Way back there when you were a newbie....were newbies better drivers?

Remember...we're suppose to use pressure gauges that are calibrated once a year now...According to Kevin Rutherford....

These kids today.. can't tell the difference between the sound of a low tire versus a properly inflated tire....

And that Tire Billy isn't just for tires if you get the point....

 

What hell is a "tire billy?" LOL

 

I don't know either but keep your hands where I can see them and keep it in your pants there pilgrim.

 

Well let's see for starters you have co's like werner,swift, etc, etc...... who allow people that have been driving for a whopping 6 months to train students. That in itself is just a disaster in progress. That's just one of many problems that go along with the many others that have already been mentioned.

 

i use a 1/2' drive breaker bar its longer and made out of steel

 

Tire bat, beater bar, trucker's club...lot's of names.
It's a device that comes in as many shapes as names. You use it to thump your tires as you walk around. If the tire's low or flat, you can hear it.
Mine is an aluminum miniature bat (like a miniature louisville slugger). It has a nice b flat tone when I thump the tires.
It also defends drivers from aggressive lot lizards, drunken cretans and wild dingos that may attack in the dark.

 

Thanks for the explanation, I always refered to them as "tire thumpers."

 

The truck mills i have seen trying to get back into trucking freak me out. I started in yard dog in the late 80's. My School would not hire a instructor without 20 years behind the wheel! The cost of "Old Hand" Training has worth the price. The company I started driving for was on the way to becoming truck mill. Why pay a experienced driver trainer when you can promise a starving newbie making nothing a two cent mileage raise for training after only 3 months OTR?!?!?!?! I refused 3 trainers until one of the few remaining Old Hands were free to train. My trainer was laid off after i got the OK to team 30-days with another greenhorn. (Thank YOU Trainers: Droopy Dog & Stormy where ever you are ) I think if a noob is smart enough to learn from elders drivers most are already doomed. The old school guys have been kicked out of today's driver mills only looking at the $$$ Experienced or Noobrive & Stay Safe

 

The biggest difference is that there are schools.
When I started you needed to know someone that was willing to show you the ropes.
I learned from a guy that lived near us that owned a truck.
I kept hangin' around and helping him whenever he was working on or washing the truck and I kept bugging him to let me go with him and that I wanted to drive.
Finally one summer when I was not quite 17 he let me go on a few trips with him and then he let me start driving a little here and there.
Then I went and got my permit and he really started teaching me the in and outs of the job. It wasn't easy though...If I so much as rocked the truck when I was pulling away from a stop I got knocked in the head! If I scratched a gear I got knocked in the head!
After that summer he told his dispatcher that I was ready to be cut loose...I went and got my license and went to work.
I've now been at this for almost 38 years and have seen a lot of changes in the way people come into this business.

The other big difference is...When I started you had to really want to do this job and bust your ### to get into this. You didn't just stumble in to a company and say "I need a job...Train me"
Someone else here hit the nail on the head when he said that most people coming in these days don't even really want to do this and are just here for the paycheck because their "real" job went away.

Those people are for the most part doing nothing but damage to this industry and will be doing us a favor when they leave!

 

I learned to drive in the middle sixties, had the pleasure of driving all over the continent. They were just starting the interstates at the time you would drive along and then it was threw the median and from four lanes, to a state two lane, with everyone having their high beams on. I was driving with my uncle and if it broke I fixed it, he taught me to be gentle, with the throttle and not use the brake. We had a 6/71, 235 hp in a GMC General. no AC, I loved it but after a year figured out it was not for me. So I went and got the schooling to be a mechanic. I really learned a lot by listening and watching. It has seved me well in life, if you ask, people will help you if you yell you get nothing.