My first trucking job

Points out lots of problems with zero solutions.

 

Your absolutely right that attitude means everything.

You need to have guys that WANT to work, that want to try and be professional drivers because there proud of what they are doing, and they want to show that. Experience that lives in the mind of a person with a bad attitude, is almost like a person with no experience at all. The bad attitude is like an infectious disease, and that attitude is what gets an experienced driver into problems. They have the king #### attitude, and when that comes into play, I would rather have a new driver who has some fear and modesty.

I also agree with you on the trainer situation. Companies are making any driver a trainer nowadays, and that needs to stop. In my opinion, a trainer should be rigorously tested themselves, before they can train and test someone else. The problem is, there are not near enough true professional drivers out there, so who would test the trainer?

A one week trip will tell you plenty about your student. Watch every move they make. Do they tailgate, bad at turning corners? How about rolling up to red lights to fast, accelerating from greens to hard. Are they white knuckled nervous on the steering wheel, even after a few thousand miles? How do they handle problems like cranky shippers, overweight loads, paperwork, detours, anything that put's them under pressure, but still requires them to operate professionally. One thing I like to do is wait until the student drives under a bridge that you know is tall enough, and once your past it, ask them, how high was that bridge, did you read the sign? 8 out of 10 drivers don't have a clue how much room they had under that bridge. It's important to read there body language and watch exactly how they handle the truck.

A machine is an extension of the human body. The truck won't do a single thing without the interaction of a human, so watch the truck, listen to the truck, and feel what it's doing, because it's only doing exactly what the driver is making it do. I look for drivers that become one with the truck, the connection between the two is seamless.

Watching a truly gifted operator run a piece of equipment is an amazing thing. It's like watching a skilled excavator operator who has pin-point accuracy even in high speed situations. Think of the excavator arm as your arm, the bucket as your hand and wrist, and work it exactly like that. Think of the truck as yourself and you will go a long ways.

 

Tank 33........that was a weak diatribe.
You loathe the Government but fail to rail against it.

Ok....great.....I am wrong? No. I state the facts
Your opinion of the job Still doesn't change the facts.
Drivers are dumb,plain and simple. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THIS ENTIRE INDUSTRY BUT YOU DON'T/WANT TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

Skill.....attitutude.....competance....so what?........there are thousands of drivers that barely speak English and they are driving.....doing the same job as you.
You guys over value what you are every day and it shows in the way companies are continually rolling back wages.

A license to drive is a license to drive. Period.

 

How do you RAIL against something ?

 

It pains me that u think I wrote that garbage.

 

AB trucker.....my apologies. I am sorry for that mistake. Fixed.

 

Don't worry about what some say. Not all of us need to be babysat I like you never went to a training school nor ever had a trainer sit by me to tell me what to do. Started trucking in logging which is one of the more demanding trucking jobs out there and looking back on it now I'm happy I did it my way.

 

I'm new driver looking for a job edmonton ab area.. need some advice to the expert.