Notice I never said all union people are lazy, but I do have to admit that most of the one's I had contact with are. But then they are or were working at a GM plant.
I have no idea how hard line haul is at the brown machine but there's no way I could keep up with most of P&D guys! While on the subject last week I heard a truck pull up and stop in front of my house and then the horn blew a couple of times, I ran out there thinking something happened (kid/dog or some thing got hit)nope the lazy driver was sitting there with a package for me! How long do you think he will last?

 

I do know from personal experience from times past, that the union
places I had picked up or delivered to did not care anything about truck drivers. generaly speaking. specifically... I used to haul out of u.s. steel in fairfield AL. those guys in the loading area would, close the window in your face, would not even look to respond
to you until they were ready. they were always arrogant & at times would make you wait 2-3 hours before they would even take your info to

load you. dock 5 at fairfield was the only dock at my time there, that would be courteous & load you promptly. compared
to to other non union
steel co's where they are much more polite & will try to get you in & out asap.

 

i used to bring VW's / Audi's to Matson in Long Beach. They have a lot for the haulers to pull into and park to unload. When i first went there I pulled in and parked next to 2 union haulers from Jack Cooper. After I get all my ramps pulled out a worker for Matson walks up to me and tells me, " hey driver, let me take a look at your union card." I told him I didn't have one. He replied, " that's a shame, your gonna have to park on the street and unload your cars because this parking is for union haulers only." Thank god Pahsa took over those Hawaii bound cars.

 

What if you would have refused to move. What were they going to do?

 

If i had to guess maybe not let him unload. Since he was putting his ramps out already. They might have parked a car behind his trailer stuff like that. They would have gave him a real hard time.

 

There aren't as many choices today.
Each year, more and more good paying jobs dry-up.
Look at Harley Davidson and Emerson Electric private fleets...Schneider came in and cut the rate and got the freight.
Had a buddy who worked at Emerson...SNI wanted him to take a .10 cpm paycut to stay on.
He told em' to stick it where the sun don't shine.

Besides that, there's too many out-of-work drivers competing for jobs.
We had an opening for a linehaul driver....TM got over 100 apps for 1 job!!

With unemployment still hovering around 10%...there's not many choices outside of trucking, either.
Many good-paying manufacturing jobs shipped away.
Just like trucking, alot of folks out-of-work competing for whatever's open.

It's a sad state of affairs that just gets sadder everyday.

 

LOL....just so ya know HH....nothings changed there. Dock #3, way out back being the worst, in my opinion.

Although, I just went on a dedicated account and only DELIVER (refractory materials) to the mills now. Made my first delivery to Fairfield Friday and was in and out in 45 minutes. The fastest I ever got in and out hauling coils was about 2hrs 45 minutes and THAT was record time.

 

Some ppl are ok with unions and I acknowledge the important roll they had in the industry. Those days are gone in my opinion. I worked for a union company and got swiched from my job I was trained on becuse someone had "seniority". I haul in and out of the ports, if they aren't lazy and disorganized, I don't know who is. I pulled into yellow freight to send back some bad product and their procedures reaked of no productivity. I don't know of to many places other than unions, you can be fired for helping your fellow worker simply because it's not your job.

 

Unions breed nothing but laziness, apathy and contempt for the employer. They take away the incentive for the employee to do his or her best because there is no possibility of promotion or reward for doing so. Promotion and pay increase is usually dependant solely on seniority, not performance and ability. Instead of the goal being to do your best, it becomes only to show up to work (most days) on-time and do the contractually mandated minimum.

Three first hand, real world examples:

1) My father (who smoked the MENSA qualification exam) worked for Chrysler in the UAW for 17.5 years. His job was to inspect and de-bur if necessary three different transmission components. He would exceed his set quota by lunch time and sit and read the last four hours of his shift. To do this job that, that as he puts, “a monkey could do”, he was making three times the national average for blue collar workers in 1980, and had great benefits to boot. With his intellect, he could’ve achieved great things in life had he not been lulled into thinking that the UAW was a better choice. Chrysler might not have been teetering on the verge of bankruptcy in 1980 if it wasn’t paying six times (paying 3 times more and getting half the production that a good employee could give them) what it should have been for labor.

2) In high school I had a summer job working at Ekco Products in Wheeling, IL. My job was to help run a big plastic extruder and feed the massive amounts of scrap plastic it generated into a grinder. I was forced to join a union to be employed there, and to do a job that a monkey could almost do I was making over $1,000 a week in 1988 as a sixteen year old. My co-workers would yell at me to slow down because I would “work us out of all the overtime” that was available. Did I or anybody else deserve to make that money to do a job that a 3rd grader could do? I don’t think so.

3) Teamsters. I have never been a member, but I do see lots of teamster drivers slumped over in their day cabs at 05:00 sleeping in the rest areas on the clock. They are already making more money than most hourly drivers out there and yet they seem to feel entitled to steal from their employer. Sleeping on the clock is stealing… the employer is paying you to drive… not sleep.

Unions had their place back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when hourly wage earners were treated little better than slaves by their employers; but our society has come a long way since those early manufacturing days and free market supply and demand is now the best dictator of price. If things are so bad in the driving industry, why do you stay in it? It can’t possibly be the only or best option you have to earn a living.

There are things I do not like myself about our changing industry, such as the recent influx of immigrants into the market who seem willing to haul freight for fuel money; but in spite of the recession (or depression, depending on whom you believe) I have been able to make a pretty good living doing what I do. As a small business owner, I have to adapt to the market as it changes or go out of business. As an employee, you must learn to do the same. This is not a new concept… an old USMC motto is “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.” This is what we must all do in life, unless it is Socialism that you yearn for. There are still companies that pay well for drivers with special skills or outstanding safety and work records. If you don’t posses those, then you are no different from anyone else whom you are competing with for a job and probably don’t deserve to make above average pay.

I know that many drivers are sports fans, so let me close with a few quotes about hard work and perseverance from some guys some of you might know:

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor." -- Vince Lombardi

“Enjoying success requires the ability to adapt. Only by being open to change will you have a true opportunity to get the most from your talent." -- Nolan Ryan

“Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.” -- Lou Holtz

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.” -- John Wooden

“Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability." -- John Wooden

You think any of those guys would be caught sleeping in their trucks on their bosses dime? I don't think so.

 

You need to get your facts straight.
Those are linehaul drivers paid by the mile.
I run nights too and I like to take a little nap now and then.
It costs my employer $0.00.