Say What?

Question: How has the trucking industry changed since you first got into it?

Ken Haag, 52, Slippery Rock, PA 
Professional driving experience: 25 years   
“The equipment used to be harder on you, but the job was easier. Now it’s the other way around. The equipment is much better today, but there’s more stress with the traffic and regulations you have to put up with.”

Steve Dean, 55, White Cloud, MI  
Professional driving experience: 27 years 
“I think it’s changed for the worse, especially people’s attitudes. Shippers, for example, used to be real friendly. Now they’re not. It’s the same with truck drivers. Drivers used to help each other, but now they don’t. I don’t know what’s going on. I just wish everyone would get along.”

Lewis Marshall, 63, Brenham, TX 
Professional driving experience: 36 years    
“It’s changed enormously, from all the legalities to the personnel in the trucking industry. Besides the traffic, all the jurisdictions we have to go through make it a far more complicated job than it used to be.”

Jenny McCormick, 52, Henderson, KY  
Professional driving experience: 18 years 
“It’s a lot more competitive than it used to be. There seems to be more inexperienced young drivers that don't know how to drive, so it’s a lot more dangerous. It’s a combination of traffic, new truck drivers and people driving cars who don’t like having trucks out there, and they all seem to do what they can to cause problems.” 

Andy McCormick, 52, Henderson, KY  
Professional driving experience: 31 years   
“It’s no fun anymore. There are too many regulations, and they keep changing them. It used to be you had plenty of time to get from Point A to Point B. You didn’t have to run illegally. Now, a lot of companies want you to run illegally. We finally found a company that doesn’t require that, but there are still a lot of them out there that when you get that load, they want you to get to that other end right now, and that produces a lot of stress.”