Where have all of the drivers gone?

[Jchonline]

Heck I have an F-250 diesel and get treated like I am hogging the road when I dont floor it to take off at every stop light. I can稚 imagine how truck drivers feel.

Just a few other armchair thoughts...what about fewer people going into the skilled labor force (ie more college grads, etc). Why take a job to be on the road all the time when you can get paid more In a job closer to the house.

Also, could it be due to fewer independent operators (whereby they dont have to put up with corporate stuff and managers) and more conglomeration of shipping companies outbidding the independents?

In CO I know CDOT is pretty tough on truckers, and even those hauling trailers. Fines do not fit the infractions....

 

[crashz]

I think the hardest working drivers are the older guys and each year there are less and less on the road due to retirement. Younger guys don't want to do this kind of work and probably have never even considered it. My generation (X) was pushed by our blue collar parents to go to college. Many were the first to go to college. But in our time we've seen many blue collar jobs surpass white collar jobs in salary and availability. We (and following Gen Y and Gen Z) were not encouraged to or even offered technical or vocation pathways. You had to go to college.

Now its not unheard of for tradesmen to make very comfortable salaries and college grads struggling to leave their parents house.

 

[joeu235]

Its tough to pay off student loans with a masters degree in history.

 

[CWB Wyo]

I got my CDL in 1979, I owned a truck for a year and a half. This was when they deregulated trucking. I was leased to a company and made 84,000 dollars one year. They took over 40,000 of that for fuel, trailer rental and and some bogus claims. Then I had a 1200 dollar truck payments, insurance of 900 dollars then the maintenance on top of that. My total personal in come that year was just about 9,000 dollars

I got out of the truck and went to work for a union freight company that was in 1982. I retired in 2009 with 28 years from the company with a good retirement.

I worked in the city delivering freight for a lot of those years. Most of the people I come into contact with were nice people. But you would find the ones that was having a bad day or just a- holes. The freight was all tailgate delivery, I would help them get the stuff of the trailer or stack the pallets are what ever to help deliver the freight.

One time I had five boxes of paper going to a office on the fifth floor. I put them on two wheeler and took them up to the office. I put them next to the receptionist desk and had her sign the bill. She then told me that they go in the storage room on the shelves. I told her that I was being nice and bought them up so someone would not have come down to the street and get them. And I wasn't going to put them away for her. When I got back to the terminal the dispatcher called me in to the office and said he had gotten a complete about me. I told him what I had done and he said if I ever had to make a delivery to that office again to make them come down and get there stuff.

The drivers I see to day are a hole lot different then they were when I stated driving. Most of the over the road drivers were dressed in the western style back then. Not like today with tank tops shorts and flip flops. I don't think they have the road manners that they had back then, they get right up on your tail before they get around you. Are they try to pass another truck going up hill and stay there for miles and back up traffic.

Every once in a while I miss the job, but enjoy being retired.

CWB.

 

[oosik]

I think Peter, Paul and Mary may have given us an answer in their 1964 release - - "Where have all the flowers gone".

Maybe some of us have seen them perform this live, in concert.

 

[Streetcar]

I drive drive local tipper and get home every night. And I am getting pi**ed off at the increasing harassment of badly designed intersections and "traffic calming" like artificially tight corners that force a truck and trailer unit into oncoming traffic to get around the traffic island, and speed bumps, and short phased traffic lights that are timed for 1 car and turn red on a 20 ton truck moving from a standing start etc.
Complains have been made and nothing.
What would happen if somebody (with a deep pocket) hit the roads and council people using the Occupational Health and Safety regulations?

What is wrong with short light cycles. Finish your movement while light changes. Traffic on main route can back up if every direction gets long light cycle

 

[QRTRHRS]

I drive drive local tipper and get home every night. And I am getting pi**ed off at the increasing harassment of badly designed intersections and "traffic calming" like artificially tight corners that force a truck and trailer unit into oncoming traffic to get around the traffic island, and speed bumps, and short phased traffic lights that are timed for 1 car and turn red on a 20 ton truck moving from a standing start etc.
Complains have been made and nothing.
What would happen if somebody (with a deep pocket) hit the roads and council people using the Occupational Health and Safety regulations?

The company I worked for doing local had some dedicated daily pup trailer pickups. Go out with two empties, pick up the first one, catch the second on the way back to the terminal. The second pickup involved a pretty tight, busy and short lighted intersection. You would have to make your move against an oncoming vehicle. Not unsafe but not something you would normally want to do.

Anyway, you would buttonhook the right hand turn, taking up the entire intersection but it was poetry in motion getting two pups around that corner. Drivers going the other way on the street that you wanted to make your right on could be on or over the line yet there was plenty of room but they would be trying to get out of the way.

The drivers pulling a 53 footer had a tougher time. Even with a button hook, they could not make the turn with vehicles on or over that white line. Strangely enough, they took a lot of abuse from the four wheeler crowd.

 

[ratpie]

the main problem is DRIVER... any moron can be a driver, it takes a professional to be an operator.

 

[TBone]

I spent a LOT of years on the road. Saw a lot of good drivers (cars and trucks) and saw quite a few that didn’t deserve a drivers license. 40 years ago most big rig drivers were gentlemen and would help anyone in need. For the past 10-15 years I have seen a drastic decline in both driving skill and attitudes in both (4 wheelers) and commercial drivers. It seems it’s strictly a dog eat world on our highways anymore. There are some things I miss about being on the road but “being on the road” ain’t one of them.