These reporters don't seem to want to address the real issues confronting this industry.

 

Aaaaaah man!! Come on now...give me some slack!!

You don't really want me to take up band width here do you??

 

There is virtually no way a rookie driver, in this economy, is going to make $60,000. Hell, even $40,000 might be pushing it for an inexperienced newbie. How much do OTR drivers make now when they are sitting around waiting for loads? There would have never been a 130% turnover if these were jobs worth keeping, but they are not. Only with the economy in the crapper will people hold onto these jobs. When things pick up they will move on.

F@ck the ATA with their everybody should run 65, we need EOBR's, more Mexicans taking American jobs, OTR trucking is awesome-look at the sunset rhetoric.:moon:

 

A tip of the hat to Stan and GMan. I have done the same although not on this particular round of puff pieces. If either of you get a reply, be sure to refer them to this thread. They need to know just how slanted the crap is they're being fed.

I have also tried to find a basis for the ATA's mythical numbers. So far, no such luck. I do recall an article where a Schnieder VP was quoted as saying that, at the end of any day, if you look at the various load boards there are always loads that didn't get moved that day (20,000 apparently?). I guess the implication is that, had an ATA member had a truck and Driver in the area, the loads would have been moved and that the unmoved loads would equal zero.

It further suggests that any ATA member will move a load at any rate over any distance so long as all loads get moved. Does that, in any way, sound realistic?

I think the ATA is predictably expressing their ideas in a perfect world scenario and the dumbass reporters don't have the knowledge or sense to question them. One of these days, I hope to see the a headline that reads "ATA Would Like To Have An Unpaid Driver Stationed At Every Street Corner In The Country Waiting For A Low Paying Load Going Nowhere".

 

:lol2::thumbsup::lol2: That is great!

 

What said Schneider VP fails to take into account, is the numbers of times ONE load is listed multiple times, by multiple agents and brokers, and when said single load is moved, it is left posted by every lazy broker and agent, that didn't move said single load. Some times even the agent or broker who moved the load, doesn't remove it from their listings on the boards.

 

Some of these large carriers and brokers post a load with a service and it automatically posts with about 30 different load boards. It is also likely that several brokers or carriers have the same load and post the same load several different times. That can skew the actual number of loads counted if you consider all of them as a different load. And some of these brokers and carriers don't automatically remove a load once it has been booked.

 

Well, I guess that counts me out as an interviewee. I work in a job that just happens to require me to drive a truck. Oh well................

 

I believe the story primarily looked at over the road drivers. I don't think that she interviewed a driver period. I believe her information came from the ATA. The person she spoke with may never have even sat in a truck, much less driven.