30 minute off-duty break..."roadtest"

Was your father an Owner operator or company driver and if so, what company?

 

I feel for you, honestly. You are not the only person who made a huge mistake working for PAM trucking. But the fact that you are struggling right now, does not mean it will always be that way. Keep your record clean, with no tickets or accidents, for more than 3 years, and things will get better. It will be slow, but it will get better. If you are rounding second base, and figure home plate is too far away, so you just give up, then that is on you. You stay in the fight, and it will get better. Use the PAM experience as a learning experience. It was expensive, but at least you are now better educated.

This thread started out talking about the new Hours of Service Rules, and a couple of us talked about the restrictions on your hours does not hurt you, if you are being paid well for the hours you do work. That's how the thread got to where it is now.

 

My Dad owned his own truck for a few years. He had an AUTOCAR, with a stretched frame, which we put a roll-off container system on. He hauled construction trash from the Philadelphia area, over to the dumps in NJ. He worked 20 hours a day, 5 days a week. I said my Dad made money, but I didn't say he had an easy time doing it. Back in 1976, he was making over $150,000 a year net, after taking all expenses out of his gross earnings. Some kids in school made fun of me, saying my Dad was just a "Trash Man"' but he was a very well paid trash man.

When Waste Management ruined the trash industry, my Dad sold the truck to someone, and started driving a Cement Mixer for Silvi Concrete in Bristol, PA. It was hard work, but my Dad was a tough-as-nails man, so he did good there as a company driver.

Just to let you know what kind of man he was:
When my Dad died, he had not worked for Silvi Concrete for over 17 years. The owner of Silvi Concrete, John Silvi, came to pay his respects to my family. As busy as the guy was, doing multi-million dollar deals with Casinos in NJ, he took time to stop and pay respect to my Father. That might give you some idea how hard my Dad worked for people. My Dad did great driving a truck, but he didn't do it by sitting around, waiting for good fortune to find him. He went out and found what he needed to find, to support his family.

 

Seems he ran illegal, which is not unusual in the past. Many of the local jobs such as concrete in my area used to be well paid union jobs, but they closed up and reopened as not union for major cuts in the salary.

I was just wondering if there was potential around. Seems that has went away as well.

 

Dad never did an illegal thing ever. He ran a 75 mile radius, which did not require him to keep a log book. Since he was a private contractor, the place he did work for did not require him to hit a time clock, or anything like that. If the law did not let him do what he did, then he would not have done it. Just remember there were days in the past that there was no such thing as a logbook. The concrete job was tough work, but if you did an extra run or two, when all the girl scouts wanted to go home for the day, you could make good money. That job didn't require a log book either, but he did have to clock in and out. His average day was 12 hours. The concrete job was not Union, and paid just as well as a Union place. Once again, don't let people tell you myths, like "only the Union places pay well".

Potential? I don't quite know what you mean by that. If you mean making over $70K a year, doing a job where you do almost nothing but drive, it's still around. Here's a hint though. You are not going to find those jobs from the mega carriers, or from some little book in the truck stops, listing jobs. Sometimes I google the phrase "Best Paying Jobs in Trucking" when I need a laugh. All you get back is a list of all the bottom feeders, looking for their next victim.

The log book or E-Log you have to run, is not your enemy. Your enemy is in your own head. That little voice telling you that you will never get the good job. The voice telling you the low paying, driver abusing, sorry excuses for trucking companies are all that is out there. Kill the little voice, and think for yourself, and things will get better.

 

This new restart rule will hurt myself dearly, but more so because of how I choose to run. I end up with almost 13 to 14 hours each day because of doing deliveries (some days I'll have 10 stops and others 3). Unloading the furniture and the time it takes to back into an area a box truck barely fits or running furniture a 1/4 mile down the road... that on duty time adds up. Now I can take my time and get it done in 4 days say instead of 3 (just an example), but I like the hustle and bustle of it. I'll normally get my restart in Sunday-Monday night and then again Wed-Thurs night. So I've been trying to figure out how to re-work my habits and the only thing I refuse to do is drive faster. I rarely let my foot reach faster than 60 mph. Especially after having the 4th consecutive monthly avg of 8.25 mpg. This week will be my test to see how I can wrap my head around the idea of 1 restart. You'd think 3 years of mechanical engineering and I'd be able to solve a simple problem

 

Take a couple days slower, so you can have recap to work with so you only need one reset a week, start reset on Saturday at 3 pm or later, so that way by Monday morning you will have the reset. Now, not to tell you to drive faster, but 4-5 mph faster won't hurt your fuel economy too much.

Sent from your local FBI Surveillance Van

 

You said he worked 20 hour days when limited to 12. Logbooks have been required since 1936.

I work for myself. I saw the dollars change. They want to pay minimum wage to haul hazmat.

My uncles made really good money in the 60's and 70's. The rates they got were quite good. Seems the rates being paid are about the same now and fuel costs are way up.

 

The time frame he was quoting was back in the 70's & was within a 100 mile radius of the office. Do not know the specifics of what the laws were back then, but thinking there were exemptions for radius? May be completely wrong, but even 20 years ago grain haulers around here never cared about their coloring books just running to the river & back.

 

Even now, you still don't need to carry a log book within a 100 mile radius from the office, but I believe you still have to do it for the records, just don't have to carry it with you.

Sent from your local FBI Surveillance Van