How Do You Deal With The Corporate Bs Long Term?

I think this question probably goes to those that have worked long term for larger corporations. This is my first foray into being a worker bee for decades. I struggle with it and much more, struggle to keep quiet when I see the insidious policies rear their ugly heads. The conclusion that I come to is that, like so many in the industry, Ill try a smaller entity, which is risky in todays climate or eventually go owner op so that its a business to business relationship.

What do I mean by corporate bs? First off, I love the people I work with, I have great relationships with the people at the company. Its the policies that, while I'm successful at combating and even largely profiting off of, I struggle with. Such as HHG, the thought that because the company cant bid jobs without loosing a bit of money that they force the employees to share the loss. If a normal employer told you he was going to pay you less because he took the job for a lower price, he'd come away with less teeth than a used sawblade.

But where the insidious behavior comes in is that on top of already abusing the driver with HHG as an industry standard, our "suggested" route is the shortest route, no matter how difficult or slow, and the paid miles are based off that short route, then the company routes us on the longer most likely truck route. So not only are you loosing 7 to 10 percent of miles, you loose another 3 to 5 percent again going from the shorter route to a longer one. Its systemic and done every route. The company rapes just a few cents more anywhere it can.

Every load is like a new day as I explain to my young naive DM that I need more miles on this one because of it. She was confused the first few times I pointed it out until she realized it was done as a pattern and even pointed out that it was crazy. Its not crazy though, its actually brilliant in a petty way. Its cold, calculating and while not illegal, certainly unethical. Perhaps many people would just brush it off or not even notice it, perhaps its a touch of OCD, but it bothers me to no end. So I pick my battles, the threshold for me saying anything is about 40 miles out of route, and usually on shorter routes that I dont like. If I climb on them too much on a gravy load, Ill not be likely to receive another one for a while.

This is but one example in a cornucopia of tons of little systemic policies and subroutines that fleece drivers out of nickels and dimes, dollars and thousands of dollars over time. I see other drivers, when they discover these things, get angry and frustrated. Most seem to leave in search of other companies that wont do it, some just accept it, some fight it a bit, while others just get demoralized and sour and a few earnestly battle the issues and profit where they can.

I didnt notice these type of things when I first started, I was struggling just to learn and make my loads on time, build my reputation as reliable, on time, safe and easy to work with. I still conduct myself as that, Ill still put in the extra effort, but every time I turn around, I notice some glaring policy designed to separate me from some, just a bit of my money for the work performed.

While its unspoken, in fact, in true corporate double speak, they claim the want to know about issues, just not those issues, if you point out the issues, punitive action will be taken. Others that have spoken out about issues basically go to the Siberian plains of loads, get starved out of loads, safety scores skyrocket, all sorts of things. It happens, in construction if you overstep your bounds, you end up insulating the crawl space or whatever the worst possible job is on site. Ive sent many of mouthy apprentices to go do some of the worst jobs possible because they were making trouble. I dont think its that much different in this industry.

I have a hard time just brushing it off. If you ended up staying at a big corporation long term, how did you come to terms with it? Perhaps I sound like conspiracy theorist looking for a tin foil hat, but then again, there's a stereotype of large corporations exploiting workers a penny at a time for a reason.

This was something that came up a lot when I was looking into this field 7 years ago and it bothered me then. You're absolutely right. My plan 7 years ago was to go OTR , do my year (sounds like a bid upstate) and find something better. The thought of sitting at a shipper or consignee for hours without compensation was a bitter pill to swallow, but one I was willing to for the chance to improve my position in life.

Trucking and restaurants seem to be the 2 industries that screw over workers the most and that's because it's a race to the bottom. Customers can pick anybody to move their stuff from point A to point B. They're willing to pay for more reliability, but most of the time I don't think they care. Same as restaurant patrons. First thing they look at is the price. When you go in, you're pressed to leave a tip because the server makes 2/hr or something crazy like that. You'll never curb the greed at the top or the goal of jacking up the stock price so I just say the serenity prayer.

The fact is if you're willing to deal with it, they'll continue to do it. Right now they don't care because there's more drivers than loads.

I'm thankful I don't have to deal with these issues. The miles my GPS brings up and the miles I'm getting paid for are identical more often than not and when they're not it's close enough for me to not care.

It's a question that people have to answer for themselves. Does it bother you enough to make you sacrifice the relationships and reputation you've built to start from scratch somewhere else? That's the dilemma. Start over now or continue to build resentment over time because you're comfortable where you are and built a name for yourself? If it's the former, do what you have to do. If it's the latter, they'll continue to do it and get more brazen when they need to. Wasn't too long ago everybody was offering sign on bonuses. Now they nickel and dime you.

They're slick with it too like with the fuel bonus. You meet the requirements and you get an extra $.03. They save money while you work longer hours for literal pennies. I thought about this when I passed a prime going as slow as he could. If I'm driving 100 miles and everything is perfect, it'll take me 2 hours doing 50 MPH. If I do 65 it'll take me an hour and a half. I'd be working an extra 30 minutes for 3 dollars (pretax) to save the corp buttloads on fuel. It's stupid to me, but people are willing to do it so they continue to push it.

It's all a scam from the bonuses to the leases. It's just a matter of doing the best you can to benefit from it.

Hey Davy, I feel your pain man. It’s frustrating because most of us, probably, see and experience the same issues you do. Then we realize there’s not much we can do about it as individual drivers. That’s why Banks mentioned the Serenity prayer (which I thought was funny as heck).

Several issues here. The industry as a whole is one issue and you as an individual driver is another issue. Now I think you probably already realize this, Davy, but I can tell from your posts that you are getting increasingly frustrated and restless with your current situation and how you are treated at Knight. Only you can decide to make peace with it or to try another company. But to let your frustration continue to build is not good. You do have the intelligence and experience to search out and identify another driving situation that suits you better. It’s obviously a tough decision.

The industry as a whole employs the same tactics you point out to minimize driver compensation. It’s not just the mega carriers. My company is only about 300 drivers. Not tiny, but not like Knight, Swift, Prime, etc. My company pulls the same shady stuff. I’m always driving more miles than I get paid for. Always fighting for extra pay I qualify for but that my FM “forgets” to approve because he claims to be so overwhelmed with his duties that “some things fall through the cracks”. There is enough for a driver to worry about that is directly related to driving safely, on time pickup and delivery, weather, equipment inspection, parking and HOS. Then on top of that the driver needs to monitor his paycheck and scrutinize it constantly to see if he is getting what was promised? That to me is the biggest BS issue with my job.

On the other hand, I can rationalize the negatives because the positives are still pretty good where I’m at. Currently, I evaluate my job like the positives outweigh the negatives. I’m still running steady. Last week I got 3949 miles and I rarely go below 3000 per week. When that balance becomes the opposite, I will then make some sort of change in the hopes of getting into a better situation. It’s called voting with your feet.

I think this question probably goes to those that have worked long term for larger corporations.

Davy, I think your effort at trying to find the proper place to aim this question may be part of your "bigger" problem. You express disdain and a continual building of frustration with the "economics of trucking." I put that in quotes because I want to make a point. You like to refer to these issues as "corporate BS." You want to lay the blame on a "systemic" corporate treatment of its "worker bees." Sometimes you refer to the "policies" or the "insiduous behavior" with strong language. You even used "rape" in this instance. You are obviously annoyed by things that I consider as the "economics of trucking."

You struggle with a solution. In this post you offered up something that has been running through your very active mind...

try a smaller entity... or eventually go owner op

I think that is the furthest thing from a solution. My reasoning is because you haven't properly recognized what the problem is. You have come to the conclusion that this is corporate BS. So the way you avoid it is to get away from the source: the corporation. Maybe you came to this conclusion on your own, but there were probably other influences or people that contributed to your thought process.

The thing you can't escape is the "economics of trucking." Like it or not, the economics of trucking doesn't change when we change to a smaller company or even go to being the owner of our own truck. We still have to deal with it. Those economic dynamics are not easily disturbed. They have built in mechanisms that keep them brutally efficient. Sometimes it is at the cost of the "worker bees," but to be honest with you, the effect is felt at all levels of employment in transportation.

The economics of trucking have not changed for decades. Oh it has taken some twists and turns here and there, but unless the government is controlling the prices like it once did, we are stuck with the power of the free markets. Personally I will take that free market effect over the government's control at any time. Anytime we give the government controlling power we relinquish our own power. That is not an enviable position to be in.

I understand your frustration. I am not trying to belittle it. There are certainly problems that we all deal with in trucking. I just think if we are ever going to be able to do anything about them we have to recognize where the problem lies. Brett touched on these matters a while back in a post about the unions having some victories in their negotiations.

Personally, I don't see the solution. That is a pathetic admission, but I will keep looking. The one thing that helps me is to focus on my overall performance and results. I don't let myself get bogged down in the weeds. I work hard and if I have made an acceptable amount of money for the year, then I am happy with my results. I don't let a small paycheck one week send me into a moaning and groaning fit of how I am getting cheated. I don't even let a disappointing month get to me. I make goals that are at least quarterly, but more importantly annually. If I can reach my goals in spite of the nonsense, then I am good with that. I understand my employer has got to be profitable. If they aren't then I will be unemployed. Anything I can do to help them remain viable and competitive while reaching my own personal goals makes my employment meaningful and profitable.

Am I a sell out? Do I sound as if I just roll-over and take what the man says I must? I think not. I have found a principle in trucking that I have repeatedly benefitted from. We talk about it all the time. It is this old thing about I will scratch your back as long as you will scratch mine. Trucking has been very reciprocal with me. I can't even go into all the examples, but I think most of us ignore them or just forget about them when we get frustrated over some particularly egregious activity that affects us.

Let me throw one such example out there for you. When I lost vision in one of my eyes, Knight (a huge corporation and your employer now) kept me listed as an employee while I dealt with having seven eye surgeries over the course of a year. I was gone from them for a whole year. They kept my insurance up and didn't take away any of my seniority or miles toward reaching goals like my million mile status. I still got my 5,000 dollar bonus and all the other things that I should have lost by being gone for a whole year. I could actually give you a lot more examples of corporate benevolence that I have been on the receiving end of.

Okay, let's get to the bottom line of my argument. When you go to a smaller company or even to O/O. NOTHING CHANGES. You are still dealing with the dynamics of trucking. It doesn't matter that you are now in a "business to business" relationship. You are going to bump into the "economics of trucking." You are going to be dealing with unethical brokers or companies that struggle with their cash flow. It will not change this to the way it works in the construction business. This is a commodities business. That is completely different from a contractor's world. Operating ratios are razor thin in this business, and it is a well established practice to work at unprofitable levels just to choke out some of the competition. It is vicious. It is trucking. Can you change it? I doubt it.

You either have to work with it or go elsewhere.

A driver once told me once you go from a big company to a small company you’ll never want to go back. I went from a small company to a big company and all I want to do is go back lol.

It seems with larger companies if it sounds good and looks good on paper that will be the way and nothing else. I just try and remind myself I’m paid by the hour for everything except my 30 minute lunch break. Every company is going to have their scams of sorts. Just gotta try and make peace with it I suppose.

This is tough for me to watch because I really like both of you guys, but I'm used to seeing it over the years. Great-quality, hard-working people get started in trucking, and they love it. They're making fantastic money, they have a meaningful career that serves our society in a way they can be proud of, and they get to drive big-ole American Big Rig, one of the coolest things ever.

Life is grand. Living the dream.

But one day you notice something about your company you don't like. Then another thing. Before long, you start believing this industry has an awful lot of problems and you start talking around. Well, it's never hard to find drivers with a list of things they're unhappy about, so you find plenty of unhappy people who agree.

Before long, the sunshine and roses are gone, and you're left in what feels like a dying hellscape of corruption.

This isn't exclusive to trucking or working folk. You'll hear the same kind of talk if you go into an NFL locker room. The owners are psychopaths out to destroy us and take advantage of our hard work. They don't care about us or respect us. They're just using and abusing us for their own gains.

Of course, many of these NFL players grew up in poverty in the ghettos of major cities. Now they're making millions of dollars each year to play a fun game in front of their family, friends, and hometowns with millions of admirers rooting for them. Yet they're miserable because they've convinced themselves that they deserve better and they're being mistreated.

You can talk yourself into believing almost anything if you're not careful.

If you ended up staying at a big corporation long term, how did you come to terms with it?

I worked at a few different major carriers. The last 6 years of my OTR career I was with US Xpress.

I really moved around a lot early in my career. I wanted to try different types of trucking and different types of companies. I pulled a variety of freight, worked for every size company from 11 trucks up to 6,000 trucks, and had every type of home time from home daily to home monthly.

In the end, I felt the large carriers were the place to be. They had the best of everything, including pay, benefits, home time opportunities, equipment, flexibility, strong finances behind them, a variety of fleets and customers, and a long list of driver conveniences.

So how did I come to terms with it? Well, these were my circumstances:

• I was living the OTR lifestyle, which I really loved
• I was driving brand new equipment
• I was making a great wage relative to other blue-collar trades
• I lived in the truck so I was able to build up nice savings and some nice investments
• I could move anywhere in the country and have 10 jobs the next day if I wanted to
• I felt great about the way I was helping the people in our society
• I had more control over my environment and how I did my job than most people
• I met new people and had tons of fun everywhere I went
• I was always a patriot, and trucking allowed me to see the country firsthand that I so deeply loved

So to sum it up, I certainly wasn't suffering in any way I could perceive. I was loving life.

For all those years, they paid me Household Mover's Guide miles like they do today. I worked for companies that consistently "forgot" to pay me for loads, so I had to call payroll to fix their "mistake." No one ever "accidentally" overpaid me. The "mistakes" only went one way.

I sat for many, many long hours at shippers without detention pay most of the time.

I've had dispatch try to send me into blinding blizzards with an empty trailer. I've had them try to revoke home time. Once, I was fired after arriving 30 minutes early for an appointment because my dispatcher neglected to tell me not to go in early. The company fired me, then decided to hear my side of the story, and promptly hired me back.

I could go on for days. If it has happened to a truck driver, it probably happened to me.

Yet, I loved my career. I was happy as could be and felt it was a true privilege to have had the experience, and I still feel that way to this day. In fact, I've run this website for over 17 years now because trucking was great to me and I want to help others if I can.

So how did I do it? How did I deal with all the same issues you guys deal with today while still maintaining my gratitude and positive outlook on life?

It was easy. I never allowed myself to get lost in the details and forget the only question that matters:

Is Trucking Worth It?

At the end of the year, I would look at the body of work and ask myself if it was worth it. I'd look at the risks, rewards, responsibilities, and sacrifices and ask myself if I was willing to do it again for another year.

That's it. It was that simple for me. I loved driving big rigs, and I felt they paid me fairly for what they asked me to do.

If you're happy with the money you're making for what they're asking you to do, then what else is there to worry about? If you're unhappy with the money you're making for what they're asking, then you should do something about it.

It seems to me you guys were happy with trucking until you started looking for reasons to be unhappy. Once you started down that path, you got so deep in the weeds that now you see nothing but a bleak hellscape of corruption where I saw a huge opportunity for a great life.

Each person has to decide what they want from their lives. For me, trucking was worth it. For others, it isn't. Just be careful that you don't take something that you once loved and turn it into something you hate because you focus on things that don't matter.

If my company had said, "Brett, you're going to work for free this entire year, but we'll pay you $75,000 to work on December 31st." As long as I could pay my bills for those 364 days, I'd take that $75,000 on the last day of the year and come out the same in the end, so what does it matter?

I'm hoping you guys don't become one of the millions of truck drivers who started out happy as hell but blackpilled themselves, became terminal rats, and walked away from trucking deeply resentful. I've watched countless drivers do that to themselves over the years. It's something I've always worked hard to help people with and it's something I'll continue to talk about in hopes of keeping people focused on what matters.

I really like Brett’s and Old School’s replies. Some good advice.

I spent 38 years with a major multinational oil company. In some respects it was like being in the military being moved around many locations. I moved 13 times during my first 10 years. Then it slowed down to a move every 3-4 years. The last 22 years I was overseas.

I survived 5 downsizings with the cyclical nature of the business until the 6th got me at age 60.

There is always corporate BS, but also good things. The oil industry pays way above average salaries. I got to see the world.

I had a tendency to speak my mind to senior management. Not always going along with the corporate line. I believe this cost me one grade level. My Ego struggled with this for a long time.

Frankly I’m glad I’m out of that company. It has changed with DIE (not DEI) and the ESG push for carbon net zero.

Regarding trucking I’m trying not to get hung up on the driver vs management mindset. I’m focused on what I can control, which is my attitude. I’m also seeing this beautiful country making good money. I’ve driven in 46 states, only missing North & South Dakota.

I’m grateful to have a job today at 68.

I worked for Metropolitan Life over 40 years ago (mortgage division) and didn't find any problems working there except for a manager which caused me to leave. He was fired before my last day and I often which I had rescinded my resignation but also think the various experiences I had since then were very good for me.

I think the advice of others to focus on all of the good things of your job are great. When reading these comments it actually reminded me of living in California. Terrible place with bad politics, high taxes, homelessness, crime in urban centers, etc. If I focused much attention to that every day I would leave. We are selling our farm but have bought a home in a nearby small town even though we considered moving. We enjoy it here. We like gardening and don't like dealing with cold winters or hot humid summers. We have friends here, active in our church, have some family here, and still in a small city with low crime. If we focused on the problems every day we would be unhappy but we instead focus on what we like about living here and I think that can relate directly to how you view working for Knight. Focus on the good things or focus on the good things and what you can control. I don't think you'll be happy anywhere if you focus on the problems.

I'm not complaining, I have no gripes with my employer. I don't do anything for free. I get paid for sitting in traffic, putting a tractor under a trailer, putting fuel in the truck, if the load isn't ready on time I get paid my hourly rate of 34.11 to play with my phone in my truck and I get paid for every mile I drive. If I go off route, dispatch will add the miles for me at the end of the day. I have no complaints.

People have issues with their employer. My wife is dealing it with now. I tell her to focus on the positive. She's getting paid what she wants, she's close to home, she has the schedule she wants and she likes what she does. But she can't help but focus on how much management sucks.

It's easier to get consumed by negative rather than focus on positive.

I don't know what Davy's day to day is like. I can't downplay his feelings on this because he's the one going through it and the toll it takes on a person will vary based on the individual. I agree with all of his points and while it may affect Brett and Old School differently, they're not Davy. That's not meant as a slight at either one of them, but saying "it's not that bad" or "that doesn't matter" isn't going to ease his frustration.

Like I said earlier, he has to determine if the grass is greener on another pasture. He's the only one that can answer that and he's the one that has to live with the decision.

My perspective is, it's their company. They can do what they see fit and I can decide if I want to work for them. If people will continue to work, the behavior will continue. There's a reason nobody pays 7/hr and it's not because they're kind.

I normally don’t post my dislikes about the OTR experience or the lifestyle but what I will say is this. I made a decent wage on paper while OVR but when you factor in all the BS I put up with and all the hours I put in, it really was pretty poor. I’ve never spent so many hours on the job and I really did hate what little value my time seemed to have.

Now I’m still employed by a large company but I’m local. I average 45-50 hours a week, home every day, weekends off and tons of PTO and other perks. Even on paper I make more money now… so when you factor in my hours worked compared to when I was OVR the difference is just mind blowing. I mean I hit 6 figures last year… only working 45-50 hours a week. I know there’s OVR drivers who make more but not even close if you factor in how many hours they work.

I could find similar gripes with local companies right? But I’m not sacrificing my life out on the road for them.. I’m putting In My 9-10 hours and going home. Making more money and working significantly less than when OVR. I know many of you do, but I’ll never understand why anyone would want to maintain that lifestyle but I’m glad there are those that do enjoy it, for whatever reason.

If your at that breaking point and your as valuable of a driver as you seem to be, why not explore local opportunities?