Question....why....

Wait a minute, this is America. I would like to know when the Government started to tell people, this is the employment you have to take. Have we really become a Socialist country? there are so many people out there living off the working mans back, yes they need to work, but have more excuses not to.
As far as jumping from one trucking job to another, the grass is not greener. You always start at the bottom. I do not care how much knowledge you have or how many miles you have driven safely. Trucking companies do not care of your experience, they would rather hire a newbie at a lower price then hire a PROFESSIONAL DRIVER with KNOWLEDGE,SAFETY.....GO FIGURE.

 

When the people started depending on the government... see it ever day. To keep receiving benefits, the person has to attend training... so they do...
Same way that the federal government tells states they had to lower to speed limit to 55.... extortion via money.
Same way the federal government requires local school districts to adopt common core standards... teach to the lowest common idiot...money...


But many think the grass is greener, and jump, to be disappointed.

And if there was a true driver shortage, companies would be competing for those professional drivers, instead of running them off.

 

This surprises me. I can see how initially, inattention may start a chain reaction of events that result in a crash. But I would have thought that following too close would have been a large factor also. In other words, the 2nd or 3rd vehicles involved in a wreck may have been following too close too avoid the initial wreck.

So, a 4 vehicle crash may have been started by an inattentive four wheeler, but 2 or even 3 trucks may have been involved because they were following too close for the speed they were traveling.

 

Yep. That's exactly what the head trainer told me in my truck driving school. I already had my CDL while I was in that school so we were shooting the breeze. He told me "Look at this bunch. 15 of them here and maybe two will drive a truck. The rest are just here to collect unemployment benefits."

 

When we started the training was much different. We didn't go to schools we just walked in and applied. The trainers back then took pride in their work and when they took on the new driver (us) the put the time in to teach us all they knew. This driver trainers had many years experience and safe driving records. So the way they looked at it was their reputation was on the line. I remember when I screwed up I got a slap to the back of the head and told how to do it correctly. There was no time limit on training. The trainer would decide when and if you're ready to go on your own. When you were done with their training you knew the basics of defensive driving and how to take care of the truck. They knew that anytime you screwed up the other drivers first question would be who trained him. They were very proud when you did more than what was expected for a new driver. That's the way it was for me anyway.

 

Hi GasHauler, Yep, my first TT job,(late '70's) I walked in, after a few questions, I filled out a 3X5 index card, the boss went for a ride with me, saw I obviously knew what I was doing, and THAT afternoon, I was on my way. Times sure have changed.

 

I was also a NYS Trainer at a school. there were times when I walked into the office and said this person is wasting my time. I was told to go back outside and do my job. Well, I found out then that the business was looking at the money and not the student. I left shortly after that.

 

The answer is simple. People are just getting dumber and it's getting easier for those dummies to obtain a CDL.

 

In other words, people are not evolving, they are degenerating. The village idiot has become the idiot village.

20 years ago, people use to tell JB Hunt jokes...especially after that JB driver fell out of his cab over and got ran over. Now, no one talks about JB. It's Werner and England scraping the very bottom of the barrel.

You know, you can't throw all the blame on the drivers...look at what passes for dispatchers and Safetyman nowadays. They have no idea how to do your job or even how to read a map. What's worse is this person thinks you are stupid. Want to know how to tell if someone thinks you are stupid? He will say something stupid to you.

"You mean that USA truck that was trying to turn around on the 2 lane, and was tearing his truck up...he could have actually been following the directions of his dispatcher?"

Affirmative.

 

If schools spent less time on A+B-Y/U=S-D/G and more time on common math and common sense we wouldn't have all this problem. I've got a step sister who couldn't jump start her car if someone didn't show her how about 15 times but she's a dental hygienist. Ain't got the common sense of a 4 year old but she's book smart. Book smarts is a good thing but the next time you've gotta a problem with your truck and your a dead duck on I10 knowing C squared ain't gonna help you.