|
Welcome to Class A Drivers Forums
Already registered? Login above
OR
To take advantage of all the site's features, become a member of
the largest community of Truck Drivers. The advertising to the left will not show if you are a registered user. 
|
Rookie
Xcarsalesman,
I dont see how I proved your point just because I stated a belief of my father's. My father feels that respect is earned not given. Please go back and reread my response to you as I clearly stated I gave Obama respect at first based on how he carried himself and what he had accomplished, so if you would sit back and think about your theroy of children listening to their parents then I went against what my father taught me....
So tell me again how I proved youre point?
Jimmy
Member
You are comparing truck driving to people with day jobs.Originally Posted by GMAN
Apples and oranges.
An OTR trucker will put in 80-100+ hours per week on the job.
No overtime.
Not seeing his family for weeks.
Not getting home on time for birthdays, anniverseries, etc.
7th most dangerous US occupation.
Irregular shifts, poor diet, sitting for long periods of time, diesel fumes = shorter lifespan
And you are going to say $35-$40k is alot of money for this?!??!
It works out to like 8-9 bucks an hour.
Heck, my uncle made $43,000 driving a truck OTR....in 1982!!!!
Senior Board Member
You are comparing truck driving to people with day jobs.
Apples and oranges.
An OTR trucker will put in 80-100+ hours per week on the job.
No overtime.
Not seeing his family for weeks.
Not getting home on time for birthdays, anniverseries, etc.
7th most dangerous US occupation.
Irregular shifts, poor diet, sitting for long periods of time, diesel fumes = shorter lifespan
And you are going to say $35-$40k is alot of money for this?!??!
It works out to like 8-9 bucks an hour.
Heck, my uncle made $43,000 driving a truck OTR....in 1982!!!!
"lady's and gentlemen, they call me freebird, that's right the legiondary freebird, and i'm back in town"
Senior Board Member
And a union will make the company love you so much they will come out and piss on you!
Todays unions do one thing and one thing only, protect the lazy non productive shiete bag that other wise couldn't hold a job on his own!
Water Board Administrator
Senior Board Member
I think you missed the whole point. No one wants the company's love, whatever that means, and lazy people exist everywhere. I'm curious why you would focus on one thing, which BTW is far from reality. I guess you like getting kicked around by the likes of Werner. Unions may not be perfect but its a helluva lot better than what drivers got now. If we had a decent system in place I could understand resisting a union, but we dont. Drivers get used and abused all the time. Pay gets cut, wait for free, drive tired and illegal, cant idle the truck, cant get home on time...on and on and on. I cannot imagine any driver who wouldnt prefer better pay and working conditions. Oh nevermind. You can go back to rubbing GMAN's nuts now.
Senior Board Member
I see where you're coming from but, those drivers make a choice to stay at these companies. The first two times I tried trucking, once in 1993 and again in 1999, I wound up leaving because of the way they treated drivers. I had other choices to make a living.You are comparing truck driving to people with day jobs.
Apples and oranges.
An OTR trucker will put in 80-100+ hours per week on the job.
No overtime.
Not seeing his family for weeks.
Not getting home on time for birthdays, anniverseries, etc.
7th most dangerous US occupation.
Irregular shifts, poor diet, sitting for long periods of time, diesel fumes = shorter lifespan
And you are going to say $35-$40k is alot of money for this?!??!
It works out to like 8-9 bucks an hour.
Heck, my uncle made $43,000 driving a truck OTR....in 1982!!!!
Senior Board Member
I'm not fond of unions just like I'm not fond of working for any company. I like having my own business because it allows me the ability to choose between the people I associate with in this world. I like having a choice of how, when and where I make money.
I personally don't want anyone to speak for me, I can do that for myself, and have a few times where it made for a good story.I can also save my own money for retirement or whatever else the union promises. I can do it myself, that's just my attitude. It works for me, that's all. It's not always pretty but it works.
If you like unions that's fine. If it works for you great.
Senior Board Member
We can debate the merits and problems with unions until the cows come home, but in today's economy, we're simply pi$$in' in the wind. With NAFTA, what were once good paying blue collar jobs are being handed over to Mexicans who will work for peanuts.
Look at what has happened to the construction business; time was when a capable, reliable carpenter or tile mason made a decent living. Now, all too many of them are working for less than what they made 30 years ago. Same with the trucking industry; if unions could manage to get a foot in the door of the mega-carriers, or even the mid sized companies, the union members would wind up losing their jobs to Mexican drivers.
Senior Board Member
I don't drive for Warner and never have, I don't drive illegal and I've demonstrated that to my Co. by shutting down 45 min away from my drop. A union wouldn't give better working conditions unless they can change the weatherI think you missed the whole point. No one wants the company's love, whatever that means! Idling is no problem with me as I'm home every night and have less than 3% idle time(Co luvs that) Pay ? I'd love to get paid more but I already can't believe I get paid as much as I do for doing so little! I know some drivers get kicked around and abused and out right ripped off but have you ever looked at other industries and jobs? I have worked much much harder and gotten paid a lot less.
A union would do little to no good for me and more than likely be nothing but a thorn in my side, I have a lot of freedom to do my run how I see fit and if a union came in would oversee it to death. To sum it up so you can understand I DON"T WANT A UNION your expressed your opinion and I mine. As far as rubbin Gmans nuts comment That was way out of line, if you want to go down that road your gonna be by yourself cuz I'm not gonna lower myself to your level
Water Board Administrator
Senior Board Member
Why didnt you say that in the first place?I don't drive for Warner and never have, I don't drive illegal and I've demonstrated that to my Co. by shutting down 45 min away from my drop. A union wouldn't give better working conditions unless they can change the weather
A union would do little to no good for me and more than likely be nothing but a thorn in my side, I have a lot of freedom to do my run how I see fit and if a union came in would oversee it to death. To sum it up so you can understand I DON"T WANT A UNION your expressed your opinion and I mine. As far as rubbin Gmans nuts comment That was way out of line, if you want to go down that road your gonna be by yourself cuz I'm not gonna lower myself to your level
Instead you said "Todays unions do one thing and one thing only, protect the lazy non productive shiete bag that other wise couldn't hold a job on his own!" Thats right out of GMAN's way of thinking. Generalize everybody who is in a union. I work for Big Brown and I guarantee you people dont last long there being lazy. Having said that, I've been to auto plants and well, lets say things are a little different there. Look, I'm not for or against unions as a whole, I am FOR proper treatment and compensation to drivers, no matter how they get it. If you can find it without a union I think thats awesome. Bottom line is Kevin is obviously looking for something better than what he has. Thats not too surprising because IMO 80% of the driving jobs out there suck. But drivers just continue to take it up the wazoo and bounce from one dirtbag carrier to another and the only thing that ever changes is the name on the trailer. This industry as a whole needs to be revamped and unionizing is one way of doing it. Not the only way, but one way. But then every time this topic comes up drivers get on here saying how much they like the lifestyle and defending the industry so I guess I'm the only one who thinks it could be better. Funny because there are 1000's of threads on here about driver's getting shafted but yet they dont really want to do anything about it. I guess they just like to hear themselves complain. If I try and tell them about a better job, or more specifically my job, it comes off as either bragging, or putting them down. OH well, I try to offer help. These guys can keep on doing what they're doing.
Senior Board Member
Notice I never said all union people are lazy, but I do have to admit that most of the one's I had contact with are. But then they are or were working at a GM plant.
I have no idea how hard line haul is at the brown machine but there's no way I could keep up with most of P&D guys! While on the subject last week I heard a truck pull up and stop in front of my house and then the horn blew a couple of times, I ran out there thinking something happened (kid/dog or some thing got hit)nope the lazy driver was sitting there with a package for me! How long do you think he will last?
Senior Board Member
I do know from personal experience from times past, that the union
places I had picked up or delivered to did not care anything about truck drivers. generaly speaking. specifically... I used to haul out of u.s. steel in fairfield AL. those guys in the loading area would, close the window in your face, would not even look to respond
to you until they were ready. they were always arrogant & at times would make you wait 2-3 hours before they would even take your info to
load you. dock 5 at fairfield was the only dock at my time there, that would be courteous & load you promptly. compared
to to other non union
steel co's where they are much more polite & will try to get you in & out asap.
Senior Board Member
i used to bring VW's / Audi's to Matson in Long Beach. They have a lot for the haulers to pull into and park to unload. When i first went there I pulled in and parked next to 2 union haulers from Jack Cooper. After I get all my ramps pulled out a worker for Matson walks up to me and tells me, " hey driver, let me take a look at your union card." I told him I didn't have one. He replied, " that's a shame, your gonna have to park on the street and unload your cars because this parking is for union haulers only." Thank god Pahsa took over those Hawaii bound cars.
Senior Board Member
What if you would have refused to move. What were they going to do?
Senior Board Member
If i had to guess maybe not let him unload. Since he was putting his ramps out already. They might have parked a car behind his trailer stuff like that. They would have gave him a real hard time.
Truck Driving an occupation consisting of hours of boredom interrupted by sheer terror!!
"All the coolie carriers suck. Log 70, work 80-100, paid for 50." - the Great ColdFrostyMug
Member
There aren't as many choices today.
Each year, more and more good paying jobs dry-up.
Look at Harley Davidson and Emerson Electric private fleets...Schneider came in and cut the rate and got the freight.
Had a buddy who worked at Emerson...SNI wanted him to take a .10 cpm paycut to stay on.
He told em' to stick it where the sun don't shine.
Besides that, there's too many out-of-work drivers competing for jobs.
We had an opening for a linehaul driver....TM got over 100 apps for 1 job!!
With unemployment still hovering around 10%...there's not many choices outside of trucking, either.
Many good-paying manufacturing jobs shipped away.
Just like trucking, alot of folks out-of-work competing for whatever's open.
It's a sad state of affairs that just gets sadder everyday.
Senior Board Member
LOL....just so ya know HH....nothings changed there. Dock #3, way out back being the worst, in my opinion.
Although, I just went on a dedicated account and only DELIVER (refractory materials) to the mills now. Made my first delivery to Fairfield Friday and was in and out in 45 minutes. The fastest I ever got in and out hauling coils was about 2hrs 45 minutes and THAT was record time.
Senior Board Member
Some ppl are ok with unions and I acknowledge the important roll they had in the industry. Those days are gone in my opinion. I worked for a union company and got swiched from my job I was trained on becuse someone had "seniority". I haul in and out of the ports, if they aren't lazy and disorganized, I don't know who is. I pulled into yellow freight to send back some bad product and their procedures reaked of no productivity. I don't know of to many places other than unions, you can be fired for helping your fellow worker simply because it's not your job.
Senior Board Member
Unions breed nothing but laziness, apathy and contempt for the employer. They take away the incentive for the employee to do his or her best because there is no possibility of promotion or reward for doing so. Promotion and pay increase is usually dependant solely on seniority, not performance and ability. Instead of the goal being to do your best, it becomes only to show up to work (most days) on-time and do the contractually mandated minimum.
Three first hand, real world examples:
1) My father (who smoked the MENSA qualification exam) worked for Chrysler in the UAW for 17.5 years. His job was to inspect and de-bur if necessary three different transmission components. He would exceed his set quota by lunch time and sit and read the last four hours of his shift. To do this job that, that as he puts, “a monkey could do”, he was making three times the national average for blue collar workers in 1980, and had great benefits to boot. With his intellect, he could’ve achieved great things in life had he not been lulled into thinking that the UAW was a better choice. Chrysler might not have been teetering on the verge of bankruptcy in 1980 if it wasn’t paying six times (paying 3 times more and getting half the production that a good employee could give them) what it should have been for labor.
2) In high school I had a summer job working at Ekco Products in Wheeling, IL. My job was to help run a big plastic extruder and feed the massive amounts of scrap plastic it generated into a grinder. I was forced to join a union to be employed there, and to do a job that a monkey could almost do I was making over $1,000 a week in 1988 as a sixteen year old. My co-workers would yell at me to slow down because I would “work us out of all the overtime” that was available. Did I or anybody else deserve to make that money to do a job that a 3rd grader could do? I don’t think so.
3) Teamsters. I have never been a member, but I do see lots of teamster drivers slumped over in their day cabs at 05:00 sleeping in the rest areas on the clock. They are already making more money than most hourly drivers out there and yet they seem to feel entitled to steal from their employer. Sleeping on the clock is stealing… the employer is paying you to drive… not sleep.
Unions had their place back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when hourly wage earners were treated little better than slaves by their employers; but our society has come a long way since those early manufacturing days and free market supply and demand is now the best dictator of price. If things are so bad in the driving industry, why do you stay in it? It can’t possibly be the only or best option you have to earn a living.
There are things I do not like myself about our changing industry, such as the recent influx of immigrants into the market who seem willing to haul freight for fuel money; but in spite of the recession (or depression, depending on whom you believe) I have been able to make a pretty good living doing what I do. As a small business owner, I have to adapt to the market as it changes or go out of business. As an employee, you must learn to do the same. This is not a new concept… an old USMC motto is “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.” This is what we must all do in life, unless it is Socialism that you yearn for. There are still companies that pay well for drivers with special skills or outstanding safety and work records. If you don’t posses those, then you are no different from anyone else whom you are competing with for a job and probably don’t deserve to make above average pay.
I know that many drivers are sports fans, so let me close with a few quotes about hard work and perseverance from some guys some of you might know:
“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor." -- Vince Lombardi
“Enjoying success requires the ability to adapt. Only by being open to change will you have a true opportunity to get the most from your talent." -- Nolan Ryan
“Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.” -- Lou Holtz
“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.” -- John Wooden
“Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability." -- John Wooden
You think any of those guys would be caught sleeping in their trucks on their bosses dime? I don't think so.
Last edited by Musicman; 07-31-2010 at 10:44 AM.
"The Breakfast of Champions isn't cereal, it's the competition!" - "Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom." - "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
Member
You need to get your facts straight.
Those are linehaul drivers paid by the mile.
I run nights too and I like to take a little nap now and then.
It costs my employer $0.00.
This ad will disappear if you login
Posting Permissions
| Trucking
Companies | Trucking
Job Search | Online
Job Application | Trucking
Links | Truck Drivers
Message Board | Contact
Us | Site Map
Truck Driving Jobs © 2003 - 2012 ClassADrivers.com |
Reply With Quote
