To many jobs

Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by bigrigjoe66, Apr 26, 2009.

  1. bigrigjoe66

    bigrigjoe66 Bobtail Member

    24
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    Apr 26, 2009
    Valdosta,Ga
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    I am seeking a job with a respectable company. I do not like to be associated with crooks and criminals. I believe I will make a good, honest and hard running employee. That was my first mistake, all companies have problems and I was looking for the perfect one.

    That being said, I have been turned down by every trucking company that I have applied to for one of two reasons. First, I live to far south and not hiring in my area. Valdosta Ga. dang near in Fl. That is understandable.

    Second, I have had to many jobs. That is not. I worked with the state of Ga. for 18 years. Started at 21 and retired before my 40th b day. I worked with Schneider for 6 months. Schneider was a good company but I did not make the amount of money they said I would. I went from 42000 with the state to 200.00 a week before at Schneider. I think the most I made in a week there was 500.00. I got so far behind and it ruined my credit.

    I quit to try and make more money and save my credit. I could not. So I went to and passed May trucking companies orientation. Three days after I left with a driver to go pick up my truck I got ill. I left and had kidney stone surgery 5 days later. Neither would hire me back. Not even May and I mailed them a doctors letter explaining my situation. Anyone had a kidney stone? Small ones hurt and mine was the size of a gum ball! Can't drive a truck for hours in that kind of pain.

    Anyway I went to and passed JB Hunt's orientation. Everyone in my class was sent home and told to call back everyday to be assigned a truck. I called everyday for over two weeks but was told no trucks available. So I found another job. That was with Coke. I worked there for 6 months but always wanted to drive a truck.

    I met a driver for Arrow trucking while delivering cokes at the Flying J off exit 2 on I 75 in Ga. and later applied with them. I went to their orientation. I left orientation for many reasons but the three biggest were; first of all they only have around 800 trucks but had 70 people in my orientation and said they had about the same every week. 10% of your work force quits each week? Second; nearly everyone in my class (not me) had some sort of criminal record. Third, the first 10 to 15 people in my class that were assigned trucks had to be sent all over the country to pick them up after the previous driver abandoned it along the road. I don't know but thats not a company for me.

    My last job was with a mom and pop trucking company. I enjoyed the job but it was a company with only 4 trucks and the economy being so bad I was laid off in March after 9 months.

    I have a clean background and mvr. I have had 1 incident not an accident. Nobody saw this incident but I waited around and reported it to the other driver and my company.

    I am an honest hard working person. I have only had 4 real jobs in over 20 years.

    When I started researching driving I read on some message board that if you don't like a company just leave orientation. I did not read the whole thing I guess. I did not realize that after the drug test, which I always pass, that it goes on you dac report.

    Does anyone know of a good company that will hire me in my area with that many “jobs” although I never actually worked that many. Thank you for you time in reading this and considering my situation.
     
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  3. HiTechRedNeck

    HiTechRedNeck Bobtail Member

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    Apr 25, 2009
    Visalia, CA
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    you should probably check to see what is on your DAC report... there may be something there that is disputeable...

    sounds like you've had a string of bad luck, good luck and keep trying...

    a lot of companies are keeping the fleet numbers lower than needed because of the economy. I'm a truck owner and there is frieght out there sitting, but the companies are trying to survive, so rather than have drivers sitting somewhere, they have loads sitting...
     
  4. davidcboyd33

    davidcboyd33 Light Load Member

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    Apr 24, 2009
    Forsyth, GA
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    Joe,

    You are in a tough area, and I have seen a lot of companies are restricting their hiring areas to North of I-20.

    What I can recommend is that you apply everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Be certain that you are applying to the trucking companies themselves and not some site that says they will forward your app to 20 different companies. It sounds like you do have some OTR experience so there are probably 30 or 40 companies that you will have a shot with. Take on a "can't take no" attitude.

    Once you've applied, contact the company. Keep calling until you get a recruiter.

    Tell them why they should hire you before you give them a chance to say no. Don't stop talking.... make them hang up on you if they don't want to hear what you have to say. Let them know what a good person you have, and what you've been through.

    Joe, you probably think I'm talking nuts, but I've got a guy who is in your same shoes. He quit a job at Western Exp. because his trainer made him mad and then another job because his wife got sick. He is talking right now with 2 companies that are ready to put him to work. One is Transam and unfortunately the other one is May. But the reason I know you can do this is because my guy has 2 speeding tickets in the past 3 years over 15, and 2 Armed robbery felonies back in 1988. He has found success in the aggressive nature with which he has pursued these jobs.

    Find a website that lists all the companies that hire drivers in Georgia and apply to each one by one. be organized. make a chart or a list where you can detail the website address of the company, the phone number, the recruiter you talk to. Keep specific notes from every conversation you have with every recruiter.

    I wish you the best of luck, and if think of anything I have forgotten, I will come back here and repost.
     
  5. TripleSix

    TripleSix God of Roads

    18,406
    128,643
    Apr 10, 2009
    Copied in Hell
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    Mr BigRigJoe (for future reference)

    Every trucking magazine had job ads where recruiters promise you hometime, respect, and big money. They blow sunshine in your anal area and tell you how important you are. And for that reason, alot of drivers come in to a trucking company with the mindset of a beauty pageant contestant.

    The bottom line is money. The things that determine how much money you can make is
    1. Freight availability
    2. Company rules
    3. Equipment

    Freight availability. Recruiters will never tell you that freight is slow. The person you will need to speak with is another driver. Speak with several of them of the same company as one driver might just be an idiot. Do they sit more than they roll?
    Company Rules You are here to make money. Read the DOT regs book if you havent. Then find out the company rules. If the company is overrun by beancounters and that king of idiots, the SafetyMan, that will dampen your income. For example, I had a buddy that worked for BarrNunn who was doing a 34 restart. He drove his truck across the street from a truckstop to a WalMart to stock up on groceries. BarrNunn dispatch call and notify him that he voided his restart when he moved his truck. WHAT??? Even Swift doesnt do that!
    Equipment If a truck is a POS, youre not going to make any money. If a truck has been castraited by beancounters so much that Lance Armstrong has a better chance of winning the Tour deFrance while breathing through a straw than you climbing a hill with a 10000 lb load, thats going to put undue stress on the driver AND THE TRUCK WILL BREAK DOWN AND STAY IN THE SHOP!


    That being said, Swift was a crap company, but I could still make money at Swift because although riddled with safetymen and beancounters, they gave me a strong truck. Back then, the truck was governed at 65, but would pull like there was no tommorrow. Safetyman got on my for logging a 65 mph average and over 710 miles and told me that legally I couldnt do that. I told him that there was no such rule in the DOT regs book and according to my GPS, I averaged 65.4 mph in 11 hours. He said that that was impossible, and I told him not according to the law. He then commenced to match my logs to the qualcomm (remember what I said about company rules?) AND THEY MATCHED!
    However, the next PM service, they cut my truck down to 62 and took the power away and I quit.

    Back to you(sorry!) Dont worry about being a name instead of a number. Dont giggle when recruiter blow sunshine in your posterior. Ask drivers about freight. Ask recruiters about the rules and equipment. I need a minimum of $200 a day (for a company driver), otherwise its not worth me being out here. And do not let anyone talk you into driving for them and leasing a truck from them. You do one or the other, not both.
     
  6. bigrigjoe66

    bigrigjoe66 Bobtail Member

    24
    8
    Apr 26, 2009
    Valdosta,Ga
    0
    Thanks for all the advise. I have been turned down by,Swift,JB Hunt,Schneider,Cypress,Boyd Bros.,KLLM,Lisa,FFE,AEL,Melton,TMC,TransAM,Transport America,LCT,Millis,US Xpress,Covenant,Averitt,Stevens,Smith, and thats since Friday. I have tried 90% of the local companies here as well. I give up the hope of driving for now. Maybe I will try again in a few yrs. I see why the people on the news snap. Getting turned down that many times makes you nutzO. My advise to anyone listening, don't go to an orientation unless you take the job because it counts agianst you. I told the recruiter for AEL that I found out the hard way that if you go to orientation and take the drug test it goes on you DAC. She said if you go to theres and leave before the drug test they list it as a refusal. So in other words if you show up at 8am on day one you are listed as on the job. I didn't know that so now I have a poor work record.
     
  7. HiTechRedNeck

    HiTechRedNeck Bobtail Member

    10
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    Apr 25, 2009
    Visalia, CA
    0
    you can get a copy of your DAC to see whats on it...

    http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckernews/specialreports/truckersdacreport.shtml

    follow the directions... I did and just got my DAC report today... I've been driving off and on since 1997... all I have is one company and a few tickets listed... it doesn't even have a felony I got in 2004 that I've been putting on apps... as far as verifiable experience, it shows less than a year with that company... I really have closer to 6yrs...

    you may want to look at yours and see whats truely there...

    good luck...
     
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