Do you find the quality of truck drivers on the road to be decreasing?

[Duck]

A little rubber ducky called me with an emergency, I was looking for your phone

Then I remembered that they said you had found it

I didn't call you. You're getting senile.

I sent you a text to see if you had his house number so I could tell his wife that if he calls home from a pay phone, that his phone was at the fuel desk at Palmyra.

 

[Tazz]

I didn't call you. You're getting senile.

I sent you a text to see if you had his house number so I could tell his wife that if he calls home from a pay phone, that his phone was at the fuel desk at Palmyra.

Who said I was talking about you?

 

[realdesertkickin]

Love the mad max picture few posts back...awesome flick if your a mad max-er....The warlord's vehicle was so insane

Not sure how he's cleaning his windows...

 

[Southern Fried]

I saw an example of today's driver in action today. I was following a Liquid Air truck down I55 in Louisiana this morning. Up ahead there was another truck on the shoulder with the hood open, same company, almost identical rig. Drove right past him, never even slowed down. I stopped. Only took a couple minutes to make sure the driver was ok.

Yes, I know... cell phones and all that. But "old school" just lets a driver know he ain't out here alone.

 

[bullj21]

I have been retired for 3 years now after 43 years in trucking over the road. I read this paper each morning and see all of these truckers who have died in a crash, trucks hitting head on, going over bridges , shooting at each other, running over cars ect. ect. Very sad to see this and it says that yes drivers are not doing their job and driving like a fool. I saw many wreaks over those years and even at that way less drivers being killed. I find the federal rules of today are the cause of a lot of what is going on in trucking and drivers. Money is lower each month and drivers work harder to make ends meet while big company's make all the money for that hard work. I was oo for those 43 years and I have friends still in trucking and tell me loads are really hard to find that pay good. Big and little company's hire any driver who can pass a test and many cannot even drive a truck over the road, much more than just driving to be a good driver.I say yes there are bad drivers out there who do not need to be in a truck period.

 

[SpartanBob]

Shout-out to Tazz: Awesome that you've got a Marcus Aurelius quote with your moniker. My favorite quote from him is, "The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's art."

But on to the topic at hand...If the turnover is so high, and good drivers are outnumbered by average and bad drivers, why is the pay not better? You'd think companies would want to attract and retain good talent. I guess I'd chalk it up to A) Many companies are like tightwads and detest paying higher salaries to drivers; and B) Some companies probably have such high overhead, their profit margins are slim and they just cannot afford to pay drivers more.

Somewhere on these forums I recall reading a post by a driver who claimed the driver shortage was just a B.S. narrative the trucking industry came up with to attract more people into the field to A) line the coffers of truck driving schools and B) increase the supply of drivers sufficiently to drive down wages. Not sure abut that, but it's food for thought.

 

[Getfit Tommy]

Those two words "quality" and "driver" should never be paired together. They are an Oxymoron and an anomaly.

 

[Mike]

But on to the topic at hand...If the turnover is so high, and good drivers are outnumbered by average and bad drivers, why is the pay not better?

Because the industry has still not been forced to change this.

Every time one of our industries lose out on more jobs to other countries, trucking gets another fresh crop of desperate workers.

People end up here, in a large percentage, because what they wanted to do blew up in their face. Heck, I left the industry, and ended up back here because of a decision to move away from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Had I not moved, I never would have been back in a truck unless the industry changed to a point where the money was worth it.

People have a need to make a certain amount of money. Trucking, when they look at it on the surface, provides that. They aren't here because this is what they wanted to do all their life while they are growing up, they are here because it's what they have to do.

 

[Electric Chicken]

Indeed. I failed at a couple businesses and went into warehousing which didn't pay enough and was too hard on my body.

Trucking was the most obvious and easiest thing to get into.

 

[Getfit Tommy]

"In a past study on how age affect/effects one's driving skills, the study showed that truckers aged 65 and older are 16% more likely to cause an accident, while truckers new to the industry, especially at the ages of 25 and younger... showed a whopping 188% more chance of being the direct cause of a vehicle accident...."

kind of gives you an idea. I looked up something more specific to just automobiles and the stats were even higher for youngsters because of the lack of mandated drug-testing protocols....

So, how about we just say that the "quality of drivers coming out onto the highways today is quite the cause for concern" ... and let's not scare ourselves to death about the "quality" or especially "lack thereof" in the trucking industry.

This is the very reason why an age for trucker retirement has not been mandated, although many private insurance companies try to make that assessment. Typically, they don't want to hire a commercial driver @ the ripe old age of 70.... their reasoning makes a small amount of sense in that they bring the slowing of reflexes and such into the equation....

in my estimation, a slower reflex is safer than a completely inexperienced trucker... who has no clue of anything pertinent to his job other than the possibility of collecting a paycheck...


It's inevitable: The wannabe "truckdrivers" coming into the game today are going to be extremely high-risk drivers. On a benefit to risk ratio, I can't see a younger, inexperienced driver being a benefit to any aspect of the industry. They can't stay awake longer, or better, they don't know their limitations, which should apply to ALL weather conditions and seasons, they haven't learned to constantly be vigilant to all that is around them, other than the fact that they might have just learned that they can actually see down into a four-wheeler... they can't back up quickly, let alone "blind-side"... they don't know their heighth or length... they just don't know much about anything, and since we were all there at one time, you would have to assume that the younger drivers coming into the game today are going to have a higher predisposition for distractions....as in "technology" ... texting, playing with electronic devices, etc. We have enough to do monitoring mirrors and gauges, etc., etc., let alone adding the distractions of Instagraming, Facebooking, NFC connecting of devices to virtual readouts...


But! They will probably excel at E-logs...................which, as I stated before, is the day I walk away.


Us old dogs have managed our time responsibly for this long without anyone telling us what time to poop, pee, sleep or eat....to suddenly have someone violate your rights past the equivalent of a newly released prisoner on probation to me..... is "unacceptable'


and yeah, I talk a lot, but if you didnt get my points, it's not because of my meandering.


PEACE!!!!

 

[Tazz]

Shout-out to Tazz: Awesome that you've got a Marcus Aurelius quote with your moniker. My favorite quote from him is, "The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's art."

But on to the topic at hand...If the turnover is so high, and good drivers are outnumbered by average and bad drivers, why is the pay not better? You'd think companies would want to attract and retain good talent. I guess I'd chalk it up to A) Many companies are like tightwads and detest paying higher salaries to drivers; and B) Some companies probably have such high overhead, their profit margins are slim and they just cannot afford to pay drivers more.

Somewhere on these forums I recall reading a post by a driver who claimed the driver shortage was just a B.S. narrative the trucking industry came up with to attract more people into the field to A) line the coffers of truck driving schools and B) increase the supply of drivers sufficiently to drive down wages. Not sure abut that, but it's food for thought.

My second favorite

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.~Marcus Aurelius

But I like the one you posted as well.

 

[Getfit Tommy]

That day is coming.... as soon as the ELD's are mandated and all of the O.O.'s walk away.... there will be a huge ratio of freight to available drivers. Rates will skyrocket, ELD's will vanish, people will start to actually take notice of just exactly what it is the truck does out on that highway....

as of right now, most folks think bigrigs are just out here to annoy them, they don't realize that in less than 24 hours, places like NYC could be dried up without shipments of water, no fuel, no paper products. Cities that are tough to get into, high crime areas, and island-like will suffer first

There will come a day


and then there is that day that an emission-free bigrig is supposed to pull 50K.....


I dunno.... when hell will actually freeze over

 

[Duck]

That day is coming.... as soon as the ELD's are mandated and all of the O.O.'s walk away.... there will be a huge ratio of freight to available drivers. Rates will skyrocket, ELD's will vanish, people will start to actually take notice of just exactly what it is the truck does out on that highway....

Pipe dream.

The O/O's won't walk away. The older guys who are about to retire anyway probably will, but the rest will make a lot of noise, then adapt.

I dunno.... when hell will actually freeze over

It will happen long before any kind of industry-wide strike ever occurs.

 

[Getfit Tommy]

Possibly. I dont know. Youre prob right. The cowboys and renegades will squawk...then adapt. I will be old enough to retire. You cant hardly teach an old dog new tricks. Start taking freedom away...thats a tough pill to swallow. I suppose some guys will just have to eventually shut up and drive....or find a way around them. I cant picture it. But maybe i will. Its like putting a tracking bracelet on a criminal....IMHO

 

[AK7]

Because the industry has still not been forced to change this.

Every time one of our industries lose out on more jobs to other countries, trucking gets another fresh crop of desperate workers.

People end up here, in a large percentage, because what they wanted to do blew up in their face. Heck, I left the industry, and ended up back here because of a decision to move away from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Had I not moved, I never would have been back in a truck unless the industry changed to a point where the money was worth it.

People have a need to make a certain amount of money. Trucking, when they look at it on the surface, provides that. They aren't here because this is what they wanted to do all their life while they are growing up, they are here because it's what they have to do.

Well then, I guess I'm the freak in the group.
I told anybody that would listen when I was growing up that I was going to be a truck driver.
I love my job.
But the industry is changing and I only have a few more years and I can pull the pin.

 

[Duck]

When I was 8 years old I studied human anatomy completely on my own out of boredom, with just an encyclopedia.

And adult could point to any organ in the human body on one of those diagram things & I could name it & tell them what it did.

Naturally my mom thought I'd grow up to become a doctor.

Nope.

At the same age I could tear down a lawnmower engine & put it back together and start it.

My dad thought I'd grow up to be some kind of engineer.

Nope.

 

[Electric Chicken]

I studied human anatomy with Playboy.

 

[Duck]

I studied human anatomy with Playboy.

That was a course of study I didn't enter until a few years later.

 

[SpartanBob]

I've only been in this business a little over a year...What is an "ELD"? And why would owner/operators walk away?

 

[ironpony]

I've only been in this business a little over a year...What is an "ELD"? And why would owner/operators walk away?

ELD = Electronic Logging Device

The changes in the industry, such as mandatory use of ELDs that typifies increased regulation is more than many can tolerate. Trucking is becoming vastly different than it was 20 years ago.