Usa TRUCK orientation in two weeks. Got some questions.

Please understand Everman that I am in no way talking down to him or anyone else. I want that to be first and foremost. I read the post about that accident and that is not good for the industry as a whole. I believe that if the government would spend more time mandating the schools on their training than the trucking industry, we would have way less of this stuff happening. And on the flip side driver you can't tell me that most of these trainers do their job. I have seen too many people that train and are lost when they get away from their trainer because the majority (not all) of the trainers could really care less. They are in it for the bigger check. As I said not all of them are like that but their is a fair share of them. As far as drivers, they could all be severe alcoholics and nobody would know if they were never caught. If the problem isn't know the company that hires them is also clueless it's really sad that its like thr and so many people pay with their lives that don't deserve it.

 

I get so tired of hearing this crap about the schools. The schools main mission is to get that CDL in your pocket, period! There is no way a school can teach a student the ends and outs of this job. It can't be done, there just is not enough time. The same can be said of the trainers too. I have ran into several situations since I got my truck where I had no direct instruction on how to handle it. What I did however was to put those lessons into practice and build on the training I did receive. I had to do a very difficult back right in the middle of downtown Indianapolis a while back. The street was busy and I had very little room to maneuver. It was a bit scary, but I did as I was taught. I took it slow and kept my head on a swivel and put it in that hole. Afterward Sitting at the Flying J on the southside of town I drank a pop and celebrated. I also took a minute to call my trainer and told him of it.

The problem Chemsoldier1 and I have are the people driving that have no business driving trucks. They don't learn these lessons, and for whatever reason they finally either quit or get fired because of too many preventable accidents.

 

It has been a number of years now since I was at USA, but Chem/Xray are right. They are really just foreshadowing to you what you will see in the near future. I will bet that in about 3 months time you are going to far more agree with everything they have said than disagree. Right now you are still on the outside speculating. Once you are on the inside, you are going to wonder if what you are seeing is really real.
You have a checkered past, but a lot of drive and enthusiasm. Those two will get you off to a good start. It will then be up to you to then strive to become the best professional driver that you can be in todays world. Good luck, I wish you the best

 

2 years in class A vehicles, OVER 20 years over the road in class B. You are totally missing my point and I think it's on purpose. I know there are people driving trucks that have no #### business driving them because I have 2 eyes. I see the crap they do and the results of said crap. These are the drivers that won't check to make sure their trailers have no flats or slick tires, leave reefer's at drop points with little fuel. These are the drivers that look like slobs and smell worse. These are the drivers that will cut you off in traffic or tail gate you so close they can read your VIN numbers or worse. These are the drivers that are constantly on their companies late log lists or they can't figure out how to log and have to keep going back for remedial training. These are the drivers that piss shipping&receiving clerks off so bad they start cussing all of us. These are the drivers that at shipping , receiving points or Truck stops leave piss bottles all over the pavement or simply just piss behind their trucks. On hot summer days the smell of urine is so bad it would gag a maggot. These are the drivers that can't make 6 ####### months without 2 or 3 preventables Every one of the last few things I have personally saw in my OVER 20 years OTR. If you want to blame the #### schools so be it blame them. I have made my #### point and I see no reason to continue.

 

I am not blaming the schools themselves. They are doing what they are supposed to. I blame the companies that hire the drivers also and ill prepare them to run that truck. I know a trainer at Swift that passed a student just to get him out of his truck because he was tired of dealing with him. That was straight from the trainers mouth to me. As to the accidents that occur because of stupidity, anyone can be involved in that. It doesnt take any type of person in particular to cause an accident. Any of you heard about the driver in California that ran over the scale house with a loaded truck? He had only a couple minor tickets in years of driving. He found out his wife was cheating on him and went overboard and took out a scale house killing 2 DOT men. You can never say who is going to do something stupid. It is a shame as to the amount of people that come out here these days into the industry appears to be an easy and money making business and fail causing death or destruction. This industry is by far not the best paying as we all know.



As far as the schools go, they arent to blame for non training. If you could read into it you also would realize that they need to be regulated along with the companies that hire new drivers. The training needs to be mandated and regulated. I am sorry but 4 weeks (average) of school and then 150 hours with a trainer hardly makes anyone ready to have their own truck. I do make the exception for those that have done it and proved themselves as fit. On the other hand the amount of people that come out here and have no experience, ride with a trainer, get their own truck just to go down the road and kill someone a month later? That happens way more than you think. Thats not the schools fault and I apologize to everone for making it sound like I am blaming the schools. It is the trucking companies fault for setting the standards for training. We have many people that come into this industry and make it because its what they want to do. We have twice that amount of people that come in seeing dollar signs and think they know everything after their ride with a trainer. We dont hear about those people as my due to the fact that when they mess up and kill someone the mega carrier that they work for hide it as best they can and settle out of court. The have to. The frequency of that happening, they wouldnt be able to haul for anyone.

 

Unless it's a special school with an expanded curriculum they are NOT in business to train a person to be qualified to operate a CMV alone, PERIOD. Most schools operate on a 3 week cycle. First week classroom, 2nd week range, 3rd week testing. I went to C1 in Indy and on the first day the school director told us what their mission was. It was to get us trained on the requirements to take both the written and practical tests as required by the State of Indiana to get an Indiana CDL. It is the job of the carriers to continue this training to get the student to a point to where they can operate alone. I know some carriers seriously abuse this system using (trainers) with as little as 6 months OTR and take stupid chances just to get someone through. However it's VERY important to understand it takes years to be a seasoned driver able to tackle most issues faced by drivers today. It is imposable to train a driver to this standard, there comes a point when the trainer/carrier has to put student alone and they either sink or swim, hopefully they will take to the job and over time become proficient drivers. I also agree that it is stupidity that causes these preventable accidents. However sometimes said stupidity originates from said driver not having either the aptitude or the metal to operate a CMV safely and it's sad because carriers are firing drivers almost everyday because of this.

 

I see what happens when I'm on home time and not paying attention to the forum to defend myself lol!

Janichol- I've been with USA coming up on 2 years. I've never had an accident, ticket, or bad inspection. I was a Heavy Equipment Transport operator in the Army. I pulled gooseneck flatbeds with 4 axle trucks and a standard load was around 150k lbs, in Iraq, and often under fire. Between the Army and USA Truck, I ran briefly as a trainee with a construction company pulling rock buckets. I may not have 11 years OTR as you do but I have sufficient experience to base an opinion on. I don't rely on supertrucker stories, cb stories, or any other rumours. I look at the plethora of (name your favorite mega carrier trucks) I've seen at shippers, receivers, and truckstops to realize that there are a lot of dangerous individuals on the road. When you see trucks (as Exrayman said) with multicolored body panels, missing mirrors, missing steps, missing part or whole bumpers, it says something about the quality of the drivers they employ. You also don't need multiple years of experience to see plenty of "tard mistakes" out here. For example, the Loves at Tom's Brooke in Virginia on 81st st. I watched a PAM truck back right into the sleeper of a Canadian truck. Keep in mind PAM runs teams. Co-driver on the ground spotting and directed that trailer right into another truck. I suppose though in your opinion I'm not qualified to discuss that because I'm just a newbie? Or did that not really happen? Perhaps I just imagined it?

Further, I never judged Brodason or anybody else. I will restate what i've already restated. I don't assume that he is a criminal or a drug user nor did I accuse him of being one. In fact, I even stated that it only raises alarm bells when somebody starts asking about drug testing. I'm sorry for being a little biased but I was in a HR position before and I was the first man in the hiring process. I know for a fact we bring in low-calibre people (ONCE AGAIN LET ME RESTATE SO THAT I'M NOT MISUNDERSTOOD....I DO NOT ASSUME BRODASON TO BE LOW CALIBRE NOR AM I ACCUSING ANYBODY ON THIS BOARD OR THIS DISCUSSION OF BEING SO!), when you are sitting at a dock waiting to be unloaded and one of our trucks rolls into a receiver like a bat out of hell (definitely late), trucks looks like poo (hasn't been washed since it was delivered), driver gets out of the truck in a sweat stained wife beater with flip flops and sweat pants, trying to tuck his gut back in while chasing the Mcdonald's trash that blew out of his cab and at the same time his bills which are blowing across the pad, you start realizing things. Maybe these individual drivers don't care about their image, the tractor, or the company they work for? Who cares right? Its just a job. There are plenty just like it right? But one thing I learned a long time ago that applies in any industry is....if you take pride in your own self and your assigned equipment, it more often than not tends to translate into a better work ethic, and a safer performance record.