How Trucking Went From One of the Best Jobs in America to One of the Worst

[A HERETIC I AM]

37. I remember you mentioning your fathers union job in the past.....

And I don't doubt he was making that money, particularly in northern Illinois. I understand that the wages in the upper midwest and the northeast have been higher than in the south by contract, because of the supposed lower cost of living down here. The cents per mile figures I was giving were pretty much what the Truck load, 48 state carriers were offering back then, as opposed to local or LTL freight carriers.

I worked for a Teamster (Local 299 - Old Man Hoffa's local! ) Car Haul firm in the Detroit area for about 3 years in the late 90's (DU'er "Snotcicles" worked for the same firm!) and their base scale was pretty much what my scale is now, 23 years later!

One of the dumbest things I ever did was leave them. I would have had my 20 in a couple years ago and could have retired with a $2,000/month pension. Every year over 20 was another $100 a month.