Patrick Kane, 45, Miami, FL
Professional driving experience: 13 years

“It seems to be going toward a monopoly. Bigger companies are snagging up smaller ones in these tough times. I don’t know if you can be an independent contractor out here anymore. If you’re not with a big company, you’re going to struggle. The rates are actually dropping when they should be going up, way up. Instead, freight rates haven’t changed much in the last 10 years. When you go from having fuel at 78 cents a gallon to $3.78, you would expect the freight rates to go up as well. Fuel surcharges can’t keep up.”

Milton Smith, 46, Jackson Center, OH
Professional driving experience: 18 years

“No. I’ve been out here 17 years, and when I came out as a rookie, the guys who had been out here 25 years never told me anything other than you’re doing this wrong. And that has continued to happen. I’m one of the few people I know who will help another driver. I’ve noticed some others, but not many. A guy that comes fresh out of school has no idea what’s going to happen out here or what to do.”

Cleo Yates, 51, Pioneer, LA
Professional driving experience: 31 years

“I don’t know about that. I really don’t know. I have a lot of concerns about where we’re heading, starting with the fuel prices. If you’re an owner-operator, you can’t like the direction things are headed. I don’t know how owner-operators are going to make it through this.”

Bill Hausley, 49, Seneca, MO
Professional driving experience: 26 years

“I think it’s trying to go in the right direction. It’s trying, but we still haven’t figured out a way to come together mutually – and I’m talking now as a safety-first person – to assure that the best drivers are on the road. Yes, we may have a driver shortage, but in my book that’s not an excuse to put inexperienced, high-risk drivers in 80,000-pound missiles. Granted, they may not be bad people, terrorists or anything like that. They may not be out there to purposefully do something, but because they don’t have the right attitude or weren’t given the right attitude, they are a danger to themselves and others. To make it even worse, the trucking industry doesn’t want to share information about these drivers. They just want to make it look like they’re doing something about the situation when they’re not.”