# No Trucks Means No Deliveries



## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

The U.S. is experiencing a transportation dilemma - a severe shortage of truck drivers. The estimation is we are 60,000 drivers short. Think about that. California avocados and Florida oranges don't get to Kansas via stargate technology. Need a new laptop? Do you want it bad enough to drive to California to get it?
Need a job? Got a good drivng record and are drug free? America needs you!

https://www.thestreet.com/markets/truck-driver-shortage-may-triple-by-2026-analysts-say-14650452


----------



## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

If America’s semis stopped running, within three days there would be shortages of everything.
A CDL Class A driver right out of school can make around $60,000 a year.
After three years experience ( the usual minimum) a driver can move up to a top rated company and earn $100,00 or more.
The down side is to make that kind of money you are going to be on the road most of the time.
Get your several years of experience and go to a large carrier doing local deliveries, such as Averrit or AAA Cooper. You will make $25 an hour or more plus benefits and be home every night.

You don’t have to spend big money for driving schools, most community colleges will offer the training.
In my younger years I drove flat bed trailers delivering building materials.
I learned many lessons applicable to other areas of life, and I’m glad to have had the experience.


----------



## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

First off, how frickin cool would it be if avocados were delivered via Stargate technology!

Secondly, this is a nonissue. We already gave illegals drivers licenses. This is simply one more job Americans dont want to do so they can do it. Pretty soon all Americans can sit back stuffing our faces with McDonalds and watching Dancing With The Stars while our illegal minions pick lint out of our bellybuttons.

'Merica!



Denton said:


> The U.S. is experiencing a transportation dilemma - a severe shortage of truck drivers. The estimation is we are 60,000 drivers short. Think about that. California avocados and Florida oranges don't get to Kansas via stargate technology. Need a new laptop? Do you want it bad enough to drive to California to get it?
> Need a job? Got a good drivng record and are drug free? America needs you!
> 
> https://www.thestreet.com/markets/truck-driver-shortage-may-triple-by-2026-analysts-say-14650452


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


----------



## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

OK after 4 years of driving I'll throw in. 

Do you want to be away from your home? Think your going to work 9-5? :vs_laugh: Do you love driving down the interstate at 62 MPH, while getting paid by the mile? But wait you can only drive for 11 hours. 

The new electronic logs that all trucks must now have are more of a restriction on drivers. Cops can look at your log and write a ticket. It's like having a cop riding in the truck with you. No playing around cause it's all electronic recorded what you do all day. Companies have computers in the trucks that will e-mail your boss. If you stop to fast, miss a gear or speed a little bit the truck notifies your boss. Some even have camera's watching the drivers while driving. Don't pick your nose they are watching you ALL DAY. 

Hope your in good shape. Blood pressure is a little high, a little overweight body mass is to high, heck is your neck over 18 inches sorry your disqualified. But wait, all you do all day is sit in a truck. By the time you spend a little time with the kids, have supper and commute it doesn't leave a lot of time to workout. Beside you have to get to bed and TRY to get some sleep before you have to get back in the truck at 2AM. They will keep putting more restrictions on drivers which will make the qualified driver pool shrink. 

Better not be on any drugs, legal or not. Cause pot is still illegal to the federal government. They drug test all the time, mess up and your out. Not that it's an issue for me but after working 11-12 hours. I really want to go to the clinic and get tested, again and again. Which is on my 12 hours of the day that I'm not in that fricken truck. 

Love dealing with dip$hit drivers all day. It's awesome being on edge all day waiting for some moron to do something stupid. It's amazing some of the stuff people do to truckers. I know some were trying to get onto a accident to make money. 

Hope you get into a good company with good equipment. Break downs, flat tires, getting fuel or getting pulled over by the gestapo cause you have a side marker out. Which is just a reason to hassle you and check your logs. Yeah that's on your time cause your not moving and getting paid. Get home quick and skip supper so you can get some sleep. 2AM is just a few hours away. 

It's a great job if your single and have no life. Good money to be made but your going to work for it. It's a time drain cause there is always some reason your delayed. May be no fault of your own but it still costs you. Again this will be your time off for the day cause that truck WILL run 11-12 hours a day. 

Otherwise I completely understand why there is a drivers shortage. Really surprised it's not worse. Wages will have to go up to sucker people into driving. As wages go up for normal jobs drivers will quit and take regular jobs. Just to get some normalize in their life.


----------



## dwight55 (Nov 9, 2012)

While I was in Vietnam, . . . long ways down the road from RPD and others, . . . I got all the truck driving I wanted, . . . and then some.

Thankfully, . . . there never was a bomb in the road, . . . no attacks on my convoys, . . . nearest I got to a problem, . . . I clicked mirrors with a Vietnamese concrete truck at 60 MPH just outside of Cantho, . . . both of us just kept going.

Nahhh, . . . truck driving ain't for me, . . . even today, . . . I catch myself looking too hard at what is up ahead, . . . looking for an "out", . . . figuring a place to bail if need be. That all started some 50 years ago, . . . money just wouldn't be good enough for me.

May God bless,
Dwight


----------



## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

I gave it up in 1989.


----------



## MikeTango (Apr 13, 2018)

Denton said:


> The U.S. is experiencing a transportation dilemma - a severe shortage of truck drivers. The estimation is we are 60,000 drivers short. Think about that. California avocados and Florida oranges don't get to Kansas via stargate technology. Need a new laptop? Do you want it bad enough to drive to California to get it?
> Need a job? Got a good drivng record and are drug free? America needs you!
> 
> https://www.thestreet.com/markets/truck-driver-shortage-may-triple-by-2026-analysts-say-14650452


I'm fairly certain you've seen this;

https://dothaneagle.com/news/educat...cle_f3baf300-6a95-11e8-a030-c75b3d543607.html

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


----------



## MikeTango (Apr 13, 2018)

rice paddy daddy said:


> If America's semis stopped running, within three days there would be shortages of everything.
> A CDL Class A driver right out of school can make around $60,000 a year.
> After three years experience ( the usual minimum) a driver can move up to a top rated company and earn $100,00 or more.
> The down side is to make that kind of money you are going to be on the road most of the time.
> ...


Triple A Cooper world headquarters right here in Dothan Alabama Merica!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


----------



## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Listen up young people and listen well. GET YOUR Class A CDL ASAP. You will never have to worry about working again. Not saying you will always be an over-the-road driver, but it will open doors to other careers. For example, my Son2 got his Class A CDL at 21, after earning the necessary certificates to be an Electrical Lineman and the CDL put him over the top when major electrical corporations were hiring.


----------



## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

We've all seen the youtube vid's of morons harassing truck drivers. 

But let me give you a different perspective. I was an assistant manager at a truck stop shop for about a year and a half. A fair amount of that time was spent working the graveyard shift. That was over 10 years ago. We had 12 bays if I remember correctly. Late night did not have many trucks in the shop unless parts had to be shipped in. 

What I can tell you is that at least 25% of the drivers I dealt with could not drive. All I can say is thank goodness the lot around the shop was empty when those drivers tried to back in. Some of those guys scared the :vs_poop: out of me. And yes, some took out the doors on bays they weren't aiming for. Watching many of those same drivers was hilarious when the repairs were done and they headed for the parking area. Some could barely speak english. 

What I saw there made me much more cautious on the road ever since.

Don't get me wrong, there were a number of good drivers. I respect what they do and the hardship they face. But even this industries has it's share of dips**t's. I fear too much of a shortage and the number of idiots will increase exponentially as companies lower their standards.


----------



## Elvis (Jun 22, 2018)

I drove for a few years, owned a few trucks, and later was director of operations for a 300 truck company. 

Driving back then was a hard job, really more of a lifestyle than a job. I'm sure it's not a lot of fun now days but power steering, paid lumpers, and air ride suspensions have made it a lot better than when I started. I tried not to hire people with young kids or recently married because the driver would spend so little time at home and be exhausted when they did get home.

Most of us ran until we dropped, log books could be fudged. But these electronic logs they've got now days really limit how far and how much a driver can make now.


----------



## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

MikeTango said:


> I'm fairly certain you've seen this;
> 
> https://dothaneagle.com/news/educat...cle_f3baf300-6a95-11e8-a030-c75b3d543607.html
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


Didn't see this. I went to that school for avionics. Good school.

I drove for four years and enjoyed it. It came to an end when I fell headfirst from the top of a load. Woke up in the back of an ambulance that was carting me to Scott and White in Temple, Texas. Thankfully, Dr. Robert Probe was the trauma surgeon on duty, that morning.


----------



## stowlin (Apr 25, 2016)

It’s good work, it’s hard work and it will be eliminated in 20 years by self driving vehicles.


----------



## Elvis (Jun 22, 2018)

stowlin said:


> It's good work, it's hard work and it will be eliminated in 20 years by self driving vehicles.


Agreed, That's why I keep telling younger people to go to school and learn how to program and repair robots and automated systems. It's a job skill that will be good for many years.


----------



## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

When I lived in Dallas I knew a guy that was going to school for robotics, I laughed at the time. I went to school for electronics. Very soon my degree became worthless. He had the fore site I did not! Smart man in retrospect. Circa 1990. The fool was me.


----------



## RubberDuck (May 27, 2016)

rice paddy daddy said:


> If America's semis stopped running, within three days there would be shortages of everything.
> A CDL Class A driver right out of school can make around $60,000 a year.
> After three years experience ( the usual minimum) a driver can move up to a top rated company and earn $100,00 or more.
> The down side is to make that kind of money you are going to be on the road most of the time.
> ...


I have been driving commercial for 18 years and can say those wages are inflated and only available in certain states. Today with the flood of foreign owner ops and foreign owned trucking companies undercutting everyone and all the laws against us and new regulations this industry is in trouble no longer fun and barely profitable only getting worse

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk


----------



## Elvis (Jun 22, 2018)

RubberDuck said:


> I have been driving commercial for 18 years and can say those wages are inflated and only available in certain states. Today with the flood of foreign owner ops and foreign owned trucking companies undercutting everyone and all the laws against us and new regulations this industry is in trouble no longer fun and barely profitable only getting worse


When I drove 20-30 years ago a new over the road driver made about $30,000-$34,000 a year if they ran steady and stayed log book legal. A company driver with more than 5 years made about $43,000 if he stayed legal. As a company driver running 110+ hrs a 8 day "week" I made about $70,000/yr. but it takes a toll on the body running that hard. As an owner operator for a few years I made a bit less, closer to $60,000/yr after expenses running fairly hard but had a bit of additional income from other trucks I owned. In total I spent 10 years on the road with that company before moving into the office for a few years. Our company got bought out by a bigger company. I was told I still had a job running the reefer division if I wanted to move to their corporate headquarters but I had just gotten married and she had kids in school so I moved on to running a local shipping terminal for a different company.

On a business trip to NY last week I drove and was asking drivers what they made on the CB. It ran between $40,000 and $55,000 and since the logs are now electric (can't be faked) there was no way to make more miles/money.

Local LTL drivers who come to my current business to make pickups make about $45,000 to $60,000/yr but it takes a lot of years on the job to get that high in my part of the country. Back when I ran the trucking company we had to pay drivers at the Baltimore and the California terminals (2 terminals in CA) more to keep drivers but because of the heavy traffic they didn't make much more money.

Fun Facts: While I hadn't driven in about 5 years while in the office or running the other terminal we had a hot load that had to go to Myrtle Beach with no driver so I hopped in the truck and ran it down. I could still back pretty well but my shift timing had gone to hell. But I had forgotten how mind numbingly boring driving the highway can be.

About 30 years ago study was done. It seems that slightly lower than average IQ truck drivers had fewer accidents than above average IQ truck drivers. The study surmised that the below average intelligence drivers had to stay more focused on the road and didn't get as distracted daydreaming ect. Since I never had a moving violation (cops can sometimes be paid) or a wreck I guess that puts me in the lower IQ group.


----------



## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

I'm not convinced that self driving trucks will be the norm in the US within 20 years. I think the whole self driving vehicle idea is one of the stupidest ideas in a long time.


----------



## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

Slippy said:


> I'm not convinced that self driving trucks will be the norm in the US within 20 years. I think the whole self driving vehicle idea is one of the stupidest ideas in a long time.


Wife and I were talking about this the other day. I always enjoyed driving, if a little frustrating in the city, and that's the point. No freakin way I give up control of a vehicle I am in while I sit and watch, particularly in the city. Scares the shit out of me to even think about it.


----------



## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

I started going to sea in the 70’s on US ships that had some automation but it really didn’t work all that well, especially when the systems aged a few years. In the mid 80’s my company switched to ships with built unmanned enginerooms and Japanese automation. I swore up and down that it would never work. But I was dead wrong. It worked and worked very well. Things are light-years better now. So if you think that self driving cars and trucks are a fantasy, I think you are seriously wrong. They are coming and will be here sooner than you think. We send unmanned craft into space that last for years. We have aircraft that can take off and land without a pilot. Driverless cars will get here in short order. And when they do efficiency will go up and accidents will go down.


----------



## Steve40th (Aug 17, 2016)

As a current government contractor, I can tell you a CDL can keep you employed. We have to move MRAPs, etc from base to base or facility to modify. Whenever they furlough people, not one single CDL person is fired/furloughed. 
Even if you dont want to be a truck driver, having a CDL is good for some jobs too, as it is needed to win contracts.
Personally I love driving, but I dont like driving slow or being monitored like a criminal with a ankle bracelet.
I would rather run small trucks to and from towns delivering smaller items, ie box trucks or something.


----------



## Jammer Six (Jun 2, 2017)

I drove dump trucks for my father in law right out of the service. That would have been 1978. I enjoyed it so much I'm a retired carpenter.


----------



## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

Once they perfect a self driving motorcycle I'll think about trusting a car/truck.


----------



## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Chiefster23 said:


> I started going to sea in the 70's on US ships that had some automation but it really didn't work all that well, especially when the systems aged a few years. In the mid 80's my company switched to ships with built unmanned enginerooms and Japanese automation. I swore up and down that it would never work. But I was dead wrong. It worked and worked very well. Things are light-years better now. So if you think that self driving cars and trucks are a fantasy, I think you are seriously wrong. They are coming and will be here sooner than you think. We send unmanned craft into space that last for years. We have aircraft that can take off and land without a pilot. Driverless cars will get here in short order. And when they do efficiency will go up and accidents will go down.


First, let's take my friend and his Tesla. The car will drive itself - they say. On the way home the other night, I saw a jerk riding his bumper on a four laner. I saw the left blinker turn on, his Tesla go half way into the left lane and then jerk back into the right lane. I asked him about it the next day and he said he and his car were arguing over the lane it was going to use. My Ford doesn't argue with me.

Now, let's talk about the M model Black Hawk. Yes, the aircraft can fly itself from waypoint to waypoint and even land itself, but a pilot is supposed to have his hands near the controls. Why? Because servos, actuators and flight control computers crap the bed from time to time. EGI's do the same thing, and a bug can clog one pitot tube, making the machine thinking it is yawing radically.

This is one avionics tech who doesn't want to share the road with a cyborg.


----------



## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

Denton said:


> First, let's take my friend and his Tesla. The car will drive itself - they say. On the way home the other night, I saw a jerk riding his bumper on a four laner. I saw the left blinker turn on, his Tesla go half way into the left lane and then jerk back into the right lane. I asked him about it the next day and he said he and his car were arguing over the lane it was going to use. My Ford doesn't argue with me.
> 
> Now, let's talk about the M model Black Hawk. Yes, the aircraft can fly itself from waypoint to waypoint and even land itself, but a pilot is supposed to have his hands near the controls. Why? Because servos, actuators and flight control computers crap the bed from time to time. EGI's do the same thing, and a bug can clog one pitot tube, making the machine thinking it is yawing radically.
> 
> This is one avionics tech who doesn't want to share the road with a cyborg.


I agree with you 100% Denton, for today. But automation gets better every day and we are getting closer and closer on this A. I. thing. Yes pitot tubes get plugged and resistors burn out occasionally. But humans make mistakes too. I'm just telling you that in the 80s that computer in my engine room could run the engine better and more efficiently than I could. And in my 17 years as chief that computer had ONE failure and it was minor, causing no big problem or injury. Will self driving vehicles have accidents? Yes! Nothing is perfect. But the tech will get better and at some point the self drivers will be statistically safer than human piloted cars. I don't know if that day is going to be in 5 years or 50. But it is coming.


----------



## StratMaster (Dec 26, 2017)

Don't forget hoverboards. Even if we're all 106 when they finally come out, we'll still get one... we are Baby Boomers after all. That's a lot of broken hips coming.


----------



## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

StratMaster said:


> Don't forget hoverboards. Even if we're all 106 when they finally come out, we'll still get one... we are Baby Boomers after all. That's a lot of broken hips coming.


I'm still waiting for one of these.


----------



## BookWorm (Jul 8, 2018)

My father was so smart, he made the 5th & 6th grade in one year. Later, he quit school at 8th grade, went to the DMV and got a license so he could drive a tomato truck from Bentonville AR to K.C. Being a man (which meant driving a big truck) was all he ever wanted to be. During my childhood I rarely saw him. He went from driving to dispatching. Nothing changed. I had to beg him for 30 min of his time to teach me to ride a bike at age 6, when all the other boys in the neighborhood had been riding for a year. When I was in 8th grade and told him I wanted to be a photographer and nothing to do with driving a delivery truck for his produce business, he more or less disowned me. He died at 63, working hard never smart and never taking care of himself in any way. But he was a Man! (never afraid to hit a woman, cheat on her or lie to his family) 

I wanted nothing to do with that world. I was the only male in several generations NOT to have a CDL by the time he was 25. I was only the 2nd to serve in the military in my entire blood line. However, I was the first ever in my lineage to shake hands with two sitting presidents, three playmates and appear on the cover of a national magazine and regional newspaper. Yet it took me 26 years to make a total of $509,000. 

Money was never my motivator. I just wanted to take pictures and for 25 years I did, until the 2008 recession ended it for me.

However much I didn't care for my father's actions... there was thing in American history and truck driving that may very well be remembered for a long time to come. 

Sing it with me...

It was the dark of the moon on the 6th of June and a Kenworth pulling log, Cabover beef with a reafer on and Jimmy hauling hog. We's headed for Bear on I-10 about a mile out of shaky town, I said Pigpen this here's the Rubber Duck and I'm about to put the hammer down.


----------



## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

Chiefster23 said:


> I agree with you 100% Denton, for today. But automation gets better every day and we are getting closer and closer on this A. I. thing. Yes pitot tubes get plugged and resistors burn out occasionally. But humans make mistakes too. I'm just telling you that in the 80s that computer in my engine room could run the engine better and more efficiently than I could. And in my 17 years as chief that computer had ONE failure and it was minor, causing no big problem or injury. Will self driving vehicles have accidents? Yes! Nothing is perfect. But the tech will get better and at some point the self drivers will be statistically safer than human piloted cars. I don't know if that day is going to be in 5 years or 50. But it is coming.


I know the day will come. I still ain't turning loose of the wheel. :devil:


----------



## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)




----------



## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Illini Warrior said:


> View attachment 81319


That link's not working for me. ETA: quoting you does, though.


----------



## Steve40th (Aug 17, 2016)

our infrastructure and logistics are very delicate


----------



## Jammer Six (Jun 2, 2017)

_Snoopy and the Red Baron!_


----------

