The Death of Seniority…
Posted on Nov 13, 2009 - 7:49pm by Marshall J. Gruskin in Trucking
Reporting this evening from Wilmington OH – at the “not-a-real truck stop” Pilot that has five parking spaces. I was fortunate to grab the last one. Today, scientists discovered H2o (water) on the moon, the 9/11 murderers will be brought to NYC for trial and President Obama is going to say hi to all our former manufacturing jobs when he visits China. I hear that over in the Far East, more specifically the Pacific Rim, seniority is still a valued concept. Not so in trucking here in the United States.
Now this is not just another trucker whine. It is fact. If you are a million-miler, as I am, or anything close, with years of experience on the job and on the road, you are treated the same as a driver who has just graduated trucking school. With the exception of a very few cents per mile, your compensation is the same. With the exception of one extra week of vacation, your entire benefits package – health insurance and all – is the same as a new driver. With my company, new hires get the newest equipment – senior drivers get new “used” equipment. Senior drivers are dispatched as if they just walked in the door and get home with no extra consideration. Put us in a line-up holding our paychecks and you can’t tell the new drivers from the senior ones. Well, maybe by the grey hair and arthritis.
Safety and terminal managers don’t care how long you’ve worked for a company – “they” still treat experienced drivers like grade school children. The other day, I spoke with a fellow million miler and he was as disgruntled as someone who had been on the job driving for six months. His primary complaint was “Well, gee they never ask me my opinion – they just go ahead and do stupid stuff that makes no sense.” Does this sound familiar? Drivers are a dime a dozen. I first heard this years ago working for Werner Enterprises. Nothing has changed. Despite the years you put in on the job with a company, they really don’t care if you go or stay. And this is clearly proven by the lack of greater pay, benefits, perks, respect etc. that you don’t get along with your years of service.
I’ve been told that I’m not the typical driver. I don’t know if I should take that as an insult or a compliment. I do know that I enjoy being a truck driver – the freedom of the road and all that – but everything else annoys me greatly and I am committed to changing it come hell or high water. I’m sorry to say, because this had not been my feeling in the past, that the only way drivers are going to “get” what they deserve is by being unionized. I think we pretty much agree that OOIDA and the ATA are useless to drivers ever achieving fair and equitable compensation. And frankly, I want the trucking company executives to get kicked in the butt along with all the greedy shippers and receivers of freight, all of whom have screwed us for decades. Seniority needs to be reborn. Maybe I’ll never see the revolution take place, but at least I’ll be remembered for fanning the flames.
Photo credit is: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11609&thumb=1&d=1156446613
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If you were making too much, they would have fired you by now. Be thankful for the small things.
Unionization is like a drug. It feels good for a while. It eventually kills. Wishing to be unionized is a deathwish.
For proof…….. look at all the heavily unionized industries/states. How well are they doing? Michigan? California? Washington?
I’ve never seen it done any differently since 1991 when I started. Other companies may considered seniority different, but I didn’t work for them.
I’ve come to the conclusion that all-in-all trucking will not change very much. It would take the fortitude and solidarity of drivers to refuse certain situations. That’s not going to happen. We are millions of rugged individualists all doing the same mistakes and they love us for it.
The only angles I’ve never seen truly tested are Internet communication and standard driver practices. We here about standard industry practices ALL of the time. These standards are widely created by people that make money from our work and for some strange reason just accepted by us. Many of the practices are illegal, but we still do them.
For example, if drivers drove strictly by the legal limits on hours, that alone would change every other industry standard. Companies would start charging higher rates for dock time, and customers would step it up considerably. I would be a dreamer to think that you could get every driver to abide by just one legal rule.
I’ve accepted that the only thing that I can change is myself. You can company hop with very little hit on your income. You actually earn more those few months they’re trying to show you how good things can be. You can improve your off-time by simply by being late. Learn to work the system and even get out of the system when it benefits you. There are many things you can do to change your situation, but you are not going to change the system.
I would really like to disagree with you, but I’m afraid you might be right. Even with the Internet and every driver talking to each other, bottom line is some drivers still have to feed their families. And the turnover is so massive, by the time rookies get a clue, they quit and some one the companies can take advantage of comes in and does what they’re told.
No matter what rules Washington comes up with, there will be ways around them. Even with black boxes, how are they going to know if a driver is on duty or really sleeping? Which has been the problem since there were logbooks.
I would like to disagree too, but after so long of seeing and playing the game, I would be fooling myself to think otherwise.
The only way to get around the industry standards would be to specialize. That has it’s inherent problems, but standard reefer, van, and flatbed has not changed much since I’ve been around. If you’re going to play the game, they only thing you can change is yourself.
I have been impressed with the uptick in reporting on companies. Usually, drivers just let loose with a mindless rant about a company. Lately, I’ve seen people posting experiences with companies that are very documented and intelligent. It’s a start. I’ve always thought that the Internet should be the biggest fear of a large company. They get away with what they do because that rookie coming in is clueless about what the last guy really went through.
As for seniority, this is something I was thinking about several years ago. As how many golden handshakes do you see anymore anywhere? I haven’t seen much of anything on that anymore.
And I read several years ago in a business mag, that jobs in general are not like the jobs of our fathers. I am in my 40’s, so that is speaking of my parents. I guess the turn over rates are high everywhere, and to be in any company for more then five years is unique. Not to say that you are wrong in thinking what you mentioned. But it makes you wonder why anyone wants to give anything they do their best effort.
I would hope more will be done to encourage people to try their best. Not to say we need to pass around awards to all, as that is over kill. But I think that the golden handshakes need to come back. And the acknowledgement of a job well done. Until such a time that it happens I will stand and say my part on how each driver out there is important and the work is well done. And it is noticed by me, if nothing else.