Location:
Keeseville, NY
Driving Status:
Experienced Driver
Social Link:
Brett Aquila On The Web
Hey Everyone! I'm the owner and founder of TruckingTruth and a 15 year trucking veteran.
Posted: 2 days, 8 hours ago
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One Million Safe Miles Reached!!!
That's amazing, Kearsey! Congrats! That's an amazing accomplishment!
Posted: 2 days, 9 hours ago
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Packrat, you know my story about being fired for arriving 30 minutes early to an appointment. Dispatch was supposed to inform me about not entering this customer early, but no one said anything, so I didn't know. They assumed I ignored orders and fired me without asking for my side of it or giving me a reason. They just told me to return to the terminal. When I arrived, they finally told me I was fired and why. I had to go through 5 different interviews, working my way up through management, to get my job back, which I did.
But that didn't sit well because my dispatcher was fired over it, and he had quite a few friends and relatives working at the company (a friend in management told me this later). A few months later, they fired me for my one and only logbook violation. It became evident in the follow-up conversations that someone inside the company was targeting me, so with a million opportunities to go elsewhere, I did.
We have no representation and, therefore, no one to back us up when we're targeted unfairly. Our only recourse is to go find another job.
Sorry this happened, Packrat. I know you'll bounce back and be right back at it in no time. There's no doubt this story will end well, but it would have been nice to skip this dark chapter along the way.
Posted: 4 days, 11 hours ago
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That is truly amazing. I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like to soldier through that. An amazing testament to you.
Posted: 1 week, 3 days ago
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Massive Layoffs At UPS A Big Win For The Union!
Also, I'd like to remind you guys that I'm not even a worker; I'm a business owner. This isn't even my fight anymore. I'm just trying to inform you guys that systematically over time, the government and corporations have transferred vast sums of wealth from the lower and middle class to the upper class. It happened slowly and steadily, so that most people didn't even notice. Many still don't realize this has gone on for decades.
I mean this as a wake-up call that we all need to pay closer attention to what's being done to our society. There are no coincidences. Most rich and powerful people became that way through the execution of long-term plans. They have the knowledge and patience to methodically extract increasing amounts of wealth from our society and remove our rights at the same time.
It's happening. It's undeniable.
Posted: 1 week, 3 days ago
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Massive Layoffs At UPS A Big Win For The Union!
Anheuser-Busch, Teamsters finalize five-year contract
Published: 10:12 AM CST March 6, 2024
Around 99% of Teamsters at the brewer's locations previously authorized a strike last December, citing a lack of improved wages, job protection, secure healthcare and retirement benefits. The union said the new agreement amends the majority of its concerns, including:
- Significant job security for all 5,000 Teamsters at Anheuser-Busch.
- Wage increases of $8/hour, including an immediate $4/hour raise in the first year.
- $2,500 ratification bonus for every union member.
- The same healthcare coverage options for all union workers.
- Increased pension contributions and benefits.
- Increased maximum vacation accrual.
- Restoration of retirement benefits for active and retired members.
The CEO pay for Anheuser-Busch:
The company's earnings reports reveal that in 2023, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, Brendan Whitworth, received a total compensation of $40.1 million, a substantial increase from previous years. CEO's pay was 12 times more than the $3.25 million in 2019, and 2.5 times more than the $16 million in 2022. This rapid growth in the CEO's pay can be attributed to various factors such as increased sales, market share, and overall company performance.
Well, the CEO got a nice raise because of his fantastic performance, right? Let's take a look:
- 2019: Revenue - $54.6 billion, Earnings - $8.3 billion
- 2020: Revenue - $52.3 billion, Earnings - $4.9 billion
- 2021: Revenue - $54.4 billion, Earnings - $5.2 billion
- 2022: Revenue - $57.8 billion, Earnings - $7.6 billion
- 2023: Revenue - $54.0 billion, Earnings - $5.3 billion
Interesting. So, on his watch, in 2023, Brendan Whitworth allowed a marketing campaign that destroyed the company's brand and cost the company 3 BILLION DOLLARS in earnings and that number grows by the day because sales have not returned yet.
And the topper? The man didn't even lose his job! He just fired some marketing people and laughed all the way to the bank with his $40 million salary and his job intact.
I have heard stories from dozens of truck drivers over the years who lost their job for backing into someone's mirror bracket or being late for a load one too many times. Even I was fired (and immediately re-hired) after five perfect years with a company for showing up early to a customer (my dispatcher never informed me). That's right...my mortal sin was showing up 30 minutes before my appointment time and without even asking for my side of it they fired me.
This guy costs the company billions of dollars and still has a job.I heard a great truth today. A guy said, "Bitcoin will amount to a massive transfer of wealth from those who don't know how to do math to those who do."
That's what has happened to American workers over the years. You guys just don't get what's being done to you, even when I give you one outrageous example after another.
I think we'll have plenty of opportunities to keep this game going. I'll keep giving you guys one example after another of union victories, and you guys keep coming up with reasons to hate on em.
I said two things years ago: self-driving trucks would not happen anytime soon, and unions would make a comeback. Everyone thought I was crazy, but thus far, I'm right about both.
Just for fun, I'll throw this one on for fun just to show you how the idea of the people getting their fair share is catching on:
Dartmouth men’s basketball team votes to unionize
That's right. College athletes make untold millions for universities; as a reward, they get to sit in a classroom for free. Athletes have decided it's time to get their fair share. Mark my words: college athletes will become paid athletes. If they make the university millions of dollars, they deserve a cut. Simple as that. All they have to do is stick together:
“Today is a big day for our team,” said Dartmouth juniors Cade Haskins and Romeo Myrthil, who have led the effort. “We stuck together all season and won this election. It is self-evident that we, as students, can also be both campus workers and union members. Dartmouth seems to be stuck in the past. It’s time for the age of amateurism to end.”
Posted: 2 weeks ago
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Well, maybe eventually your wife will make enemies of the company. Then, as they say, your enemy's enemy will become your friend.
Is your wife a driver as well? I don't recall you mentioning what she does.
Posted: 4 weeks ago
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Massive Layoffs At UPS A Big Win For The Union!
package handlers make 17-21 an hour. The CEO made 19M last year and that was after a pay cut. There's nothing unions can or will do about this because they do the same thing.
But they just did something about it at UPS. The union got a big raise, they didn't lose any workers, and the company cut 12,000 non-union jobs, mostly management positions. It's a big win, regardless of how hard you try to refute that. The union did its job.
Banks, you continue to say "personal responsibility" is the answer to every question. We're not talking about how people spend their money, as I've stated previously to you when you brought this up. We're talking about workers getting a fair wage, good benefits, and reasonable job security. No amount of personal responsibility can create these things for you as a worker, so I don't understand what you're getting at. The fact that you keep saying that personal responsibility is the answer makes me think you don't seem to understand which problem I'm trying to address.
Those videos are stupid and nobody pays them any mind
Well then, where are workers getting the idea that they'd be better off without a union? And if we don't need unions, then how do you explain the charts I've shared and what should we do about it because the situation is unsustainable?
Listen, Banks, I get your position. You feel the whole thing is hopeless, so you're just going to focus on yourself. But it's not hopeless.
Two generations ago, we had a huge middle class and the highest standard of living in human history. Today, our corporations make way more money than they did back then. Our economy is ten times the size it was back then. We have a ton of technologies now that have made us far more productive than ever before.
There's no reason we can't have a strong middle class and a high standard of living now like we've had in the past. The only thing keeping that from happening is the upper 1% taking everything for themselves and everyday people being unwilling to do anything about it except point fingers, place blame, and declare it hopeless.
This situation is unfair, it's unproductive, and it's unsustainable. If our country keeps going in the direction we're going, we'll end up crushing our economy and decimating our standard of living.
Posted: 4 weeks ago
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Massive Layoffs At UPS A Big Win For The Union!
Personally I think if we could find a way to curb the ability for these 3 factions to interact where they see fit, and get them out of bed with each other we all would be better off.
Clearly, a corrupt union leadership is of no help to the workers. The workers must hold the union leadership accountable.
I mean, think about this: if the workers can't figure out how to hold their own union leaders accountable, how are they going to hold corporate management accountable without a union?
Posted: 4 weeks ago
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Massive Layoffs At UPS A Big Win For The Union!
You ignore the failures of every other union and remained focused on UPS (which is laying off union employees all over the country) and the NFL. Those aren't real world examples.
What failures are we talking about here? Union wages have exceeded non-union wages in blue-collar jobs for decades. Union workers have had better job security and benefits than non-union workers on blue-collar jobs for decades. Even non-union workers benefit from the power of unions when the union operates within their sector. The power of the unions is so scary to business owners that they'll give their non-union workers whatever union workers get just to keep the unions out. If unions are so ineffective, how do you explain this phenomenon?
The failure we should be talking about is the failure of worker's wages to keep up with executive pay and corporate profits.
So, I guess what I'm wondering is, if you don't want unions, then what action do you propose workers should take? Obviously, the executives and politicians have worked together to move most of the wealth of our society from the lower and middle classes up to the upper class. That is undeniable. It's clear to see in the statistics. It's causing a massive drop in quality of life for most Americans and a massive decline in the average household's financial standing.
I can't imagine that you're ok with this. No one should be happy about this, except the upper one percent.
As I've stated, I'm not interested in forming a union, and I'm not calling on truckers to form a union or anything of the sort. What I'm trying to do, above all else, is point out the fact that forces within our society have conspired to drain the lower and middle class of their wealth and move it to the upper one percent. Not only are many people unaware of it, but they're actively helping the upper 1% by falling for the propaganda the elites hope would keep us from uniting.
You see it in the mainstream media on an hourly basis. They constantly promote some group within our society as "better than" or "more deserving" than another, causing us to fight amongst ourselves instead of recognizing what is being done to us. The corporations have done the same thing. They've put out anti-union propaganda, hoping the workers would fall for it and refuse to unite. When this happens, management has a free ride because they are united. So it's a united management against a divided workforce, exactly as they had hoped.
Do people not recognize this? Don't workers realize that as they wave goodbye to the unions they voted out, the management is throwing the party of the century because now they no longer have anyone holding them accountable or demanding better pay and treatment for the workers?
Have you never heard the expression "divide and conquer"?
Posted: 1 day, 8 hours ago
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Thinking of Packrat...
If you'll allow me, I'll explain a little about myself, my goals for Trucking Truth, and my outlook on these revelations.
As many of you know, I've always kept to myself. That's just who I am. I've always been a loner who did his own thing. The world has always fascinated me, and I'm into many things: trucking, sports, science, math, computer programming, raising animals, health and fitness, business, investing, homesteading and life in the mountains, music, movies, climbing, skiing, and many other things.
Although I've always had perfectly reasonable social skills, people were never my focus. Starting this website was the most people-focused thing I've ever done. I've never been married, and I have no children, though I now have a wonderful woman of many years, and we'll be together forever. I have a very tiny number of select friendships and even fewer enemies. I've always just wanted to be free to pursue the things I enjoy.
My goal for Trucking Truth is to build a community of professional drivers who enjoy sharing their lives and helping new drivers get their start in this career. I've always allowed anyone to join as long as they genuinely wanted to make this community better, pursue the betterment of themselves, and give helpful advice to new drivers.
We've always had some people with checkered pasts. My policy is simple: don't ask, don't tell, and let's work on this mission together. The past is the past. We're here to create a better version of ourselves, help new drivers start their careers, and create a better future for this industry.
Everything in this conversation was news to me - all of it. I don't dig into people's lives, and I haven't now, even after these revelations. So I was clueless about all of it.
I may not know many details about the people in our community, but I know the trucking industry, so I know if someone's advice is trustworthy and helpful. I also want a thriving community, and I know who is contributing in a positive way.
I will continue to pursue the same goals with Trucking Truth: build a thriving community of people who enjoy sharing their lives and helping those who need the help, mostly within trucking, but sometimes in ways far more profound than just a career.
I do not judge people by their past alone. My bigger concern is who you are now and who you intend to become. My aim is to lend a hand to people who've strayed from their moral compass so they can own up to their mistakes, turn their lives around, and help others at the same time. Everyone deserves a shot at redemption, and being a productive member of this community is one way they can do that. Just sharing a little piece of advice can affect hundreds or thousands of people's lives in a positive way. It really can be that simple.
It's never too late to make yourself a better person and contribute to the lives of those around you. The more you've messed up in your life, the more important it is to start immediately on a better path. It's never too late as long as you start right now.
I will not remove anyone from our community over these revelations. Further, I see no need to call anyone out or address any of the specifics, because I feel you folks have handled that already.
After the Civil War in this country, the North had the legal right, and some would argue the moral obligation to hold almost everyone living in the South accountable for treason. Instead, they allowed them to return to their former lives hoping to heal this nation and move forward.
I will continue to give folks the opportunity for redemption and help them better themselves. I think that would be more helpful than bringing down the hammer of judgment. If you have things in your past you're not proud of, then start by bettering yourself today. Raise your standards and look for ways to help the people around you. It really is that simple.
My forgiveness goes out to all of you, as many have forgiven me over the years, and you're all welcome here as long as you commit to making yourselves better and helping us with our mission.