Talk:Truck driver

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Undefined Term - NN Traffic

The term NN traffic was used in the article, but google only showed up NN traffic as being used for neural networks. I am pretty sure, neural networks is outside of the scope of hauling. Would someone please define this term in the article.72.234.1.218 (talk) 14:02, 30 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A bit more research. I think NN means National Network, but I could not find much information about National Network. I think perhaps NHS, National Highway System is a more universal term, though I do not know. 72.234.1.218 (talk) 14:10, 30 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

National Network refers to the network of repair and towing companies. It is actually an inclusive term, as there are tire networks (Goodyear, Michelin, Bridgestone, ect.), repair networks (Major truck stop, manufacturer service centers, ect) and towing services. Typically the most used network is the tire network, second is the service network. The NN traffic discussed is along the major routes, I-10/40/80, and I-5/15/25/55/65/75/85/95. Some routes like I-90 west of Minnesota and east of Washington is a low utilization route, due to the lower population along that route. Therefore quite a few companies wont allow routing on I-90 as they are long distances from the network for some companies. ^[1] Bjbeardse (talk) 07:25, 7 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Unreadable sentence

Does anyone else find this an unreadable sentence too?:

"The nighttime signal of one truck driver to another, when a truck in front is attempting a lane change, of briefly turning the headlights off and then on, or of briefly flashing the high beams to indicate that the rear of the trailer has cleared the vehicle being passed, after which the truck passing flashes the tail lights one or more times in any of various rhythms to signify “thank you,” remains in common use, and is usually also understood by the public; drivers of smaller vehicles often use it to signal truck drivers in this way as well."

Whoever is better at English than me, pleeeease chop it up a bit ;) MosquitoNL 14:11, 11 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It is a bit of a run on sentence isnt it? If you pause for each comma it helps in the reading. Its basically when one truck passes another and the trailer clears and we flash the lights to alert them that they can get over safely. However the use of this is technically against the law and you can be ticketed for it if you have no been trained as a signal person. No cop really enforces this. There are instances when i have signaled a truck over and then have a four wheeler (passenger car) try to pass and almost get killed. Worldgate 01:23, 23 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm changing it, and I'll come back and sign this when I get home ;) Important notes; Not limited to nighttime, there is no taillight switch, and high beams are not cool (Seriously). It can't be too illegal, because I've used it so the guy could get over and the law man behind him could put the hammer down. Instead of "to indicate gratitude," I was real tempted to put, "to say '`Preciate it.`" I like to flash the OK just before the passer's tailgater lines up with my bumper. Phaedrus420 17:13, 15 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Higher Resolution Picture

Can we get a higher resolution picture of a truck driver please? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.27.196.35 (talk) 06:50, 14 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Chicken Coup...

...does refer to a weigh station, but I've never heard this explanation. --Phaedrus420 (talk) 04:46, 2 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've never heard it either. The story I heard was that they called it a chicken coop because a lot of weigh stations have small shacks for the office building that look like tiny chicken coups (is it coop or coup?). ErgoSum88 (talk) 05:20, 26 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It is simply a comedic term for a weight station. AFAIK it has been in the lexicon since the 1940's. And it is coop. bjbeardse (talk) 1440, 18 MAR 2016 —Preceding undated comment added 19:40, 18 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Expand this page?

Ok I'm new to this editing pages stuff, and there are so MANY rules and formatting codes I'm a little overwhelmed. I made a few changes but then I realized there was already a page for CDL info so I was wondering if we should just delete the whole section and put a link to the CDL article? Also I added a section about "trucker lifestyle" but I haven't had a chance to say much about it. I've been driving for two years so I know a few things but I was wondering if anyone else out there would like to collaborate with me on this section? Thanks! ErgoSum88 (talk) 05:25, 26 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Satellite tracking is no longer the main way to get Positioning Info

The current text reads: "Many companies today utilize some type of satellite vehicle tracking" under the heading of "Satellite tracking". I think the section would be better renamed from "Satellite tracking" to "Positional tracking". Satellite units are expensive, and while they are still the legacy default in large nationwide fleets, newer and smaller fleets tend to use cell phone technology, which does not require the additional investment of a satellite unit plus the satellite messages costs. The text seems at best a little dated, or at worst a commercial for satellite units like Qualcomm.

I didn't make these changes, as they seemed better for discussion first, and think the protocol is to propose it here first. (J0gatsby) 17:45, 19 March 2012 (UTC)— Preceding unsigned comment added by J0gatsby (talk • contribs) 17:45, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Worldwide view help please...

I've made vast improvements to this article. I've more than doubled it's size and added many important refs. I just need someone to help me add a worldview to some parts. I only know about the U.S. aspect and I don't think I can make many more improvements without someone's help. Thanks. ErgoSum88 (talk) 09:58, 4 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"Highway in my veins" - a 1 hour documentary produced by discovery channel can be good place to start with for india specific view. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.17.98.11 (talk) 07:44, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Truck drivers in the United States

I'm thinking of taking most of my additions to this article, and moving them over to a new one devoted only to American truckers. I've already started new article on the US trucking industry and articles on US trucking regulations. I'm thinking of building a template/infobox to naviagte between all the asepcts of the trucking industry specific to the United States. Its obvious this page is going to take forever to wait for additions from other countries. NOT that I have anything against reading about trucking info in other countries, in fact I kind of enjoy reading about the differences. But until we can get some more cooperation, I'm going to have to stick with what I know... and I know America. I'm also thinking of starting a WikiProject about the Trucking Industry in the U.S. or something...... so if anybody wants to join my efforts, please hit me up on my talk page. I've only been editing for about a month now, but I have html experience and I am not afraid to be bold. Whaddya think? ErgoSum88 (talk) 08:18, 20 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Australian trucking.

I'm sorta new to wikipedia but can provide a lot of info on Truck driving in Australia. The first big thing that could be added is that Australia is facing a huge driver shortage too, due largely to the image of the industry. This is troublesome, given the often spoken about "doubling of the road freight task by 2020".

Also I can give info on some of the regulations:

Axle and axle group weights in Australia are as follows -

Single Steer - 6000kg Single Steer with "Super Single tyres (tread width greater than 375mm)" - 6500kg Twin steer w/o load sharing suspension - 10000kg Twin steer with load sharing suspension - 11000kg Single drive or trailer axle - 9000kg (Super single or dual) Tandem drive or trailer axle - 16500kg (Super single or dual) Triple drive or trailer axle - 20000kg (Super single or dual)

Also a modified triple axle combination (such as having a blown tyre) is automatically dropped to 15000kg.

Heights. Standard maximum height nationally is 4.3m. Car-carrying trucks or livestock trucks are allowed to go to 4.6m.

All these figures are standard nationally but enforced by state based organisations (RTA, TransportSA etc.). All these rules are enforced by persons of the relevant agency stationed in "checking stations" on most highway routes. They also enforce the filling out of log book information, and although they are not police officers are permitted to fine drivers for breaches.

Also the road access for multi trailer combinations is restricted to those routes listed in a "gazette" published annually, available from the state agency relevant to the area. Double road trains, triple road trains, b-doubles and b-triples all have seperate gazettes.

Quad axle groups have recently been approved for use in South Australia but Im unsure as to their weight allowance etc.

There are various rules regarding the transport of "oversize" loads but I dont think i need to go into them for this article. Also the licensing for Dangerous goods transport in australia is common nationally but im not really sure about it. You have do a course and get a DG licence, and hold an "AIP passport" but I dont know much about that.

Lengths: Standard semi trailer length is 19m. B double is 25m or 26m with a FUPS system and some other modifications. roadtrains go up to 54m or so but we can jsut refer to the page for road trains for that.

If you want any more info just ask. :-)

Whitfan (talk) 00:47, 27 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not the OP, but the part on Australian driving hours is also incorrect. It says you're allowed 14 hours driving in a 24 hour period. That's not entirely true. In my copy of the National driver log book, it's 14 hours WORKING, (includes loading/unloading, cleaning and maintaing truck etc), and a maximum of 12 hours of actual driving. So, the 14 hour thing includes pretty much all truck related activities, and you have to spend the remaining 10 hours not doing work. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.187.200.67 (talk) 07:35, 7 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done. "Driving" has been changed to "working". Thanks for the info. --ErgoSum88 (talk) 07:40, 7 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Killers

Why are truck drivers often portrayed as killers and rapists? In movies, many killers are truck drivers. Why is that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.94.186.41 (talk) 11:19, 19 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In a sentence: It's the result of a magnified public perception of the job in which crazy, dirty, tattooed fat guys—who are loner types—get too much time on their hands and starts going nuts with road rage or takes advantage of his ubiquitousness to evade capture from the authorities. Being a truck driver myself, I know there are plenty of kooks out there, in all walks of life... but there seem to be a concentration of them in the trucking industry. I dunno, it attracts the conspiracy theorists and god knows what else. I mean think of the type of person who doesn't care if he leaves home for weeks at a time and travels around the country in a GIANT freaking vehicle which weight 40 times more than a car whose job it is to haul all of the crap that feeds the machine that is america... when you take the whole thing into consideration, you realize you'd have to be crazy to actually want to do that for a living. --ErgoSum88 (talk) 00:50, 20 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In short: bias.--John Bessa (talk) 14:14, 15 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Most of the publicised "Killer Trucks" has been in the news and documentaries by people with an agenda or for "shock value" to sell publications to national media. A.R.Eatough 08:35, 4 December 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eatough (talk • contribs)

Truck driver serial killers

I just found this story from the LA Times -FBI database links long-haul truckers, serial killings - which seems to suggest that the aforementioned question by Anon isn't far from the truth. Very interesting deveopment which might prove a useful addition to this article. According to the article: "We don't want to scare the public and make it seem like every time you stop for gas you should look over your shoulder ... Many of these victims made poor choices, but that doesn't mean they deserved to die." --ErgoSum88 (talk) 15:27, 5 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Job categories

In the article's history, there is a list that got lost somewhere in the last 6 months: diff. -- User:Docu

Trucker Culture

Completely missing, unless you want to confuse slang w/ culture. US trucking is Southern, and ex-military; you adapt to them: "I can't believe that I am driving with a Yankee."

Euro trucking must be an interesting mix, and Euro truckers seem to like to camp more than hang at truck stops. Canadian trucking is similar to US trucking, except Canada has no "South," and I bet Australian trucking is likewise similar. I noticed that Australian trucks are largely American brands.--John Bessa (talk) 14:20, 15 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Try reading Trucking industry in popular culture (United States). --ErgoSum•talk•trib 02:50, 26 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Trucker health

I believe that an American trucker's life expectancy is ten years less than the average American.--John Bessa (talk) 14:28, 15 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What you believe is irrelevant. To put information in an article, you need to have sources.-Stian (talk) 21:12, 24 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Women in trucking

I believe that 30% of American truckers are women.--John Bessa (talk) 14:28, 15 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What you believe is irrelevant. To put information in an article, you need to have sources.-Stian (talk) 21:12, 24 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

User John Bessa, I suggest reading Trucking industry in the United States for more specific information on trucker demographics in the US. --ErgoSum•talk•trib 02:50, 26 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hours of service

The health section needs to be rewritten. It is specific to Australia, and contains irrelevant speculation such as the belief that many drivers push themselves to the limit -- in spite of the hours of service limitations described elsewhere in the article. I was a truck driver myself, and while I won't claim truckers don't ever drive while fatigued, I think it is much less common than it was 30-40 years ago. Regardless of my beliefs, there was no source for this statement, nor was it really relevant to the section, which focuses on health, not hours of service.-Stian (talk) 21:12, 24 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Visual signalling

Since someone put an empty section for vehicle visual signalling, I've written a separate article for it. Since I'm driving in Europe only, anyone living in US, Australia or Asia is welcome to expand it —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lasombra bg (talk • contribs) 09:37, 19 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Two salient points

It would be good to find a reliable source to document what many of us already know; namely, that reefer drivers frequently receive backhauls of dry goods to avoid extensive deadheading.

The section on wages/compensation seems to consist primarily of undocumented opinion.

75.252.119.134 (talk) 01:21, 25 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Organization

The Compensation/Wages should appear as a main topic. I recommend moving it to Topic 5 and adjusting subsequent topic numbers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Driverpatriot (talk • contribs) 23:59, 1 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Update: Absent any objections to my above proposal, I have undertaken a reorganization of the article. Steps include making 'Driver Compensation/wages' a stand-alone section and revising the outline of the Compensation/wages' section. To address the author's original intent of highlighting challenges related to compensation, I propose including a section under the topic 'truck driver problems' titled "Unpaid work time." This section can address all sorts of unpaid work time, including as it relates to short miles (which is what the original author appears to have set out to accomplish.) Driverpatriot (talk) 16:52, 11 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Article improvements

I have made several contributions to the article (more to come) and removed the "globalization" and "refimprove" tags. There are 195 countries (196 with Taiwan) in the world, the articles does have some global perspectives, so this tag is unwarranted and unfair. The refimprove tag was a career dated tag so if it is deemed warranted current inclusion should be with specifics. Otr500 (talk) 08:49, 7 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect or outdated information

There is a lot of incorrect and/or outdated information. Statistics are clearly dated. There should be more up to date statistics available. Healthier food is becoming more available at truck stops, and food carried on trucks may more frequently have been purchased at Wal-Marts, many of which allow a few truck short term parking at edges. Some Wal-Marts actually have dedicated spaces for trucks near the Automotive entrance. Find sources and reference for this. There also seems to be considerable opinion expressed in the article, even at this stage of editing. Hours of Service is incorrect - US DOT allows up to 70 hours in 8 days of combined on-duty not driving and driving hours. Shift or daily maximum is 11 hours driving with 14 consecutive hours following 10 consecutive hours of off-duty and/sleeper berth. All these can be referenced with the latest edition of the FMCS book. As for obesity, health issues, etc., more current information is needed. While obesity is still more common, the number of fit drivers seems significantly higher than expressed here. The DOT medical certification process restricts drivers with serious medical conditions. The section on driver health needs to be overhauled. Also some information could be separated into different articles, or may already be duplicated in existing articles. Refiner (talk) 17:41, 2 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Comments moved

I've moved the following comments from the top of the Talk page into the body of the outline:

the Safety section of this article is insane —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.74.18.181 (talk) 02:52, 28 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"A truck driver (Commonly called a trucker, driver or teamster in the United States and Canada, a truckie or ute driver in Australia and New Zealand"

Now, I've lived in New Zealand my entire life, my father was a trucker, and I spent a good part of my childhood on the road with him, and I've never ever heard the term "ute driver."

Has the person who added that even been to New Zealand?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.234.252.254 (talk) 09:14, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Would a UTE driver be one who has a personal/recreational pick-up or SUV, not a commercial/pro driver? Njbob (talk) 06:49, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Driverpatriot (talk) 17:43, 11 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hours Regulations

This section was headed 'Drivers work hours'. This section deals with government regulations of drivers' work hours. "Hours Regulations" is a broad-enough heading to encompass those regulations, whatever they're called in their respective jurisdictions. Driverpatriot (talk) 17:47, 11 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Improper reference and content removal

In the Turnover and driver shortage subsection an edit was made by User:173.233.50.19 that took out referenced material that was reverted because of unexplained content removal. While I do not like unexplained edits, and will certainly revert them myself with cause, I am a truck driver so looked at the reference. The information is not correct across a broad spectrum of reasons. There is a severe truck driver shortage, that even extends to the oilfields, that generally pays better than many other sectors of truck drivers. My job pays excellent hourly wages but my company has a 33% shortage of qualified winch and vacuum truck drivers. The oil and gas boom is one reason as qualified drivers head to the North Dakota gold rush ---I mean oil rush. If you have no experience at all, except being a qualified truck driver with a tanker endorsement (even straight out of driving school), someone will hire you to go there and learn through dangerous crash on-the-job (OJT) training. Please be advised that if you are from a warm climate you might want to see if there is Eskimo blood in your veins. Anyway;

A list of Google "hits" to support truck driver shortages, that includes more than the ATA here, here, and here, that do support ATA reports, and there are literally pages of references that do the same.

I will list some of a multitude of policies and guidelines violations pertaining to this "Home" reference, as well as this "Information" link, and the "Attachment" link that includes seven links to letters that contribute to needed exclusion of the content and reference.

Verifiability is a core content policy. The "burden to demonstrate verifiability lies with the editor who adds or restores material", being satisfied there is "a citation to a reliable source that directly supports the contribution".
Base articles on reliable, third-party, published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy.
The source and links used are questionable sources and are all;
self published by the author Mr. Will Johnston, specifically #1; it is "self-serving" and "an exceptional claim", #2; does "involve claims about third parties", and #4; there is "reasonable doubt as to its authenticity".
There appears to be a conflict of interest with the author of the primary source that clouds a neutral point of view. The source under the "Information" link provides several links that are also from Mr. Johnston with only a couple being verifiable references and one has to stumble upon Breaking New From GATS You heard it here first! to find "Will Johnston, editor of TruckDriverPay.com". If you follow that link you will return to the home page of the source. Please note that there is no source publishing information at all. I even agree with some of the information, would never belong to the ATA as a driver because it is a trucking company propaganda source (a large percentage of the 3.5 million truck drivers opinions) BUT-- this is Wikipedia.

Now that it is evident that the content supported by the source is at best unreliable, in the middle appears to be biased towards foreign workers, and at the worse end is just an elaborate spam, I think we can remove the content and reference. Otr500 (talk) 20:31, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Section errors and misinformation.

Types: There are three types of truck drivers but the section is confusing and with errors as it is a little complicated. Not to mention there are no references.

1)- Owner/Operators: Own their own truck(s) hence the word "owner". Although a truck owner can own his/her own truck, lease it to a company, and work for that company as an employee, almost all owner/operators are self-employed contractors. a)- This person can run his/her own authority to include providing insurance and license plates, b) Run under another company authority with their insurance and plates, effectively leasing the truck(s) to them. An owner/operator can have his/her own company name on a leased truck but must have the name of the company leased to, and their authority numbers and interstate IFTA authority (if not intrastate), on the truck because that is the "authority" to run the truck. The cost of running under another company's authority is usually 25-30% of the line-haul. The line-haul is the total charged to haul the load less any fuel surcharge or other ancillary charges. The term owner/operator is actually meant for a truck owner that also drives the truck. A person that owns trucks but does not drive them is just a
2)- Company driver: The IRS has determined that a company driver is considered one where the company takes out taxes, and the driver dispatches at their will called "forced dispatch". A company truck driver can be paid by mile, a percentage of the line-haul, or by the hour.
3)- Contract driver: This driver is considered an independent self-employed contractor working for a company or owner/operator.

A contract driver can not legally be "forced dispatched" as the IRS determines someone that is not an employee but a contractor sets his own hours and can refuse a load being called "non-forced dispatched". A driver in this instance is paid a percentage of the truck and pays his/her own personal taxes and personal insurance. A lot of smaller companies (usually 2 to 3 trucks but can be more) use contract drivers as this absolves them of having to take out taxes, issuing an IRS 1099 instead, and does not have to provide insurance. A self-employed contract driver is usually at a disadvantage because this person must pay 100% of state and federal taxes. The income is usually 25-30% of the line-haul paid to the driver but can be hourly. From this Federal withholding, Social Security, medicare, and state (if applicable) must be paid by the contract driver.

Federal taxes; The total amount of deductions depend on allowances but can be 4.5 to 5% of income shown here

Social Security; 12.4% paid entirely by a person not an employee up to $117,000 for 2014.

Medicare (part of Social Security); 2.9% total for a contract driver. An income exceeding $200,000 would incur 0.9% "Additional Medicare Tax" both shown here.

State taxes; In Louisiana the taxes can be 6% ($50,001 and over and less deductions) referenced here of income.

With a possible tax liability of 26.3% a contract driver usually falls in trouble with the IRS within a year. Simple math would dictate 35-40% of the line-haul to make decent wages. An employer with an employer ID # is required to file and pay employee taxes collected quarterly but a contract driver "usually" does not have an employer ID # and files taxes yearly from the 1099 form. This results in a large lump sum tax liability every year. A remedy, not usually followed by most contract drivers, is to incorporate and take taxes out each paycheck and file them. A second option is to work for an owner/operator or company that takes taxes out. A third option is to make enough on percentage pay to be able to afford to pay taxes and the paperwork involved.

Paid by the load: The content states Getting paid by percentage is the preferred way of business among veteran drivers and owner-operators. Typical percentage among owner-operators pulling flatbed trailers is between 85-90 percent of line haul being paid to the driver. Additionally the driver may receive 100 percent of fuel surcharges and fees for extra pickups or drops or for tarping loads.. This article title is "Truck driver". The above sentence mixes an owner/operator (a driver that owns his/her truck) and a simple truck driver with among veteran drivers and owner-operators. A truck driver, per the lead, "is a person who earns a living as the driver of a truck". A "veteran driver" can be any driver but an owner-operator is a driver that owns his/her own truck.

An owner/operator running under his/her own authority using customers of the owner/operator receives 100% of the gross shipping charges usually requiring pulling his/her own trailer. The content Typical percentage among owner-operators pulling flatbed trailers is between 85-90 percent of line haul being paid to the driver would be "mostly correct" (usually 15% dispatch charge but can be 15-25%) for an owner/operator running his/her own complete authority (insurance and license), contracted to a carrier, to haul a load. An owner/operator leased to a carrier usually pays 25-30% of the line-haul using their authority and dispatch. Also, please note that an owner/operator providing his/her own fuel will receive 100% (when given) of the fuel-surcharge but if running a carrier fuel card the fuel surcharge is usually not passed on to the owner/operator.

I will look up references for the above which is why I did not edit the article. Replacing one form of original research (no references) with another or with synthesis does not help the article even if more accurate information. Otr500 (talk) 21:07, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

US Driver Shortage

There is no driver shortage in the US. Large companies such as Swift, Werner, US Xpress, and Western Express engage in a practice of hiring inexperienced drivers, training them at "Approved" schools, keeping them 6 moths and then actively encouraging them to quit. None of the large companies want experience drivers. The reason is simple economics.

The US Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962 provided funds to train drivers. This has come to abused as corporations only interested in profits tend to do. Here is the "Scam" for lack of a better word.

Wannabe driver calls BFI (Bottom Feeder Inc. a derogatory term for the big trucking companies) and asks about becoming Billy Big Rigger. The recruiter (Pretty much a well paid professional liar) will fill the neophytes head with 45,000 bucks a year and .38 cents per mile after training and $600 a week for training. The Liar then says there is a $1000 sign on bonus. So Billy agrees and sets a school start date.

At the "Approved School" Billy discovers that he has to sign a "Promissory Note" to pay back the training costs if his employment lasts less than 12 months. This figure is usually somewhere between $3500 and $7500. All the while the USMDTA pays BFI $5658 to train this driver. 3 1/2 weeks later our hero has his CDL. Next up is orientation at the closest terminal.

At orientation Billy gets the boom lowered on his head. He is getting $250 for orientation and the $600 has dropped to $350 and the sign on bonus will be paid $100 a week for 10 weeks AFTER he gets his truck. 4 days later orientation is over, but there are no available trainer trucks. Billy now starts spending money to wait. 1 week later he in on a truck with a supposed human being that can best be described as "Crusty". Crusty is paid $250 of the $600 Billy was promised for training, and Crusty is not interested in the least in teaching Billy how to run the truck, just drive it. Crusty is using Billy's log to make a lot of extra money that Billy will never see. Crusty has been at the company 7 months and is a very angry person with bad hygiene habits. In fact Crusty was a N00B just 8 months ago.

Billy somehow survives the horror, and finally get his own truck. He gets a 2012 Freightliner Cascadia with 353,500 on the clock and a demolished interior. His first week with his own truck is spent in the shop fixing what the last driver wantonly destroyed. He is now wondering if he made a terrible mistake.

After six months of 3000 mile weeks, the BFI gets the funds from the government and immediately drops Billy's miles to 1800 or less a week. The BFI then proceeds to tell him that he has to train other drivers to get more miles. Eventually the mileage drops to less than 1000 and billy is deeply in debt. He has to quit prior to the 12 months in the promissory note. Even if he had not quit, the BFI would have fired him for "Failure to Produce" before his 12 months were up. Now Billy has no job is upwards of $15,000 in debt and has no prospects as the BFI reported a "Driver Abandon" on his DAC.

Welcome to the world of truck driving in the United States. Now multiply this by 120 N00B's a week and multiply that by 12 and that is the number of people ripped off per week by the big companies, now you understand why the "Driver Shortage" is total Bull poop. Bjbeardse (talk) 20:31, 18 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

^ personal knowledge gained thru 16 years on the road

"teamster"?

Is "commonly referred to...teamster" quite right? Aren't you confusing the job (sitting in a wagon behind horses) with the union? Should you use the word sort of out of context, or just lose it? Sammy D III (talk) 22:12, 5 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Replace imperial units to metric units

I am finding good reason to argue that the section "Paid by the mile" needs to be changed to "Paid by the kilometre". Wikipedia is a website used world wide, there are only 3 countries in the world that continue to use the imperial system, while there are 191 countries that use the metric system, and 1 country that uses a mix of both. As a percentage, a mere 1.5% use imperial. Therefore for the sake of ease for the other 98% using metric, any reference to the imperial system should be changed to the metric system. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Scraginses (talk • contribs) 12:24, 15 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

How are you doing

Hello Williams Lana (talk) 10:22, 16 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Attribution

Text and references copied from Truck to Truck driver, See former article's history for a list of contributors. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 19:36, 17 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Text and references copied from Michael H. Belzer to Truck. See former articles history for a list of contributors. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 19:38, 17 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed Merger of Teamster

In June 2022 a merge of Teamster into this article was proposed.

oppose Teamster is largely a historic term and is specific to the US. For people interested in the history of the term and history it serves the purpose well. Truck driver is already a large article and needs trimming rather than adding new content. --Salix alba (talk): 05:34, 30 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Closing with no merge given the uncontested objection and no support with stale discussion. Klbrain (talk) 15:16, 6 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Article issues and classification

The article fails the B-class criteria #1 states; The article is suitably referenced, with inline citations. It has reliable sources, and any important or controversial material which is likely to be challenged is cited. There is at least one inline "Citation needed" tag from Jan 2015.
The article is reasonably well-written (#4). Can't give a pass when the article has an Oct 2010 "factual accuracy" tag and is in need of updating. -- Otr500 (talk) 03:25, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Car Drive 196.190.61.199 (talk) 15:21, 12 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

[1] rsonal knowledge gained thru 16 years on the road

[1]