[quote="bigtimba"]
One reason some companies don't pre-plan their drivers too far ahead is because things can happen to delay them along the way. Carriers are much more likely to have another load waiting on you once they get used to how you work. It isn't good business to commit to a load and then have to cancel it due to the driver not being able to make the pick up on time. Whether it is the fault of the driver, shipper, traffic, or any other factor, the load can't be picked up. Everyone loses in this type of situation. And as far as management is concerned, most have their compensation tied to profits. They don't get their bonus unless the company makes a profit. It is in their best interest to see that the trucks keep moving.

The thing is that when you work for someone you need to do things the way that they want. If you want everything your own way then you need to start your own business. Companies have rules. Companies must make a profit or they will cease to exist. Profits are tied to market forces. Shippers are only willing to pay a certain amount for your services. Carriers must continue to be competitive or they will not be able to maintain their customer base. No customers means no business. No business means no need for drivers.

Margins are thin in this industry. The cost of entry is high. It is up to everyone to do their part to keep the company viable. There are inequities, but the business has been successful for many decades operating pretty much as it is today. Certainly there could be some changes. One change is in detention time. I think it would be good to have detention time tied to every load. That would create pressure on the shipper to get the trucks in and out in a timely manner. Paying drivers on mileage or percentage seems to be the most fair way of compensation for the otr drivers. It affords the driver to earn what he is worth. Granted there will be times when things happen out of his control, but for the most part, it works. If you want to be paid fairly then I suggest you look for an owner operator or company who will pay you a flat percentage of what the truck makes. You would no longer need to worry about how many miles you drive. You know that when you compete your run that you will have a certain amount of money. The faster you deliver the faster you get paid. If you want to take your time, then your pay will reflect that as well.

I use my sleeper's side vents whenever I can, and in moderate climates that and my bunk fan will keep me comfy. For cold weather I have a Webasto bunk heater. My average idle time for this month is right around 34%, mostly because of a trip down to Fort Worth a few weeks ago. There was a high pressure system over the entire midwest at that time, and I had the truck running every minute I was in it (almost, anyway) from the time I hit Oklahoma until I got back north. In Detroit I didn't have to idle it so much, but it was still muggy enough that It ran a few hours that night. I rarely idle the truck if I'm not in it, though. When I'm sliding tandems and have to get out to flip the bar, check position, that sort of thing. I would never even consider running the truck while I'm sitting in a truck stop eating dinner.

In theory, I like the screens you can put in your driver and passenger side windows. In practice, they're an invitation to parking lot vermin to break into your truck in the wee hours. Even with the plastic "security" grid, it wouldn't take more than a minute with a pair of side cutters to open up a nice big hole in that screen.

On my sailboat, I can open ports and hatches to get good ventilation down below even in very hot weather, and I'm in the process of insulating the cabin top -- but trucks don't have roof vents and mine, at least, is insulated about as well as a steel lunchbox. There are a lot of "passive" techniques that could be employed to make our trucks more comfortable, which would use no energy at all, but mine has few of them at best.

Momma Kay not trying to get you to name drop but do your run for Roehl?? either send me a pm or just post it!!!

Was it that obvious? lol

Uh huh, but an over-the-road driver doesn't have that luxury. When his truck breaks down, he's stuck there for a couple of hours at least. Why should he sit there for free?

Same deal with loads. In the factory, there's always work to do. But drivers don't always have loads to run...sometimes they're in a dead area for freight or other times there's a bunch of other trucks ahead of them. So again, why should the driver sit for free?

I don't see otr companies changing the way they compensate drivers anytime in the near future. If you want to be paid for every single thing you do then you should find a local carrier who is unionized. They get paid whether they work or not. I don't see how a company could justify paying otr drivers by the hour. It is simply too difficult to monitor them. I have seen too many otr drivers drop their entire paychecks into video games or slot machines. These guys waste valuable driving time throwing their money away. I can see them doing the same thing while on the clock. No job is perfect. You need to know what the job consists of before coming into the business. There are many other jobs where you are not paid for every minute you are working or on the job. There has been much talk about executive compensation. It might surprise you to learn that most executives don't stop working when they leave the office. Most work well over 40 hours per week. They are also not paid for every minute they spend working. Most will take work home with them. The only place where drivers should be compensated is when they are held up at the shipper or consignee's.

The truth of the matter is that shippers are not willing to pay carriers by the hour to deliver their goods. They want a good check and balance. If they paid carriers by the hour there would be no way to prevent them from taking much longer to deliver their goods. When they pay them by the mile or flat rate, then they can better estimate their costs. They contract with the carrier for a fixed amount of money. The same could be said of the drivers. The carrier contracts with drivers to deliver loads at a fixed rate of compensation. Whether it is mileage or percentage, it is manageable. It is in the best interest of carriers to pay otr drivers by the mile or percentage. I think that there would be too many drivers who would waste their driving time if they were paid by the hour. There is no incentive for them to work. Without supervision too many would abuse the hourly pay rate.

I've been giving some thought to finding a good woman to settle in with. Would you mind giving me a few more details about the boat? Maybe some pictures?

Then you'd better wake up and smell the coffee, driver. Because the industry is pushing HARD to get illegals behind their wheels. And you know what? They'll get em', too. You think this slowdown and high fuel prices are bad for rates/wages? You ain't seen nothing yet.

Well, let's see here. I did 25 stops today in 9 hours. I hit more docks in a day than you do all month long. But I guess that makes me a lazy union worker. :roll:

OK then name another BLUE-COLLAR job where workers aren't paid for their time with overtime after 8/40. Quit making these ridiculous comparisons of truckdrivers to high-paid executives with 6 figure salaries and stock options out the ying-yang. :roll:

It sure is. They can work a man 80 hours and pay him for 50.

Simple solution. Set benchmarks and adhere to them. If a driver can't make the standards, then he's written up and then he's fired. That's how it works in my shop. Amazing how these coolie carriers can track idle % and out-of-route mileage down to the penny and yet they can't tell who's slacking off and who's not? Gimme a fuckin break!

Kay, you've got the boys fighting already. :P

She's mine bigtimba. Back-off! :wink:

GMAN . . wake up and smell Lebron's coffee!

NOT paying the Drivers is a factor in the business plan. It's a huge economic benefit to the employer and just a teency weency economic detrement to the Driver. Read the posts on this board. The best and most productive Drivers across all the companies are making the exact same complaint.

"But it's only 20 - 30 - 40 miles a day . . times 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 thousand loads or Drivers a day . . " in my company, alone. Sheeit! That ain't nuthin . .

"We can cut this corner because we don't have to pay the Driver. We can cut that corner because we don't have to pay the Driver."

It's not an unintended consequence. It's in the business plan.

If they had to pay the Driver like every other employer pays their employees, they couldn't offer and survive on the artificially low rates they're able to charge, thanks to the Driver subsidy.

Nobody seems to have any problem paying overnight or LTL rates. For Chrissakes, they get there own doors. Can't delay them BECAUSE THEY'RE GETTING PAID. Have you ever been kicked off a door so an LTL carrier could load or offload a pallet or two? Do you know that feeling you get when the fork lift stops running back and forth in your truck but you can feel it rumbling around in the LTL truck? He's making 18 bucks an hour and you're heating up Ramen soup?

If there were no artificially low rates, there would be no OOIDA "Say no to cheap freight" campaign. All Driver pay suffers, including yours.

I don't see employers conspiring to pay drivers less due to slowing down the truck. They still pay the driver the same amount of money if they pay mileage or percentage. Personally, I think all vehicles on our highways need to be able to travel at the posted speed limit in any state in which they run. Having said that, it is the decision of the company or individual who owns the truck as to whether they want to govern their trucks and at what speed. The primary reason companies slow their trucks down is to save fuel. With record high fuel costs and employee's demanding more and more benefits, they have to save where they can. There are only so many dollars to go around.

I do agree that freight rates are too low for today's operational costs. Rates haven't gone up significantly in many years, although our cost of operations have gone up. Today's drivers earn about triple what they did 30 or so years ago. Fuel costs have gone up about 3,000% over that same time period. The price of buying a new truck has gone up about 500%. Freight rates have remained about the same, for the most part. Carriers have been asked to absorb more and more of these price increases without being able to pass the extra costs along to the shippers. That seems to be changing to some extent.

Companies cannot stay in business without making a profit. Many carriers are in trouble. I spoke with an individual who was with one of the major carriers yesterday who told me that they were having serious problems.

I have been a company driver, owner operator and as a carrier. I understand that there are inequities in this business. I could make a list. The thing is that carriers are primarily paid based upon the miles they run. They pay drivers the same way that they are compensated. Shippers are not going to pay carrier by the hour to haul their freight. It isn't going to happen. Carriers are not going to start paying drivers by the hour when they are paid by the mile. It simply isn't going to happen. If carriers started paying drivers by the mile when they are paid mileage they would soon go out of business.

Anyone who goes to work for a carrier knows up front how they are going to be paid. If they don't like the way the compensation is set up they should not take the job. No job is perfect. You need to decide whether you want to accept the job and over look those things you don't particularly like.

The main reason rates have been so low is that there are too many carriers and owner operators who are willing to haul cheap freight. Until they decide to stop hauling cheap freight, rates will stay below where they should. Part of that problem is the drivers themselves. Most drivers don't want to sit. If they are paid by the mile, I can understand their position. It is also a two edged sword. It can take longer to find better paying freight. When drivers demand to keep moving, carriers will often take cheap freight just to keep the driver happy. That is good for the driver in the short term, but not so long term. Cheap rates mean that carriers may not be able to pay drivers more money. The driver makes more today but may not get the higher rate of pay they want as quickly as they would like because the carrier is taking the cheaper freight to keep the driver rolling.

A couple of years ago I had a driver in California. He could not stand sitting. I paid him percentage of what the truck makes. In order to keep moving he would rather have me take a load which paid the truck $0.90/mile than wait a day to get a load which paid $2/mile. He was willing to run for half the pay just to keep moving. California is a difficult area to get decent paying freight heading back East. You can get decent rates if you are patient. However, it may take a day or so to get the better paying loads. While that may be the carrier's problem, it is also one shared by the driver.

The thing is that carriers are not likely to change the way they compensate drivers until shippers pay differently. If you are not happy with the way you are compensated and want to stay in the business, then you can always save your money, buy your own truck, get your authority and you can then charge what you want. You can decide how you will be compensated. You can decide how fast you want to run your truck and how much you want to idle since you will be the one buying the fuel. When you own the truck and pay the bills, you can do whatever you want. When you work for someone else and they pay the bills, you will need to either accept things as they are or find a new career.

Hey, I got one of you pointer types at home. I don't see the benefit of getting yet another one.

:-D

Sometimes when we are slow i work for the blacktop plant hauling hot rock. My truck gets paid on tonnage. But i am still getting paid by the hr.
I know another trucking out fit that their trucks get paid by the load but their drivers are also hourly.

When my boss has a good day with his truck $1,000.00+ i still get my 18/hr. When he has a bad day like around 4-500. I still get my 18/hr.

But when he has good days do you think he give me more??? HELL NO. When he has bad days do you think he takes money from me??? HELL NO. Why should i have to suffer for his bad days??

It isn't uncommon for dump trucks to pay drivers by the load or ton. This is also a way to pay drivers on their production. There are many who pay them by the hour. It is difficult to compare otr with local driving. There are different animals. When it comes down to it, each company needs to decide the best way to compensate their drivers. If you want to be paid by the hour then it would probably be best to find a local carrier. If you want to do otr then you will likely be working by the mile or percentage. If you run otr then you will most likely not be paid for sitting while the garage decides to change a light. You could probably change it yourself in about 5 minutes or wait 4 hours for the garage to do it for you. Most will wait on the garage. You will also not be paid to sit while the forklift driver unloads or loads your truck. You will not be paid to sit in heavy traffic. You will be paid for the miles you run. Drivers are paid to drive. When you drive you make money. When you sit you don't. I still agree that a lot of shippers waste driver's time. If there were compensation for sitting that would likely change. That has changed somewhat in recent years. I would like to see shippers held accountable for wasting drivers time. However, for the most part, as an otr driver you know that your compensation will come from driving.

YAHOO! YAHOO! YAHOO!
 

YAHOO! YAHOO! YAHOO!

http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_ne.../062308-01.htm

It's only a lawsuit and it might be an uphill battle, but it's a start.

YAHOO!

I am thrilled! . . and it just so happens that I was based out of WA from 2003 - 2007.

YAHOO!

I don't think this has a chance of succeeding in court. But then that is Washington State. It could be devastating to the trucking industry if these people are successful. This guy took a job paying by the mile and now wants to retire on the back of his employer. I hope this carrier fights it and doesn't settle out of court. All it will do is encourage others to follow suit. The driver should be ashamed of himself. Some people don't have any concept of how to honor an agreement. His lawyer should understand that otr truck drivers are exempt from the Federal Labor Laws.

I cannot get the link to work!

But since GMAN has already trashed it, I can readily assume that it could possibly be good news for the driver?

I hope he wins. If he/we get paid for working excessive hours it will help us get compensate for working on the road.
As for retiring on the back of a company...Hmm....That's the way 99% of working folks do . As for devastating to the trucking industry...The consumers picks up the tab, just like any other business in America..The turn over rate will go down significantly and the road would have the safest and reliable work force.

OTR drivers, don"t sell your life so cheap. You are human and you deserve equal working rights.


Do you think BIG OIL thinks about the economy when increases the price of oil, NO they know the consumers will pay, trucking should do the same.



Trucker sues Interstate for overtime wages A former driver for Interstate Distributor Co. has filed a lawsuit against the Tacoma, WA-based company, claiming it failed to pay him and other drivers legally required overtime wages.

The lawsuit was filed recently by former Interstate driver Larry Westberry of Jesup, GA, in Pierce County Superior Court in Washington state. According to the lawsuit, Westberry drove for Interstate for four years, from 2003 to 2007.

The suit, which includes a request for class-action status to include a number of drivers in addition to Westberry, claims that Washington law as interpreted in a 2007 state Supreme Court case requires that drivers be paid overtime for time worked in excess of 40 hours, even if that time is logged out of state “at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed.” The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal, which allowed the state Supreme Court ruling to stand as law.

The lawsuit states that Westberry worked between 60 and 70 hours per week and was compensated on the same per-mile basis regardless of how many hours he worked.

Renee Trueblood, Interstate’s senior vice president of human resources and corporate counsel, was not available for comment on the pending lawsuit. Interstate, which is owned by the McLean family, has more than 3,200 employees and provides truckload services to the lower 48 states and Canada.

The suit was filed by the Seattle-based law firm of Bendich, Stobaugh & Strong, which specializes in employment-related cases.

– By Clarissa Kell-Holland, staff writer

I'm sorry, but there is something fundamentally wrong with that statement.
:shock:


Actually, no. Companies would likely switch to regulating the hours a driver is driving and on duty, likely around the 8 hours in 5 days model, because they are not going to pay overtime. Either that, or they would severely adjust the hourly rate or CPM rate downward, so that the driver would still be making what they're making today working over the standard 40 hours.

In addition, long haul freight would completely disappear and drivers would be bored silly, sitting in their truck all week and during weekends, when it wasn't economically feasible for the company to concern themselves about getting the driver home.

OTR drivers are in an industry where they can make good money, depending on the carrier they are with. I'm not going to argue the whole hourly LTL work vs. the CPM OTR work, because they are 2 different animals. Both have their positives and negatives, all depending on the individual driver. But the bottom line is, if this guy were to somehow luck out and win his lawsuit (he hasn't a snowball's chance in hell, by the way), all other drivers would suffer.

There's an old saying...be careful what you wish for. You may just get it.

:roll:

Thanks Evinrude. Just as I thought. GMAN to the industry rescue. Blahhh!!

The CPM scam under scrutiny yet again. It's a house of cards folks........
I feel a stiff breeze from the west.....

I'm watching you also TF. :wink:

double post

Hobo style, coolie long haul trucking would disappear. Ever hear of feeder systems TF? There's a company with brown trucks all over the place. I hear they are making a pretty good go of it out there without coolie labor? I don't see too many of those brown trucks sitting around...................

I just tried the link again . . it's working. If not for you, GOOGLE "interstate overtime" under the news tab.

GMAN . . The WA state law has already been challenged and the U.S. Supreme court refused to hear it. In fact, the challenge arose out of another Driver's lawsuit for pretty much the same reason and he won. These lawyers aren't morons and I can't believe that they'd risk the expense if they didn't believe they could win it. I think, considering the background, it could be a slam dunk.

Other states will be watching this and the potential boost to income tax collections won't be overlooked. This could be the start of something big. As more and more Drivers get exposed to this you can bet the phones will light up in legislatures nationwide.

Why you believe this could be devastating is beyond me. Equal footing with every other wage earner in the country, including a whole bunch of other Drivers is a bad thing? I see it as a great reason for a lot of former Drivers to consider getting back in the seat. Better, experienced Drivers, a few less trainees and closing the door to illegals sounds pretty good to me. If it forces carriers to bump the rates up a little, you stand to see a direct economic benefit. What's the problem with that?

Gman and others here has great atitududes for life, but companies prey and guys like this...aka the CR England .

I dont have a problem with CPM pay. I'm a union LTL road driver and I get paid CPM. But my non driving duties are paid hourly. I agree you cant compare LTL/local driving pay with OTR pay but something has to be improved. I think 50-65k a year to drive OTR is probably fair. As an OTR driver it's probably fair to assume you'll have some delays or interuptions. Part of the job. What's not fair is working 15-18 hour days to make that 50-65k. The pay needs to be adjusted to allow a driver to make a fair check while working say 50-60 hours a week. Then the driver's hours need to be monitered, possibly with electronic logging and gps. The monitoring is for the driver's own good to make sure guys dont cheat. I see drivers still trying to run too hard and too hot in order to take advantage of their higher pay plan. Some of you guys are hurting yourself and your industry. If you would demand to be paid a fair wage and refuse to work 80 hours then you would see change. But too many of you are willing to put up with it. Unfortunately it wont change because you wont demand it and they wont just offer it because they feel sorry for you. It'll change when more of you start quitting for other employment and they cant hire drivers. Until then, there's not much you can do.

I don't think that states will receive any more tax revenue regardless of how drivers are compensated.

The reason this could be devastating to the industry is because if this guy is successful then under a class action lawsuit they could come back on the company for compensation that the company simply doesn't have. They could go back several years. It would put them out of business. Other greedy lawyers and drivers could go after other carriers with the same result. If they are successful you will see a lot of carriers go out of business. That would put thousands of drivers out of a job. I am sure that Congress would become involved at some point just to save the industry. Trucking is probably the most critical segment of this country. Virtually every other industry relies on trucking for their existence. The government will not allow trucking to shut down. It is too vital for our existence.

The market will only absorb so much cost. When prices go too high then the economy suffers. Just look at the current fuel prices. This has slowed the entire economy. Already people are beginning to purchase more products made locally. When prices reach a certain level it no longer becomes profitable for them to ship their wares across the country. It sounds like a simple thing to change from mileage pay to hourly. What you over look is the added cost to monitor those drivers. It will necessitate adding GPS and other monitoring equipment to every truck. That could cost thousands of dollars for each truck. It will also require additional personnel to do the monitoring. No company will allow hourly workers to be independent without over sight. Drivers would likely need to do more paperwork to document their work day. Additional costs will be incurred due to the extra time required to deliver products. Some drivers will no longer feel the need to be as productive since it isn't in their best interest to work any harder. They receive the same pay whether they are productive or not. Just look at most of the union companies. These people are usually less productive than those that are non-union.

I think Twilight Flyer is right in his assessment. Carriers will simply limit the hours a driver can work. They may also go back to slip seating to maximize their equipment. Most companies will limit overtime as much as possible. Trucking is no different. Drivers could also be given a quota of miles that they must drive each day. If they continually fail to meet their quota, they will be history. This could also encourage carriers to look at importing labor to lower costs.

The reason a lot of experienced drivers have gotten out of the business is due to over regulations by the government, not compensation. If you want to see higher wages then drivers will need to become more responsible. There are many who take their jobs seriously, are honest, and take care of their equipment. There are also those who will trash the equipment they are assigned. Some will steal from their employers. This type of behavior costs everyone. As I stated earlier, I have been on every side of this business. I would not want to work by the hour. Doing so would limit my income. I prefer working on percentage. Next to percentage I would rather be paid by the mile. The reason is that I can usually give myself a raise by driving a few more miles.

That right there is supertrucker mentality at it's finest. You're not getting a raise running more miles. You're just doing more work. A raise is getting more pay for the same amount of work.

As far as overtime goes, yes an employer will try to limit your hours to 40. In such case, overtime is doing what it's intended to do: provide a disincentive to work a man round the clock. Figure a 24 hour day = 8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep, and 8 hours of home/personal time. When an employer works you past 8 hours, he is cutting into your time and rightfully should pay a penalty for doing so.

I'll never work for mileage pay again. Been there, done that. I remember when my boss sent me on a local shag run to the University of Chicago bookstore. 3 hours to unload, 2 hours stuck in Chi-town rush-hour traffic, 2 hours to drive across town to pick up a paper load...7 hours working and I made $40.00...I could have made more flipping burgers.

Hourly with overtime after 8/40 is the only way to truck. That way, I get paid for everything and I don't spend the weekend at the Carney Point hook. :lol: :lol:

Lebron, you are confusing local with otr driving. Hourly pay works well for local drivers but doesn't work for otr. By the way, if you are otr you won't be able to take 8 hours at home. :roll: We used to want to work harder for more money. Many worked more than one job to provide for their families. That is no longer the case. For the last several decades there seems to have been a move to work less for more money. Many feel that they no longer need to be productive for their paycheck. That is a primary reason why so many good paying American jobs have gone abroad.

Percentage pay is the most fair for everyone. It provides an incentive for the driver. The company pays more for the driver, but has a fixed percentage for driver compensation which makes it easier to do financial forecasting. There is an incentive for the driver to get the load delivered so that he will get a bigger paycheck. The company has an incentive to go after the better paying loads so that they can make more money. It is a win for everyone involved.

Do you not recieve HOURLY pay when detained at a dock after the obligatory 2 freebie hours?

And while we're on the subject of detention, let me ask you this: why are the first 2 hours worth less than the others? And why do you allow another business to idle your expensive equipment for no money? Heck, my uncle runs a plumbing company and they charge 2 hours MINIMUM for one of their $100,000 sewer vac trucks to show up at a jobsite.

Well, your "home" is an 8X10 sleeper berth and you take a 10 hour break in your "home" and a 34-hour reset at the Carney Point Hook. :lol: :lol:

Primary reason for good-paying American jobs going abroad is that companies can pay sweatshop wages to workers, dump pollutants into the air/water, and recieve tax-funded incentives for putting blue-collar American men and women out of work - union AND non-union. :evil:

There is also an incentive to speed, falsify the logbook, and underreport actual working hours in an attempt to deliver more loads/run more miles.

Except for the family that gets plowed over by one of you head-bobbing supertruckers trying to get that "raise". :roll:

I hear ya, man. I already have a second job . . the other 30 hours.

Lebron, you obviously have a disdain for this industry. You keep comparing apples to oranges. Perhaps you could get a job driving one a sewer truck for your uncle's plumbing company. You would be paid by the hour and be home every night. I am sure that you would be paid for every minute you were on the job.

Most carriers will not tolerate drivers falsifying their logs. Doing so could result in the carrier suffering huge fines. I would never ask a driver to falsify a log book. Not keeping a legal log is a personal decision made by the driver. The Federal regulations require you to log your trip as you do it. You can't blame the carrier for you failing to keep an accurate log. That is a personal decision.

Since you detest this industry so much I am surprised that you would waste your time on a trucking forum.

Since you detest this industry so much I am surprised that you would waste your time on a trucking forum.[/quote]


[b]I don't think hates the industry, he is just stating how Otr drivers need to get organized and fight for better working conditions. Organized labor is the only way to fly in my book.[/b]

That's the way I read Lebron's posts also Evinrude. It seems to me that Lebron is all about better working conditions for drivers. I don't understand why GMAN finds this so offensive. Rather than detest the industry, I feel that Lebron has a great passion for the industry, especially driver issues. For GMAN to suggest that Lebron 'detests the industry,' is both wrong and rash.

Only Lebron could ruffle the feathers of the normally unflappable GMAN.

Then he would do well to alter his approach, instead of jumping down the throats of every driver who doesn't do exactly what he does. Precisely the reason why most people dislike CFM is because of the way he goes about things.

:roll:

:roll: :roll: :roll:

Ya'll excuse me while I go get some hip waders. It's gettin' deep in here.

We can sit here and tell each other that we are wrong. What is the first step to making this industry any better? The "coolie" carriers aren't going to go out of business and the union carriers aren't going to take over trucking, so what do we do? I have started my strike against coolie carriers. If anyone wants to donate to my strike fund please send your donations to:

Jesus
Del Rio, Texas

luggage carrier (coolie)

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/l...10ce084041.jpg

If you just look at his avatar it appears that he is unhappy with trucking. I am for good working conditions for drivers. If you are unhappy with trucking the way it is now, you would have REALLY been unhappy with it when I first started driving. We had small or no sleepers, small engines and NO air conditioning in most trucks. We fixed our own trucks or changed and repaired tires on the side of the road in many cases. We had to stop at each port of entry. We mostly traveled 2 lane roads or 4 lanes without a median to provide some space from passing vehicles. Many drivers took speed to keep going. We didn't have drug testing or CDL schools. We got a license and started driving. We learned as we went along. We had to use pay phones rather than cell phones or computers. We actually had to communicate with one another using words. Many trucks and trailers were spring ride. This was at a time when the Teamsters were at their peak. Drivers often helped to unload their own trucks, without compensation. I don't recall ever being paid detention back then. Qualcomm wasn't even thought of at the time. People gave their word and you could take it to the bank.

Driving conditions are much better today than 30 or so years ago. If you are unhappy with the way things are now, you probably would not have been able to make it when I first started. We did what we needed to do to get the job done. Less complaining and more work. And we did earn a good paycheck for the time.

Guess what friday i was on time and 1/2 all day making 27.hr. My truck all day long made 420 bucks LOL. But did my boss take money from me hell no. Driving truck getting paid by the hr. is the only way to go. Any other type of pay is COOLIE.

Also GMAN back in that day for that time drivers got paid a real good wage. Not like todays pay rate. which is a joke for OTR.

15 1/2 hour day? That sounds too much like work.

Lebron is a very bright and smart guy (not kissing his a$$) but it seems he's more in trucking for the money and to support his family.. it seems if he didn't have to be in trucking he wouldn't be.. Gman seems like he's in trucking for the love of it and wouldn't get out of it for the world....

I understand where both parties are coming from, from lebron's half to gman half.. but i guess its plan and simple.. if you want to get paid, no matter how many miles you didn't or did drive, get a local job be home everynight.. if u want to go out sightseeing and make as much money as possible and at times make nearly nothing and stress over miles and detention time, go do OTR.. Goes back to what i said when i started this thread KNOW what your getting into..

Hell everyone would love to get salary or paid by the hour in trucking no matter what im pretty sure, but i'm damn sure nothing is going to change in the near future about pay in the industry...