ok here is an update on what is going on with me... as some of you know i was offerd 2 driving jobs since i walked out on swift ... ok 1 has now called 11 hours before i had to leave for my first run and said they have decided to not go with me after all.....

I still have the 2nd offer which i just called and asked them if they are going to change their minds and they said no because he is an owner operator ....

1 company who is nice sized called me about 5 minutes ago and said since i have not drove a truck in 2 yrs i would need a trainer for 6 weeks. Are they kidding me, this is nuts !!

can someone tell me something before i head out with that 2nd company..i need to know when the following happened.

did i miss something and the trailers are no longer 53 ft but may have grown another 40 feet in size,

or did the scales completely change and now they have someone try and human liift a truck now or are the scales still scales like 2 yrs ago...

did some of the cites tear down neighborhoods and such that they have redesigned the streets to not handle 53ft trailers,

they gve me a road test and i have to say, it was a 20 mile test that I passed with a 98% according to their standards. i know i am being sarcastic but comeon, this is nuts !!!

i know a few things have changed,but comeone, a guy with over 8 yrs of driving who took a short few off needs a trainer for 6 weeks, they are more ridiculous then swift and JB....

i dont need to hear that i am pretending to be some super trucker, cause i am not no such person or pretend to be. I am just asking what on earth has changed in 2 years that they will take a kid with a new CDL, 90 days exp and let him out on his own and someone with 8 needs a trainer ..

i know what i am going to do though.. i am going to take that 2nd offer, drive a P.O.S. 90 something rusty truck, be home twice a week, take the 1100 they are offering, get my time in and get the hell out ...

but before i head out with this 2nd small company, can someone tell me what i have missed in 2 yrs that requires a trainer.

i cant think of anything that a trainer can teach me that i have not already know .. not saying i know everything cause no driver does, but what is it a trainer can train me to do that I havent done in 8 yrs and over 700,000 miles of driving experience...

i have done qualcomm, comdata, fuels, mapping, logs, backing, hauling, flatbed, van, reefer, tanker, etc... what would this trainer teach me .. can someone please inform me of what i am missing .. i would really love to know so when i get dispatched for this 2nd offer i am not missing anything....

thank you in advance


bubba trucker

I hear this A LOT in the USA. Around here, I never hear of it. They send you out MAYBE for a week with a trainer if you're brand new out of school but that's about it.

It might be because our schools around here are different, too, I don't know.

Mike graduated this past spring. He started one job without a trainer period. He started his next job - on his own instantly. He started the job he does now with one day with a guy to familiarize himself with their paperwork and how things are done.

He's been driving now six months.

I don't know why they do that to so many guys in the USA but I hear it all the time on this board. Also that they pay you crap for the training weeks and/or send you out with a guy with six months' experience as a trainer!!!!

So, no, not much has changed - except maybe the insurance company's requirements? I really don't know.

Best of luck to you!!!!!

I know the insurance says trainer if you been out of a truck for awhile, but geez. i drove over 7 years before taking 2 yrs off. Familiar with paperwork, i can see that if someone got amnesia ( however it is spelled ) and forgot how to log or do trip paks but that is crazy. 7 almost 8 years driving, and i need a trainer.

the insurance companies should be looking at more how the companies they are insuring are putting kids with hardly any training behind the wheel and not so much as the experienced driving again. the kids out of school can do the paperwork, but can they remember at all times to stop when there is a call for it, or watch for froozen brakes, brakes on fire, jack knifing, etc .. that is where experience comes in...

I can't believe how bad requirements got over the last 2 yrs. I will take my 2nd job offer as stated and do my time and get out. To tell you the truth, the company is really not bad, i just dont like how they mandate you to drive in the snow and ice... but other than that, and the fact the truck is rusty and old, they are a good company from what i have checked out ...

after winter it would be like cake work working for them. 1100 to 1300 a week. home at least twice a week. you couldnt ask for better with the exception of mandatory snow driving. I feel as though if I feel the roads are too dangerous to drive, I stop, mostly stop when the snow starts to stick to the ground, but with this company, they seem to not care if there is 6 inches on the ground, if the state has not closed it, you are dirving regardless...

oh well, i guess i can pray for a light, very very light winter. maybe i will get lucky, but then again, hahahahahahahaha, there is always snow in the northeast ...

bubba trucker

It's all because of insurance companies. I've got over 20 years experience and if I wanted to go back to driving I'd have to go to CDL school. You're lucky that they will take you without the school.

If you stopped driving every time the snow stuck to the road around here, you'd be sitting most of the winter, which isn't acceptable here, either. You drive until the conditions are too bad to be considered safe and/or the roads are closed.

Get good tires on the truck or insist on them if you can, take your time, leave lots of following distance, leave extra time to get where you're going and you should be okay

Rules sound ridiculous to me but then again, bureaucrats who have never driven a truck make most of the stupid rules so... sigh....

I don't have experience in the trucking end of things but I can think of other reasons for the training periods. Now its true the truck they give you isnt exactly a brand new rig but it still has a substantial price tag to it (plus the cost of the freight you are hauling, and the company gas credit card etc).

What would it take for you to loan me say ~$200k? Would you want any guidelines or rules, or is a simple handshake good enough for you? Hehe ya I didnt think so. So keep in mind that its not just insurance or your experience that is being factored in but just the fact of life that trust is earned, not given. I realize I'm a nobody here, but if you cant deal with that simple fact then maybe trucking isn't for you any longer (no offense intended to you Bubba or anybody else, and the only reason I say this Bubba is you've discussed this problem before).

Respect,

-Reby

IMHO, if you can confirm their license is current, there are no violations on it, you can confirm his previous experience, get good references and take this person for a driving test, and he passes ALL with EXCELLENT results, I don't think he needs a trainer. Period.

Just MHO

Bubba,

I've little to offer here per the tread, other than to say I too feel that the insurance companys are [LBEEP]ing everyone in this country up the [BLEEP]. It obviously has much more to do with the almighty percieved profits that it does with reasonable common sense.

The next thing these insurance companies will dream up is that CDL holders from the southern states who have decades of OTR experience will not be "permited" to operate in northern states (like where I live) durring the winter. To *RIS-KAY*.

As for you having to go with a "trainer", perhaps that fella will learn alot and gain much knowlege from you. Be a good mentor to your newbie OTR trainer, and show him the ropes well.

Good luck pard, I wish ya the best

...Yesterday pre-trip found a rear axle seal gone...
Guess my job is safe for awhile after that discovery...
Remember that ex NFL footballer who hauled a bus load of Katrina nursing home oxygen patients,... and the axle caught fire? 20 peeps roasted, and prosecutor wanted prison for the owner as he had no pre-trips, post-trips...
Guy received probation a couple years

You're caught up in the company policy/insurance thing.

My advice...deal with it...and move on.

I just went through it myself and there's more to come.

I went to work for an aggregate hauling company...end dumps and bulk cement hauling. I spent a week each with the end dump training and then three days later, the bulk training. It was more of a course in dealing with the companies clients than anything else. I've still got to train for another week for a new deal this company is just getting in to.

Bear in mind that this training could have been handled in one of the companies yards where operating equipment is concerned. They choose to do it the way they do because they want no questions left unanswered.

I didn't have to agree with it...but I did have to do it if I wanted the job.

As a result of all this training, I now have an assigned truck and 2 trailers I will be hauling for this new client. The truck has a split PTO setup that handles both a wet kit for end dump and a blower for bulk. Most of the other drivers slipseat trucks with another driver for the 24 hour operation this company runs.

The slipseating deal runs into problems with your counterpart not getting done in time and cutting your day short...or vice versa.

My view is train me all you want and allow me to be more of an asset to the company and in the process allow me to make more money.

__________________
Big Red



Freedom wasn't won with a registered gun.