I been reading these forums and other trucking forums about 4-5 times a week, and i saw a post about this guy saying something about its not for everybody but its a good career if you can hang in there. I dont know if this is me or not but it seems like 69% of the things i read is negative towards trucking. I dont know if these trucking forums are filled with drivers that wine like babies or just not satisfied with their job. I really want to start trucking but sometimes i question that desision about getting into the industry from reading the forums all the time, can someone shed some light on this topic please?
Whats wrong with trucking??
- Thread starter chevy454
- Start date
patriciajnsn
Steering Wheel Holder
Even though you did'nt have all the luxuries back in the day as you do now i'll bet truck driving in general was alot better then it is now.
Cerberus
In God We Trust
jeffthompson
Active Member
now can u guys really say times were better back in the "double nickle" days?
seems like there would have been lots of speeding tickets but i wasnt there(in a big truck at least)
seems like there would have been lots of speeding tickets but i wasnt there(in a big truck at least)
as a matter of fact NO there wasent a lot of speeding tickets , as a rule the cops didnt bother us they pretty much left us alone to do our thing, now todaay there are more cops and more traffic and the damn DOT back in the old days we had the ICC BIG DIFFERNCE today the DOT is the main way each state has to generate revenue and they use it well, all the safty propaganda is just that its money but its really always been that way just not as bad and not as obvious and in those days they
didnt put you in jail if you couldnt pay a fine today it dosent take much to go to jail, freedom dosent mean a lot to a cop in perticulat the DOT .
BUT REMEMBER THE DOT IS THE TRUCKERS FRIEND wright i just love them. they help us so much i can hardly stand it .
all have a good ride and stay safe .
J.R. HORTON
TRAVELING HELLS HIGHWAY
didnt put you in jail if you couldnt pay a fine today it dosent take much to go to jail, freedom dosent mean a lot to a cop in perticulat the DOT .
BUT REMEMBER THE DOT IS THE TRUCKERS FRIEND wright i just love them. they help us so much i can hardly stand it .
all have a good ride and stay safe .
J.R. HORTON
TRAVELING HELLS HIGHWAY
greybeard
Well-Known Member
Thanks JR!
In another thread I recently heard someone say that we older drivers just "reminice" and really have no point in bringing up the "old" days.
Well, things made alot more sence in the "old" days. Not as much BS, and the drivers were, for the most part more "professional". Thanks for "pointing" this out JR!
Cerberus
In God We Trust
YES I CAN. IT USED TO BE LIKE A BIG FAMILY. IMAGINE, ANYWHERE YOU WENT, THERE WAS ALWAYS A FAMILY MEMBER THERE WAITING TO TALK TO YOU OR HELP YOU WHEN YOU NEEDED IT. NOW IT'S ALL THE 'ME' ATTITUDE OUT THERE. GOOD DRIVERS ARE STILL OUT THERE BUT THE NEW BREED OF DRIVER IS SO MUCH DIFFERENT.
I AGREE WITH YA HERE, G-BEARD. WAY BACK THEN THERE WAS NOTHING LIKE SPENDING A DAY FIGHTING THAT POS TRUCK TO STAY ON THE ROAD, ROLLING THE WINDOWS DOWN FOR THE A/C AND NOT WANTING TO HIT THE BREAKS TOO HARD SINCE YOU DIDN'T WANT TO FALL OFF YOUR MILK CARTON BEING USED AS A SEAT. AND STOPPING IN A MOM/POP TRUCK STOP FOR A CUP OF JAVA WITH AN OLD TRUCK DRIVER AND MEETING NEW TRUCK DRIVERS . EVEN TO THIS DAY WHEN I WAS LAST OUT THERE , I ALWAYS MADE IT A POINT TO SIT NEAR OLDER, WISER TRUCK DRIVERS JUST TO CHAT AND HEAR THE STORIES. THAT WAS SOME GOOD TIMES.
greybeard
Well-Known Member
I didnt mean THAT far back!
Unless your talking about some of those florida only companies
drunken monkey
New Member
food for thought.......
only you can make your world a better place......serenity is the key ..innerpeace and satisfaction are golden if you are not happy....only that person looking back at you in your mirror.. can change it be a part of the solution not the problem and remember no matter how messed up it is for us out here on a daily basis we still get a paycheck oh yea and give mom a big ole hug when you see her cause she played a big part in the thing called your life................. there were no (good old days) there has always been a certain amout of problems for drivers out here cause when i started like alot of you we had cabovers nothing good about that and even with shorter cabs and 48"trailers we were still fighting for a parking space at the end of the day always some (know it all) sitting around the (horse shoe) with tons of guys no offence ladies not 2 many of you driving back then anyway tons of guys feeding on what MR trucker was lying about .....so what has changed did i miss something things still appear to be pretty much the same as they were in the so called good old days .... now there are just more drivers but atleast we have better rides now.......................
only you can make your world a better place......serenity is the key ..innerpeace and satisfaction are golden if you are not happy....only that person looking back at you in your mirror.. can change it be a part of the solution not the problem and remember no matter how messed up it is for us out here on a daily basis we still get a paycheck oh yea and give mom a big ole hug when you see her cause she played a big part in the thing called your life................. there were no (good old days) there has always been a certain amout of problems for drivers out here cause when i started like alot of you we had cabovers nothing good about that and even with shorter cabs and 48"trailers we were still fighting for a parking space at the end of the day always some (know it all) sitting around the (horse shoe) with tons of guys no offence ladies not 2 many of you driving back then anyway tons of guys feeding on what MR trucker was lying about .....so what has changed did i miss something things still appear to be pretty much the same as they were in the so called good old days .... now there are just more drivers but atleast we have better rides now.......................
welcom to the forum: now back in the so called good old days as some of us call them , i dont ever remember having to hunt fo a parking place the only exception was on the east cost, now the old transit truck stop was always full but thankfully i didnt run east all that much, but you do have a good point only the driver can make things better no matter where you run and ive said it before the driver creates most of the problems out here today BUT not all of them some of the new drivers in perticilar the women take care of business and they do it well , i guess the bad make so much noise that you forget the good ones but they are there and the good ones are tuff enough to make it when the bad ones get tired and quit, things are not all bad guess we just notice the bad more then the good . somthing wrong with that picture and i guess im as guilty as anyone else.
BUT i do believe we can make it better and only we can.
all of you have a great day and drive safe . J.R. HORTON
TRAVELING HELLS HIGHWAY
BUT i do believe we can make it better and only we can.
all of you have a great day and drive safe . J.R. HORTON
TRAVELING HELLS HIGHWAY
Cerberus
In God We Trust
Sinister
pari animositate
I can't help but think this post is (at least indirectly) directed at me. Well, that's cool I guess. I brought in on myself with my tag, and what little information I've added in my profile.
The problem is, truthfully, most of the time, I end up not liking other drivers very much, without ever having met them, and I don't do the things I see them doing, and yes, a lot of the time I do end up thinking I'm better than they are.
Call it arrogance if you want, and that's fine, you're probably right.
But, if you're crapping in a walmart bag, and leaving it in the parking lot because you're too fat and lazy to walk to the bathroom, then I'm better than you. I actually watched a female England driver jump out of the right side of a truck, squat, and pee next to the truck in Ontario, CA once. In broad daylight. This was in the Ontario West. The stupid thing is, you have to drive right past the c-store to get through the gate into the parking lot. That's a lot of effort to pee on the ground in public like some sort of homeless drug addict.
If you're writing your phone number on the wall for sex, you're pathetic, disgusting, and I'm better than you.
If you haven't bathed in a week or more, refuse to do so regularly, and still think people want to stand close to you and converse, I'm better than you.
If you're leaving the truck stop after your break, and the first thing you do is run over the curb, dragging your trailer onto the rocks 5 feet into the mulch, and the driveway is 100 feet wide, then I'm better than you.
If you can only run 60 or 65 on the interstate, then get into a major city where the speed limit is 45, 50, or 55, and don't bother to slow down to that, then ride my ass after I passed you, I'm better than you.
If you refuse to get out of the middle lane, when trucks are restricted to the 2 right lanes, I'm better than you. And, you're unsafe. Part of watching the road is looking in your mirrors periodically.
My point in this whole thing is that there are a million MILLION retarded and bad habits people get into and being better than the next guy, isn't really that hard. Now, if we were all MENSA members, I might have a challenge.
I think if we all tried to be a little better than all the bad habits we all see every day, we wouldn't have so many problems, and would be welcome to park in many more places than we are.
Oh, and I've yet to figure out how unsafely overloading a truck, and not being able to do so now indicates that trucking has gotten worse. Don't get me wrong, I'm probably more of an outlaw than a lot of other people on the board, but I can't help but think stories like that are geared speicifically toward complaining just for the sake of doing so. *shrug*
2xR
******* Derelict *******
Excellent post, Sinister... until you edited in that last paragraph.
I find all of your statements to be "right on", and, can't really find a valid argument with the last paragraph, except, that when hauling (getting paid) by the ton, the more the merrier was the rule of the day. It was a fact of life. To recall that history (even fondly) should not make someone a target of arrogance.
And, you get extra points for perception. :tiphat:
I find all of your statements to be "right on", and, can't really find a valid argument with the last paragraph, except, that when hauling (getting paid) by the ton, the more the merrier was the rule of the day. It was a fact of life. To recall that history (even fondly) should not make someone a target of arrogance.
And, you get extra points for perception. :tiphat:
Sinister
pari animositate
You know, I guess I should have picked up on that. I mean the hauling by the ton thing. I started in dump trucks, and a lot of times before we went to our site jobs we'd haul a load of roadbase limerock and yeah, when loading the previous night, we'd often give the hopper guy a thumbs up which meant, "Load er' up!" And our first load of the day was well over 73280!
Well, I guess I'm bound to forget a thing or two.
See, for me, overloading a truck might happen once or twice a week at most. It was never a mainstay of my income. I guess it makes sense looking at it like that. But, I think I'd probly find a different job if I worked for a place that pretty much forced me to do it.
You have to know an outfit that's that "fly by night" isn't going to go to court for you, or buy the fine! They're gonna hang you out to dry!
Then, the trucking company and the mine gets sued (usually as a result of a horrible accident where the truck is found to be overloaded, and therefore at fault) and the next thing you know they wont overload trucks, and you get guys talking about how "it used to be".
One thing leads to another...there is a reason for everything.
Well, I guess I'm bound to forget a thing or two.
See, for me, overloading a truck might happen once or twice a week at most. It was never a mainstay of my income. I guess it makes sense looking at it like that. But, I think I'd probly find a different job if I worked for a place that pretty much forced me to do it.
You have to know an outfit that's that "fly by night" isn't going to go to court for you, or buy the fine! They're gonna hang you out to dry!
Then, the trucking company and the mine gets sued (usually as a result of a horrible accident where the truck is found to be overloaded, and therefore at fault) and the next thing you know they wont overload trucks, and you get guys talking about how "it used to be".
One thing leads to another...there is a reason for everything.
SilverSurfer
Old School'd
I was actually impressed with the beginning part of your post, but then ya lost me at the "there were no good old days."
Have ya ever truly tried to understand why we refer to days gone past as "the good ol' days?" Even with all the problems which still plague our industry, and the equipment we had to deal with...we refer to those times as the good ol' days. Why?...the brotherhood which existed among truckers. That's the biggest change...the loss of the brotherhood which once existed. And that change is directly due to the trucking schools pumping out workers (drivers) instead of truckers...in my opinion.
Other changes were the de-commissioning of the ICC, the lowering of the age limit requirement, the allowance of brokers to run rampant, companies allowed to run rough-shot over drivers...as well as other regulatory issues. Also, the conversations which used to be among truckers have become more like bitch sessions, instead of good conversations - and this too I blame on the truck schools pumping out workers (drivers) instead of truckers.
The ethics and morals trucker's once valued and held in the highest regard is no longer being taught to the next generation of truckers. As I enter the last leg of my life's journey...I am saddened by this loss among the next generation. And truly pray this loss will one day be regained.
-ss-
Thundersmoke
New Member
Unhappy Truckers
In loosely quoting Rush Limbaugh and I'm sure some other successful individuals, "stay away from those who are negative about their employer or line of work."
We have a lot of people who hate their employer out here. Those that don't aren't prone to talking to those that do. Next time you're around a group of those, ignore them and/or walk away.
Even though we don't get to run 100MPH and drive for days on end without sleep, there's plenty of us out there that still love the career.
I'm not always happy with my paychecks, but I love doing this. I recommend finding happier :bounce
eople to converse with. The "HATERS" are easier to find, complainers always are.
In loosely quoting Rush Limbaugh and I'm sure some other successful individuals, "stay away from those who are negative about their employer or line of work."
We have a lot of people who hate their employer out here. Those that don't aren't prone to talking to those that do. Next time you're around a group of those, ignore them and/or walk away.
Even though we don't get to run 100MPH and drive for days on end without sleep, there's plenty of us out there that still love the career.
I'm not always happy with my paychecks, but I love doing this. I recommend finding happier :bounce
eople to converse with. The "HATERS" are easier to find, complainers always are.my friend if your thinkig of getting into trucking i personalyt think you could not find a better career or business to get into. sure your going to find a lot that complain about the business and or there companys but as you will find most are still there .
its a very lage diversified business and it has its problems but its a business like no other and i for one would not change to another business ive been out here all my life and i love it , and that has been a long time , im older then dirt. just jump right in you will do fine .
J.R. HORTON
its a very lage diversified business and it has its problems but its a business like no other and i for one would not change to another business ive been out here all my life and i love it , and that has been a long time , im older then dirt. just jump right in you will do fine .
J.R. HORTON
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