Truck Safety Group Urges Purges Of Drug Abuse Drivers

So as you can see, even though we have decades of data that clearly demonstrates at what scale you will either barely survive or potentially thrive in a commodity business, over 95% of the people in those businesses have put themselves into the category that will barely make enough money to survive at all and only a very small percentage of those involved in these businesses have any chance at actually thriving.

But make no mistake about it - scale alone does not guarantee anything. You must also have leading technology, cutting edge management, and do it at a large scale for a very long period of time to become financially stable and actually thrive.

This is why we so highly recommend working for largest carriers. They have decades of success at the highest level in one of the most cutthroat industries in the country. They have their operations dialed in and they have the money and expertise to continue to thrive for decades to come. They have:

• The best technology
• The nicest equipment
• The sharpest management
• The biggest customers
• The best pay and benefits
• The nicest perks
• The greatest variety of opportunities
• The strongest finances

Over 95% of the businesses in farming and trucking are barely able to survive, if they survive at all for much longer, and many thousands of them will go bankrupt each year. So when you choose a company to work for it only makes sense to put yourself in the best position possible by going with one of the large carriers.

As a huge bonus, these large successful companies also have their own paid CDL training programs which we strongly believe is the very best way to get started in this industry.

If you do consider starting your own trucking company, you have no one to blame but yourself for the outcome. There is no mystery surrounding what it takes to survive and then thrive in the trucking world. If you're going to throw your hat in the ring as a tiny carrier without a financial plan and a tactical plan for scaling larger then don't cry the blues when inevitably you find yourself hanging on by a thread. It should have been obvious to you that's what was going to happen. Don't blame the government, don't blame the large corporations. Thriving in a modern commodity business like trucking is an exact science. You either understand the economics of it and know how to properly manage your growth for many, many years to come or you die a sad death.

This industry is loaded with people who are bitter and miserable and broke. They're endlessly complaining, blaming, and criticizing others for their failures when in fact the formula for success in this industry is right there sitting in plain site for all to see. If you fail to understand what it takes to thrive in this industry or you fail to execute on a long term plan for growth then that's on you.

Some points I can agree with, but several I personally cannot.

65 mph for all CMV? Nationwide on all interstates? I fear the right lane would never move due to the gridlock this would promote.

Nothing in the safety suggestions or observations about banning cell phone use while driving. I feel that would do more to prevent accidents on the roads than anything else in the article.

Not to derail anything, but cellphones seem to me to be as dangerous as drug or alcohol use. So many people on the road weaving, 20 years ago everyone would have assumed the person was drunk. Daily I see CDL holders looking at their phone, holding it in one hand steering with the other going down the road as well.

Of course the big companies don’t want the small companies to be able to cheat their logs. That is how the small guys are staying in business.

This. This is just the worst thing I've read here. Driving tired is like driving drunk; you're going to kill yourself and everyone around you. Oh sure, you got *lucky*? You can't stop sleep. One second you're driving and the next *you're waking up because of the lane avoidance alarm*.

IF you wake up.

Some of us have had to do things we are not proud of to get somewhere legal and safe, and it is our failure as drivers to plan contingencies for such events that got to where we take a hard look at the logbook and desperately try to make it appear legal. But when that exception becomes the rule you cheat yourself. Out of safety, and out of life.

If you can't achieve your means legally, you are living and working *beyond your means*. And I hope the feds shut down any outfit that requires a falsified record for business as usual.