Comments By Andrew J.

Brett wrote a very good article debunking all the autonomous truck talk. It definitely put me at easy. I do think that the job will change in the coming years. Maybe something where we could do some sort of auto pilot while on the highway in safe conditions for a period of time. But there’s just too much for the transportation industry to be automated.

I drive through here a few times a week and it is a very bad stretch of road. I usually slow down to 55 speed limit is 60. I should probably go slower. But somebody at my company said his steer tire blew. If that’s the case he was probably going over 60 and ran off the road. That’s why I always slow down to 45 when going over bridges. If a steer tire blows I and I’m going fast I’m pretty much dead and possibly somebody else.

I’m a current Roehl driver here. I fully recommend it to anybody wanting to start in this industry. I went into the gycdl program last year at this time and am close to finishing my contract out. The training is top notch. After you get your CDL which takes 3 weeks you’ll go to out with a trainer for another 19 days. Then you’re by yourself and monitored closely by a training manager who works specifically with new drivers. They do micromanage the first few months but they have to since you’re new. I’d rather have that than having to team with another brand new driver like some companies do. It isn’t easy all the time and sometimes I have wanted to quit but have stuck with it and am at 52 cpm. I drive in the reefer fleet and the freight has been slow recently so they do give the freight to the more experienced and tenured drivers so keep that in mind if you’re not getting lots of miles. You won’t make a lot of money your first year but it gets better and pay increases along with the miles. I definitely recommend it.

Sorry but I don’t put anything into what cosmopolitan has to publish. Most of that isn’t accurate either.

Most? Which parts? There is truth in all 13 points the author made.

Sorry I can’t agree, the majority of the article (surprisingly) is quite truthful and accurate. And chances are; there were additional details qualifying things like “driver shortage” that were edited-out.

Seems to rather talk about the negatives which is what I thought was counter productive here. But there is some truth there.

Sorry but I don’t put anything into what cosmopolitan has to publish. Most of that isn’t accurate either.

As somebody who went through the Roehl training program and am a current driver with them I fully support their program and recommend it to anybody who is willing to work. They charge 7000 because once you’re there they pay for your hotel, feed you 2 meals a day and train you to get your CDL and you’re there for 3 weeks. It’s a significant cost for them to do that and you need to pay them back and the way you pay them back is working for them for 120000 miles. Nothing is free. I went into it fully expecting it to be challenging and it was. There have been times I’ve wanted to quit and say forget about it but I’ve stayed through and turned some good miles for them. I am up to 52 cpm in my 10th month and almost done with my contract. Half of the people I’ve came in with quit cause they weren’t getting paid like they thought they should have. They must not have researched and known that your first year you’re not going to make a lot of money. I’m glad I found this site cause I realized that going into it. If after 6 months you want to leave just stick it out another 6 months you’ve already come this far. And out of the 15 people I came in with getting their CDL 14 eventually passed. The only one that didn’t pass didn’t belong in the truck to begin with. I highly recommend this program to anybody willing to work.

This is coming sooner than most people think. I work for a very large carrier and they have already put in an order for the Tesla trucks that aren’t even in production yet. The technology is further along than most people will admit. TuSimple (former Google autonomous start up) already has a tractor driving building to building with a human behind the wheel but doesn’t touch anything. I personally believe this will be accelerated once 5g hits.

Have you ever flown on a commercial airline? What happens when the technology fails or malfunctions? The pilot and copilot takeover and fly the plane. And when the pilot and copilot are not properly trained? Do you not follow the news and the recent grounding of the most sophisticated airplane in history?

The margin of error is far greater in the air than on the interstate.

Until the infrastructure is completely controlled, meaning all vehicles are autonomous, the mass adoption of this technology is decades away. And there will always be driving jobs; they will take-on a completely different meaning. Something none of us can predict at this point.

That said...think what you will. But I’ll be happy driving until retirement.

I’ve been reading a lot about this and of course I’ve been reading the “know it alls” on the internet talking about how it’s going to take jobs by the end of 2020. Even this TUSimple company saying they are going to replace the driver by the end of next year. The most annoying part of this is the arrogance of that company. They say stupid things like we’re going to replace all drivers by the end of next year and stuff like we’re going to do the driving so you don’t have to blah blah blah. I do hope they fail. Even the name TUSimple is arrogance in itself. But your explanation is probably the most accurate prediction of what’s to come.

I’ll start to worry about it when loves stops putting up new stops. With all the new locations they are putting up they must not think it’s gonna happen anytime soon. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. They might get some self driving trucks in the next 20 years but this is a diverse industry that they can’t replace everybody. Flatbed, hazmat, oversize, even local can’t be self driving.

Something tells me this isn’t going to turn out well.

Wow I’m glad I went with Roehl. Smaller company and maybe not the freight base that prime has but I only went with a trainer for 19 days. After 2 months from being hired I was in a truck by myself and it’s been great ever since. Looks like there are a lot of people applying and not as many trucks and or freight. I heard they stopped hiring from Florida too.