You also have to remember, what YOU put into a job, is what YOU will get back. Like said above, by one of my esteemed colleagues, places like JB, Werner, Schneider, etc, have million mile drivers, who have been there for years. Even at the bottom of these forums, places like Western Express, and CRE have drivers that have been there for years. Some drivers found a niche that works for them, and are having successful careers.
You go in with a chip on your shoulder, expecting the worst, means that YOU usually find it. Go in with your eyes, mind and ears open, and YOU might be pleasantly surprised.
All companies are liars!!!
Discussion in 'Report A BAD Trucking Company Here' started by Angry James, May 25, 2019.
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Many horror stories in trucking really have nothing to do with the company and everything to do with people's plans and goals
This occurred while I was at the Knight CDL school in Phoenix. A couple from Las Vegas came to the school with the plan of them both getting their CDL's and hitting the road as a team. Knight really isn't known for teaming but assured them they could be accommodated somehow once they were through the training period. They had moved out of their apartment in Vegas,sold all their household belongings and were living in the motel Knight uses for their students. A decent enought place but the students foot the bill. Their plan was to live in the truck once they were on their own.
Hitch #1 the Mrs.failed the physical. By everything I could gather she couldn't even get a 90 card let alone a 1 year card. On to plan B he would do all the driving, she would just be a passenger.
Hitch #2 try as he might, he just couldn't pass the pretrip portion of the CDL test. A few of us tried to help him, myself included, with tips and suggestions but they fell on deaf ears. He had to do it "his way". He of course fell behind and at some point was sent packing.
So there they were, no CDLs no jobs, no home, with a mounting motel bill. Knight's fault? I don't think so. I just wonder whatever became of them. Sad in a way, but I'm sure this has been repeated many times with various companies.Gearjammin' Penguin, homeskillet, bumper496 and 2 others Thank this. -
See here, I look for a opportunity to encourage, tease and if possible tell scary stories. Or offer three sentence lessons in certain aspects of trucking.
You are about to embark on a lifetime journey in trucking for America. So we can eat, buy processed crap and continue to run up credit cards on stuff that rotted in our ports too long in the sun. //sarcasm.
Isnt trucking FUN! Thats the bottom line. When it's time to put away playtime tonka truck and go to bed somewhere deep in Chicago...bumper496, FlaSwampRat and TB John Thank this. -
But seriously, barring that, The best way to find out about a company and what it takes to be a top level driver there is...obvious. Talking to a driver who has been successful at a company will tell you 10x more than anything you're gonna learn from failed truckers and terminal rats you usually find in online elsewhere.
Trucking is like professional sports, like it or not. Performance based. No one hands out the best loads at random. The best drivers get the best loads. The new guy typically isn't coming in and getting half of Tom Brady's snaps. However, the new guy may be called on to step up and help the company out with an emergency or favor. If they succeed they go from new guy to "trusted guy". There is some luck involved, timing, etc, but 9/10 times, hard work and determination will rise to the top.
Or you can switch companies every 30-60 days and continue to always be the new guy who has to wait for their shot.Last edited: Aug 16, 2019
runningman0661 and bumper496 Thank this. -
This is basically a summary of about 90% of people getting into trucking.
Many don't make it through training. 95% of all CDL holders don't make it 12 full months.
Then thousands of those failed drivers then come on here and trash our industry for their own failings.
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You mentioned that 95% don't even make it their first year, because of their own failings?? - which seems to be the consensus across every forum I read.
I call BS!
As a LOGICAL hardworking competent man, I do not believe for ONE MINUTE that EVERY ONE of those 10,000+s of drivers failed or quit because of some lack of research, inability, laziness or personal shortcoming! That would be a very POMPOUS thing to proclaim from any "successful" truck driver.
I'm quite confident that a vast majority of potential truck drivers are wise enough to research the industry thoroughly before entering - after all don't YOU research jobs and industries before accepting employment?
Maybe, just maybe......in many cases of "failure" it was actually the COMPANY'S fault or the INDUSTRY'S fault. Hardy, competent, hard-working, strong, intelligent men trying to make an honest living, but realizing very quickly as a newbie that many are treated as slave-labor, working 70 hours a week for $6/hour net, not able to feed their families, weeks away from home, without the basic daily comforts of bed, shower, sleep, food, health. In other words, sacrificing their entire existence for NOTHING in return
Maybe they left the industry not because they FAILED. Maybe they left the industry because they had a modicum of self-respect and exercised a healthy dose of COMMON SENSE.
Until the INDUSTRY changes and compensates new drivers fairly for the HUGE LIFE SACRIFICES they are making, I'm afraid you're going to see a lot more "FAILED" drivers.Rattlayitdown, Gearjammin' Penguin, FlaSwampRat and 2 others Thank this.
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