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jrz13

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If you were to take everything you know about trucking.... forced dispatch, unions, medical benefits, top pay rates, vacation time and all the other good/bad things about where you currently or used to work. If you could go back X amount of years and with all that collective knowledge and hire on with just 1 company to ride til retirement. Who are the top choices?
 
jrz13 said:
If you were to take everything you know about trucking.... forced dispatch, unions, medical benefits, top pay rates, vacation time and all the other good/bad things about where you currently or used to work. If you could go back X amount of years and with all that collective knowledge and hire on with just 1 company to ride til retirement. Who are the top choices?
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i'd never have gotten into trucking.

i was near the top of my former profession, i should have stayed at that.
 
I run linehaul and I gotta say I actually enjoy it. Now p&d is a different world altogether. Does that almost perfect company exist anymore, the one you can run for your entire career and not have any major complaints other than late paperwork occasionally, slip seats and p.i.t.a dispatchers?
 
This would be Ryder Truck Lines/PIE Nationwide, "Hands Down"
I doubt not many on this board can say they started with a company, stayed in the same city, never worked on a dock or city
and retired after 35 yrs,never had another job.
I'll admit I was a lazy line driver, they were very lenient with timeoff, you were back home after 24 to 36 hrs usually, if freight
was not too heavy, no problem with getting off.
Most of our supervisors were good, you didn't have to fight for money owed.
Equipment was maintained as well as any.
Its hard for me to compare except for hearsay.
Teamsters had power back in those days, we had "The Carolina Supplement" with NMFA, I thought one of the best contracts
ever.
I'm sure all will not agree, but I feel this was one of the best LTL carriers of their time.
I was very fortunate to have a job I enjoyed, sad to see them gone.
 
jrz13 said:
If you were to take everything you know about trucking.... forced dispatch, unions, medical benefits, top pay rates, vacation time and all the other good/bad things about where you currently or used to work. If you could go back X amount of years and with all that collective knowledge and hire on with just 1 company to ride til retirement. Who are the top choices?
Click to expand...
As the best bank to keep your money in is your own one, so I will say about the trucking company. The best one to work for is your own. OK It is the matter of responsibility, and if you fail there's no one to blame but yourself. Still it is really great feeling of non depending on anybody but yourself.
 
seabreeze said:
This would be Ryder Truck Lines/PIE Nationwide, "Hands Down"
I doubt not many on this board can say they started with a company, stayed in the same city, never worked on a dock or city
and retired after 35 yrs,never had another job.
I'll admit I was a lazy line driver, they were very lenient with timeoff, you were back home after 24 to 36 hrs usually, if freight
was not too heavy, no problem with getting off.
Most of our supervisors were good, you didn't have to fight for money owed.
Equipment was maintained as well as any.
Its hard for me to compare except for hearsay.
Teamsters had power back in those days, we had "The Carolina Supplement" with NMFA, I thought one of the best contracts
ever.
I'm sure all will not agree, but I feel this was one of the best LTL carriers of their time.
I was very fortunate to have a job I enjoyed, sad to see them gone.
Click to expand...
You make it sound so glorious.
 
Brian Junior said:
As the best bank to keep your money in is your own one, so I will say about the trucking company. The best one to work for is your own. OK It is the matter of responsibility, and if you fail there's no one to blame but yourself. Still it is really great feeling of non depending on anybody but yourself.
Click to expand...
same can be said for the repair business i was in. when you own a garage, you usually have no worries on unemployment.

i feel strongly that if i had stayed as a wrencher, the sky would have only been my limit. when i said earlier i was near the top of my former profession, i was offered a sweet deal to get into a multi-line dealership, as a desk jockey. from there, i know i could have gone up that corporate ladder to high management. not to toot my own horn, but i was good with the shop personnel i had at my garage and my customers.

i think beyond a reasonable doubt, had i stayed in the repair industry, i'd not have had my 3 major back surgeries, all due to trucking related injuries.

and i was CAREFUL in what i did day after day, night after night, to avoid any injuries. but i think like driving the nearly 3 million miles i had done, sooner or later the odds run against you for either an accident or injury.

but who really knows?

all i know is, i gambled against those odds for nearly 30 years.

i'd just never really want anyone in my circle of friends or family to get into this BS industry.

not that all other industries have no BS, just seems to me, from my past, trucking is NUMBER 1 in that.......

and the BS will never stop.........
 
ABFer said:
You make it sound so glorious.
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You know yourself, they were bumps in the road, but when you listen to other drivers complaints, we had a picnic
If they had too many complaints on a supervisor, they sent him packing.
Like I said, I was very fortunate.
 
seabreeze said:
You know yourself, they were bumps in the road, but when you listen to other drivers complaints, we had a picnic
If they had too many complaints on a supervisor, they sent him packing.
Like I said, I was very fortunate.
Click to expand...
One thing I recall about PIE was these tractors that they had for running the road...I was out late at night running the road myself right about the time that they were changing the length laws. Previously vehicle length had been restricted as 'overall length' and they had since been changed to trailer length, as they still are today. I saw this PIE set of doubles out west (I believe it was before they were permitted east) and the tractor looked like it was shorter than a VW Beetle. I swear this was the shortest tractor I ever saw. I gave the driver a shout on the CB and told him that if he could get that fuel tank mounted behind the tractor somehow he could shorten up the wheel base on it. He told me that it already rode like a Pogo stick and that he didn't need it any shorter.
 
ABFer said:
One thing I recall about PIE was these tractors that they had for running the road...I was out late at night running the road myself right about the time that they were changing the length laws. Previously vehicle length had been restricted as 'overall length' and they had since been changed to trailer length, as they still are today. I saw this PIE set of doubles out west (I believe it was before they were permitted east) and the tractor looked like it was shorter than a VW Beetle. I swear this was the shortest tractor I ever saw. I gave the driver a shout on the CB and told him that if he could get that fuel tank mounted behind the tractor somehow he could shorten up the wheel base on it. He told me that it already rode like a Pogo stick and that he didn't need it any shorter.
Click to expand...

He was not lying, we had several drivers had serious neck and back injuries from bouncing their heads on the top.
COE Freightliner with the Jiffs were the worst.
 
I would never have signed on with consolidated freightways ( truckers called them " cornflake " )
The teamsters ran them into the ground & out of business and one of the CEOs got out before they went under to start " Conway " out of Missouri

True story
 
I would have hired on with Overnite,had I known about them before they came into upstate NY.
Out of the 45 years being a P&D driver with 15 different LTL's, Overnite being the first non-union.
Overnite was hands down the best,however I did have 22 years with them & combined UPS Freight when I retired.
I know now I could of had my entire trucking career with them,had I ever heard of them before they came up North.
 
Started out at Roadway then went to Carolina freight best company I worked for in freight till Mr. Beam and Mr. Younger retired and the bean counters got their hands on it sold out to ABF wasn't moving to chase the freight been in carhaul for 22 years now wish I had jumped in eariler But thinking back never went hungry and had a roof over my head so times are good
 
So knowing the good/bad that you've gone through in the past, in today's world with the choices given with the carriers out there. Would u say it's an LTL gig like XPO, Estes, Old D, Central Transport. Maybe a Ward, Costco, Walmart, Prime Inc regional gig. Or do u like to throw groceries like PFG, Sysco or US foods. Maybe something different like driving dump trucks or car haulers. What are the top companies in 2017 you think are on solid ground and are fair for both driver and employer? I should've been more specific with my question. Like I work at ... and I wish I started here 20 years ago because of ....
 
Truck Driving: Some Good Times from late '98 to the end of 2005 then mostly Miserable Times to the end of my O. T. R. Regional "career" in April this year. I'm now a local Driver at no more than 300 mile turns.

Knowing what I have LEARNED through the years, it would be NICE to go back to before the beginning of such "career", I would have never started because no matter what company has appeared/now appears "Good or Great", it's still Truck Driving with all the usual aggravations, annoyances, pushy people and endless whining, as well the sounds from those wonderfully irascible Drivers.

I've never been with a "Great or Wonderful" Freight hauling company and there appears not to be one in me future so I'll enjoy what there is till there is no more.

Trucking ain't what it WAS and shall again never be!
CHEERS!!
 
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