A CDL is not a passport to a job.

I'm pretty new here, having only just decided to get involved in the forum thing again after several years with no internet.

I've been on the road for 25 years, and have worked in 25 countries on 3 continents as a trucker. As I browse through the threads on this site, one thing seems clear. Some student drivers seem to believe that netting themselves a CDL is an automatic entry to the trucking industry.

Now, I'm the last person to want to burst someone's bubble, but please, people, what have you to offer? I read threads where people state that they don't want to work for the likes of Swift, Werner, Schneider etc., because they feel they can do better. Excuse me! Just who do you think you are to be dictating what you are prepared to do to an industry that has seen thousands, if not millions, like you come and go?

Just look at what you are asking for. You want a company to give to you, sight unseen, several tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, not to mention their customers freight, and allow you to disappear with it, in the hope that it might just arrive at it's destination?

You might hear that the trucking industry is made up of loners who go their own way, and don't want to work for a boss. You have been fed a line of hogwash. The industry relies on people who can work under pressure without supervision, who have the greatest pride in their own professionalism and who know how to work after the rest of the population have gone home to their families.

Tomorrow's drivers are in school today, but not everyone in school today will become a driver. 25 years ago it was by no means certain that I would succeed in this industry. For myself, I do not consider myself a success since most of my aims have not been achieved, and were, perhaps unachievable, but I'm still here. I can take any load and deliver it, without any fuss or performance, and when I've delivered that one, can go straight to the next customer and load up ready to go again, and there are millions like me. The industry needs new blood, but you will learn to conform to what has gone before you; we do not need to conform to what you think we have been doing wrong. You are not here to save us. You are here to learn, and if you learn enough, quickly enough you may succeed.

I wish you every success, but PLEASE, have some respect for the industry which you are attempting to join. One day, you'll understand why.

 

Of course there isn't. This industry demands the best of everyone in it. You have a duty to be the best you can be, and by discharging that duty, you will earn the right to demand the best that the industry can offer. That right comes with time and experience, however. The CDL is only an advertisement that the party is on; it is not an invitation.

 

For that, you deserve to get on in the industry, and I wish you the very best.

One of the reason I get disappointed when I see people with no experience, in some cases not even a nice, new CDL in their pocket, clamoring for the good jobs is that if they did get the job of their dreams, having nothing to compare it to, there is some chance that they would not appreciate what they have. You need something to aspire to in the trucking industry. One young driver left the company I work for. I can't imagine why he would, except that he doesn't know that the old farts like me have been looking for this job forever. Likewise, some "less experienced" drivers thought they had put in their quota just by turning up in the morning, and didn't think there was any need to do any actual work. With a few well-placed lops of his ax, my boss cleaned out the dead wood in just over a week.

Incidentally, my regular truck is having work done, and I've been driving an old, 5-ton, straight truck this week. After 25 years, I'll still drive literally ANYTHING for money. In England there is an oft-repeated saying, "The bigger the truck, the bigger the ###### fool driving it." Misplaced cynicism, I'm sure, but I get paid the same for fooling around doing local work with the KW, as I do working hard off-road with my Freightliner and trailer.

I am proud of the company I work for, and proud to work with the other drivers on our fleet, and I would tell each of them that to his face. So far as I'm concerned, that's the highest accolade a trucker can hope for.

 

I'm amazed at the response to this thread. Thanks, people. I thought I'd get flamed mercilessly.