Employee accountability

Oh man I couldn't agree more with your comments. I stopped at a small truck stop last night in Wyoming, they close at 10, I asked for a shower at 9:15, and the over achieving meth addict told me no!!! He said truckers take too long to shower and I don't want to work late. I said just give me 10 minutes, he just stared at me all twitchy and methy. He said he'd let me shower as long as I cleaned the shower room and put the towels in the washer. Shower hadn't been cleaned in months. Well, I like being clean so I did meth boys laundry. So unless you enjoy spectating mutant crack heads, avoid the winner with the mustache and meth twitch at Orin junction in Wyoming. I think this is a the corporate mentality, keep wages low just because they can. I've been to places where people put in alot of work to get out of work. Getting pretty common I think. Seems like the hiring criteria is, can you show up less than 2 hours late?? Your hired. But to give credit where it's due, CF industries at port Neal has a top notch crew, SD soy processors has a rock solid crew at their facilities and alot of small no name places still have some pride

I don't know what the answer is but the conditions are deplorable. At the same time, how can we blame truckstop operators with the type of drivers we have? You go in the bathroom and people have no respect for the property or themselves. Some asshole is sitting on the counter washing his feet in the sink till you drag him out the door. People park in fuel island and go shower and or eat. My wife won't let me carry anymore. Cops won't help them with people parking in fuel island. Very few speak English. The rest won't admit to speaking English. We know have "smart trucks" for stupid drivers because the megas decided that was better than training people to actually drive. Now as an owner your paying stupid wages for stupider drivers that you don't respect and in the past wouldn't have qualified to do oil changes.
I don't know how to fix this problem. Best solution i have is don't be afraid to tell these drivers to have respect or get out.
We were in flying j in ok city a month ago. Raghead driver all but assults my wife because he didn't understand the shower system, or that wss his excuse. He could apologize to me when I came round the corner, but physically pushed her out of the way trying to get in when he didn't see me. This is out of hand, and why she took my firearms away.
Good luck guys. Be safe and i know to many behind the counter people are lacking, but look at the guy next to you and ask yourself, what if i or my family had to deal with this?

Art Pfluger

You make alot of good points. It's easy to just complain out of frustration. seeing the amount of litter along the ditch in truck parking areas and truck stops, it's easy to see why people generally have a bad image of truckers. I'd like to say the answer is to lead by example and to attack people with kindness, but sometimes I wonder if we're past the point of teaching respect to the disrespectful.

Socialism brings moral decay which allows more socialism. If we don't get this righted we could go down like the Romans.

Serious question. How did they all get here? Who invited them? I DO mean a serious question. Is there / was there some sort of program?

Property tax has nothing to do with it. I remember a line in the theme song for "Bj And The Bear" (TV series in the 1980's about a truck driver) about not paying property tax.

Point taken. My one track mind says a one truck operation could do it. The truckstops around Waterloo look like they are being used as terminals for the foreigners. When I started I had room in the driveway for the tractor and an offsight place for my trailer. I'm still a one truck operation and have progressed considerably.

The immigrants are being exploited for cheap labor just like the rest of us, so I would blame the government. Corporate greed seems to be worshiped in Washington, it’s all about transferring wealth from the working class to Wall Street, at our expense, they don’t care who gets hurt along the way. Example notice how the NTSB chose not to investigate the Deadly truck crash on I-70 near Denver, involving a school bus and trucker who could not understand the English language, and blew past two run away ramps? Then there was the Humbolt crash recently. Anyone see a pattern?

I had a conversation some time back with an Arizona DOT officer regarding drivers and the ability or lack of with the English language. He was very adamant that he was unable to attempt to enforce those rules as his superiors didn't want to be on the news for harrassment.
I'm tired of officers deciding what to enforce and also tired of current situations that allow officers to basically be judge and jury on the road side. They can detain you for their interpretation of the law and be dead wrong and you can do nothing.

Art Pfluger