what was it like

... then the trucker in the next booth slams the phone on the table a couple times, "I think you're breaking up, you said the load only pays $1.35 a mile!?"

 

What I see a lot of today is some very good people being steered in the wrong direction. I don't long for the "good old days" because my memory is very clear and they weren't always good but I do miss the mutual respect most of us had some years ago. There was a very strong sense of "we're all in this together" rather then the hateful rhetoric you hear now and drivers had pride.
My Dad started driving trucks when he got back from Korea and kept driving until he died 10 years ago. He took me along, taught me how to drive and most of all taught me respect.
There have always been loud mouths, dirty truckers (a "trucker" is not necessarily a "truck Driver" but we can revisit that another time) truck stop cowboys, steering wheel holders and dispatchers that lie but what I see now is a population of drivers (certainly not all) that whine and complain about everything like someone owes them something. It's now just in our industry either....but it is here.
Most of it is common sense...pretty simple really....it's still a great way to wake up in the morning, see our country and meet great Americans.

 

Armstrong steering, 255 air conditioning, as much peak torque as most engines these days have at clutch engagement, spring suspension...

 

Some things never change, I've noticed when four wheelers finally get around me on the two lane, they still use the hand signals.

 

I think one aspect that has really changed is that 30-40 years ago most folks had some experience with camping, let alone backpacking, hunting, fishing, etc. Therefore there wasn't a lot of whining about how uncomfortable they were "camping" in the truck, that was luxury compared to sitting in a tent in the middle of a 3 day rain storm.

Today I think very few people have actual experience being outside. They live in air conditioned homes, get in their air conditioned car, go to air conditioned stores or air conditioned schools or air conditioned offices.... they don't have a clue how to handle heat or cold.

On top of that you have media scare tactics about somebody that knows somebody that died in a vehicle in the heat or stuck in the snow, and most folks seem to have developed a morbid fear of temperatures less than 69 degrees or more than 71 degrees. Without air conditioning back then it was rare to hear a truck idling in the summer. Now the entire lot is idling no matter WHAT the temperature is.

Morbid fear of nature...

 

Can some of you old timers answer some questions for me:

1) What were the weight limits in the 50's, 60's, and 70's?

2) What were the hours of service rules in those decades?

3) When did mechanical reefers replace ice and how effective and reliable were those early units?

4) Why and when did the 40 and 43 foot trailers get phased out?

 

I started in 1975 so I can go from there for you.

1. 73,280 was gross weight. Axel weights were the same as now.
2. 70 total hours on 8 days...but we did not have to log wait time on duty.
3. In the 70s we had mechanical reefers but we top loaded with blown ice. We were very overweight until some of the ice melted.
4. In 1975 I pulled 43 and 45 foot reefers. Saw my first 48 in 80.

 

It seems like 53's came along in the early 90's somewhere. I can remember seeing them buckled in the middle before they learned how to better engineer them and properly load them. I think it was the mid 90's before they were accepted nationally and did not require special permits in some eastern states.

 

t/s with a phone on every table. came in handy!

I had a/c when I started and everybody idled.

 

Wow... that reminds me of coming to the aid of a trucker on the side of the road (barely) whose trailer buckled on the freeway. He was hauling a load of watermelons and the concrete freeway was very bad and started a violent up and down motion that really stressed his trailer. There were watermelons plopping out the big holes ripped on either side. He did a masterful job getting it on the shoulder before the whole thing collapsed to the ground.