.

 

Yep...pretty much....

 

I noticed with old drivers that they have a complaint within 15 seconds of speaking to them.

 

You must not speak to too many old drivers......But , most of the complainers would complain about inheriting a million bucks. Some folks aren't happy no matter what the subject is , truck drivers don't have that market cornered. Most of old drivers are pretty happy since we're retired , but there are just as many young drivers complaining as old , they've always been around. In fact , the older hands complaining now are doing the same thing that they did as young drivers....like I said , some people never do anything but complain...

 

Yeah, experience alone isnt everything. I had two trainers at 2 different companies that each had 20 years xp. I'd have traded both for someone with a year experience.

 

Dude, if a truck driver of any age ain't complainin' about something; check his (or now her) pulse quick like. He's either in super deep REM sleep (in which case you'll know quick like when if it's a guy he pounds your nose or if it's a gal you loose your fingers to a straight razor she feels the need to sleep with because for some stupid reason us guys don't seem to get that just because she's female and driving a truck doesn't mean she's looking for a hook-up and she takes more crap than she should have to) OR he needs 911 cause his heart ain't beatin'.

A bi+chin' driver is actually a happy driver. It's when they get real quiet that you got to be on the alert 'cause that's when somebody's fixing to blow a gasket big time. Kinda like an old 600 series Detroit. It's when they QUIT slobbering oil that you gotta worry about 'em.

Just my two cents and yes; I'm bi+chin' about us bi+chin' about stuff so I'm double bi+chin' so it's a great trip and I'm doin' fine thank you. It's midnight and I'm gonna cook some dinner and hit the hay. I'M JUST GONNA SLEEP, so keep your pulse checkin' fingers to yourself or I'll pound your nose, mind ya.