Eck Miller Trucking, The Nightmares Continue
“There has never been a driver shortage, yet all over the world the story is the same.”
Return to the daze of my youth.
In his story, Weird Trucking Incorporated, Mark Spearman tells of his nightmare experiences as a driver for Eck Miller Trucking.
“Trucking in the early 90’s was pretty much the same wherever you went. Any company would treat you ok at first, then they would start shit testing you in order to see how much profit they could squeeze out of you.”
Previously, Ryan John went viral with his story, I’m A Twenty Year Truck Driver, I Will Tell You Why America’s “Shipping Crisis” Will Not End.
“There’s no guarantee of ANY wage (not even minimum wage), and in many cases, these drivers make far below minimum wage. In some cases they work 70 hour weeks and still end up owing money to their carrier.”
Ryan has followed up with Part 2.
Prior to that I told you about Great Coastal Express.
“Did I mention that my paychecks never again came anywhere close to what I earned on the newby board even though I worked much harder?”
Prior to my experience at Great Coastal Express I also went through orientation at Eck Miller Trucking back in the ’90s just as Mark Spearman did. They flew me from North Carolina to Indiana to Midway Airport in Chicago on a 30 year old DC 10. (Worst plane I ever flew in.) via way of Atlanta. Then I rode a bus to Rockport, Indiana. After finishing several days of orientation in which they mostly taught us how to cheat on our logs (Every company does the same.) they packed 5 other men — all of us over 200lbs — luggage and I, into a compact car bound for Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and finally North Carolina. All of us picked rigs abandoned by their previous drivers.
At that point I hadn’t slept in 3 days but because we weren’t being paid for traveling in a car we could log that time, and the days we had spend in orientation, as off duty, and go directly to working 70 hours in the next 6 days.
Walking up to my assigned truck all looked okay until I walked to the back of the cab and found a 3' diameter hole straight through the sleeper. Then they wanted me to load a flatbed with no headboard, straps, chains, or binders to hold the load of lumber on the trailer. I drove to the TA (Truckstops of America) in Burlington, NC. where I abandoned the truck and trailer in the parking lot, and called my Daddy who was just 13 miles away in Greensboro.
Then I got hired on at Great Coastal Express, another nightmare.
Sadly, both of those companies were over 60 years old at the time, and are both gone. Victims of their own greed and arrogance? No, they didn’t really go out of business, they simply sold out or changed their names. The 30 something trophy wife of the 80 something founder of the company cashed in, and got filthy rich for giving blow jobs. She didn’t even do housework as they had a maid who was forced to work for less than minimum wage because she was not in the country legally.
My highest paid year in my 28 years of trucking was 1979. After that, real wages and wages based on inflation never again paid me a living wage. Were it not for spending most of my years living in the cabs of the trucks I drove I would have starved to death, or gone to jail for having failed to pay my child support.
There has never been a driver shortage, yet all over the world the story is the same. Thanks to the Internet and search engines you can read stories like these from truckers all over the world.
Yet folks wonder why there is a trucker shortage.The media paints it as something new. I read and heard of a trucker shortage for the entire 28 years I spent on the road, all the while knowing there is no trucker shortage, but a shortage of qualified truckers willing to put up with the BS.
Continue reading Daze of my Youth, Shorts.
It’s hard living on nothing but $1,098 a month in Social Security and no savings. If you like to support my writing then please send me a tip via Ko-Fi. Thanks -Billy