You better watch it or I will buy you a ticket too.

I run Texas and Arkansas,  with 75 and 70 mph speed limits, in an ungoverned truck.  I couldn't have a better situation to crank miles out.

On an absolutely perfect day,  I can do 684 miles  in 11 hours of drive time and make $280. With no benefits.  

Or I can have days where I go work and only get home that night because of looseleaf and don't get paid to have sat for 7 fucking hours.

Well as someone who is a truck driver let me see if I can answer.   There are two sides to the industry.  Solid Load and  LTL (Less Than Load).    OTR guys are really solid load guys.   They basically drive for a living.  As an LTL I "back for a living".  What that means is whereas the OTR guys might hit one or two docks in a week I might hit 15 a day.    The OTR lifestyle sucks.   So many of those guys are fat as hell.  I mean hell all they do is sit all day and drive.   I climb in and out of the truck all day long.   The OTR guys eat at truck stops and eat shitty crappy food.  I'm home every day.  Which allows me to go to the gym and have somewhat of a normal life.  But even my job precludes much of a social life.  Go into work in the morning and get home in the evening.   But I am off every weekend.  So that's great.   I make good money and the benefits are good.   I'll never be rich but I'll never be poor either.   And that CDL in my pocket is a guaranteed job.   I have all my endorsements including Haz-Mat.  Not just anybody can do what I do.   The places we LTL guys have to get a tandem and a 53' trailer into sometimes takes skill.   I've watched people try it before and then realize its not for them.   The worst thing is just dealing with the people on the road.   I am DEFINITELY not a fan of cellphones.    Govt. regulations are going to end up precluding anybody from driving one before long.  Its just ridiculous some of the crap.   I doubt any of you know this but the new trucks sold today burn CLEANER than the new cars sold today.    The emissions systems on the trucks my company I work for is buying  cost $15,000 alone.   A replacement filter for those systems cost $3000.  And guess what the mechanics at work are having to work on with the new trucks all the time?   Yep you guessed it.  The emissions systems.    The amount of cost that it has added to just the company I work for in parts and labor and upkeep for those emissions systems is RIDICULOUS.   Thanks a lot our wonderful government.   And all that cost just gets passed on.

If you'd stop buying her all that imitation crab meat she might feel better.

honestly it just doesn't seem pleasant.

i've considered it before. i'd never want to drive a CDL A truck through a city. the traffic would just be stressful with a truck that big in a crowded area. that and your stuck in a truck cab all day, just sitting there driving.

fuck that.

That's not the most stressful part of the job.

Why? B/c "Ask a guy sitting in a parking lot for 56hrs" threads, Thats why.
 

Bullshit. The insurance company isn't the ones behind that policy, they are just the ones that get blamed.

Again, that's not how 99.5% of trucking works when dealing with freight. Hauling RVs is speciality.

 

As I said in my post previously.

You delay one of my trucks. You pay me. Easy as that.

Detention/demerg is a very serious thing for my company as well as majority of trucking companies that I deal with. Which is a large number of them and some major players in the US.

Is somebody going to spoil the joke?

These teeners have no idea whats going on.

LOL,

I drove heavy trucks (HET, PLS, M-916...etc) for 20 years in the Military.

Qualified in HAZMAT and explosives transport and hauled tanks on the German autobahn.

No accidents, no tickets, decades of driving experience.



 Contacted multiple companies before I retired and they all told me to fuck off. They refused to consider all the shit I did in the Military and told me that I was considered as an " inexperienced driver". I tried like hell to find a company in Oregon but with the cost of living there it's almost impossible.

After that, I decided to stay the hell away from truck driving.

What joke? You think his mother is a joke? Is she a clown? Does she amuse you?

No clue what so ever..... I've been there done that.

Not BS, I've gone round and round with my insurance company over this. They keep saying NO. Hell I've even told them that I would take the newbs out for the first 90 days, still said no. I've got 18 years clean driving, with ZERO accidents. Still no go. Its their way to mitigate loss. Even if it puts a strain on smaller companies like mine. I would love to be able to take drivers with just the basic skills and teach them the way I was taught, hell there would be a new class of old school drivers if I could.
The truck Ins companies are just another racket that pays of the .gov to get what they want and fuck every one in the process.

My family has been doing this for 97 years.


How long have you been doing it?


I'll run with my experiences. Sorry you get hosed.


Edit;

Going back to another thread... I'm fairly certain I have the largest fleet on arfcom. Over 100 company owned trucks and vehicles.

UPS Feeder drivers make more money than they want to, but I bet every one of them hates it.

The last military truck driver we hired couldnt drive a stick. Thats a deal breaker with us.



 

I know a few of them, nobody I know hates it.
You guys can complain all you want about unions. Teamsters Local 174 in Seattle has pretty darn good compensation.





The feeder drivers have an insane hourly package.



 

Some companies get paid.

Drivers make $30-50 a day for sitting not in a dock.

I love watching people miss a meme

Still curious on the professional part

So what we decide?

I'm in my second year of progression, so say half scale, and I don't hate it. Maybe once I get to full scale I'll learn to hate it...

Man, I guess it depends who you talk too and what they are moving.

What owner operators need, what, $1.40/mi to make money now? The foreign non owning team OTR drivers are taking routes from Ontario to southern border and back for a few hundred each after it's all said and done.

I meet some that are too busy and making money hand over fist, meet others that are hurting and looking for other work.

I guy I flew with the Marines got out, became a truck driver moving feeder trailers regionally. Quit, became a cop, and went back to truck driving due to him missing all the $$ he was making.

Same here we deal directly with our agent



we submit a copy of their DL/Medcard to the insurance company and they send us back a copy of their MVR and a decision if they will cover them or not



Its not the companies decision or policy , we would have no problem with a enthusiastic competent newbie especially over some of the old crusty flaky dipshits we have had to deal with
I am sure other places will cover as these guys end up working somewhere but ours will not , probably because we only have a handful of drivers and the risk pool is small






 

Seems like a good topic to cover in the interview process.

Of all the driving jobs I've had LTL was the best.

If you are a good driver LTL will find you. Pretty much the only way to get into LTL is experience and knowing somebody there already to get your foot in the door . Also there is very little turn over.

Best OTR gig is a large company that hauls its own product like ADM or Wal-Mart. They tend to pay better have nicer equipment and take care of their drivers. Those companies also tend to be difficult to get into. Specialized pays quite well and can be difficult to get into but has even more regulatory headaches.

Some of the best companies have waiting lists because the have virtually no turn over because they don't hire "Seat Meat" while others hire drivers by the bus load paying pennies knowing there is another bus load of new applicants arriving next week

LOL. No......

Nope, and he won't be able to check his straps or chains on that flatbed load of pipe either...