These mega horror stories, how prevalent?

Your success in trucking depends on matching what the driver needs (new or experienced) with what the trucking company provides. Each driver will have a range of needs with a range of priorities for each of those needs. The best way to match the driver and the company is for the driver, the one with specific needs, to survey trucking companies and pick the ones that provide what he needs or deserve more in-depth research. The newbies that flip a coin and then sign a contract are not going to succeed in most cases. There are drivers that will quit if they don't have exactly what they want within 2 weeks. My first paycheck was less than I expected, and if the 2nd paycheck isn't what I expected plus what I missed in the first paycheck they quit. Instead of pay, it could be the day and time of getting home or it could be the amount of time at home when they do get home.

Most newbie questions are in the form:
Is this a good place to work?
Do you make good money?
Do you get good home-time?
Do you get good runs?
Do oyu have good trucks/equipment?
Do you have good dispatchers?
Do you have good benefits?

All of these type of questions are leaving the most important details undefined. What do YOU MEAN BY GOOD? The newbie or driver asking those questions needs to define what he means by good, using numbers, not some vague feeling of the word good. Not only do different drivers define good in different ways, but different parts of the country vary tremendously in what is possible or minimally acceptable. The newbies often rely on other people to make the choice between Company A, B, and C for them instead of sitting down and arriving at the numbers they need to see to call a company good for them.

If someone recommends the cheapest shoes that are too large/small for you they are not good shoes for you. Even if someone recommends the most expensive shoes and they are too small/large for you they are not good shoes for you. If the shoes being recommended are for 100 yard dash and you need shoes for walking 10 miles, those aren't the shoes for you, even if they are your size and the price is reasonable. The Megas attract newbes for the same reason Sears and JC Penny lasted so long, you didn't have to know everything about what you hoped to buy from those stores because the word "Sears" meant suitable for millions of people, so-so quality, and a reasonable price.

If the newbie relies on others to make the choice and define "good", at best, the company he works for will be good for those that recommended it and maybe not him. Your results are dependent on the research you put in to the search. Being an adult is hard because there are many choices and some people are bad at choosing. Rushing to make a choice is likely always going to produce bad results. Wort at McDonald's while you do your research. Having a brand new CDL and 3 months experience at a mega does not make your job of getting a good job easier. EVERY driver learns what things are important to him during his time at his first company. Almost nobody ever is able to pick their first company and then stay there until they retire. Even in the age of YouTube and social media you can' fully know this job until you have done this job. In the doing of this job you will learn what details of pay, benefits, conditions, customers, regions, home-time, company policy, etc really make a difference in your satisfaction and which are not that important. I believe one reason the turnover rate is 90-100% is because the newbies hardly care who they work for and the companies that hire so many of them hardly care who works for them,. A match made in Heck. Make choices like the outcome is important.

 

Most? Are just overblown attempts from a lesser driver to make themselves feel better about being a lesser human... For SURE there are horror stories out there. The industry cannot tell the truth about what the industry is and has been for decades.. its not a profession, and from the behaviors of the majority of drivers.. it never will be.

 

Take driver reviews with a totality of the circumstances. Some drivers want$1 per mile out of the gate and get their hopes dashed quicky by the overpromise the recruiters made. Look at what you want to do, hazmat, tanker, flatbed dry van etc. Look at if you want to do team driving solo driving, regional or dedicated and see what the companies you are applying to offer. For example if you want to do regional reefer driver to get better home time with average pay, but you applied to a company that only has OTR dry van you will not be happy and are more leave a negative driver review. That is not to say to completely discount driver reviews, only look at the reviews in a totality of the circumstances. After that look on here to see if any experienced drivers 5 to 10 years work at that company and reach out to them to get the nitty gritty. You also need to understand your first year or two will be a huge learning curve. As you learn the lanes, customers, company and how to manage your hours your miles and pay should get better as you progress.

 

True. I’m leaving in January to fit pipe. I aced the union entrance exam. I think a lot of people move on from trucking. That doesn’t make it a bad job. I’d do it till retirement if I made as much money as the O/O’s with contract freight. I’m simply not on their level, and that’s okay.

 

The majority of drivers who come here complaining about their boss, or a brokerage, do so because they want to play victim, instead of taking responsibility for their own actions.

If they really believed that they were screwed over, they would be at the court house filing a lawsuit, not here whining.

The internet is full of these types.
Years back I bought myself a nice new car, being excited i joined a forum for that car.
Most of the posts were complaints, not praise like i expected to see.
Years later I still drive that same car, it has been flawless, and I cannot think of a single complaint about it, but yet if you were to read that forum first, you could conceivably believe it is the worst car ever made.
I've not even replaced a burnt out bulb in it.
Fluids and filters, wiper blades, tires, nothing else.
Even the battery is still original surprisingly.

 

No driver should wait for the whole industry to become professional to act professionally. Some people that would never shower, never brush their teeth, wear the same t-shirt with holes in it for weeks use the poor treatment of drivers as an excuse to be as lazy, filthy, etc as he would have been even if he had been treated better. NOBODY makes any other driver wear dirty white socks for 4 weeks and wear flip-flops while walking through human waste at the truck stop parking lot. Nobody HAS to sink to the lowest common denominator in the industry.

 

Congrats!!!

Hope the new gig is a good "fit" for you....

--Lual

 

Yet they have...

 

Only those who have no ambition. They will always find an excuse for their failures.