Question:
And for the better I am sure.
I have been an o/o for 25 + years
1. I pretty much taught myself to drive an 18
2. I took no road test or written test
(all I needed was a letter from an o/o that I could drive)
3 .you could get as many licenses as you wanted from mostly southern states like Fla. My friends would load up one license with speeding tickets and keep the other one clean
4.Everyone knew some one whose girlfriend worked for a diet doctor. and diet pills (amphetamines ) were not as regulated. You could easily just go to a doctor and say you needed to lose weight or get some powerful sedative by saying you could not sleep.
I knew a guy at the time who(with the companies blessing) would run to Cal non stop and often return
the downside was that if along the way he did sleep they would lose him for a couple of days
5 I knew of a company in Paterson, NJ that preferred hiring ex cons right out of prison
6.diesel was 79 cents
Hey, just some food for thought

Answer:
Thanks to alot of the older drivers we are now heavily regulated by the DOT and weigh stations are popping up almost as fast as restaraunts. Funny thing is them older drivers call the new ones "steering wheel holders". They drove like wreckless fools and now claim new people don't know how to be a truck driver.
Last I heard hiring ex-cons was government approved. Maybe not after 9/11.
I'm glad the good old days are gone. Now if the OTR lifestyle crap would disappear there could be some more progress.

Answer:
there were no good ol days
the generation before me was running bench seats and triplexes and running rte 1 to boston or rte 6 to chicago or the Lincolin Hiway
i dont think these were govt approved ex cons
it was not unusual to here a driver say he learned how to drive when the boss said"here take this truck to Kansas city by the time you get there you will know how to drive"

Answer:
Things sure have changed , just look at the equipment , in mid 70's who would of thought we would have what we have today , people have changed as has the job itself.
My first SOLO long trip was to New York City in an old B model try doing that today and they would have you arrested for inhuman treatment of an underpaid employee.
Been an O/O for nearly 30 years

Answer:

Out of interest for the newbies, Pete, how is your retirement plan looking?

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none , mainly because my wife quit her job to take on the job of stay at home mom. I have 2 sons in college and 1 in HS all $$$$$$$$$ went to raising the boys. On the otherhand I live on 2 acres in Bergen county NJ so someday Ill have to sell and then I will have a few bucks left over.
one of the reasons I am getting my own authority is that my wife is working again and I am trying to make a full court press to make some money and get ahead,

Answer:
I love hearing the old-timers talk about the past -- where those who came before us, came from. It was also back when nobody wore seatbelts and kids went flying through windshields, drunk drivers were excorted home and put to bed, and there wasn't a friggin' Comfort Inn and 24/7 convenience store on every exit. It must be biter-sweet to see the way things have changed. Future road warriors will feel the same when they look back at today -- "when fuel was still less than $5 a gallon and trucks didn't have camera monitoring...." Change never stops.....

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I think the earlier CB radio days were at least palatable from a driver's point of view. Somewhere though gridlock, Rambo the the rump rangers took over.

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Yes probably,as long as you don't include the Monetary
aspect today. 2006 conditions,1980 Pay.
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I think it's fallen below 1980 pay
the adjusted for inflation,after tax take home net pay is way lower and people work way more hours to make it
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There is a 134.47% change in the cost of living when comparing 1980 to 2005.
$0.50 / mile today = $0.21 / mile in 1980
$3.00 Gallon today = $1.49 in 1980

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HEY...........I resemble that remark
But that was a couple years ago though. Now I do it for fun...
(I do have a good chiropractor )

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When I started,It seemed every load I took had to be "high and tight" a term I haven heard for a long time. That means every cubic inch of the trailer had to be filled.
I also hauled coffee and cocoa
You would go down to the docks and have to transfer 200 pound or heavier burlap bags of raw cocoa from "pier pallets" to the floor of you trailer.The Long Shoreman were not allowed to transfer a bag of cocoa from 1 pallet to another. It had to go on the floor no higher than chest high. You would face the Longshreman and the burlap bags would be between you. You had to hold a metal hook with a wooden handle in each hand. You each would dig the hooks into the burlap, lift together and then swing the bag to the desired height on the floor, Just befre the bag landed you would have to slip the hooks out of the bag and let it fly. If the hook stayed in the bag you would go flying along with the bag. If, while throwing the bag , your hook came out, you would have a hook , in your own hand, heading for your face at full force. The longshoreman had all kinds of nasty scars.
Then I drove about 30 miles and hooked them out of the trailer at the chocolate factory.
I used to haul a lot of drums too. I could tell you that I had customers that would roll a tire and lay it down behind the trailer and I would (look out below!!!)
drop the 55 gal right out the back out the back of the trailer onto the tire but ........maybe another time

Answer:
Drop 55 gal drums?? Yup, done that.........but only off the back of my pickup truck. Lay a tire in the yard and off she'd go! 3 ft is high enough....I'd bet 5 ft is a real THUMPER!!!

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How does the price you paid for diesel then vs your bottom line, compare to today's figures?