When is it time to say, "ENOUGH!"?

i know huh...?? sometimes driving and crash in the same sentence just doesn't seem right.....

 

As a Trainer I have encountered many of those same people. Jobs are hard to find these days. Trucking and nursing are the 2 big sectors that always need people. The problem I have found is this. Folks are desperate to find work. They don't want to be a nurse because a: it's a nurse and b: maybe they don't like seeing that sort of thing. So here's what I see happens.

They see trucks going up and down the roads everyday. Behind the wheel they see a guy or gal driving along. DING goes off in their head, "I can do that, it looks easy!" So they get a gov't grant, student loan, charge a credit card, borrow from parents, etc to go to CDL Kindergarten. Then they get pre-hired by a company, hop on a bus for a day or two to orientation, get on the road with a trainer, they're happy to be working now.

THEN they find out, "Oh, you mean I can't go home for 8 weeks? I never see those drivers on the road get dirty. I've gotta do all this stuff too? I never signed up for ALL THIS!" Then the problem is dumped in the trainer's lap to try and convince them to stick them to stick with it and not throw away 4, 5, 6, 7, 10,000 dollars they spent on school. Yes, I had a student who said he paid $11,000 for CDL School. Didn't know how to open the hood, school used mixture of 10 speeds and auto-shifts. You figure the rest.

Anyway, this is the problem I see with new drivers nowadays. There is not enough education by the schools on what to expect out here, let alone how to friggin drive a truck.

 

i had to edit your posting only so that i could get to the grits of it....

as a driver-instructor, i DO inform them of the hardships of the road, and long before I TELL THEM, they already got there minds made up to be a local driver.....well good luck with that...

but at my FORMER school, it was highly FROWNED on to say disparaging things about trucking LIKE the long hours, time way from home,etc,etc....

wanna know why.......??? (it's actually quite obvious)



so that the students WILL NOT QUIT and take thier money away.....!!!

another in the reason why i left my former school employer for my "new one", which i have been at now for just over 1 year....we do not, and I DO NOT BS the students on the life of a trucker..

sadly though, as you had mentioned, it IS ON YOU as a driver-trainer to keep them in that seat.......

you and i BOTH have a job that NOT TOO MANY would ever wish on thier worse enemies.....yet they find so easy to downplay our role or bash us when things go wrong on the road...

 

Well put Big Don. When I started everything was peachy till I started spending more time out and making less and less money. At time's I wanted to call it quit's and cut my loss' but with a mind set of serious determination and the love of being in a truck, lot's of trial and error along with being determined and hard work, and at time's near starving and almost froze to death twice (litterally) it has paid off. My finace` has me home every day, I am home to watch my daughter grow up, I still get to drive a truck and I make decent to #### near #### good money compaired to what I used to make.

This is an industry that will make or break a person but more so than not, it breaks new driver's before they even get out of the gate towards experiance. You just have to sit down, be upfront and honestly ask yourself do you really think you have what it takes to be in this business? If you answered yes and you still go to school only finding yourself wanting out, then you are not honest with yourself and your inner demon my friend.

Some of you may understand what I'm saying here and other won't. It's all in how you interpret what I have said. One key thing to keep in mind and ask yourself, can you do all your daily household chore's, pay bill's and all that other good mess by yourself without the help of another, doing so 3,000 miles away from your home and except that if you have a family life that you will be giving that life up for another all while juggling the huge stresses that are beyond normal stress, quiet and loney, keeping on track and completing the many daily tasks of your job along with your personal chores all at the same time and while keeping completely sane at the same time loosing your mind and the possibility that if you are in this career long enough that you will at some point one or more times witness people die right before your eye's on the roadway in probably some of the most gruesome ways and still get up and do your duties the next day without letting it completely shut your mind down to a state that you can't think, speak, eat or sleep? And yes for those of you new driver's/wannabe's there are true stories of driver's new to be more common that have commited suicide in thier truck over the stress of this line of business.

This outta turn simple questions and answers into a real mind bender for a rookie. Good luck.

 

Very true. Thats what I liked about Prime's school and as far as I am aware the only school like it. They put you through a real world on the job CDL course and 60K miles on the job training to better prepair the new driver of what can and will be expected before they are turned loose making sure they are able to "handle it" unlike all these other schools that try and teach you such from text book's, a training pad and a few lap's around the block adding up to a whopping 100 hours or so to be called certified when they still don't know their ### from a hole in the ground.

 

Just another plus for the school I went to.... they actually check DMV records & will tell someone that it would likely be a waste of their time enrolling if their driving record is such that they weren't likely to be able to get a job later on.

& on day one of class the instuctor gives a very open & frank description of what OTR life is like & that it is likely to be your best chance at getting a job as a newbe (for those that don't already have connections... like a family logging business... which is why 3 of them were there)... if you then decide it's not for you, you can quit right then & get a refund.

 

That's good to hear. I'm curious though, after spending some time with students in the classroom and in the truck there must be some/lots that you are pretty sure don't have what it takes to be a safe driver or to survive in the industry. Do you let them know, either bluntly or subtly, that they aren't cut out for it, or do you encourage them anyway?

It's not so much the surviving in the industry I'm wondering about. Informing them of how things are is really all you can do there, people need to make their own choices. But when you have concerns about a drivers ability, even though you know you can prep them for the test, is there anything done to discourage them?

 

AAAHHHHH! A little "inside" info from Rerun! That is great that you do that! The recruiters really polish the job to get these people to sign up and that really isn't fair to them. I realize they are trying to make money for their families too but $6000 and the trucking industry is quite a commitment.

Very true words Skunktruck! As a somewhat new driver you know now the extensive commitment it takes and actually the on going commitment it takes to make even make money at it while you are out there.

Well put LarryAz!

 

my "former" employer now charges $9,500 for the full course of 420 hours..(up from $8,000)....they charge $5,000 for the "short course" or 160 hours....(up from $4,000).

my "new" employer charges $5,000 for the 8 weeks course ( 320 hours) and these students ACTUALLY PASS the DMV tests....we have (on average) a 98% pass rate compared to my ""former" employer of 75%....and this is for ONE state only......both schools deal with 3 states....

and all things being "equal" in road, yard classroom times, the "old employer" still does it all the same way....meaning as many as 20 guys can be and WILL BE waiting for one truck (at each maneuver) to practice on....

my new employer, we limit the class size, we do not "rake 'em in"......so this way, they get MORE quality time practicing...