Son needs advice

It would help if you tell us what area you are in. Does he want local or OTR work?

 

One question.....I read where "you" said he made some bad decisions.....but does "he" realize that. If his temper can take control as easily as it seems he might better think about another career. In the trucking industry patience , and the ability to control your emotions are very , very important. He needs to learn that before moving ahead in a trucking career.

But what he needs to do now is try and find someone that will hire him and try to control that temper...post up your location and someone will be along to maybe give a couple of avenues/companies to try. But , tell him , that unless it's an illegal request/load , just run like he's asked , keep his nose clean with the same company for at least 1 year , actually 2 or 3 would be better. Then he will be pleasantly surprised at how many doors to really good jobs will be open to him.

 

Just curious... by why are you the one doing the work and seeking advice on what he can do to get to work...
He needs to have some motivation and initiative if he really wants to make it in this industry.. at his age, he will need to show and demonstrate that he is mature enough to handle the responsibilities of being an OTR truck driver...

I certainly mean you no disrespect... we all know what length a mother will go for her children and I understand and respect that you want to help your son... but, he will have to, and it will be good for him to take a few steps on his own..

 

Well... to be honest it sounds like he needs actual training. A CDL can be pretty worthless without it and just passing the test is far from good enough. Fudging your hours is kinda normal for rookies because companies know they have you by the balls and that you can't simply leave. Is it always illegal? Well... no. For example, when you check into a shipper you are technically "on duty" but if you are being unloaded and not assisting well then you aren't working so you can log "off-duty". No one is 100% compliant with their logs, its impossible for many reasons but noncompliance NEEDS to be under 10% (its kinda like the 5 over rule, you can get a ticket for 1 m.p.h. over the limit but it takes a real prick to write that ticket). 100% compliant log books are strangely all on paper. Small companies run back roads to avoid scales altogether because they are targeted for harassment which has only increased under the watch of his majesty's police state. I'd avoid them starting out as some cheat worse than the megas who got that big running cheap overweight freight, screwing drivers, and running unsafe equipment... for the most part they still do but they make large political contributions which means they get a free pass (welcome to Amerika, land of the opportunist).

Your son has five options:
1. Go to a community college and get trained the right way (if he is committed this would be my pick... he'll get college credit for it too)
2. Sign on with Swift, Knight, England, CRST or another from the the long list of companies that suck fat donkey nuts and pray he doesn't die, go insane or kill someone... He'll need those prayers (this was what I actually did, I had to learn a lot on my own... I had to get out and look A LOT... Looking back, I'm very fortunate to be alive.
3. Drive something else... He has a CDL-A... Just pointing that out.
4. Jockey trailers for a local warehouse (this pays about $15/hr which is decent... home every night and no logs and you become a backing pro).
5. Call it done... trucking is a hard life and he may want to check some other stuff out first, he'll still have his CDL so long as he renews it.

Your story isn't unique. Over 90% of people never make it through year one. If anyone could do the job some drivers wouldn't be making six figures- unfortunately most don't. I'm very aware all these options suck...welcome to OTR Life. Newbies are expendable but without them who would pull for Wal-Mart? Always low prices... ALWAYS.

Hope that paints a better picture for you. Sorry there is no easy answer and I'm pretty sure that is why you aren't getting any.

 

I would try to apply at swift or shneider they will hire a monkey to drive there trucks anyone with a heart beat get him his 2 years experience and then try to go to usf holland stay local! Or a class b company like republic waste or waste management explain your situation to the manager trash companies fairly pay well and there automatics. He probably fresh out of school and so how ever you want to put it I'm sure he isn't shifting like a pro and let me tell you riding with new guys will scare the living hell out of you so that's probably the military guys drill serge attitude! Something local and smaller maybe a box truck for a while get some experience first.

 

Did he receive a paycheck from the first two companies? If company #2 told him the decided not to hire him then he was never an employee. He should first start by disputing his DAC report. If he never collected pay then he wasn't an employee.

I'm curious about the rest of the story. We're only getting one side and if your son is anything like me when I was young nothing was ever my fault.

He can try applying to companies that don't use DAC. Best of luck.

 

There's companies out there that will hire him, but he won't be too happy. He will probably wish he was back at the small outfit that had him running the back roads.