Hope for Changes

The lawsuits are coming. Its funny that one of the biggest topics in trucking is the most ignored by all: that truck drivers on the whole are well underpaid for what they do. Well folks maybe change is coming because people have finally spoken up and lawsuits have been filed against a lot of the major trucking companies for not paying at least the minimum wage  to trainees in the industry. Okay so this does not affect the industry as a whole as far as the pay scale, so there will not be to many pay raises on the horizon.  But maybe these new lawsuits will start to make these companies do something about the pay scale.  Times keep getting harder,which the corporate level doesn't seem to want to acknowledge.  Drivers keep moving from company to company in search of the all mighty dollar that is going to keep them afloat for another week.  Hopefully these lawsuits will be an eye opener at some level for all of these suit and tie guys that pull the strings, while the drivers struggle to feed their families and themselves hoping to make it to the next check. Students already cannot afford to live out on the road for the duration of time that they really need to be on a trainer's truck. Without new students the trucking world is dying.  One can only hope that with law suits such as students being under paid for three years after the raised minimum wage rates that people will begin to look into the pays scales for the industry as a whole.  

A Driver's Rant

I apologize for my absence on here.  With the coming of the new year there have come a lot of new challenges between students and weather.  It's been a really up hill battle. The pool for student I must admit seems to be lacking as of late. People do  not appear to be jumping at the opportunity to drive a truck. What can we do to fix this problem?   Unfortunately not a whole lot.  It's a corporate issue. No one wants to address the fact that new drivers do not want to enter a field that refuses to adapt to the change in the times. Drivers want better pay and more home time and to be treated more fairly.  In the old days you did what you want when you wanted because you made the rules. Well times change as they always do and big companies put a stop to all of that and people fell in line. Now that was all well and good because drivers at that time could live with their rules and the way they wanted to do things. Times have yet again changed.  Many drivers are not seeing change and finding new jobs.   The companies are not listening because drivers are a dime a dozen. Well I hate to tell you drivers are no longer a dime a dozen.  They are becoming more scarce from what I can tell.  I have talked to the old timers and listen to the stories of the old days and let me tell you they are not impressed with the way things have been headed. They are still here because it's the only life they know.  New drivers do not share those same problems. They are coming here because they need a change not because there trapped and do not know another way. That in itself is a huge problem especially when the new drivers are leaving their families behind for the first time in their lives. They are not going to cope well with being told oh you cannot go home for another week cause we do not have freight headed that direction.  Or even better, oh its going to be a couple of days, we know your home was just devastated by a natural disaster but we can't send you straight home to deal with it.  Your family is on there own. That does not fly to well with people.  Most of us get that it's a business and performance based industry, but the businesses need to remember that you need to take care of the folks that keep America moving. Well folks time for me to head on down the road.  As always be safe out there and keep those wheels turning.