Another One Churned and Burned at Swift

The dispatchers don't drive the truck...if you think that's the way it's supposed to be you're in for a rude awakening. ..I drive my truck when I feel rested enough to do so..

 

Considering the number of posts we get on here with people having multiple incidents in a short time I guess one per truck per year isn't far fetched if you consider a scratch a crash.

As for the pride, I figure truckers should take pride in not causing damage. The 50 a day number doesn't belong in the same conversation as the word pride.

 

All the advice to the OP has been given. Just buck up, stand up for yourself, and pay more attention. Its in the past, learn and move on.

The trucking is hard work, it can be. But most of what I've done is more mentally exhausting, especially on Canuckian mountain roads in January. I cowboyed for years, still do sometimes. And even some wouldn't say thats as hard as other jobs. At least we have HOS! I think its all relative though.

 

After almost 15 years of driving, Friday I backed into a light pole. I've never done anything like that before. It was my fault, I knew it, and I fessed up to it. I felt bad and kicked myself for it. I didn't make any excuses for it, except that I didn't pay attention to my surroundings. And it was no big deal, I'm now angry I didn't knock the son of a ##### down to entertain myself. What am I saying? Don't make excuses. Own it. Or you don't learn anything.

 

for the near death defying BS the company will make you go thru..??

like i say, "if I am going to "muck up", i might as well go ALL THE WAY".......

at least then, the crime is worth the punishment....lol.......

 

when i was with an LTL company, doing line haul, i had a nearly new mack CH model. it had a full length plastic front bumper. i was pulling away from our dock, when i scrapped the guard rail. went to the TM's office, and he was on the phone. He get's of the phone and asked "what's up"?

i told him i scratched the front bumper. he comes out with a camera and note pad...

takes ONE look at the nearly 4" scratch and said, "you bothered me for that",,,,,????

i said, "yeah, i'm sorry, i should have been more careful"...

he said, "I'm busy, get the F outta here".............

never a word again...............

he died a few years later, of brain cancer.


so yes, if one has an incident/accident, owe up to it right away, and any "punishment" may be MUCH LIGHTER than if they find out later, as they will accuse one of hiding the facts.

i think those mega carriers, since they get money from the gooberment for training, have such a revolving door, that they can afford to fire off many people in a month, knowing the googerment will be sending them more money.

they do not lose out, the driver(s) do, as now they have bad DAC or a hard time finding employment.

once you get your time in, like (perhaps) me when i scratched that front bumper, it is not condoned, but however seen as an incident that isn't a huge deal to "some companies", especially when one (like me and many others here) show up for work on time, do the job, with no complaints, and have a safe work day.

as you say, you may not be cut out for OTR......ok....so what...??

not too many are frankly.

you will find something that you will like, we all know this. thing is, what do you want to do, what do you like..??????

good luck in your job search, keep up your chin, and pound the pavement....

 

I hear about that direct money from gooberment training all the time from drivers, I just have found no evidence for it.

What is true is most companies rake in good money charging for schooling with very little actual training going on. They promise tuition reimbursement, but they know there is almost no chance the driver will make it to term to pay that off. So that is money in the bank for them.

They also rake in tax breaks for the first year or two for some drivers which is equivalent to half their wages. That is a good chunk of change and lots of free work, especially when these companies don't pay crap in the first place.

That brings me to my point. These companies are trying to build a database of 'safety violations and accidents' on a driver so they can fire them and churn over the workforce so they can reaping these tax breaks, cheep labor, and tuition fees. Most of the work in these companies is seasonal. If they can have temporary workers, with paid tuition and tax breaks, and fire them, for 'safety reasons' after the seasonal surge they can avoid paying unemployment.

So the deal is bring a worker in, charge for "training", pay chicken feed, offset the chicken feed with tax breaks, collect 'safety violation database', then fire worker after seasonal surge to avoid unemployment fees and taxes. Then use a third party company to blacklist the worker with 'safety violations' so the employee is no good to your competitors. That is the scam these mega trucking companies are running.

 

if i am not mistaken, and from what i was privy to at a former employer, the companies get gooberment monies for training, and this was back in the day's of the big recession, many, many years ago, to get people off the welfare funds, and back to work. the gooberment either split the cost of what trucking school was back in the day, or the companies accepted a lower payment, in order to keep the federal funding consistent.

tax breaks are also a part of it as well.

how the gooberement is involved these days, i am not entirely sure, as i can only speak from years ago.

but let's look at it this way, the cost of recruiting a new driver (as i had been told) can be upwards to $5,000.

why on earth would a mega-carrier hire someone, train them, and fire them, if there is/wasn't some sort of re-payment of some sort to cover these costs..????

with such a revolving door they nearly all have, it wouldn't make sense to fire someone for one fender bender, or late 2 or 3 times. at least, not in my opinion.