new driver

After reading what you had said.... I don't think your truck driver material. But that's just my opinion.

 

Unfortunately it seems many company's are willing to put new drivers through hardship, to perhaps "PROVE" they want to be a driver and stick with it. Find a place to stomach for the first 6-24 months, then move onto a good place that has GPU's,bunk heaters, Tripacks, etc.
Company's that accept newbies KNOW folks are desperate for a job...and use it to their advantage....be prepared. Some are better than others....but there is a line behind you to take the seat.
In the meantime...do the best you can to stay comfortable!! A sleeping bag, a fan...and good planning on when/where you stop if you can might make life more bearable. Just try to do the best you can "camping out".

The best advise I have found is to find one of the "better" bottom feeders, have a good attitude, and make the best of it till you can move on to a place you like better.

Some place I have read about will allow "reasonable" idling in extreme temps (like an hour or two every night, to recharge the batts and keep the motor a little warm, and help the cab)....but the interpation of that rule seems to depend on your dispatcher!!

Many company's treat their employees just as bed in different industries...regardless of education or work type...

SOME AVIATION COMPANY'S DO THE SAME THING TO PILOTS!!!
I hate to say it...but when I was flying cargo as a pilot, it wasn't much better...I knew guys that slept in their plane at Denver international Airport in December cause the company did not want to pay for a hotel for 7.5 hours since that did not constitute "legal" rest..(No idling of course...no APU, heck..like sleeping the back of a dry-van, but louder, but better than stating at a wall in the break room at UPS all night IF THEY DID NOT KICK YOU OUT) just like trucking we are allowed to be "on duty" for 14 hrs a day, with 10 hrs off (to rest, eat, shower, get to/from the hotel (shuttles suck, especially from the cargo ramp), do laundry, check out, check in, so we often got 4-6 hrs sleep....the rest of the time was doing stuff like trip planing for the next day...so and half the time we had kids banging on doors, squealing AC/heat fans, or bedbugs........I loved to say...you spent 4 years of school and 100,000+ to get a 24K-36K job....at least with trucking...it takes a few less weeks and less money to be treated the same!! (that and you usually have tons less loans to pay)

Once you got a few years experience, you can move on to better schedules...and better company's...but the rules still suck...company's will run you to the LEGAL LIMIT of the law....
Remember, if the wheels are not turning you are not earning (neither is the company)...and the company has a big chunk of $$ tied up in the truck you are sitting in.....if they don't push you to the limit...somebody else will push their truck/drivers harder, make more money, and put your company out of business.

 

great insight Zippy, thanks for the words of wisdom

 

Most companies will allow you to idle most all you want. They will just cut the speed back on your truck to save the fuel cost in other ways. Don't forget, that it isn't SO much the companies trying to prevent the idling as in a lot of states, no idle is the LAW. Except of course, if you have a small pet with you. Then you can idle. Funny, your pet has more of a right to sleep well and be comfortable then you as the driver of the 80,000lb 70+ foot long truck. The way I see it, if you, the company, cut the speed back in my truck, then you can't get pissed at me if I'm not making deliveries on time. If I have to run 60, 61mph where the speed limit is 75, that's your problem. You made that decision, not me. So I guess the mindset behind that, is, slow the truck down, make it harder to run the miles you get, then turn around and complain the truck isn't profiting. Fire the driver, bring in the next newbie willing to work for less money. Gotta make up the cost somewhere, and unfortunately, the driver is the only place they can save money.

 

The annoying thing is that for a measly 400 lbs (that does not even count towards total weight since most every state lets you go over by 400 if you have a APU) the GPU will pay for itself in just a few years....and keep the employee safer, healthier, and more productive. Sure it is a bit of an upfront cost, but the savings make sense...especially in a huge fleet where the prices and warranties are negotiated so much better than the average owner opperator could ever get!!
I'm no conspiracy theory nut...but maybe the big company's wanted the no idle rule...save gas....keep driver turnover high to keep costs down....the biggest companies have been so slow to adopt them, I'm beginning to think it might just be true!!

 

keep driver turnover high to keep costs down.....


You also just figured out CSA2010....

Why else would they now ding you, for "turning yourself in" at a scale when a company refuses to make proper repairs? Now, it is "you never should have put the truck in gear if you knew it was unsafe". It isn't always so cut and dry. Some people have families, and if they quit(or get fired) because they wont run unsafe equipment, their family starves. So they run equipment. Get tired of risking their lives, and the lives of the motoring public, so they ASK for an inspection to FORCE the company to fix something. Now, the driver gets dinged...all the more reason to run the broke ### truck, and try to hide it. It makes ZERO sense. How is this increasing safety? The way I see it, is it only increases driver turnover. Because once the driver rating gets too high, you're off the truck like a dirty shirt. Making way for the new guy, with NO inspections, so there is NO score....But we all know the new guys get payed less.....

 

Midnight Trucker....


Per your PM, I'm going to answer here. I don't think you've got what it takes to be a truck driver. Why? Because your not a driver yet & all I saw was complaining in your original posts. If your complaining already.... You'll really complain when you get out here doing the job.

One thing... Don't believe 90% of the stuff you hear. People tell lies to make things worse then what they really are.

 

mmm, does it matter if the company is located in california or new hampshire? 1 california sucks, there's not to many transport firms based there anymore except the ones who's sole language is spanish spoken. 2 N.H. is small and not a whole lot of companies there either.

3. I used to run for Prime Inc. Springfield, MO. I don't anymore because they didn't like my choice of truck, engine, or transmission. All of there company trucks were previous lease trucks that leasors turned in. Depending on the leasor those trucks may or may not of had APU's installed on them, and those were first come first serve to the company drivers that wanted them. My brother inlaw still runs for them and 3 of the last trucks he's run has had the apu installed on them.