Either Lead or Be Lead

I am older than many here and over the course of time, I have come to realize that in this life, you can either lead and do it by example or you can be lead around and be nothing more than a follower. Too many newbies come into this industry and cannot cut it. They enter into a carriers training program for any number of reasons, ranging from the cost of a outside truck driving school is too costly to they are enticed by the potential for a job, in a economy and society where jobs are far and few and for those available that are any good, have way too many people competing for that one job opening.

Newbies usually get so far along before something goes wrong, such as not being able to learn to clutch and shift, or any other failed skillset and they get sent packing and that usually gets them in here, talking about how negative their experience in trucking was for them, and then that blows up here and gets everyone talking. They ended up a follower, because if they were a leader, they would gear up and find another training program to get into.

If you listen to any recruiter, they almost all sound alike. Good miles, great pay, nice equipment, regular home time, all the buttons that are pushable on someone just entering this industry. Very few can tell you anything more because truth be told, most have never driven a truck, so they just don't know.

To be a leader in this career, you have to get past all the negatives and look at the positives of driving a truck for a living. Lets look at pay for a minute. Most trucking companies are going to pay someone new without experience somewhere between $32,000 and $37,000 per year. Some would say these are slave wages. What is the alternative? one is to be unemployed getting that unemployment check for a lot less than $32,000 per year and atleast a truckers paycheck comes weekly and is steady where as the alternative is only for as long as your permitted to get one.

One of the reasons many get into driving a truck is consistency in life, something that is steady and atleast allows you to live, even if it's not to a standard you would love it to be. Leaders make a decision and follow through. I have found over time, that the positives to doing this for a living far outweigh the negatives.

The negatives are vast, I won't blow smoke up your ##### and tell you they don't exist but the negatives are all on the job things. Having to agree to work for a company that took you in and trained you is a commitment and leaders have no issues with commitment and following through, followers quit like so many before them and then when the company wants their money, they all of a sudden have an issue with following through on the commitment they made and try to weasel out of it. Main reason Is I was promised a job after training and I did not get it. Well lets see, you did not get the job as promised because you didn't finish the training.

If you do your research and all the negatives haven't derailed you, be a leader and follow through on the commitment you made. If you can get through the first year you can make it in this career.

 

Victor, I like the things you say and your threads, and we agree and disagree often here and Im okay with that. I don't care about turnover in OTR because at the end of the day it doesn't affect my paycheck. At CRST we have turnover and its usually filled with those that either quit because they were going to quit anyway or those who did not make it through the first year. We do have veteran drivers leave too, so its not just newbies.

I don't like the black eye CRST keeps getting but its part of this industry and being in business. I get in my truck every working day and just focus on delivering the loads I committed to taking on. My son and I have a living to make and if a bunch of people quit today than that's more loads available. That's how I look at it.

 

We are owner operators here. My son and I sometimes are amazed that some drivers here at Crusty actually say they have pride in their ride, yet their trucks are filthy and as much as I want to just reach out by CDL from a distance and tell them I am watching you, now go on over to that truck wash back in the corner and get the truck washed, I cannot.

You will never see our truck dirty, except of were coming out of bad weather. I will spend the money to get the truck and trailer washed everyday If I have to. Image is very important to my son and I. Now it's not truck show clean but it is still clean. I believe that if your truck is clean for the most part, less chance of getting pulled in for a random check, although it will happen.

Ive had DOT guys tell me that they feel if a driver isn't willing to spend the money to keep a trucvk clean, chances are good that he isn't spending money on maintenance on the regular. One of my coming threads is going to be a look at how CRST really is from a veteran driver. I think there is so much negatives going around about CRST because no one really knows for sure what's what here. I will not fail to highlight the miserable as well as the good.

 

Sorry meant CB Radio not CDL.