With all due respect, these forums are littered with postings from drivers complaining, among other things, that recent negotiated raise increases have been inadequate ... which is an indirect way of expressing being under-compensated. And I get your point, but even when you factor in heath/retirement benefits, PTers (whose package is valued less ... likely because we skew younger/many haven't formed families) are still raking in less than half the hourly wage of a driver -- and I strongly believe they should be much closer than that.
Most of the drivers on here in their 40s/50s/60s have no idea what the job market's like, what it's like to work two jobs -- and still rake in less than half what a driver does, despite working longer hours, or the exceptions of any job in 2013 - which are much higher than 2003, let alone 1983.
We just got a new FT manager ... not certain where she came from, but she's running the input and she has a zero-tolerance policy on talking -- she's given warning letters to almost everybody (not me yet, but I rarely talk to these guys anyway) for "stealing time." No wonder we've gone through about 15 new hires in the last several weeks, with only two sticking around (for now at least). Would you wanna work this job for $8.50?