stunned...........

I agree with you floatin gears...
The problem is DEREGULATION ,it's been thorn in our side since 1985 and an old sayin that goes along with it
"CAN'T KEEP THE HOGS OUT OF THE TROFT".....instead of harnessing the power of UNITY amongst ourselves and having frght REGULATED AGAIN ......sooner or later IT WILL HAPPEN with the help of these mega corporate trucking companies degrading this industry into an obvious call to action from those who are consernd about the safety of their families being on the highway at 60mph and 40 tons of equipment and some underpaid ,degraded ,uninformed rookie driver is shookup ,tired,and trying to make a window time sweating bullets....good luck America here's some coffee

 

There is far more driver education than there ever was before deregulation and the beginning of the CDL. Deregulation destroyed freight rates and private fleets, but also provided opportunity, innovation and efficiency to the trucking industry. Most preCDL truckers recite the story, " I wanted to be a truck driver, so the boss man threw me the keys and told me to have the load in Boston by Monday morning. Anyone that is uninformed about anything for any time longer than the timespan to find access to the Internet is a fool.

 

I am in florida too and unfortunately you will not be able to get a nice cushy local job wereyour home every day till you have at least 2 years driving experience driving OTR. So suck it up like the rest of us who have families at home and do your 2 years and then local jobs will open up.

 

Best advice I can give, is tough it out with one of the BBF training companies for your first year... And keep this in mind: THE FIRST YEAR OF TRUCKING WILL BE THE WORST. It's a completely different life from the daily 9-5 job(assuming those jobs still exist and they haven't been shipped off to china), you WILL have periods were "hurry up and wait" will be the norm, times when traffic will make you think that the four wheelers are trying to kill you, times where you will look at your Qualcomm and think"wtf??", you will have to deal with shippers that are too lazy or incompetent to load you properly and in a tidy manner(same thing with some receivers), picking up trailers that have one or more serious defects because of drivers too lazy to get it fixed before dropping, dealing with incompetent shop/dealership mechanics who can't be trusted to even know how to pick their noses, weigh stations/DOT checkpoints/cops, etc. Get that first 1-2 years in WHILE KEEPING YOUR RECORD CLEAN WITH NO WRECKS and then, if that beginner company is still trying to drive you bat#### insane(if it already hasn't), Apply to a company with less than 250 trucks (such as GSTC, Van Wyk, Nussbaum, etc)has clean CSA scores, has good equipment, frequent home time, and decent running, no touch freight without having to run canada, NYC, or hazmat. And one other thing: AVOID ANY COMPANY, REGARDLESS OF SIZE, THAT RUNS A LEASE PURCHASE PROGRAM. THOSE PROGRAMS ARE A BIG FRAUDULENT RIPOFF ADVERTISED AS IF ITS THE SAME THING AS BEING AN OWNER OPERATOR. THEY ARE NOT, very few people succeed at lease op programs, and the ones on here from prime, trans am, cr England and the other big mega companies that heap praise on lease op programs are actually paid recruiters sitting in and office, not drivers.

As as for what Werner did as far as waiting, I would have seriously made some noise instead of just going home just based on word of mouth over the phone from a single person or department. Get them to send approval to get home over the Qualcomm or fax, at least then it will be documented. Personally, from what I have heard of personal friends, and from the actions of werner's idiot drivers, wouldn't recommend Werner to anyone, for training or experienced.

 

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You know, you look little too self reliant, to say it politely, when you, being just out of truck driving school giving your opinion how trucking industry supposed to change. I was out of driving school in 1996, living in the same Jacksonville you do. There were not many choices at that time for me. Anyway, after not being able to go thru orientation with one company (maybe part of it was my fault) I started with Direct Transit. Many drivers were badmouthing that company. I have good memories, although I've met a lot of ###..les over there. Swift took em over in 97 or 98, I was able to stay with Swift for a few months, not a good company, but as I found out later, not the worst. Because my record was not very good, which was my fault, I had to stick with some real sh.tty companies. In my trucking life i was sent back home from orientation because "my record was inconsistent with Company policies" (but I sent them application, they run DAC before inviting me, why invite me?) fired for: refusing to drive while sleepy to deliver their load ontime, for refusing loads that would make me drive 20 hours out of 24 to deliver it ontime, - that was a few times. But I've made it, had some good time, have a good record now. my son was in school at that time, but you don't have to be home often to raise your son good. Because they look at us what we're doing, we give them example. He sees his Dad working hard- that's the best way for upbringing a good kid. If I'd keep complaining like some of us do I don't know what he'd become. He is good now, hard working, after college, making money I never dreamed of. Proud of him.
Floatinggears, we all got through what you're going through now. Remember- they'll put in a DAC report whatever record you have with them. And even if you had no accidents, every your short stay with the company working against you, recruiters consider you as a rolling stone. So, if you'll continue to do what you're doing with the same attitude your DAC report ("Hire Right" they call it now?) isn't going to look good. Take your experience with Werner- yes, they are not good. So if I'd want to rather go home I'd call my DP and tell him "Man, you guys are paying daily for my hotel can I please rather go home? You even could come up with some "emergency" cituation at home.. And keep calling em untill they either approve it or find a new trainer with a truck.. But now they were right- you left company on your own, you quit. It's good if they will not put anything in DAC, I don't know what their policy is. You need to find a company that you'd stick with. In addition to that list the driver gave you- Arnold have a terminal in Jacksonville, they are not as bad as SWIFT, you can try them, and if you'll do good job you'll be home often. And my friendly advice: don't try change industry. You don't like the way trucking companies do? Become owner operator, buy couple more trucks, make your own Company! Good luck,

 

I am one of those drivers. Walked into a trucking dispatcher's office asking if they needed any help. Man looks at me and says, "Kid, can you drive?"
"Sure!" (I was 25)
Figured he meant a straight truck or something.
Tossed the keys to another man sitting there and said, "see what he can do."
Long story short, I learned to drive a '68 FL cabover that day. Got my permit, (six questions) just before lunch, practiced with the driver, then went back to the DMV and got my Class 1 chauffer's license. I literally bobtailed once around the parking lot with the examiner standing out there with a clipboard.
Climbed back down, he handed me my license and I was pulling doubles that night from Portland to Salt Lake.

That's how it worked then. My co driver (we were a full team) showed me how to keep my logs (yes, logs...plural), how to sneak around the coups and everything else I needed to know.
There was no training. You just did.
Period!

So, yes....there is much more and much better training today than back before CDLs. But I agree with the poster when he said, " Deregulation destroyed freight rates". It did it in airline travel, trucking and banking.
In the beginning it seemed great. Now we see the results.
Often times, you can't tell the homeless people from the truck drivers crossing the parking lot.
But it is what it is, and I don't expect to see it change (for the better) in my lifetime.

 

.....deregulation created opportunity ,innovation, efficiency????....for who ????the professional driver or corperate America
You don't have to answer that we both know the answer .....jus sayin

 

The real answer, not some anti-corporate slop, is that many small trucking companies were able to start up, including my own. That would have never been possible under regulation as the big corporate authority owners were tightfisted in who they would allow to get authority. It lowered shipping costs dramatically for small shippers that couldn't justify a private fleet.
Driver pay is tied to supply and demand. Since 2007, there has been a huge supply of labor, driving wages down. That's just a basic business fact.

 

Anybody heard the CEO of Warner, on Road Dog Trucking, spouting off his line of bull? Makes a knowledgeable person want to puke.