I'm speaking mostly about the dump aspect of the industry. I know there are plenty of good companies out there but it seems like every medium-large dump truck company I've come across is crooked as a question mark. Company I used to work for did a bunch of contracted work for another dump company that was about three times our size. Once we were about $30,000 in the hole we quit doing jobs for them but when I moved almost a year later they were still fighting to get paid. Companies filing bankruptcy and reopening months later bigger and better, drivers paychecks bouncing, fuel cards getting denied, cutting everybodies throats left and right. The list goes on and on. I thought it was my area but here I am in a new state and it's the same BS minus the few companies that have Unions. How in Gods name are these companies still in business. I hear over the road companies can be just as bad. I'm sure there are worse industries but I came up around trucking and the amount of crap is astonishing. You guys deal with this stuff on the construction side?
No Lawyers by far and away - no other profession comes close!
Up here in sask and alberta it is like that with hauling oil and produced H2O from the oil feild their is alot of back door palm greasing and underhanded crap going on its very cut throat industry my brother had his own truck pulling a tridem tanker and made unreal money but found it very hard to keep a stady job just due to the politics invloved in the industry every time things were going good the company would all of a sudden go broke and some other scab outfit would move in he had enugh of it already and went back to highway long haul driving.
It seems like about half of the people in dump truckin are trying to make it the most crooked industry. The other half it seems like are doing everything how it should be done, and have a understanding of what is right and wrond and practice it . Both sides frustrate eachother to no end. I could go on and on...
Well, there's Wall Street...
Pssst... the Medical field makes em all look like small potato's..... hospitals charging for items you don't use or even see...
Good point but I would still say as a profession , Lawyers are the worst. Wall Street has whole floors of Lawyers in their office buildings to go about their bidding. Bankers in general could be thrown in there as well but it's the Lawyers that do their dirty work. And most importantly, the majority of politicians are lawyers...:cool2
Personally, I dont think it would have ever gotten as bad as it is now, if not for D.O.T. and all of the laws they have, making it harder to make an honest dollar. I agree safety is a concern and you cant just run junk that will not stop or is not safely operable. But, Just seems now adays they stiff you for anything possible, making it nearly impossible for any outfit to make honest money, so it turns into screwing everyone you can to survive, Including the help. Corporate greed is everywhere.. Then again, there is rarely any real money in trucking unless you have your own truck, lots of work and take care of what you have. Like the old boy used to always say.. If I win the lottery, I am going to go trucking till its all gone.....
Sharky I think you are on to something.. Over the last 30 years there has been more regulations enacted on top of regulations. It makes it very hard for a small businessman from truckers to ice cream shop owners to make ends meet. Speaking of the trucking industry it seems like it is regulated to death, IMO. Now these regulations have been in-acted as safety measures, taxes, etc for the "common good". Over time the regulations get compounded and if you are a small businessman, there is physically not enough time in the day to comply with all the regulations, run your business and hopefully make a profit. Take OSHA regs for instance, I am all about safety but if you follow the OSHA 1926 for construction on every job you do, you may not ever be able to actually start any construction. What I am seeing happening is you really need a full time "compliance" staff to make sure your operation (whatever it may be) is in compliance with Fed, State and Local regulations and ordinances. What this situation creates is very level playing field for the large corporations that do have a full time compliance staff. Now I am not part of the tin-foil hat conspiracy club. I don't think that the rules and regs have been enacted solely for the benefit of big business but rather big business has a seen an opportunity to exploit the situation over the years. If you look at legislation that comes down the line in DC, there is usually a group that supports it. Look into the groups major funding and you will usually find "corporate sponsors". Those are the public groups that may give their support to a bill but behind the scenes there are always lobbyists with special interests and a pile of corporate money, to sway a legislators vote - one way or the other. The big corporations have figured out that more regulations helps squash the smaller competition and they have the resources to not only comply but also sway our legislators in DC, your State Capital, the County Courthouse and City Hall. So the small guy has to do the best he can do but at any time the DOT, OSHA or the local tax thief with a set of laws and regs the size of a full set of Encyclopedias can "inspect" your operation and if they want to penalize you there is always something in the "book" you are not doing. I don't know the answer, other than it is very frustrating.
Don't forget about the banker's. :Banghead
Oh yeah bankers have their special place as well...:ban