Newbreeders, no career

My guess is there's plenty of blame to go around. Poor schools, company trainers who have no business being trainers, the bottom feeding nature of this business and the lack of any organized labor force to demand standards.

Railroads were incredibly dangerous until unions demanded better and safer conditions and training programs that were stringent and long enough to actually teach. Trucking also suffers from the almost complete lack of entry barriers. Seems anyone can get into it, drive both freight and pay rates down and thus create the bottom feeding environment.

 

The issue where I live is that our provincial government here in BC, Canada decided to make drastic cuts to ALL forms of federally funded training. This happened right before the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. The federal government gives money to the provinces to administer funding for people who qualify for training. The cap used to be around $20,000 dollars. Now, for that price you could get the super duper ultra awesome training package from pretty much any accredited school out there. The school I just graduated from didn't even have a training package that was that expensive. Their best package was about $12,000 and that included 120+ hours of actual driving, 20 something hours of theory, load securing, hours of service, etc etc etc. The provincial government in all of it's wisdom decided to cap the funding out at, get this, $4000 dollars. That's for anyone in the province of BC who had been laid off and was receiving unemployment benefits AND who qualified for training AND who was approved for training. For me it was about a 5 month process from the start, until I was finally approved for the training.

Now, I found out about these cuts after I had been laid off from my logistics/dispatching job before Christmas. I still decided to go for it, as I have pretty much done everything there is to do in warehousing/logistics/dispatching, except the actual driving of the trucks. The school where I decided to go had redesigned one of their training packages specifically for people who were only limited to the paltry $4000 worth of funding the government was willing to pay for (which they get from our insane taxes here in Canada). When I asked the owner of the school why they even bothered he said he still wanted to help people get their foot in the door. The training they offered wasn't designed for people to go out OTR right off the bat, instead it was designed for people to get the basic skills needed to get a basic job where they could pick up the real experience needed.
What I got for that $4000 was 40+ hours of nothing but driving. There was no theory whatsoever. The first day I was behind the wheel bob tailing and learning how to shift properly. The 2nd day I was hauling a loaded 48' trailer. The subsequent days were all driving, all the time, with heavy emphasis on the basics such as pre trip, proper shifting, proper cornering, proper backing up procedures, coupling/uncoupling etc. There was a heavy emphasis on safety. I met another student who was attending a driver course offered by the local college in town. He was on his 9th day of training and still wasn't driving with a trailer. I found out later that he didn't start hauling a trailer until 4 days before his road test, which he didn't pass.

I passed my road test recently with very few demerits. I listened to what my trainer had drilled into my head during the training, and it definitely helped. Am I ready to do an OTR trip where I'd be gone for a few days to a week, maybe longer? Probably not. Do I have the basic skills necessary to operate a tractor/trailer in a safe manner on the road without killing anyone including myself? Yes.
The real experience comes with doing the job in the real world. Either you can drive competently and safely, or you can't. No amount of training will help if you're an idiot in life and an idiot behind the wheel.

 

Well, OK... here's the top 10 results:

Search Results

1. FBI Raids Memphis Truck Driving Schools
   
   22 posts - 19 authors - Last post: Mar 1, 2008
   While the investigation continues, the Tennessee Department of Safety .... Now do a search under truck driving school and see how many ...
   www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1978756/posts - Cached
   
   Get more discussion results
2. Truck Driving Schools
   
   A thorough investigation of this type by the student should be made. 3. Public Truck Driving Schools- These schools include your community colleges and your ...
   www.truthabouttrucking.com/truck-driving-schools-students.htm - Cached - Similar
3. Truck Driving School Run By Former Decker Officials Changes Name ...
   
   (LOUISVILLE) -- Last week we told you about a truck driving school, owned by two Louisville brothers, that is under investigation for handing out commercial ...
   www.wave3.com/.../truck-driving-school-run-by-former-decker-officials-changes-name-keeps-operating?...
4. Truck Driving Schools and Truck Driver Training: A Guide
   
   Also, in the course of your investigation of truck driving schools, you may want to ... the company produced audio tapes -- under the title of "Drive Time" ...
   www.truck-drivers-money-saving-tips.com/truck-driving-schools.html - Cached
5. Special Alert!!! Truck Driving Schools - Page 6 - Truckers ...
   
   10 posts - 9 authors - Last post: Apr 25, 2007
   Central Refrigerated Transportation under investigation ..... When I started driving back in 1978 there weren't many schools around and they ...
   www.thetruckersreport.com › ... › Experienced Truckers' Advice - Cached
   
   Get more discussion results
6. Federal Bureau of Investigation - The St. Louis Division ...
   
   Jun 16, 2008 ... Truck Driving School Owner Sentenced on Bribery and Fraud Charges ... Street in St. Louis City, have been under investigation since 2005. ...
   stlouis.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/sl061608.htm - Cached - Similar
7. State Investigates Truck Driving School - Automotive News Story ...
   
   Jun 23, 2009 ... State Concerned About Truck Driving School ... "Everything's still under review, so we're not real certain exactly what allegations they're ...
   www.wsmv.com/automotive/19834436/detail.html - Cached
8. Getting licensed through truck driving schools
   
   Tips to avoid fraudulent truck driving schools. ... All rights reserved. Your privacy is guaranteed at ericae.net. Under new ownership ...
   edu.ericae.net/truck-driving-schools.htm - Cached
9. Truck Driving Schools - CDL Training - Trucking Schools - Truck ...
   
   Find truck driving schools and trucking schools that fit your truck ... and investigated you will find that a national independent truck driving school .... You will be operating a commercial vehicle under federal rules and regulations. ...
   richtruckdriver.com/truckdrivingschool.php - Cached
10. Lockridge, Iowa Truck Driving Schools at DMV.org the Lockridge MVD ...
    
    Licensing at Swift Driving School Under Investigation ... >> By Deborah Lockridge, Senior Editor A Memphis-area truck ... do is the skills test, ...
    local.dmv.org/iowa/jefferson.../local-truck-driving-schools.php - Cached

I click through 5 pages in total.

Where's the link? And which agency is investigating? FMCSA? DOT? FBI? KGB?

If all CDL schools are under investigation, it would be big news. And since I happen to be a CDL instructor, I'd like to know if my employer is under investigation.

 

Well. Waaaayyyy back, when I was considering getting my license for big trucks, as a very young lady (don't laugh at that....I can be a lady...sometimes...) of 20 years old, I tried to enter a guv'mint training program that would run somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-9 months. It would have been done through Job Corps. Okay? Here's the reason I couldn't go through that program. Ready? I got the wrong plumbing design. Yep. That's right! Girls were not allowed into the truck program.

 

Yeah I got all that crazy driving out of my system when I was wee little. My mvr is squeeky clean as is my criminal record. Being a former business owner I kindof know what's at stake for the companies. I have had to fire workers for misconduct in the company vehicles.