Is it reasonable?

Not heartless ? Are you really that ignorant of conditions in the industry ? What kind of BS statement is "These men and women can choose to go to work anywhere they want to." ? That's a typical recruiter lie . Are you not aware the March Department Of Labor statistics stated over 275,000 jobs have been lost in the trucking industry since December ? Do you know anything about the Transportation Services Index which shows freight has been declining steadily since August and us at its lowest level in five years ? Thanks to heartless trucking schools churning out more and more students while over 20,000 drivers lose jobs every month there is a growing oversupply of drivers . This resulted in carriers lowering pay rates to less than they were 30 years ago . Yes , the schools caused that because only desperate wannabes would accept those rates . But they don't stay . Graduates either don't get hired , get hired and are rejected by trainers , or have a minor accident after a few months resulting in them being terminated with a bad DAC report that ends their trucking career . You can read many examples of those scenarios here . But you have a family to support . It doesn't matter you are causing students' families hardship . They came to you jobless and in a few months they'll still be jobless but deeper in debt .

 

Alot of my posts and others with some years have talked about this subject until we're blue in the face. Here's what you could do. Download trucking companies in your area or any area you think there's alot of companies. Don't download trucking jobs but companies. Weed through the list and get rid of the companies like rental companies and such. I've done several areas and come up with 50 or so before I stopped. Don't call them but go see them and explain what you're doing and how your trying to find good jobs for good drivers. You might even build a client list. Then be completely honest with your students about their pay. Don't give them the bullcr** the ads give. Tell them what drivers are really making. Stay away from the companies that have standing ads because you know why they do that. If you do that you'll cover almost all trucking companies and not just the ones that have the worse turnover rate. If you as good as you say (and if you are my hat is off to you) I think you might even have some good companies calling you for drivers. It's much better than sitting behind a computer and having no idea how the company really is.

 

You've got to have tanker experience and start at the bottom. You have to go out to the places where they load and find out where the drivers go for coffee and then go and talk with them, that's one way. You do have to find out which companies hire with no tanker experience and if your record is not spotless then you might as well look elsewhere. But once you're in you can start to look for the major oil companies like Chevron,ARCO (BP), and many others and then you'll get the pay and benefits.

 

I think one reason they are not talked about much, is because the GOOD companies tend to keep their drivers.

Of course there are a LOT of local franchise bottlers that can't keep employees. We have one major bottling company franchisee here in Southern Utah who can't keep help, whether it is drivers, dock personal, office employees or sales people. I don't know what the hell is going on with them, but it seems like they must either do "wholesale firing" or the employees get mad and ALL quit on a regular basis.

If you can get on with a company such as Sysco, you should be in good shape. But look long and hard before signing on with some of these soda pop vendors.

A lot of food service, such as bread routes, are now going to owner/operator for the routes. You buy your own step van, (or whatever you need,) then you actually buy the route from the supply company. I've known a couple of folks in years past, that did very well with it. But don't know how things are now with that business.

 

This is solid advice Mr. Gashauler, thankyou. I will start doing just that. If I could find just a few companies that would hire a solid student on occasion, it would be a huge benefit to some good guys.

 

Excellent post! I noticed that there is no responce from him. I wonder why?

Drive safe