Profile For Jukebox (Trent)

And if this forum isn't for truckers to speak up or talking about issues bigger than how to pass the cdl exam, how do i hook up an inverter, or how do i run on split logs yeah this isn't the forum for me. "Young people should never trust anyone over the age of 30" Thank a boomer for that quote! I'm out! Stay safe out there drivers!

BRETT AQUILA and G Town both very critical of my thanks to BillTheSlink. Actually all the mods on this forum are very critical of users who post anything about these issues. Almost as if you don't want these issues talked about. I read through my posts and the replies and couldn't find where I alienated any group or made especially disparaging remarks but found lots of trolls and BRETT AQUILA telling me I was off the forum. Maybe it's what I said about Berner or zchneider??? Anyways I've sat back & ate a nice T-bone steak and enjoyed watching you guys get so worked up over a "niave" whippersnapper talking about big issues in the trucking industry. There have been several great replys since I last posted & G Town left a great response. So thanks to everyone who left great responses. I wasn't sure if anyone would be as concerned as I was about trucking jobs going away. From what I've gathered here the answer is "NO" & that I shouldn't worry either. Oh and some stuff about me being young, arrogant, niave, inexperienced, needing tinfoil & cracks about being a millenial. Brett Aquila you pointed out that I have no real solution for the problems and your right I dont. I know that west coast outfits are starting to go teamster and that on the other side of the pond lorry drivers have gone teamster. In france the lorry drivers were rioting! Knowing that others are already going to unions as a solution I posted that as a posible solution. A lot of people appear to be against unions, some drivers are for automation, some against, some don't believe it will ever happen & that we are apparently about as technologically advanced as we will ever become. Nobody really gave any better ideas than unionizing however. I mentioned some sort of lobbying group akin to the NRA to speak on truckers behalf. At the very least when technology and innovation is allowed to replace drivers some group needs to argue that it's throttled back and done slowly. I don't believe that it would happen slowly naturally. In my lifetime I have seen computers go from being huge boxes to the size of a calculator and now self-driving vehicles are on the table. All of that in less than 30 years which says to me that technology is advancing much faster than it ever has before & will most likely continue to do so. Faster than anyone on here is really willing to admit. Millenials have a lot of concerns about our future and providing for our families. We have seen Boomers and gen xrs run the world into the ground and if you look at the tv once in a while you'll see we're not happy about it and I am only one of many who is concerned for the future. Telling us to "sit down & shaddup ya mouth you arrogant whippersnapper" isn't prudent. This issue of automation should be a concern for everyone in my opinion. Millions of jobs outside of drivers rely on trucking and specifically truckers. Thats a huge chunk of the economy! Automation would effect more than just drivers and the only people to really benefit from it would be owners of large companies. Small dry van and reefer companies would suffer due to automation if not roll under altogether. Flatbed drivers would be very hard to eliminate and remain resilient but still a large portion of the industry would be effected. Read the Washington Post or WSJ and you'll find that people are predicting unionization of the industey & a sharp decline in employment due to automation. I'm not the only person talking about this and the more its in mainstream news the harder it'll be for coorporate reps to silence drivers questions about it. Whether you agree, disagree, concerned or not concerned I wanted to talk about it & see where the community stood on the subject and maybe find out of these were other solutions outside of unionizing. Nobody really has any ideas. Thanks for what answers I did recieve though & sorry that some of you are so upset by a young snot nose. And until by some miracle the gov fixes healthcare, Medicare & social security or they give everyone universal basic income like manna from heaven remember it's in everyone's best interest to keep millenials in mind & keep us employed & paying into those great social welfare funds!

At least I got one decent reply thanks BillTheSlink. And from the slew of wisecracks and other replies I got I really think you're right. There is nothing to be done about it. Being a Millenial with no hope of retirement I was looking at things in the long run. Quite a few of you want to be replaced by a machine and want fewer trucking jobs or you don't care because you're old and about to retire. Idk who Alex Jones is but I listen to NPR, BBC, CBS & read WSJ. I opened myself up to ridicule by caring about this industry and that's ok. I now see that this industry isn't something I need to care about. Besides flatbed would be one of the last jobs to disappear to Robo Hal the super trucker. All the dry van and reefers will go first :)! Thanks for all the great input old schools and super truckers of the web!

Brett Aquila

More hometime? Some people love living on the road for weeks at a time.

Fewer maximum driving hours available? Some people need every mile they can get to feed their families.

More regular or predictable routes available? A lot of drivers would get bored to death.

More money? Well that's a real toughy. First of all, pay by the mile or by the hour or on salary? Overtime? Layover pay? How would this all be structured?

So that's why when you say, "Hey, let's rally the troops and demand more!" I say ok, but come up with some specifics that will actually work first. How do we gather? What do we ask for? Who do we ask? It's an immensely complex and difficult proposition

This is almost an outright obfuscation. You are basically saying that before I start that we should unionize or do something to protect our jobs & out futures that i basically become an organizer/union representative.

When you think about it, is it "the company" that treats people like garbage? Or are there maybe some individuals within a company that you might not get along with? Or maybe some individuals that do a lousy job? But really, amongst the majors are there really "bad companies" that all drivers should avoid?

I would say from my experience there are some companies that do truly treat people like nothing more than a number. I know this is true because i am still trying to break myself of the habit of referring to myself as a number. Some of the larger companies out here (rhymes with Berner & zchneider) don't have a good reputation for treating drivers well. The company I am at is a smaller flatbed company and I love it. They treat me like family and have really been there for me through some hard spots. So yes I think I can say that not all companies are going to be equal when it comes to taking care of drivers.

You know what's funny? When someone accepts training from one of the Company-Sponsored Training Programs they have to sign a contract to work for the company for a specified amount of time, right? Do you know how often people come in here saying they don't want to be a "slave under contract"? A slave.

So on the one hand you have people screaming that we don't have enough job security. But on the other hand when a company tries to make sure you stick around people cry "slavery".

I can't speak for all drivers but when I heard of company sponsored training programs I was very wary of them. These programs are not for everyone and in fact of you have to attend one of these programs trucking may not be for you or at least it may not be the right time for you to try your hand at trucking. Some people may have had great experiences through these programs but there are lots of con's that come with them. One of the biggest con's is that other companies don't honor whatever training certificates you recieved from the previous company. So if you ever leave the company you may have to pay out of pocket for third party training or sign into another training contract. These contracts aren't usually free either, you the driver end up paying for them in some shape or form. I think its great for young single people who have no other options or just want to see the world for cheap. I paid CASH MONEY for my training and I'm very glad that I did because I definitely made good on the investment.

So there are literally a million companies to choose from, which is cool, but it makes it difficult to unionize. For one, how to you gather that many people from all different companies together, and 2) What do you ask for?

1) Yes it will be EXTREMELY difficult to unionize trucking but not impossible. Plus from what i understand you can have local organizers meet as representatives instead of having EVERY SINGLE TRUCK DRIVER meet across America. Telecommunications technology and internet has made it possible to "gather that many people together". I can have a face to face conversation with 10 different people on my smart phone! Technology can be utilized as a tool to include as many people as possible. Plus there will always be holdouts meaning not all companies or drivers would unionize so they don't have to be represented. 2) What do we ask for? You listed quite a few things which drivers may want. Truth is one driver can't answer for all drivers so I can't tell you what we should all ask for. I do know that we need to secure our jobs so that they cannot all be automated. I dont think we should ask for more pay or more hometime or more regulation. We should ask for protection just so we don't lose what we have already.

When I worked for an aircraft manufacturer, in a union shop, I wished it was that way. I made less than the guys who had been there longer, even though I busted my tail and they held their toolboxes down. I even got in trouble with the union for working too hard. Made others look bad. Maybe that's what you want, money for nothing. Not me, I like earning my keep

I worked for the state gov for a year and it was a lot like what you described here. Thats not what I envision for unionizing trucking. I grew up in the south and there is no protection for workers there so I have no experience with unions yet. Having worked and lived in the south however and trying to feed a family I can say that i wish i had protection from time to time. I was terminated from a great paying job years ago because I took time off when my father died to be a pall bearer. Thats how it works in a right to work state. Notherners pick on southerners all the time but have no idea how difficult life in the south actually is. I have had to work for everything I ever had and I don't expect that will ever change. I don't want something for nothing, I just want to protect what I already have & to have the "right" to work. I don't want some silicon valley billionair or greasy haired insurance agent eliminating truck driving jobs or taking away what we have already earned.

People want to own guns so they give to the NRA who lobbies for gun ownership on their behalf to protect the 2nd ammendment right to bear arms. That's not something for nothing. Why is trying to protect our jobs & careers any different?

Hey driver some companies out there will treat you like junk and some will be great to you. You may not be with the right company. I had hard times when I first started trucking but I had a great company and eventually I became a decent flatbed driver. I had to learn a lot about running a flatbed rig before things got better though. As far as "uniting" etc. I'm all for it. We really should unionize to protect ourselves. I was born and raised in a right to work state & know firsthand that there is no "right" to work. Old schoolers may scoff at us for wanting to unionize & that's ok. Old schoolers are great drivers and know a lot more about trucking and the industry than I do. But where and old schooler might see trucking being a safe profession until they retire (5-10 yrs) I do not because I might see in my lifetime wages drop to unbearable levels or our jobs eliminated by automation if we don't protect ourselves now.

Here you go Errol V.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.trucks.com/2016/11/16/self-driving-trucks-reshape-trucking-industry/amp/

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/92695580/

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/trucking-industry-on-uber-otto-beer-truck-delivery

For one years worth of wages or less trucks can be retrofitted to replace drivers: https://www.wired.com/2016/05/otto-retrofit-autonomous-self-driving-trucks/

Technology reduces jobs and tech innovators get behind universal basic income: http://www.npr.org/2016/09/24/495186758/as-our-jobs-are-automated-some-say-well-need-a-guaranteed-basic-income

Self-driving technology is already out there and companies are already testing it. Either you are for drivers being replaced by technology or you are against it but you cannot pretend that it will not happen. Gladhand said earlier "This driverless stuff sounds the same as "in the future the computer will be no less than 2 tons.". Well guys the future is here and you can now hold a computer in the palm of your hand. We have seen countless jobs fall to automation. Now technology giants have set their aim on transportation. If you think that technology cant automate a lot of transportation jobs then you are a member of the "in the future the computer will be no less than 2 tons" camp and we know how that panned out.

Oh come on Errol V. you're a mod don't sink into denial and dismissal right off the bat! Just because we drive truck doesn't mean we should have our heads buried in the sand. If you want me to site a few sources I will. There is a difference between stringing buzzwords together and repeating something the president of Jigsaw said. Come on! I am not a writer or a politician but I am under no illusion that I write with eloquence or proper course. I simply want to bring the issue to light and have a proper discussion.

I suggest we unionize or go teamster like ups & lobby to protect our jobs. That would seem to be the most civilised of choices. Being a truck driver and not a union organizer I don't know how to do that. I think the first step however is to start the discussion and make people aware of whats going on. Maybe other people out there will have some better ideas than i will. And no I haven't been getting my info from other drivers I'm getting my info from news & some boards. I try to keep up with current events, politics, stocks & weather on my down time.