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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by greyhounds [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill Perhaps they left out the part about the LOW NET PAY? Considering the hours, expenses, and lack of having a life? Yes, "disconcertingly few Americans" want to work for an effective sub-minimum wage, not when they have a choice -- and yes, that does tend to result in the job applicant pool being dominated by the people who can't get a job anywhere else, e.g., ex-cons, illegal immigrants, etc. Go figure. The Economist is stumbling onto actual economics and like Claude Rains, they're shocked, shocked, that even truck drivers and other ordinary wage earners have figured it out, too. Any commercially driven media outlet tends to reflect the beliefs and mores of the people who read it, and since The Economist doesn't have wage earners as a high percentage of their readership, they probably don't feel much need to address the wage earners' point of view. So they tell their class of readers what they think those readers want to hear, and the readers apparently are only too eager to have their belief system reinforced. The readers of such a magazine then resemble the drunk looking under the lamppost for his keys dropped somewhere on the block, while the magazine helpfully points the way to the lamppost. I read The Economist for amusement, not enlightenment. This article is just more mirth. [/quote] Aside from that, Mark, what do you think of the magazine? Long haul trucking is a terrible job. Just today, east of Chicago, Yellow/Roadway was involved in a wreck that killed four people in a SUV. Big winds today. Imagine driving for 11 hours through a Montana winter storm - then sleeping in the back of your truck - then driving 11 hours through a North Dakota winter storm. $0.40/mile is considered good pay, but you're never home. You won't keep a marriage or relationship together. The truckload carriers have a driver turnover of over 100% per year. The drivers take it as long as they can, then quit. Only to go back with a different company in a few weeks when the money runs out. Of course, some just love the life. Ain't enough of them to go around. [/quote] While the life of the long haul trucker is no bed of roses, neither is the life of the railroad train and engine crew in road service. The same long hours, the same long hours away from home with all the problems that brings to the marriage and family realationships. 12 hour horseing a train to 30 mile from the destination terminal, 3 more hours waiting for a ride to the destination terminal. Tieing up in the company mandated motel, eating at whatever food chain is near the motel. After getting rested waiting 8, 10, 12 or more hours to be called back to your home terminal. Battling the train and the railroad for another 12 hours trying to work your way back home only to be held at the last signal entering the destination yard until you go on the law and then wait for either a ride or a yard crew to get you into your tie up point where you mark off, go home an get called back out on your rest to do it all over again.
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