accredited school mandatory?

I suppose if all you are looking for is a job in trucking to give it a whirl, then your plan will probably work and you find someone to hire you.. however, if you are wanting to start a career in trucking then you may want to make a different investment.. While I can applaud your self confidence... Your lack of respect for what all is involved in being a truck driver is concerning...
Accidents happen.. and sometimes there is loss of life.. last year a semi struck a car here where I live... The truck driver sur iced the accident.. he crawled out of occupants in the car.. what he never got over was pulling the dead toddler from the car, from hearing the mothers pain and cry's while being pinned in her car... He later took took his own life...

The accident was not his fault, and he had been a safe driver for years... If you were to be in an accident like that.. could you live with your short cut..

 

Good one .....well said....

 

Yes, I am quite bitter and with good reason. As for my wording of what an accredited school is, maybe it was not quite worded the way you and others are looking for. The bottom line is you can get out of a trucking school debt - you can not get out of a college or university debt that involved going to school for years for an actual degree. That is something I am not off base about.

Watch it with the name calling ("lazy") and assumptions of what I do or do not do. I am not going to deal with that from anyone just because they do not like my bitterness toward the trucking industry. Going to trucking school is not the same as a university, and certain things do not fall under the same restrictions or guidelines as a university where tuition is concerned.

Yeah, it's not the school's fault I did not get the dream job. But the schools work with these companies who rook people over. The schools are in cahoots with these companies and they know full well what goes on in the industry. I did not get a CDL to be abused and told I have to do things Federal guidelines say I do not have to do, and when I won't do certain things as per UNWRITTEN company policies, I pay for it with my job. The schools know what goes on. I will not pay for losing a job because I went by a book companies and drivers hate. Before any wisecracks are made about what I did not get and who was not at fault, read what the heck I am saying. Most with a tiny bit of experience, education or intelligence know I am right. I tire of 'the company is right and they can do what they want'. I tire of the 'you want to do things your way'. It's not me who wrote the book. Seems to me everyone else wants to do things their way.

This is all good info that I am aware of (but will be good for other readers), but this is not what I was trying to make a point with. The company tuition reimbursement is the biggest joke to me because of the way companies get out of that by getting rid of so many new drivers (whether they deserved to be terminated or not). It's a pretty good racket when you have a little or non regulated subsidy program that you can use people as pawns for. Especially when the burdon of proof for everything is on the EMPLOYEE, and the EMPLOYER does not have to justify anything when the employee is let go. Subsidy money for the hire plus not having to pay the tuition for the school that the company works with. Pretty cool way to make up for some lost freight revenue or otherwise line your account while you can get away with it .

This is precisely why I will cut no corners whatsoever for any trucking company where HOS regs are concerned, and my own time. Especially with CSA in place. One thing that has made me bitter is seeing how little the company cared for drivers, their safety, the safety of others around them, and the drivers' CDL. When I see uncaring, nasty attitudes toward the drivers, and falsely training a driver to doing certain things he or she does not have to do, my attitude sours and I am bitter.

It could be I entered the industry the worst possible time. It could be I was in the wrong place at the wrong time on not just one, but THREE occasions (starting with being dropped by my original carrier while I was at C1 Indianapolis) in part because of the crazy economic times we were entering. It's been a game played on me from the start. I experienced what I did and have that experience to go on where my attitude and feelings are concerned. Not the good experiences of others. I am not here to protect an industry so many want to protect while they do things their way and look for ways to side-step the D.O.T. / F.M.C.S.A.. I will tell precisely what I experienced in detail - leaving nothing out nor stretching the truth. People looking to get into the industry can read my experience and decide from there. But when similar things happen to some, don't say I did not say what might happen to others as well as what happened to me and other before and after me.

This forum has 'report a bad trucking company' and 'report a bad school' sections which I will make full use of in the near future because I suspect some of what I went through is still happening today. I will not be posting in those sections to be chummy with veteran drivers who have no beef with a company I complain about. I don't want to hear it did not happen as I say because it did not happen to others, nor do I want to hear it was my doing. I've been down the road of the "I never met you, but I have your number" nonsense, and I will squash that in a hurry this time around. I have issues with that as do others who get the same comments.

 

rodesian, I am sorry for the name calling, That was wrong, I do not know you or your situation well enough to judge you personally. However I would like to say that you seem very angry because you did not want to deal with the bs of the trucking industry. But you should have known about the bs before hand. there is a lot of bs in trucking as well as in most industries. I have worked in several differant industries and they all have their own bs. Like it or not most industries are a big game controlled by the big companies, you have to play the game to succeed. You have to deal with crap, it may not be right, but thats just the way it is.

 

Apology accepted for the name calling. As for bad info, what I said was not bad. I just did not word it well. Okay, SOME trucking schools are approved by the Board of Education, but they are NOT accredited colleges or Universities. Bottom line is a trucking school does not fall under the same things as a 4+ year college where certain things are concerned.

As for the bs in trucking: I know trucking is a 'diffrent lifestyle'. I knew a lot more and accepted a lot more than you seem to assume before I went in. I certainly did not know of the frowning on abiding by certain D.O.T. regs drivers get away with ignoring every day because the D.O.T. can not have an officer at every shipper or con. I also did not know of what is tantamount to being enslaved or owned when it comes to not being able to leave the truck and still expected to log line 1 and not being paid. That kind of bs should not exist, and I should not have been set up the way I was for failure because of following a Federal book companies and drivers hate. I will write about that, and how it was done in detail.

Once again I will say it's possible I was in the wrong places at the wrong times. But I still have to experience the better before the bad taste in my mouth about the whole industry is at least subsided a bit. I have been accused of wanting things my way in the past. Untrue. I followed a book to the letter which I did not write. I did so to protect myself and my labor rights. I did not want things my way then, nor do I want things MY WAY now, but I would not be used and taken advantage of either. NO ONE should have to accept and submit to that bs. Not in trucking (just because it's a 'different lifestyle') or anything else. Saying 'it may not be right, but that's just the way it is' where crap is concerned is just more submission and giving to a company that does not care, which I won't do. If I am not to drive again because of this, the school loses. The schools know the un-ethical nonsense drivers are put under. The schools work with the companies that do it. The schools and companies lure people into the schools under certain delusions, and when the applicant is rooked over, the applicant has a bill (which you CAN get out of as opposed to not being able to get out of a University tuition loan) he / she thought would be taken care of by simply working for a certain company for a year. If I am not allowed to drive a semi again simply because I am by the book, there is no reason for me to do a refresher or possibly the entire course again. I can do just as well or better than working with any starter trucking company as a taxi driver. But I will keep posting of the unfair things done to me and others as long as there is a breath in me. That's one way to vindicate.

 

I get what your saying about school. About trucking I agree with you in theory, however in reality I have learned that you unfortinatrly have to do certian things to keep your job. I worked the automotive repair industry before. I worked in several shops, they all had countless osha violations and broke several labor laws. I did not like doing things that were unsafe, or being taken advantage of, but if you dont do what they want you lose your job. In this crappy economy you gotta do what you gotta do to keep a job. It sucks and you can fight it all you want but it will not get you anyware. These problems are not unique to trucking, if you have a job where you do not have to break rules and are not taken advantage of condicer yourself lucky and be happy for it.

 

I get what you are saying - also in theory. But when it comes to complete sacrifice and risk falling on me to make a company richer. I say keep your job. The company will always be around. I get into an accident, or lose my CDL for certain violations or cutting corners, do you think the company will back me up by saying 'yeah, we encouraged him to do this or log that way'? I don't think so. The company would feel no remourse when I lose my CDL, and would simply take the next person in line, and in turn collect even more subsidy money when they hire the next person. This analogy of having to do unlawful or unethical things to keep a job really irritates me - especially with the way the masses accept it. That's why it persists and keeps getting worse. With CSA and even tougher things for the driver to deal with, I will not bend an inch for a company who is only concerned with running me with another load or two, but could care less about me or my CDL. If this is what might make me unsuitable for trucking, then so be it. I will not be one of the sheeple, and possibly pay for it by never being allowed to drive anything again, and yeah, something can be done about it (what these companies do) if the time and work doing so does not put one off.

 

Incidentally (more to the thread topic), you might want to question going to C1. It's probably common, but I've seen too many end up having to go home because of something cropping up on their background checks - background checks that were supposed to be completed before telling the applicant to get to the school.

Additionally: I was dropped by my original carrier when I was a bit past the half way point in my school training. When I called the carrier I was under contract with to find out why I was dropped, they had no knowledge or explaination. I later heard the school is notorious for this. I am only speculating, but maybe it's so the school can fill certain quotas with companies they work with. Regardless, I was dropped. I did not get the carrier I was under contract with. I was forced to make a hasty decision of going with another company. I did that given I was a week from obtaining my CDL. After arguement over $500.00 dollars they wanted me to pay if I went home right then and there, I could have gone home and owed nothing. That's what I should have done. Because being dropped was the first thing in a line of nonsense fiascos I dealt with in this industry, and should have been an indication that it would have been best for me to go home and forget about the whole thing.

 

:well i get what you are saying, however at this point I realize that we will not agree and everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and each person has their own personal standards of what to except from an emplyer., I believe that it will be difficult for you to find a job without dealihg with corperate bs, but wish you the best of luck. I think we have both made out points and I will move on. But just out of curiosity, have you found a career field that you are happier in? What are you doing now?

 

It's plain LAME when one (such as myself) if held out of work because I follow regs written by a higher authority. Anyone with a half ounce of intelligence would see where I am coming from. I keep finding more and more I will not find reason or common sense in this industry, and I will be expected to risk it all, and sacrifice it all, because a company does not like what a higher authority wrote. It staggers the mind: Federal regs are written, and labor laws are passed. An employee is not allowed to follow Federal regs and has no right to certain labor laws in industries such as trucking, and the companies get away with this because it's accepted by just about everyone in the industry through brain washing, and the fact most will not read any more than they have to in order to get a CDL. Completely LAME. But when people like me who are able bodied and can perform a job are not working, do not put the blame on people like me because we won't be hired because we follow regs a higher authority wrote that the company does not like, and think they have a right to modify or ignore. I think I have proved that fact here on this thread alone given some of the responses I have received. As I have indicated, companies will not look out for me. They do not care about me or my CDL. Therefore, I have to look out for myself and do what ever I have to do to protect myself. Losing a job because I won't cater to an un-caring company is probably looking out for myself better in the long run. Any difficulties I may have are only due to the dumbed down nature of the powers that be, and the acceptance of the majority to be abused. It really staggers the mind. Let's move on, and let's leave out what I am doing now as it is even more irrelevant to the thread topic than what we have been doing. Suffice to say that one way or the other, I will drive a semi again. I will be especially by the book as it will be ME paying for my re-training in spite of the fact I hold a valid CDL-A. I will do so because I can, I am quite capable, I do like the lifestyle (other than the needless and mindless nonsense), and because of those who tell me no.