Really, I'm not that tired....
 

So the problem is not lack of "duty rigs", but that the driver has to enforce them on himself, and to do so costs him money. In fairness, I'm sure that a lot of pilots also fly themselves into dangerous fatigue when they think they can get away with it. Sometimes we need to be protected from ourselves. :o

The dispatchers of trucking companys will make or break you, they are constantly asking favors and if you don't help them out by bending the rules they will cut your miles every week. Which is fine if that is the kind of running you want to do but its really difficult to live on 2000 miles a week.

Have we seen this before?
 

That sounds alarmingly like the state of aviation decades ago that led Dave Behncke and others to form ALPA. Probably leads to a lot of accidents too. :(

Just throwing this out there :D

Not surprising, the solitary lifestyle, irregular sleep patterns, sleep deprivation, road food, constant worrying about tires, logbook, truck, scales, DOT, cops, being treated like crap at shippers/recievers, being constantly messed with by cars on the road can drive some to insanity.

Not to mention many trucking companies hire ex cons straight from prison release to fill quotas.

I am a CDL driver and a pilot. I drove household making 150k a year, freedom of when I want to go home, took winters off and enjoyed sightseeing whenever I felt like it. I am also a pilot. I would love to fly for a living and somewhat do now with low level pipeline work making 45k a year. Huge difference in pay. I am getting back into trucking for many reasons but here is my thing, with flying I work and fly for a company and can never fly on my own. Could never afford to. With trucking, I can afford to buy, I own a Cessna 150, and can fly anywhere, anytime I want. With trucking I have the best of both worlds. The income to make a good living and the income to be a lifetime GA pilot. From my experience, Just my 2 cents.

Holy Thread Revival!

GF

Yeah, I started reading this thinking "I thought trucking was pretty good these days?" I flown with a few F/O's who drove truck, owned trucks, or still drove on occasion during days off to help out a family owner.
A friend is owner/operator and seems to do really well mostly hauling food grade stuff around the midwest region, 2-3 nights out a week he's making over 100K easy. He hates the new logbooks as he might have to stop an hour away from home for rest.
Your dispatcher will make life great or can punish you.
Had a jumpseater who pulled triples for Fedex three nights a week. Same route every night, drive a couple hours, swap out trailer #3, drive three hours swap out the trailers with another truck from the other direction, pull back to first city and pickup trailer #3 that has been reloaded, return to hometown. He put himself through 4 year school and flight training debt free.

That sounds best case scenario for the trucking industry unless you mean gross. I know it’s not too hard for some owner operators to gross 150k, but take home is another story. For 150k net in trucking I would think you would seriously have to punish yourself to make unless you are that one driver working for Metallica or something along those lines. I saw that Walmart guys can make 90k now but have to sell their souls to do it.

Guys driving aviation and military outsize loads do real good as O/Os. I spoke with grossing 350k minus operating expenses. All flatbed, oversized, permitted loads.

GF