How my own eyes will keep me out of a bad company's trucks

I may be getting my CDL back in the future. I may not, though. If I DO decide to get my Class-A back, I still may not be able to get into a truck and take off driving. This is because I'd be really "hard to please" when choosing a company to work for today, boy. A company I'd be interested in would have to pass my muster, and today I'd be a harder hard-### than Simon on "American Idol" when it'd come time to judge.

I used to be young and naive. I assumed that people are 'good' by nature. What a dupe I was. Trucking weaned me of believing that people are good and can be trusted. Yeap, I got smart, thanks to being burned GOOD a time or two by bad trucking companies.

No, never again will I be caught in a 'bad' company's rig. And I won't have to make phone calls or talk to any other drivers, at least not at first. This is because I learned, the hard way, to watch out for certain signs, some of which are subtle, that a company is a bad apple.

If I were going hunting for a trucking job today, before going to orientation or doing anything else I'd first set my eyes on these:

1. Help wanted ads. First, I'd take a gander in my local newspaper to find all the companies I wouldn't want to work for. Yeah, companies that advertise in the local paper every day are bad news. This is becaue people don't quit GOOD jobs. If a company I was looking at needs drivers so often they need to keep help wanteds in papers, I'd scratch 'em off my list. Companies have DAC to weed out drivers. That's fine. I have help wanted ads to weed out companies.

I want too much!

2. Company terminal lots. IF companies survive #1, it's time to look at their lots. A company that mistreats its drivers will have terminal lots full of cleaned-out trucks sitting around gathering dust. Some companies, such as Schnieder, often have vast acres of empty, cleaned-outs. If I were coming in to a Schnieder orientation and could see a 'forest' of orange from a mile away at one of their terminal lots, I'd stop my car, turn around, and go back home. But you won't be seeing me at a Schneider orientation. I already know what their terminal lots look like.

Who do I think I am? I must have an 'attitude' problem!

3. Any cleaned-out trucks that happen to be on terminal lots. Assuming I make it past #1 and #2 above, I'd then look at any trucks that ARE on terminal lots. If those trucks are dirty, either inside or out, it's a sign that company has pissed off the drivers who were in those trucks. So pissed were those drivers they started neglecting the rigs and then simply walked away and didn't bother to clean them inside. And if the trucks are both dusty on the outside and dirty on the inside, this tells me the company doesn't care about its equipment. Trucks that have been sitting around long enough to get baths, both inside and out should have gotten those baths by the time I arrive and peek at them. Yeah, any truck I might be driving later had better be spotless, at least inside. If not, I'd walk away.

####, such unreasonable demands! I'm WAY too hard to please!

4. Company shops. If I've made it past #1, #2, and #3, I'd then look around company shops and see what they're like. I'd even pretend I'm a driver and ask a mechanic for something as simple as a spare light. If he blows me off, it's a sign the company has told its mechanics to be stingy when it comes to things drivers need on the road. If I met stingy mechanics in a company's shop, I'd walk away from that company. I'd also walk away if I got a shrug from the shop manager after telling him I wanted a dirty truck cleaned out and/or new items put on/in it.

It'd just be another bad apple off my list.

I sure am honery!

5. Websites such as this one. I'd hunt down info, one way or another, about companies I might be interested in on websites. And I'd better not see any negative information about those companies. If I did, well.......

#### I'm just TOO hard to please, aren't I! I guess I should just forget about driving. Maybe I should have my head examined for being so unreasonable!

 

Sometimes you may be interested in a company that's far away from your home, so you can't really go 'check out their terminals' first. This is because the risk is too high. If a company passes the 'help wanted ad' test, it may still fail the empty, cleaned-outs test or the shop test. You may have to wait until your orientation to check on these. Just be sure you do these checks before you are officially hired on.

Other things I would look for at the orientation stage:

1. Signals the 'insiders', such as driver-managers or dispatchers, are hard-#####. Drivers put up with enough [stuff] while on the road far from home, a home they may not see for weeks at a time. This means a driver isn't some company insider's verbal punching bag. If I heard any 'smart' comments from any insiders at the terminal, was disrespected in any way, or got any signals the company's insiders were vindictive at all, I'd walk.

2. When it's time to get a truck, the truck had better be THERE at the terminal. I wouldn't go hundreds of miles to retrieve an abandoned rig. The company obviously is a bad apple if it's pissed off drivers enough to make them leave their trucks out on the road far from a terminal. I'd walk away if I my assigned truck was an abandoned rig hundreds of miles away I'd have to go fetch.

3. The bait & switch. I've read a lot of testimonies about how companies like J.B. Hunt like to promise their new hires one thing, yet deliver something else entirely when they arrive at their orientations. If someone at a company changed his tune about even one promise he made me over the phone, I'd walk. Companies will do this BS because of DAC. After you arrive at orientation, you will be officially 'employed' at some companies. If you walk away from orientation, these companies will burn your DAC. Naturally, some can't resist taking advantage of this.

4. Crowded orientation classes. Standing-room-only at an orientation means the company is replacing lots of drivers who've quit, for obviously good reasons. Remember--people don't quit GOOD jobs en mass. I'd walk if I saw crowded orientation classes on the first morning.

5. Driver-paid orientation accomodations. If I got to an orientation and I had to foot the hotel bill, I'd scram.

6. Cheap orientation accomodations. If the hotel the company shacks me up in is a roach trap, I'd turn tail and run. I'd also walk if the company was stingy and made me triple or quadruple up in a hotel room during orientation.

Yeah, there are lots of signals many companies send that tell us drivers they are bad apples. Look for those signals, and adopt a 'hard-nosed', 'no-mercy' approach. After you get on one of their trucks, these bad companies won't show YOU any mercy. And their noses will be as hard as granite. Don't compromise during your job search and you may just find a good company out there.

 

There are SOME of those in Salt Lake. You'll need to look in the phone book for 'em, as they don't advertise in the newspapers. This is because they don't have to advertise. They don't lose drivers that much. This means they may be hard to get on, but if you can afford to wait, you'll be much happier six months from now.

A 'waiting-list' company is the only way to go in my opinion. But I can afford to wait until I get called, which may be months. Others may not be able to. Just be careful, be smart, and never compromise.