Why a strike? The CSA 2010 will cripple trucking.

I was not offended by your kindergarten comment. Yes, it is great to live in a free country and I will keep on driving like I have for the last 20 years. Hope your feeling better.

 

Hey,

I have read this whole thread and I gotta tell you guys, it doesn't matter. whatever rules they make, however many drivers they chase off the bottom line is that they want deregulated prices and want a regulated industry. If they want all this stuff then step in and regulate the rates. The elogs change your life. You can't run down the road to a grocery store, or a running path, cause you are gonna start your book.

They don't want to pay detention, they don't want to pay a minimum wage, they don't want to pay over time, hell they don't even want to pay accurate milage half the time.

I'm a single guy, I own a truck and I run all the time and I still come up short between maintence and the amount any work costs to have done.

Am I going to be able to buy a house? Hell no. A decent car, no. Support a family nope. You guys can talk about the free market all you want but this industry is trying to have it both ways. They want deregulated prices with regulation.

They are living off a gypsy drivers who live in thier trucks and that is no way for a man to live. If I take four days off in a month it takes weeks to catch up and god forbid you have a break down. I pay health insurance, disability and run legal but I still have to have the ###### elog put in for this 2010 stuff. I'm done, I pay the truck off and I am out of the business. It is a waste of time and you don't get paid for staying in it longer , unlike every other real career out there. All they want are company drivers who don't even have a home much less hopes of a family of thier own.

And it's cause they want it both ways. If they tried regulating anything but the drivers , like freight, then all of a sudden we would have support, but right now every other business is feeding off of our lives.

You guys can talk all the goverment stuff but I am a democrat and Bush was doing this stuff , clinton was and now Obama is. At least now when I get out I will get health insurance while I find something worth doing. I'm just sorry I wasted four years hammer down and then got a truck. It was great til the ###### elogs and now this. I don't believe that wages will go up stuff, they always say that . It gonna be a race to the bottom and then companies like arrow that were under bidding folding and then another will pick it up. The owners claim bankrupcy and retire and they have a whole new batch of drivers to keep wages down.

The only thing to do if you are smart, young and professional enough to do this job the right way is to pick another industry cause the skills it takes to do this job will pay you just fine someplace else. Sorry to be a downer but I loved this job and my truck and I work over 70 hrs a week for what? to bring home less than I did waiting tables in college. My family has been in the business for 3 generations and it's a ###### shame. It's one thing to justify to your girl staying out if you are making money but if that's not even happening at a certain point you start to get the message.

Hey, I let my company know " we aren't getting paid enough" and they say well wages are going up after this or that. You know what...even if they do, what's gonna happen in a year, will I break down and not have enough saved up? Or have to borrow...the point of taking the risk in a business is to make a profit and everybody got thier hands in our pockets.

Freightliner is charging 120 p/hr for labor...with a minimum of one hours work. Ha. It was cheaper to buy the tool myself. They are saying it's 2200 dollars for a gearbox on a columbia...I didn't need one but 2200! without labor that is outrageous. I got some warrenty left ( if they actually honor it) but after that and paid off, I certainly won't work for an elog company. I thought about going out on my own but now with this other stuff whatever the only thing I can see is getting out with your head up and picking something that is actually a career cause this is a job and they have done thier best to take what security there was out of it.

Good luck fellas, I'll see you out there. I'll be legal and safe but don't expect me to feel secure cause of that since no one is looking out for me and mine anymore.

 

GOOD MOURNING MY FRIEND: now i just read your post and for the life of me i can't understand it and i in no way mean any disrepect to you.

i understand your having problems we all do at one time or another but we all have the choice of doing things another way if what we are doing is not working and from the sounds of your post it is not working we need to move on and find another way. now im not trying to be to critical but i am trying to think up some words of encouragement from the sound of your post you are in desperate need of it .

i've been out here a long time and i no what problems are of that you can be sure BUT i decided a long time ago to get rid of the problems and do things a different way obviously the way your working is not working out .

now im not trying in any way to put you down but i would like to give you some encouragement it is not over and it can be better you just have to find a different way of doing things. you never lose till you quit and that is a fact , just don't give up.

now im a little different then most i dont like to see a man lose his business , his truck, and have all his plans and dreams come crashing down not to mention all the money he has envested i feel everytime a driver gives up ands loses his truck it's another blow to this business, and let me tell you one thing to lose a truck is somthing you will never get over you have a lot envested and to lose it all will break your heart.

now i am an owner operator BUT im and independent owner operator big difference from a lease owner operator i do not lease to anyone period. the truck works for me not anyone else . i've been out here almost 50 years now and i've been thrue what your going thrue as a matter of fact a few times but in this business there is always a better way all you have to do is look for it then get a little determenation , then get pissed and make the move . works every time .

now ill tell you what i did and my way is but no means written in stone there are many way to truck but the main way to do it is get independent your losing money every time you lease your equipment you can lose up to 40% of your rvenue every week or every load and it sounds like your leased to a company, not a good thing if you want to make money that lease will cost you dearly.

now it's true a lease sounds attractive that because the leasing company makes it sound that way but in reality it is not it's expensive and everything they say they give you they in fact do not it cost you quite a bit and every time you hook to there trailer it cost you more .

now you can lease to a company and make enough to make truck payments and take care of your maintenence and in most cases clear enough to buy yourself a boloney sandwitch BUT is that what you want , thats all it takes for some the question you have to ask yourself is this do you want to work for the truck or do you want the truck to work for you there is a difference. and if your leased your working for the truck and the leasing company and i promose you the company could give a #### about you.PERIOD. all they care about is the money you can make for them and if you don't make them enough they will find away to get rid of you and they wont be long in doing it , IF YOUR INDEPENDENT they cant get rid of you, you are the boss, kinda hard to fire yourself.

now it is true there is a few things you need to do before you can be independent but you can do it and im going to tell you how to do it step by step you can use the information or not it's up to you.

first of all DO NOT LISTEN TO A TRUCK DRIVER STORY if all they have to say is gloom and doom just walk on buy , make your own mind up after all it is your business and your the one that is going to win or loose.

next thing you have to do is get your own trailer, now it does not have to be a new trailer and right now used trailers are selling pretty cheap and getting cheaper with the economy and all they do is tag along behind you very little maintenence but there what makes the money NOT the tractor.the tractor cost you money you have to feed that thing.

be carefull what you buy , overhead is your worst enemy buy cheap preferabley with no payments and i no that is not always possible but buy as cheap as you can you can get pretty further down the road. but to be independent you have to have a trailer.

now what type of trailer to buy? well that depends on you and what you like to haul , me i pull step decks and thats all i pull most of my business is machinery and equipment im lazy thats about all i haul. but you can make money with any of them in perticular when nobody goes in your pockets but you. and that my friend is a real big thing.

now you have a tractor and a trailer , the next thing you need to do is get your own authority, now getting your authority sounds complicated dosent it , well in spite of what you hear out there IT IS NOT and it's not expensive either you can even apply on line yourself if you no how ,me i do not i have some one do it for me mistakes are expensive and time consuming. the cost depending on who does it for you is about 350.00 bucks once you have your authority all that is left is permits and insurance now i dont like paper work and im not to good at it i have the same people do it all and the money it cost you make back with one load and you dont have to worry about it .

once all that is taken care of your ready to load FOR YOURSELF and that is not a big thing loading the wagon is the easey part but remeber this you have to go where the freight is you can't be to selective dont depend on a load going to the house everytime it just does not work that way if your going to make money and that my friend is what it's all about money but money in your pocket not some one els's.

REMEMBER you never lose till you quit, and make decisions for yourself , dont' listen to truck driver story's your a truck driver chances are they don't no as much as you do in perticular if all they can do is preach gloom and doom. this business is a good business if you do it wright and you can make money at it .

now im sure your going to hear a lot of comments when some others read this but consider this , i have six trucks on the road with there own traulers , one more tuck in the yard getting ready for the load all of them are payed for , all of them are older trucks and with all those trucks that most say you can't make it with my gross for the month after paying my drivers was 60.000 bucks now i dont have a problem with that at all and most of the time i don't look for a load , they are calling me to see if i have a truck availabel and thats what happens with your own authority and it just keeps getting better,

i sincerly hope this has helped you my friend, trucking can be a good business for anybody that has the will to work and there is money to be made when you do it yourself.

best of luck to you my friend i no you can make it . southenpride

 

Thank you for all the info and the encouragement you had for us. And congratullations for your success! I admire and respect that.

I see you started trucking 45 years ago. I bet it was much easier and cheaper than now, correct?

I'm a newbie (only 2 years experience, driving for a mega company). I would not try and would not recommend anybody to start their own trucking business at this time.

Correct me if I am wrong, I think the economy is not doing well, freight is not great right now, many changes coming, more regulation, higher taxes...

Those who started years ago and now own their own truck (s), have good contacts, good reputation, etc, can keep their business going and survive the hardships, but times nowadays are much toughter than before and getting toughter.

Me, I've been self-employed all my life, till I started driving for a company. Don't like the changes coming, eletronic logs, etc... and I'll be darned if I will work for an elog company....

Would like to have more independence, and more control over my job and my life, but I don't have the money and the knowledge to start my own trucking business yet, specially during these hard times.

So, I try to learn as much as I can everyday and maybe one day I will be able to have my own business again, on the road. We shall see...

All the best to everybody.

 

Hey Southern Pride,

I read your post and I agree with you on the attitude, and I have heard some of the thoughts you have had from people close to me. I didn't make the kind of mistakes that you are referring to with the leasing, and when I looked at getting in getting a trailer of my own and exploring the option of getting an authority was certainly on my mind. I have an older, but well maintained rig almost paid off but I would really expect to make a lot more in profit to deal with the restrictions coming on. I can't spend over a year losing money while wages catch up to Elog and CSA costs and they weed out the unsafe drivers. I simply will not move the truck if the load is not going to pay well enough and there are many people out there who see thier truck as a roof over thier head and are living day to day and that is the compitition.

I bought a used truck and I actually do make money...I feel that I am a sucess as far as making it in this business driving. As to becoming a company owner as you describe that to me is a way bigger decision that I would have to see larger profits to make happen. Essentially to make that happen I would be looking at finding some of these trucking Gypsys and then pocket the difference. That is a lot of my risk on thier shoulders and with the regulation that becomes a bigger problem for me to consider in going further with investing the profits I do make now.

What I was refering to and really what the post was about was the rules coming through with elogs ( which are going to be nessasary since they can match qualcomms to log sheets in court cases whereas that used to be private information) and CSA 2010.

My point was that while I am making money, I made my plans and investments based on the risks that I understood from a business I, and my family, have experience in. I do a good job and like the job.

What I am saying is that the profit as a driver is not big enough to make this something that an ambitious person , with a family, or plans to have a family, would want to get involved in.

To ask for the time, and restrictions that they are asking for I would expect to make a lot more money. The reason why is that I can go and make just as much as I do driving without driving right now. To me that is not about emotions or feeling bummed that is just a fact. If a man isn't making enough in PROFIT driving to make a house payment, support children, have health insurance (or save and reinvest in the business as you are describing) and get time off to enjoy those things then it simply isn't a job worth having. These rules in CSA 2010 and the effect of elogs is to make the job even less appealing. In exchange for that effect on my lifestyle and profit I would expect to make more money. The only thing that will keep intelligent, hard working people who have options in the business is more money.

That is really what I was getting at, since this was a thread about those rules and strikes in general. My point was that though I enjoy the job and am sucessful at it I am young, educated, ambitious and willing to work hard and that those things will take you far anywhere. Why would I choose to spend that in trucking if I am not going to be paid for the things I give up? Especially with the goverment ( and again I am not anti goverment) determined to bring in south of the border trucking companies.

To a degree to an owner like you bringing in thier drivers might not be a bad thing since you would be able to profit off of thier lower expectations but they are bringing in companies not just drivers so again I would expect to see a much larger take home to cover my risk.

Bottom line with the higher legal expectations and higher expenses of truck maintenance that are being put on o/o I expect a corresponding hike in wages that noone seems willing to make. They are regulating an awful lot of things that cause higher costs but not regulating higher pay. They can't have it bothways. People who catch onto the fact that it is not a way to get ahead will leave the industry and what they will end up with are substandard employees who are I think less efficient.

I liked seeing your plan and how it worked for you but I have to tell you that if I am going to choose a business to devote myself to it why should I choose trucking which is getting more and more regulated on the drivers side without providing stable increasing profits to cover the costs. Right now I can even get health insurance while I go back to school or take my money and start a different business.

I appreciate your response and and read it with interest and I hope this makes my previous post more clear.

 

now fellows i keep hearing a lot of rumors about the new regs in 2010 and quite frankly i have no idea where ther comming from most of the regs are not even posted yet and furthermore they dont come into affect till july if then.

ive done some reading about the new regs and have found no one mentioning electronic logs as a matter of fact the log book is being revised again the new revisons are still out , no decision yet who knows for sure what they will be , im sure there not going to be good a politision is doing it and they scew up everything they touch, but electronic logs , i doubt it .
as near as i can tell the same laws that wehave now apply there just going to be put in a national data base enabeling the feds to better keep track of what we do no big deal.

now as far as them creating a driver shortage well that is also none sense
there may be a few that wind up gone but not many we have heard all that before and it was all a lie there never was a shortage that was just an excuse to start truck driving schoola you see how that worked out .

as far as it hurting business, dont think so just like feight is so bad now , funny trucks are still out there doing there thing up and down the highway and every load board is full and every broker has got a load you might have to argue price but the loads are there .

i don't uderstand why everyone is so worried about regs that are not even final yet and as far as i no none are posted but the rumors are sure flying.

the DOT is getting more power , hell they have all the power they need now when it comes to a cmv and they use it there good at wat they do BUT if you keep your truck i shape you don't have a thing to worry about.

now the way some of these guts run up and down the highway well a few of them will dissapear and believ me they ask for it a truck is not a hot rod to impres the girls with and those that at like that i have no sympathy for its past time or them to go anyway.

all you guys that are so worried about the rumors youve been hearing you just have to learn not to listen to a truck driver story it will give you an ulcer, you really think they have a direct line to the white hous , i think not.

have a pleasent day. southernpride

 

Good evening,

I currently work for a O/O with one truck in his fleet. I have yet to be pulled in for an inspection at a scale house (i know it will happen). My boss and I are always talking about CSA 2010 and have come up with the following advice that a scale operator shared when I had to explain why my IFTA's were missing on the right side in MO:

Keep your dash clean and if something is on it; make sure its your log book and load information
Keep the outside of your truck clean. There are plenty of places that have hoses that will let you rinse the tractor
Keep the inside clean too (if the guy sees trash he may pull you in)
Do your proper pti's and if any faults are found let the shop know so they can fix them
Take pride in your work and be honest. Chances are the scale house may cut you some slack if you have a positive attitude and actually give a crap

Hunter

 

Nice attitude and great post, CSA2010 has caused me to rethink about going back into trucking but positive thoughts shared by other drivers like you help rally responsible, professional attitude that is still in the ranks I see. Way to hittem! If I make it past the physical WED I'm still going to give it go.

 

I have been pulled in for inspections and have passed without a problem. Most of the advice here is good , of course it always is surprising to me that it is not common sense. I am not talking about people that need simple advice like that.

I understand the trucker story advice but I have to tell you that there is alot of real information out there. A LOT! I know that there is a temptation to just blow off information you don't want to pay attention to and just chalk it up to stupid trucker stories and if I listened to the normal trucker story I would never have bought a truck. However, that doesn't mean that there will not be an effect from regulation. The point about the changes in privacy law regarding the use of satalite data is still going to have the effect of forcing the elogs for most companies. Even if the companies don't want them the insurance companies will want them. I know you have a fleet and I am happy that there are some business owners holding the line but the fact is not many companies are.

My concerns are not even that the regs are bad, poorly planned, or even that elogs are that bad. You can work with them. The problem is that the profit will not be enough to keep me on the road and that the effect is going to be to chase me out of the business. If you want to know why there are so many dirtbags and the business is going down is the lack of profit. We are not getting any payback for the higher risk and costs of these regulations and the time between the application of the regs and the corresponding rise in wages is lost money to me and unreimbursed wear on my truck. The fact that the compitition is basically homeless guys in trucks happy living on thier advances and not expecting anything more will drive people with options out of the business.

If you knew me personally, and we were talking face to face you would understand that this is not an attitude problem. I am a happy , safe, legal trucker with a well maintained clean rig that I own.

While I make a profit it is not enough to stay in and buy another truck though. The rates need to come up to make it worth complying to the additional regulations since all the costs have gone up wildly. The average wage in america is about 36000. IF i am working 70 plus hours a week away from home even without overtime and with all the legal and safety concerns I should be making at least enough from running a truck as an owner operator to raise a family, buy a house and so on. I should make more than 36000 in take home. That is not happening.


that is all. Have a good one.

 

You certainly make an excellent point! Due to the increased cost of complying with regulations, and the ever increasing cost of just doing business the small fleet owner and independent owner operators are being forced to cut corners wherever they can!
Neglecting maintenance schedules, not performing required upkeep, and hiring less than professional drivers at sub standard wages in some cases has become the only way that some of these small companies can stay in business.
Of course part of that is because of the rate cutting being done. Maybe if the industry as a whole decided to quit hauling cheap freight.. and if frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their ### every time they hopped