Who's best for wanna be's?

See, thats the problem with a website where truck drivers put their years of driving down on their profile. You've been driving for 30 years...but that STILL doesnt mean that you can truck.

I made decent money with Swift. Perhaps you cant. But just because YOU cant do it constitutes failure for everyone else. I pulled flat for Swift. Most of the Swift flatbedders stayed between South Carolina, Gary Indiana and Laredo Texas. They wouldnt run out west because of wanting to go home. If you went out west, they would bounce you around the west for 5-8 weeks. I dont mind as long as I am rolling. And I rolled alot. Keep the wheels turning and revenue pours in. Thought you would know thats how it works by now, Mr 30 Year Goofiest Post Ive Ever Read Truck Driver.

Your first mistake is thinking all drivers are equal. We are not. Some of us can truck. Some of these guys trucking skills border on supernatural.
Some of you are lucky to get the rig back to the yard in 1 piece.

Your second mistake was thinking you were top notch.

You saw me post that drivers can do anything they set their mind to. Its true. Want to be successful at driving? Theres only one way to do it. YOU (not noone else...not the company, or a politician, or a dispatcher, or your significant other) have to do EVERYTHING you can do to learn as much as you can, to be the best that you can.

Humans have no limits. The fastest man there will ever be has not been born. The smartest man there will ever be has not been born. What you do, and people like you, is limit others to your abilities. Why? Crab mentality. You see the crabs at the grocery store piled up in a water tank. Crab on top tries to climb out, but the others pull him down and underneath. Not one of them can escape because they keep each other trapped and in check.
Drive down the interstate and you see people in cars all bunched up. Someone finally breaks through the rolling roadblock and speeds off, and they chase him down so that he can stay jumbled up in their rolling roadblock.

You goal at a company would be to get paid and go home. I'm going to get paid regardless, and I'm gonna go home when I need to be home. I'm not worried about going home. So obviously we dont have the same goal. My goal is to help the other guys at my company as best as I can so that they can be as successful as they can possibly be. Better truckers offer better service. Theres only so far that rates can be cut. The thing thats going to make the difference in the long run is service. The better the service, the more satisfied the customer. The better the customer, the more business we keep. The more business we keep, the more $$$$ we make and the less sitting we do. Better drivers demand better money.

When I was with Swift, they had 26000 trucks, but only 160 flatbedders. It was a pretty good group of guys. We all knew each other and looked out for each other. The guys that were new to skateboarding got lots of support from the vets. They got better really quick.

Want to make a great trucking company? Take your current company, find 4-5 truckers that can really go but are team players, and keep in contact. Meet up periodically and go out for beers and grill some food. If you and one of your buddies get near each other stop and share a meal. The guys that arent so great will want in. This might not be so easy to do for the box guys, but flatbed companies normally load all of their drivers at the same places.

I used the same approach in the gym. Walk into a gym, and the big guys wont work out with the smaller guys and the smaller guys are too intimidated to ask the big guys about spotting and training tips. I'm different. I'd walk up to one of the groups of smaller guys and show them a routine. The ones that had their minds made up would accel and gravitate towards me. The ones that were coming in there looking for chics or just because their buddy was there would quit because of the intensity and pain. In a short time, smaller guys arent so small anymore. And that lone really big guy would want in because we're carrying alot of energy and suddenly you have a really hardcore group. Everyone benefits and everyone is elevated.
New guys will walk in and feel the energy and want to join the gym. The gym owner is happy and making $$$ and upgrades the equipment. It only really takes 2 guys to elevate everyone.

 

You tell him TripleSix...


EXCELLENT post.

 

Yeah I don't know why but RickG always plays Devil's Advocate, his bluntness is kind of off-putting sometimes. I know he's just trying to be honest and helpful.

 

Google WIA Grants and see if you can get money from the gov't to pay for your training.

BUT FIRST, before you put down good money, try and get a pre-hire from as many companies as you can. The reason is some companies will not hire you unless you go through their training program and if you go to an unapproved school you are not going to be accepted. (Millis, and Central Ref. come to mind) Not sure who's hiring in OK.

DO NOT go to a company just because you like the equipment. Your first year you need to take the best deal offered to you so you can get the experience.

 

Who did you join with when you started in Florida?
And did you go to a school for your license?

Thank you!

 

Really? Your school knows what company you are going to and knows how many miles your are going to get a week?

Wow...what school were you going to because my school doesn't know any of that info. In fact, they pretty much only talk about pay in terms of cpm, not in terms of what's on your paycheck because (unless you're in a carrier's school) they don't know. There are too many variables to tell you that. Mine did say that you might get paid that much during TRAINING with the company, but they can't say how much you are going to make because it depends on you entirely. How well you treat your dispatchers, how much you are willing to run, how reliable you are, how many miles you get. At .30 cpm that's only a thousand miles a week. I ran almost that much with a cable company I worked for some weeks...

You quit the school didn't you? Because that sounds like a plan to weed out people that don't actually have any kind of passion or drive behind them but think that trucking is some kind of get rich quick job. So they tell you some b.s. like "You're only gonna make $300 a week for your first year" (Which is only 15,600...you are almost below the poverty level, and probably working teams for Carolina Cargo, at that point) And the ones that were expecting to hear "You'll be clearing a thousand dollars a week working 8-5 with every weekend, holiday, and birthday off and driving a Cadillac by the end of your first quarter" just leave and never come back...

 

I have to agree with TripleSix - great post.

Any job is what YOU make of it. Learn the rules, do you job, and remain up beat all the time.

And he is right about it only takes two! I am not driving yet - but I will find a few people where ever I land that are getting the miles, know what they are doing, and are willing to take me under their wing. You want to be the best lawyer - find the best lawyer and train/work with them. It works in any industry!

TripleSix - thanks for the post!

 

Excellent Post about the WIA Grant. that is exactly what I am being offered here to pay the 3 grand to pay the Trucking school at the college here in Sioux Falls, SD. And the other program pays the other $500.00 for the books and stuff like that. Anyway, that is exactly right about the cost. And with all the crazy drivers in the cars out there, I want all the education I can get. I also read the posts about Swift and went to the one site too and it was funny the next day seen Swift Truck in town. Was that ironic or destination? Yeee Hawww!!!!