Career in Trucking - Semi-Trucks of the 1950's
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- Depicts a career in trucking, semi trucks of the 1950's, family life, different shifts, layovers and shipping documents involved with the career. Examines the life of a trucker working for Norwalk Trucking Lines out of Chicago in the 1950's.
/ @16mmeducationalfilms
HD version - rumble.com/v4o...
If that pump jockey put 120 gallons of gasoline in the same truck Good ol' Tom pulled away in, he's in trouble because the engine sounds were definitely diesel..
There appears to be a stranded motorist up ahead. But this is the modern trucking world, where dispatch knows your every move and will chomp your ass for the slightest deviation. There is no more "code of the road". "Sucks to be you", Tom says, as he motors on by.
Ah, back in the day when you could feed your family and own a home on Teamster's wages.Sometimes even a summer cottage on a lake. Now you can barely feed yourself.
You don't need the damn teamsters, if you can't feed yourself on 1500-1800 a week then you must have bigger issues.
@@dano8613 When Oh'Bidet gets done we'll need a hell of a lot more than that
Best of all no ELD's
" Sometimes even a summer cottage on a lake " 1957, our first vacation to Ontario Canada, a lakefront cabin, 60 bucks a week.
Beautiful 56 DeSoto 2-door HT, mom stayed at home, three kids. Amazing.
imagine if a manufacture today named a truck: White Super Power... the rage and shitstorm would be never ending...
True
Seen that shit and died laughing
That was the name of the person who founded the company - and those were very good trucks back in the day - I remember the beetle nosed cabover garbage trucks that they made up until about 1968 - Their style was distinctive - I also recall the clang of their transmission gears when starting off from a stop....
Now imagine that a black guy is driving it 🤣🤣🤣
Believe me,there were plenty of black drivers of White trucks back in the time when they were still being made....
Imagine todays crop of drivers doing this? Drove for 27 years before moving into dispatch and the first question I always got was. Are your trucks automatic? Dear God.
Special license for that too
Most "drivers" nowadays wouldn't do it if it was like that. I see guys quit a job because the truck didnt have a refrigerator...🤦♂️
How many people today can't even drive stick let along non-synchromesh. It's becoming a lost art.
Some of us learned on a “straight seven.”
@@1940limited 90% can’t.
Tom was one of the first drivers to use the fuel island for a 30 minute break
Thought the same thing
People who do that really pisses me off. After fueling you are supposed to pull up to the yellow line. That's why there is a line there.
Parking at the pump screws everybody behind you.
There's no more sepect for your fellow drivers anymore
@@scottnichols7811 blame Tom
I shook my head at that part lmao. Scrolled through the comments and found yours lmao
No where to Park?🤣
Tom smoked 53 cigarettes during the trip
Unfiltered Camels in those days, a real man didn't use filters. LOL
@@kman-mi7su Or Lucky Strikes
@@gregdolecki8530 If it was good enough to smoke while he was fighting Fritz its good enough while making his runs.
One way
And a 'black beauty'
My dad started working for Norwalk shortly after serving in WW2 and was with them until Yellow took over and retired from Yellow. I started as a driver in the early 1970's and retired in 2003, the industry made a lot of changes in those years! Not a job I would suggest to my kids now.
I agree not a good job today. Not even a union job.
I’m over at ABF and I love it. Good pay and benefits
Yellow is gone now
Question is, what jobs would you recommend now to your kids? Even being a waiter in the 70s got you decent pay. The whole world has changed dramatically. I'm an owner op trucker and call most of my shots. Nothing is perfect, but I love what I do and make good money.
@bobbyhenderson8603 well I’m not sure how you can say we damage more fright then other carriers. They guys I work with are very skilled and go the extra mile to assure everything is properly done. I was trained to treat each piece of fright “like it was your mothers” and I did and still do. We are a wonderful company with outstanding pay and benefits. Not many jobs today especially in trucking offer a six figure salary plus free healthcare, and no cost pension. I’ll retire from here one day and if one of my kids doesn’t want to get into a skilled trade or college, then i would highly recommend this job. My only concern for my children’s generation with getting into trucking is the driverless truck concept. This entire sector could be much like the wagon building outfits in the early 20th century.
Two miles down the road after helping the disabled motorist . Tom is stopped for a level one D.O.T. inspection. Tom ain't so happy now.
WTF you mean portable scales?
Now that’s funny there!
Hey its for our safety! 😉
Nazis.
Tom gets put out of service.
I started my trucking career in the late 50s after four years as a heavy equipment operator in the Air Force. The only gasoline powered trucks I knew of were used in local pick up and delivery, at least here on the Left Coast anyway. Overtheroad hauling was predominantly with diesel powered tractors. My first was a 59 IH DCO 405 with a185 hp Cummins; & yes I would stop for any stranded motorists and never give it a second thought.
Thanks for the story :)
Dean Hueter I was born in 1996, I’d love to see how things were back then compared to today, I’m sure you’ve got a lot of stories from over the years. I started driving dump trucks a couple years ago, and the air splitter stick shifts in trucks are on their way out the door to being obsolete for automatics. I’m thankful I learned on a 10 speed. Automatics are more convenient but nothing beats the fun out of shifting yourself, there’s something very satisfying about perfect shift that you made.
In the fifties, if you had a mechanical problem with a car on the highway it was unusual if the first 18-wheeler to come along didn't stop and the driver ask if you needed help.
Those old petrol trucks incinerated a helluva lotta blokes.
@@dalecomer5951 Contrast that with the 1970s when you could crash your car and _nobody_ would stop. (Based on at least two anecdotal incidents I know of.)
Back in Chicago, Tom gets shot stepping out of his truck because his "chauffer's" hat looked too much like a cop's hat
And the mainstream media didn’t report it.
😂😂😂
@@chandlertrey5403 I don’t know whether anyone cares at all but I just let loose with a powerful fart which, if repeated, is liable to turn into a full fledged shart.
Nice to see you up and out of bed, Brian.
Lmao
Tom gets some flares and shows the man how to set his car on fire again.
And they split the insurance check for the torched Chevy and then sell it at Barrett Jackson as a barn find
🤣🤭
Tom was last seen thirteen years later going over a cliff after chasing Dennis Weaver through the desert.
Haha. Who hasn’t seen Dual ?
Tom finally had enough of disrespectful drivers. Ha!
They should do a Twilight Zone where Tom pulls off the road for a nap and falls asleep over the steering wheel and wakes up to the sound of a lot lizard pounding on the door of his 650 hp truck with a condo sleeper.
Lol!
That WOULD be a good one! And somebody trying to sell him reds and whites...and some crystal.
Lol I'm dead
😅😅😅
LOL 🤑💋👅👄🧟♀🦎🦂🪱🎭👠👙💊🗡🚬🧻🪣⚰
Tom’s wife couldn’t kick him out of truck fast enough, so she could get home boot those kids out the door to school, hurry upstairs to change into something a little more sexy, and wait for bob to sneak over, who just got back from Toledo from his run
Better Bachelor or strong successful male for more info about Bob😲😱😳
Yes I agree toms missus was cute
They wore uniforms and hats. A different time.
if only it was this simple now
These are ACTORS! Stop being so stupid!
You betcha! Spring ride, no ac, and an engine that put out less power than most pickups today. The good ole days!
Those were GD times.💛💚🧡💙😎
@@jimjonrs3932 spring ride isn't that bad as long as you're not too heavy or light
@@spaceghost8995 u know nothing
“Another hot load Tom”. After 36 years in the business, I have never heard of a “cold load”. 😉
Best comment in here!
Actually there is a cold load- have you never driven A reefer trailer, son?
Lofl
@@scottprendergast5262 yup, I sure have, they are usually the hottest loads there are too!!
And the truck drivers were respectful, clean and didn't look like a bum.
Just wait till they were off the once in a life time opportunity of being in a film documentary lol
Maybe because they made more money than today’s engineers and accountants? A McDonald’s worker makes as much as a trucker now when all is said and done
They didn't wear flip-flops or gym shorts either.
That's when truckers was truckers not bums and flip floppers it make me sick watching trucker walking around in flip flop
@@joshuamcculloch8941 stupid ass boomers commenting again
Tom can't pretrip worth a damn , but boy he is dressed up sharp.
He didn't even have to check his tires , brakes, oil. Didn't even have to pump his own gas. Things have changed
When i first started everytime you were in a terminal and picked up a trailer you had to go through the check out lane, you just worked the lights and stayed in the tractor and the mechanics basically did the pretrip and fixed anything that needed it. They wouldn't let you leave with a light out, soft or bad tire, broken reflector, ect.
He still returns to find his ole lady just as he left her,. "fresh fucked"😎👌
@@idessaoutlaw by the milkman 🤣🤣🤣
@@ozielramirez4589
Or the "Fuller Brush man", who I was told could be my Dad...😎👌 Mama's baby, Daddy's maybe.
@@idessaoutlaw I thought back then women appreciated their men.
When truckers were treated with respect dispatcher knew you by name not like nowadays you are just a number.
Drivers were nothing but a piece of meat back then and it's the same today. Oh by the way, you can say the exact same fucking thing about hundreds of other professions. Stop trying to do revisionist history. You're not good at it.
@Space Ghost You're an idiot, Drivers were treated well back then, they were important to the business now they throw any body with a pulse in a seat, I worked for owners that gave me loans for a car, pay back each week, They gave out bonuses at XMAS, They were some one you could go to for help. Not like these giant computer run companies today. Dispatchers knew you by name, knew who they coud count on.
Not all companies today are like that. I run for a small company with about 20 drivers. We have company picnics xmas parties with catered food and bonuses, driver appreciation week we get cool shit like tools and electronics for the house. We get free work shirts and nice waterproof/warm jackets that can be used year round. Ooooh ya and home weekends or more depending on loads.
Get your couple years of experience and get away from the large companies. Find something small and local and you will be a happy driver.
That's awesome ,, Too bad those types of owners aren't more common. My last company started that way, The bigger they got th less personal it became. They went from 200 drivers when I started to 700 when I retired 14 years later. Hiring inexperienced , right out of school . They treated their older drivers with 30/40 years the same as a newbie, I had enough & retired they didn't even care or seem concerned.
Shut up 498983
Brings me back to when I was kid and my dad would be gone for weeks. No sleeper, no microwave. Just drive. When he'd get home he sleep for 2 days but always brought home something for us kids. Just he passed he gave me a teddy bear because he said he never gave me one, I still have it.
Good story - love to hear stories like that :)
I heard Tom quit. Any word on who Tom is driving for now?🤪😂
And the Indiana toll road hasn’t been repaved or upgraded since this video was made
My Aunt and Uncle drove trucks in those days. One drove while the other slept.
The truck only stopped for fuel, flats, and impassable roads. These cabs were un-godly uncomfortable. Generally no heaters because the heater cost extra and the trucking company was too cheap to buy them. Sometimes drivers would drive 3 days without sleep. There was no such thing as an 8 hour shift. This caused a lot of wrecks. A trucker usually didn't survive. Safety equipment didn't include seat belts. On one trip during the winter, my Aunt held lighted candles against the windshield to keep the ice off. Even if the truck had a heater, there were no windshield defrosters. Tires were not very good and trucking companies squeezed every last mile out of one, so flats were common. And deadly. The tires and tubes were held on with bands of thick steel that had to be hammered onto the rim with a sledge hammer. They were a giant spring and could fly off and hurt or kill you. In a wreck the trailer ran over the cab with no survivors. In the 1960s I came upon a two truck wreck, both trailers ran over the cabs. The two drivers were standing in the middle of the highway talking, neither was hurt and both trucks were totally destroyed.
Well, this is long, I'm 81 years old and been there. I wouldn't go back for anything.
The truck stop food was crap, too. My Mother cooked in a truck stop. I was forbidden to eat anything that she didn't fix.
Wow - interesting story. Thanks for the history on old time trucking - I enjoyed reading it. Congrats on being 81 years old :)
Truck stop food is still crap, just fast food crap
Those were lock ring wheels. A friend of mine who worked in a tire repair place said they'd inflate them under a lift so in case the ring flew off the rim, it wouldn't hit you in the face.
@@Inb4theban According to the video, it's good food! 🙂
@@1940limitedда... И в России стопорными кольцами не мало людей поубивало.
Tom bought a house, put his kids through college and retired comfortably with the wages he made driving truck. Before the economy went into the trash bin.
Before going so far into debt to buy crap we don't need and saving money for something is something nobody does became a thing.
Us dollar was still on the gold standard meaning you got 1.34 ounces of gold which was worth 38 dollars for every dollar you earned, average income for American's in the 50s between 3300 to 3800
The economy overall is fine, it’s just wages that haven’t kept pace.
Probably a union hand !
@@cjeam9199 no our economy is not fine we exported all of our good middle class jobs to China and they're not coming back the middle class has been annihilated.
Here's Tom visiting his second wife and kids in the layover town on the other end of the trip who have no idea.."Now you kids listen to your Mom, I'll see you later"
😂🤣😅
Yep, I used to tell my dad who was a long distance trucker, that he was the epitome of that song 🎙"Traveling Man...🎶 all over the world, and in every part I open my heart to at least one lucky girl" haha
Cheating must have been easier without stupid phones and internet
@@jimmypappas9780 it was away of life in trucking. You could always back a log book up. Or run two of them. If you ran two log books you had to be careful you didn’t hand the wrong one to the officer that pulled you over.😳I knew a couple guys that did, they got there ass handle to them in fines. I love my job. I’m still driving at the young age of 69. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Always made great money, never been laid off, I was working when people were starving in the recessions I’ve seen in my life. I reccomend it to young folks who are looking for a good job.
She was recieving a Hot Load too!
Here we see Tom in his usual flip flop and shorts. Dressed and ready for the open road in December
Yo Sup Goodbuddy 😮
My father drove for norwalk truck lines
SEEMS LIKE THE DRIVER WAS A MAN OF RESPECT
Certainly NOT these days. Trucking companies SUCK now.
And in an emergency situation, it would take Tom half a mile to stop that truck going 30mph.
Not with air brakes.
Good old days, when the truck driver was respected. Not like today.
They were never respected. Stop repeating stupid shit you read.
did you notice all the truck drivers were white men. No one wearing sandals back then!
@@spaceghost8995 my grandfather never had any problem, he liked what he was doing back than, but he won't want to be a trucker today. This whole industry went south.
@@d.s7741 wondering how many driver was put out of service for not able to speak English.
Teaching is the same - it's just a job now - not a career.
Power steering was an option most trucking companys didn't pay for up into the eighties. When the teamsters got it into the contract that new trucks and tractors had to have power steering and air ride seats the city men ended up with the no power steering tractors . The guys that did the most turning and backing. I used to have leg-arms from working LTL.
My first truck was a '85 Freightshaker with no power steering, I would have a hard time with that in my older years!
@@johnnyobigcatdaddy I learned on a straight seven, but first company truck was an 88 Freightshaker flat top cabover without power anything. Not much power at all, in fact. It blew a head gasket about 2 months later.
Привет из России. Так у вас и на сцепление усилитель до сих пор не ставят. Проще полный автомат на грузовик придумать. Очевидно штатовская специфика.
"You got a hot load" My dispatcher told me that once and tried to send me 240 miles into a snowstorm. I said "There's a blizzard down there". He said "well you better leave now" I said "i'm sorry, you're going to have to get someone else to do that run, if it's so important."
Tom’s driving a White Super Power, granddaddy of today’s Western Star. I wonder what he’d think of 600 HP, 18 speed, air ride seats, power steering, 82” bunk, cruise control, cell phone, air bag suspension, satellite radio, TV in the bunk, fridge, oh yeah it was so much better in the good ol’ days.
My dad Holle Plaehn drove a truck back then, and he said truckers often times just brought their sleeping bags to work with them... but back in these days, our trucks didn’t have this mini-apartment as a “sleeper” like our truckers today have. But my understanding of today is that the truck driver has to “move-in” to their truck now, because they can be asked to move freight around our country for WEEKS at a time, so having a mini apartment behind the drivers seat is sometimes necessary. This is the career I’d have chosen if my health had allowed instead of epilepsy. I ❤️ Trucks. 👍🏽🥰👍🏽
He'd probably think we're hoity-toity.
@@naughtyboy3604 Yeah right. He'd be jealous as hell.
jfdb59 Mabe after sitting in traffic all day to get from one side of Chicago to the other he wouldn’t.
@@dday9257 you have a point there.
Tom didn’t even have to put his mask on to check in
Tom only plays by his rules😂😂
hilarious
If you ask me the best time of trucking was the 70s and early 80s
I agree 70s to mid 80s hi wheeling and feeling free that's what trucking means to me the other motto was ass cash or grass no body rides for free sure glad I'm done with all of that and not out there any more not tired anymore just retired 😅
Nowadays Tom would be replaced by Julio who would take the Sandusky load down to El Paso and have Juan smuggle it across the border while he was delivering a hot load to Juanita at the Flying J.
Ha!🤣🤣
Very clever!
@@realmccoy9597 You would think it's funny. Your all fence jumpers.
Trucking back then was physically brutal on the body.
I was acquainted with a guy that did trucking in the early 1970s, where his shoulders and back needed massage and chiropractic care as a result from the physical jarring he experienced with the many hours of driving he did with a big-rig.
I drove one cabover with a seat that looked like a kitchen chair. Every bump hurt!
@@kathyyoung1774 I put a Bostrum diesel hydraulic seat in my Datsun p/u for that same reason. I'ts adjustable. I'd hit railraod tracks and smooth right over, as far as my back was concerned.
@@HeronPoint2021 Smart move! I did very briefly (one trip) drive an 80-something cabover that had what looked like a kitchen chair for a passenger seat, and I was taking a new trainee somewhere and letting him drive. I had to sit in that "kitchen chair." It was like riding a cement park bench across the GW Bridge! We delivered that cabover to a drop yard to be used for drayage, not longhaul.
@@HeronPoint2021 Dang--Datsun for those of us old 'nough to remember.
Wild family friend in high school would regularly get dad's Datsun PU seriously airborn.
His dad thought it was a POS, alternator bracket kept breaking, HAhaha....teen driver thought it was great little truck for what *didn't break,* the rest of it mostly held up to abject *abuse.*
@@Mrbfgray owned two for LA business bought new: both ran over 300000 miles and when I sold them they were solid. Dad had a mechanic shop and instilled maintenance. 1973 and a 1977. put a flat deck kit on it from Benicia, Ca. and sold the obx for what I paid for the kit.
My Dad was a long distance trucker from the 40's to the late 60's. I remember him saying his pay was 4 cents per loaded mile. He went from Texas to California every week roundtrip was 3000 miles or $120 per week. Sounds funny but rent on a 3 bedroom home was $60 a month and Coca Cola was a nickel a bottle.
And now it takes two or three pay checks to make rent.
I wonder what year he was talking about. In 1950, four cents a mile would be good. You could buy a coke in a little over a mile. If you make 40 cents a mile today, it would take a little over two miles. That's not considering taxes and payroll deductions which are higher today for average wage earners. For that 3 BR home at $60.00 it would take 1500 miles at 4 cents a mile. The average cost in the U.S. of a 3 BR APARTMENT according too a Google search is $1578.00. At .40 a mile it would take 3945 miles!! I keep telling people things were relatively a lot cheaper back in the day. With higher productivity today, who's getting that money. Certainly not the worker.
@@DavidSmith-fr1uz The squeeze has been going for most of my life. Inflation got to be a problem during Viet Nam. Government spending on domestic welfare programs and massive war costs was adding gasoline to the fire. My first new car was a 1972 Dodge Challenger. It cost $3800. I financed it for 36 months and the payments were $98.81.I was 21 years old and lived in a furnished 1 bedroom apartment for $110 per month. I worked in a union print shop making $3 per hour. I was putting money in a savings account every week.
@@otherbrother3 72 Challenger, what a beauty.
@@otherbrother3 I bought my first house in 75 4 b ron2.l5 acres for $18000.I bought a78 dodge magnum new for $5600.
this was in the days of strong unions. Norwalk was a union company. when deregulation came it brought in the gypsy owner operators who wanted to be "knights of the road" and their own boss. All the problems of the modern truck driver are of their own making. I drove for a union company in chicago for 45 years and have been retired since 1995 and receive pension checks every month. I am 91 years old and so far have collected over $800,00. now go and trash the unions.
You were in at a good time. You won't get that benefit today.
Every wrong with trucking is self made .
I am happy for you sir. Have a good life,you deserve it.
Yeah, a pension and a salty attitude. I’ll take the liberty of being my own boss, thanks. No union dues for you.
@@scottcrawford7674 don’t think for a second that unions won’t gladly take illegal immigrants. Just look at the construction unions. The teamsters is not necessarily the answer to your problem. They may actually make it worse given the opportunity.
WOW good old Tom he dresses like a PD man and everyone else does all his work for him. Boy the good old day of truck drivers. Thank you Tom.
Tom would end up in jail if he drove as long as he did on this trip....
304 miles lol
I really enjoyed this. As a third generation Professional truck driver it makes me have a lot more respect for my grandfather who drove for JP Stevens for 40 years. We’ve got it made these days as far as equipment goes. I remember riding with my dad and they still fueled his truck and cleaned all the glass for the drivers at Walmart. Very nostalgic enjoyed it very much, thanks.
I really like this old 35 mm film I used to watch films like this in schools in the early 60s I grew up in that area of the U.S.A.Ohio Pennsylvania this is about 15 yrs after World War II and how the Americans built the country up the 70s I worked on a loading dock unloading big trucks like that for computers
"Say," laughs Tom, dropping off to sleep, "I forgot to send any help for that guy in the Chevy, he's probably frozen to death by now."
CycolacFan that's funny driver
Oh, Tom.
*sitcom laugh track*
Awesome 😎
They missed the part where Tom curses having to double shift with a rock hard clutch and the crappy lights that gave him 30 ft of usable visibility on a clear night. And let's not forget that the trucks back then didn't have safety brakes, so if they were out of air the truck would run away - thus the many runaway truck ramps on the old highways. Trucking may not have changed much, but the trucks have at least gotten safer and easier to drive
Most interesting part - Tom's EMPLOYER paid for his motel, i wonder how often that happens today?
I've only been retirered 3 years now and ours did and still does. Nothing fancy normal roach hotel but free
I grew up in Sandusky, Ohio and Norwalk Trucks were a daily sight on the roads there. Didn't recognize Columbus Avenue though and I spent my teenage years buzzing the avenue there. Can't imagine a long haul on a 6 cylinder gas rig today but they never foresaw the current weights, speed limits, restrictions and crazy stuff we endure now. Glad I'm retired.
Tom is told the truck is "all good to go" and takes off only to find the yard man did not perform a tug test and the overloaded trailer slips off the 5th wheel in the middle of the yard.
Two hours after that shit fight is rectified Tom discovers during a heavy snowstorm and a mile down the road the new yardman fueled the truck with diesel and not gasoline.
After another two hours of repairs and on a three mile straight Tom manages to crack 45 mph and a severe castor shimmy stops him going any faster.
At the state line the drag link drops off the steering arm and Tom punts the Indiana state troopers brand new dodge phoenix through the toll office building.
Tom did heavily apply the brakes but with three badly leaking wheel cylinders this made matters worse.
Tom is arrested and charged with attempted murder among numerous other charges.
Toms hot load of toilet paper is now a logistical nightmare.
The Indiana state police toilet paper "evidence" supplies lasted for the next two years.
LMAO!
Ha ha ha
Just after Tom takes a seat in the police station the radio starts playing "Take this job and shove it" he naturally joins in singing along.
Johnny Paycheck at The Boar's Nest th-cam.com/video/mx_o2HhWuUs/w-d-xo.html
It sounds like Tom don't have a pot or pan to piss or boo, boo in, but he got plenty of tissue paper to wipe off with, and clean his $2.99.00 cent truck driving training class certificate with
Luckily for Tom, an unknown gang of thieves stole every toilet seat in the police station where he was being held. The cops had nothing to go on, so they set him free.
If Tom has to be there by 5am with his Hot Load, and he's still driving at day break, then he doesn't have plenty of time. During winter in the midwest, daybreak doesn't happen until well after 5am, so Tom is actually very late.
Boblib1970 you are so right I had not noticed that now that you have mentioned it you are so right Tom was late 5oclock it's still dark
I was tryin to figure out what time Tom left, because even at 55mph it's only 6 1/2 hours. Say 1 hour to "eat and relax", for his safety check after 3 hours driving is...1/2 hour. 8 hours then add 1 hour for the knucklehead 4wheeler =
9 hours. I Need to Know! What. Time. Did. Tom. Leave??? lol
@@melindaaceto3261 sounds like one of those word, math problems (never could figure those out)
Hot load. He leaves at 5 p.m. for an 11 a.m. delivery less than 400 miles away. I know it was snowing and the speed limits were lower then, but that's milking it. We do 500 mile nights through Noo Yawk in ten and a half hours. No hotel for a sleepover. No wonder Biden pushed for deregulation back in the '70's. Look at what it's like now.
Back then they told time with a sun dial and there's was broke.
Tom tore up his swindle sheets and left them sitting on the scales.
Tom just ain’t a gonna pay no toll… so he crashed the gate doin 98 I said let them truckers roll!
No power steering no air no cruise no sleeper no air ride trailers had to suck
Nothing to break down?
Good Lord not jake brake either. Well I just could not live. L.o.l.
And no maxibrakes. If that low air flag dropped down, you had maybe 2 stops left.
single axle in the snow
@@d.s7741 been there man it sucks
I've been driving daycabs for a small company for a few years and its pretty damn similar to this video.. amazing. how much has and hasn't changed in the trucking industry.
Good movie to watch is They Drive by Night Humphery Bogart George Raft George Tobis Allen Hale Sr. Ann Sheridan and Ida Lupino
Robert McGowan that movie is the best
Great movie. If I saw that movie before I started driving, I wouldn't have gone driving.
Back when you could fix ever thing with balding wire
Thanks! Will ck. Out.
You will know Allen Hale as the skipper from Gilligans Isle
Back when things were so simple, my goodness how we have changed, and not for the better.
Yrc freight break bulk yards are set up like this from the yard guy weighing the truck to fueling the truck. Tom starts his trip exactly how I do 😂😂😂 Teamster Strong 💪🏿💪🏿
Eh man , I was strolling through the comment section and see you watched this video too . Funny how similar it is to how we work lmao. Teamster strong 💪💪.
Yeah, but y'all have some equipment that looks like it's from Tom's days.
@@slumberpass We move freight, this is not a truck show. Good one 😂😂😂😂
@@BINK4PRESIDENT
Lol..Thanks! If you're happy, I'm happy for you. 👍
Teamsters strong😂the teamsters are a weak ass Union
You load sixteen tons and what dya get, another day older and deeper in debt, St. Peter don't you call me cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store.
I remember singing that in elementary school 14-15 years ago, how time flies
Coal mining is a much better job than truck driving. Doesn't require smoking, but that's a bonus.
After World War II my dad work for Westinghouse electric he would buy their appliances my mom was so happy that she didn't have to get Westinghouse appliances as she got older. It used to be that the company store would take everything out of the workers paychecks are they were trapped working for the company. my dad was a Personnel director starting in the early 50s so I watched out big companies would treat people and learned a lot from him.
My encounter with dispatch don’t go quite so smoothly.....
yeah just yank the radiator cap off that hot radiator and take a peak in there.....end up looking like freddy kruger.
Everyone pictured had a job and did it professionally
32,000 lbs fits in a 40 ft trailer just fine. Oh wait, here's a 53 footer. You can haul more freight for us and we'll pay you less money. Just keep on truckin
That sound like being a teacher. Oh! You are pretty good with kids that can't sit down - here take 5 more - the other teachers don't like them. That's exactly what happens.
Or a 57 footer for Texas roads
Oh wait wait how about you pull 3 trailers to Chicago and we’ll give you $3 more per trip, thank you Teamsters
Anyone else surprised they didn't have a separate guy who ran the turn signals back in the 1950s?
I'm surprised how regulated everything was even back then
Nice looking trucks back then. 🤩That White was a gas powered truck, not diesel. It was about a 53 model. 🧐They got about 4mpg and were hard driving trucks. Truckers back then were like knights of the highway. My dad and oldest brother were driving back then. Sandusky, Ohio...how much it has changed. Loved this! 🥰
I would have liked to see more scenes in the cab and shifting.
@@1940limited🇺🇸 I agree with you. Would give you a better understanding of how hard it could be at times when driving a truck. Blessings my friend.🤩🥰✌️
Tom had a tough job as a trucker in terms of creature comforts but had a good job that paid and was well respected. Maybe even got to stay in decent hotels from time to time. Nowadays we have elogs and government and company run trucks. Sleeping in a truck for weeks at a time with less pay overall. You choose
I understand what you're talking about, I was lucky I ran 2 loads a week from Northwest Arkansas to Dallas TX and back for about the last 15 years. I retired last January 2022 44 years, seen a lot of different trucks, some good some not so good. Ghe last 2 years were the worse for me. Dealing with truck brokers that didn't have a clue what they we were doing. I'm happy to be retired.
Toms truck moves fast with head wind Toms truck can make 48 mph ..Toms truck made 65 mph once with a tail wind while driving over a cliff .. that was Toms last trip.
Safety stop every 3hrs! Today that would interfere with binge watching Netflix on your phone. Ha Ha Ha
Bias-ply tires and heavy duty springs if you ran over a gravel the size of your thumbnail it would throw you out of the cab big whopping horsepower of the day would have been a mack with a whopping 175 horsepower top speed 50
Love hearing stories of the good ol' days
I started in 74 driving. 1st truck was a 67 DODGE CNT twin screw tractor pulling a 30' trailer dump. 10 speed RR with a lo hole on the floor & a 270 Cummins. use to pull almost 90K with that when the load was wet. Then went onto a Mov & Stor. Co hauling mostly new furniture & appliances to stores in North east. Had a 69'Diamond Reo with a 230 Cummins , 10 speed. We had a couple of the 1st automatics in 2 of them. No phones no GPS but we seemed to get the job done
@@16mmEducationalFilms
My granddaddy said it took 3 day from los angels to Bakersfield and back, he said claiming over the grapevine he siad they stood on the running boards cause it got so hot in the cab and all day job to climb over the grapevine
@@joseph258081 That's incredible - driving while standing on the running boards? I had to look up what climbing over the grapevine meant :) Now I learned 2 things today :)
Lol, no cup holders and mega big gulps, lol!
Oh the good old days! Jesus Christ! People actually gave a shit about employees. Gave them time for lunch and not being scrutinized on GPS. Basically you could do your Goddamn job without interference from office shit. I miss the 90s when running a service truck was actually fun. I use to look forward to going to work. I still love my work but I just want to be able to do it without corporate crap . Like having to stop working and pull over because office needs my IPAD number because they are doing inventory. .. or my IPad service trade goes down cause of Tech Support shiit. Just let us field workers do our jobs! !!!. That's what we are paid to do.
Old Tom was able to feed a family of five, own a new car and home while his wife stayed home and raise happy healthy kids. What happens government? Not posible now.
No Tom your trips not done.you must first unload and reload your trailer and drive back to Chicago with no sleep 😴
@Hello Quatch how are you doing
Truck drivers got more rest breaks, service stations performed over the road checkups, Tom probably made really good money to afford a nice car like that while supporting two kids and a wife...I wish deregulation never happened in the 70's and 80's...this makes me yearn for truck drivers to be unionized and make better pay/have better hours/use better equipment.
Kevin Pishgar, he had 3 kids. 2 boys and a girl.
Well, the mastermind behind deregulation is Traitor Joe. He's in the White House now. Don't hold your breath waiting for things to get better any time soon.
@@jamro217 Ah yes, blame the current president for all of your worries and troubles. Not what happened to the trucking industry within the past 40 years, not the decline unions, nor stagnant pay, nor safe working conditions. No, right after Jan 21st of 2021....that's when trucking entered the dark ages.
@@2Pish Go back to December 1972. Biden's family were killed in an accident involving a truck. Tragic indeed. He got it in his mind to make the entire trucking industry pay for it. He convinced Jimmy Carter (the first democrat president since the accident) that deregulation was a good idea. The shift of responsibility (and blame) went to the driver. Now we have ELDs, lousy pay, etc. It's gone downhill thanks to one man.
That’s why l never drove I’m not driving a million miles a week and stand around and then not get paid for peanuts
Had Tom gotten a load to California he would still be driving!
Best comment section ever . 😂 Lol.
I know! Better humorous content than some stand-up comedy clubs.
Couldn't agree more . I'm laughing my ass off 🤣
I really like this video I was a kid back then my dad was a driver he was from Sandusky we lived in the Cleveland area we were very familiar with Norwalk Trucking, I grew up with trucks like that. I am a retired truck mechanic and I guess a video like this takes me back to earlier Times.
Today tom would have been fired for stopping and helping stopping to eat
And driving to slow in bad road conditions
I drove 18 wheeler back in the 1990's and I was real interested in the days before interstates, air ride seats, and truck stops as we know them today. I can't believe the level of respect the truck drivers got in the old days, or the help they got from people, or how comparatively easy the job was, although that guy in the film had a run about as good as they get. He was lucky
I'm 68 yrs old graduated high school 50 yrs ago & we used to watch 35 mm all the time. we actually had a class America vs communism 1971. This is watching a time capsule the way America was back in the 50s
Yeah I can remember 23 cents a gallon and drivers were a lot different then,but the DOT AND REGULATIONS have killed the trucking industry
It's an advertisement, not reality. Driving those old rigs wasn't near as easy as today.
I've been driving since January 1989. The truck driver in this film was treated like a true professional. I like how the yard man did all the hooking up and did the driving in the yard. I work for a big LTL company that has all truck drivers hook up their own set of doubles and fuel and weigh our own trucks without pay in linehaul. I think we should be shaved and clean cut while representing the company.
For safety and Workmens' Comp. reasons the driver should be the only one touching his air. A warehouse kid in Calgary was killed trying to be helpful, and got between the duals. the driver pulled forward. The "shunter" as the yard man in known now DOES help in certain situations, but there's a reason behind that as well.
Did anyone notice they said they filled it with gas yet it sounded like a little screaming Jimmy ?
A buzzin dozin
Things moved alot slower back then.
I did 25 years, (1987-2012)and THAT was enough, my friends!
Where's Tom's sweat pants & flip flops ?
Sad but that's today's trucker
None of the truck stops had facilities for women, but all had sleeping rooms and showers for men. The food was always the best in the area , locals went their after church to eat their big meal of the day on Sundays. I could always get a change of sheets and pillow case also. I could listen to "Garner Ted Armstrong" all across the country.
My parents ran a truck stop with bunks & showers etc. mom tan the restaurant & dad the station. It was a great learning experience for a young teen.
The truck stop was east of Lancaster,Ohio
Pity they didn't show what it was really like!
Now?
For then it wasn't quite bad
I worked with a tech who used to be a mechanic at standard oil near Akron Ohio back in the mid 50s.
Ya hadda listen to every word, he wouldn't say it himself being proper humble but he's seen it all and is salt of the earth.
Learned alot from him.
Did you learn any bloody manners ?
The 156-mile-long Indiana Toll Road opened in stages between August and November 1956.
Grandad started driving for BF Goodrich in late 1912 Drove the second truck they owned Chain drive carbide lights right had drive He retired in 1962 What a change he saw in equipment and roads Always told me to stay out of truck but i didn t listen
He probably had to gear shift levers in some of those trucks too!
@@johnnyobigcatdaddy all of them lol
Yeah this was before everybody went money mad.
Nah...there was a labour shortage then - but now that manufacturing has been gutted and generations of people have suffered crap education and routine bouts of unemployment, it's a Boss' world. (For the time being...change a comin'!)
@@saxongreen78 No its not lol.
Just by reading some of these comments its sad what trucking had become.. These guys dont have a clue how much better those days were even with the older equipment. The breed of driver and the type people back then were so much more respected. The industry has the worst of the worst now on the highway.. Standards and dignity has been thrown away. You didnt need a large sleeper truck back then you got a motel with home cook meals. Or alot of the union shops had bunk houses . drivers today would never been hired back then.. You show up in flip flops and pajamas they would not let you in the company. Drivers were respected and respected each other.. The state police respected the drivers due to the truck drivers played a critical roll in highway safety and help . People were so much more respectful dressed nice and had morals. Shame how technology has produced such undeserving individuals today.. Big shiny comfortable trucks now and low life ignorant disrespectful drivers.. Who dont know nothing about a truck.. Sad.
You have no clue what you are talking about. My uncle drove trucks back then. He said it was the worst most miserable thing he has ever done in his life. He doesn't even like talking about it, it was so bad. You are just regurgitating the same old shit.
Try being a teacher today - same story
@@16mmEducationalFilms No way I could teach people with no common sense or respect. I would be fired in 24hrs. First time kids curse me in class I would be throwing them out a window..Back in my youth if you disrespected the teacher or school officials your ass got bent over or thrown out.
You said it, I agree
@@larryspicer3701 It was nuts (retired in 2016). I taught high school math in Dearborn, MI - Just outside of Detroit. My quote after all those years? "No rules - No schools"
Just remember,there ain’t no easy run
32,000 lbs that's like pulling an empty trailer today
No kidding! My truck and trailer empty weighs 45,000.
More like 20,000 for a dry van.
But now think of how slow your truck would go with an engine that produces around 125 horses? That's why most trucks in that era had a three or four speed Brownie secondary trans mission so they had enough gears to pull the load.
@@78FullSizeBronco wow that's a heavy set up... do you do oversize?
Try it with 150hp and 2 trans
After watching this video I now know why WE drivers have Never seen this video. Trucking companies made sure to DESTROY any of the 🎥 films found Anywhere in America. Companies want you ignoant of how trucking companies Really operated🤔
This Truck Driver looks more like a Pilot 👩✈️ Than a truck drivers of today wow
I've been driving for 33 years appreciate all troubles everybody else don't understand especially pulosi AOC and all of them
They didn't show Tom out back with a lot lizzard
Or when he stopped to eat at the truck stop it was across the street from the strip club. Tom actually ate at the club and got a dance in the champagne room. Remember, there is NO sex in the Champagne room. Yeah.
@@kman-mi7su HaHaHaHa!!
Probably where that waitress picks up some extra bucks!
kman 4443 haha, he ate at the strip club, all u can eat fish dinner!
First thing I thought
3.58 I thought he was going to say 'A loaded firearm'.
If this were today, Tom’s first truck would be an old Freightliner pulling a junky Fruehauf trailer into the Bronx LTL and sleeping in a bunk that smells like dead fish.
Oh yeah, I'm sure trucks 70 years ago were so much more luxurious...
Of course !
Dispatcher : Tom you’ve got cheap freight and your tractors not here. Tom: why does my gasoline truck sound like a diesel ?I drove for ups 39years and never met a serviceman ,and never wore a cool hat..LOL
Tom ate 6 black beauty's on that trip!
While driving a White truck.Tommy don't discriminate
7, but who's really counting, right?
Here in Australia my uncle used to have a White super power prime mover pulling a freighter bogie trailer back in the 50’s, l remember it had a noisy big side valve 6 cylinder petrol engine and on his run between Melbourne & Sydney going up the Hume highway at a town called Wallan there was a long gradual hill a few kilometres long called “pretty sally” and used to tell me when l was a kid he would have it in low gear with a brick on the accelerator pedal and walk beside the truck rolling a cigarette! Whether it was fact or fiction l don’t know but he was always spinning some good stories to us kids! He later sold it & bought a 190 series International prime mover with a l think a black diamond petrol engine he had that for a few years before trading it on a Kenworth which was his last truck.
The old guys always have good stories
The Pretty Sally hill is still there if you’re going the back way up the Calder Highway. Nowadays you roar up there with 600 HP at 62 tons in a B-Double. They’ve even started going up there with A-Trains at 79 tons. How times have changed. The hill hasn’t though, it’s still just as steep. There’s an old disused roadhouse at the top that was in the original Mad Max movie.
Petrol...it was a big killer, back then - diesel was coming in pretty quickly by then.
I worked with a bloke who had an Isuzu Bedford tractor in 1978 which could only do 90kph - up or downhill...the Kennies would be buzzing him on the flats, and he'd be blitzing them on the hills. Reputedly, he'd get through a small bottle of Scotch between Mel and Syd...different times.