This is sad, funny, and enlightening all at the same time.

[Tobin S.]

The following was written by a trucker calling himself southernpride over at www.thetruckersreport.com southernpride is 66 years old and has been a trucker for 45 years. He owns a small trucking company, I think 5 trucks, and still drives although he is laid up at the house right now due to some recent surgery. I have not altered his post in any way.

Trucker to trucker advise

GOOD MOURNING ALL: now ive been reading thrue the forums and some of the post quite frankly amaze even me, now i admit i have to much time on my hands unabel to drive right now do to several surgery's one more to go i hope, im house bound and about to go nuts.

now all you hands that seek advice bear in mine though the advice you hear may not be what you want to hear dosent mean it can't be done it simply means that the individual that gave the advice couldnt do it , and that does not mean that they told you a lie it was there honest opinion, it does not mean that you can not make it work we are all different with different opinions and you should take it aS such.

now im going to give an opinon as a mattere of fact a few of them and most are based on pure and simple facts. and it will do you well to listen to them. it will save you a lot of time , money, not to mention heartach.

first of all if your a driver, a company driver a trucking company any trucking company is by no means your friend they all will lie to you about anything and everything at there will and nothing you can do about it , just pick up the peices and move on BUT remember the next one will do the same , just be ready for it . if your prepare for it it won't hurt quite as bad.

OLD TRUCKS, now this is my favorite all i run is old trucks and as a matter of fact i do pretty good , do i get rich i dont think that is going to happen in this business for anyone BUT im not in debt either just does not make sense to me to pay 150.000 for a new truck then put a 1000.00 dollor load on it and on top of that make 2000.00 a month in payments, thats a boat anchor i don't want , but they do it every day and i must admit they do look good , but quite frankly id rather be but ugley then have that kind of overhead.

the vast majority of drivers that buy there own trucks start out with an older truck and most of them contrary to popular believe make money, sure they have to work on them but if your afraid to work or get dirty this is not the business for you as long as they make a truck that uses grease and oil your going to get dirty, get use to it thats the nature of the beast.

if your going to buy do your home work no what your buying. here is a few tips on that older truck. if the truck is older the 1985 don't waste your time inless you have plenty of money and time, the truck is different the engines are different, they started making changes along about then, bigger engines started to come along with more power and more torq and it beacame harder to find parts so you need to get a little bit newer truck.

now that dosen't mean an older truck is bad by any means it simply means uou need to get a truck newer then 1985 , now in 1990 i think it is that trucks begin the electronic phase of the indusrtry not many as of yet but that was the start , there still good trucks and many have a lot of good miles left on them for example, 500.000 miles on a cat engine is a good thing it has a lot of miles left on the engine IF it has been taken cre of.

and right now the price of used truck have never been lower a good time to buy and save money. now an old truck may not be good for some but on the other hand is a great way for some to get a start in te businee without having a tremendous overhead which is your worst enemy in this business.

now leasing a truck from anyone is a fools game you never win but you do wast a lot of money and time and you get a lot of rash promishes that never come true. JUT DON'T GET ENVOLVED.

now buying a truck right now is a bad situation with the econamy the way it is those that are still lending when they hear the word truck they run like a scalded dog they will not even consider and there is no telling when the market will ease up bout the only chance you really have is to buy old and pay cash for it thats a bad thing but that is the way it is the very people that caused the probem are now making it worse how can they do this simple they are now doing all banking over seas so we are left holding the short end of the stick sad but true .

now there are going to be contradictions to what i have said and that just proves my point, everyone in this business has an opinon and there on thoughts about the best way of doing things and that is as it should be , if your comming into this busiess you need to form your own opinon but gater all the input you can and then decide whats best for you and your type of operation , there is a whole lot more ways to truck then just one do your research and choose wisely.

hope this has helped a few.

have a safe ride . southernpride

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. What an interesting inside view, my dear Tobin...

The guy obviously has been on the road for a long time, and has carefully observed what's what.

His spelling, punctuation and general typing skills leave a lot to be desired, but careful reading will get you through!

Thanks for sharing!

:hi:

[Tobin S.]

2. Thanks for taking the time to read it, Peggy

I bet it gave you a headache! :)

Yes, there is some genuine wisdom in that mess off a post. There are things there that every driver needs to know, but many do not. But it's conveyed in a way that makes it almost inaccessible! I wouldn't be surprised to learn that southernpride didn't make it past the 9th grade, but he's done alright for himself in life. You will find a lot of men like him in trucking. Looking at his writing skills it would be easy to dismiss him as a lowly, uneducated redneck. But he has more business sense than some college graduates I've run across.

I guess my point is that if you dismiss this guy based on appearances you are throwing the baby out with the bath water. I've seen some of his other posts and he is not as enlightened on social views as he is about trucking, but I'd still like to sit down with this guy over a beer and talk trucking.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Nah, no headache for me!

I knew you posted it for a reason, and I figured that that was enough reason for me to read it carefully. So I did. There is a lot of good sense in it.

He may not have a lot of education; that doesn't mean he's stupid.

[Blue_Tires]

4. my cousin needed to read that back when he still drove them...

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. serendipitous that he began his mournful post misspelling "good mourning".

There's a guy who has some wisdom, even if he can't articulate it very well.

I like guys like that.

it's interesting that one can read this kind of grammatical clusterfuck and still know that the guy has a brain, is thinking, and knows something that others needs to hear.

And one can read other grammatical clusterfucks and know that the person is a total fucking moron, like the shit over at freerepublic.

I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's that there's a coherency that runs through this guy's stuff, that it's still all connected. Maybe his grammar just isn't as bad as the freepers/teabaggers, I'm not sure. There's something different. And now that I've seen it, I am compelled to meditate on what it is that makes the difference in writings that are poorly written.

Sorry - I'm not trying to carp on this guy; I'm just totally intrigued now by this thought.