Apprehension regarding being able to remain employable driver

The feelings mutual compadre

 

Well to answer you dinomite, my trials are all on here. I'll not rehash the whole story everytime I try to offer someone some hope. And besides if they can't find my previous posts on their own I can always count on you to point them out.

 

Dude stop over thinking this.

Life is a risk, tomorrow you can step off your front porch and get hit by a cement truck.

We all get along in life and survive, trucking is a career to many but for many others it is just a job and there are many other jobs out there.

 

I'm just saying bro. You came off like you had a roll over and was in a truck the next week. Which the op is saying why he is apprehensive.

Then you have all the guys in the penut gallery telling him he doesn't have anything to worry about. I went through it almost a decade ago. So maybe things have changed, but just from the post I see from people having a hard time getting employment. Things seem to be the same.

I'm not current on your present situation so maybe all things are gravy!!

 

Didn't mean to make it seem easy. I had to go back to my previous non trucking job for about 7 months. I then found an oil field company that hired me to drive. I got 6 months safe driving with them but with the oil fields dying layoffs were looming. I then found a flatbed job with a 20 truck or outfit. All they cared about was mvr.

Where there is a will there is a way.

 

Many times I've advised newbs to take the dedicated job they were offered over the irregular route job so they can go back and forth to the same places until they learn what it's all about. Knowing where you're going and what you need to do there takes away much of the stress (apprehension) of mystery driving and minimizes the chance of danger from getting lost and being places you shouldn't be. You can always switch from dedicated to irregular route any time you feel like you need excitement and danger in your life. I suspect many companies do some version of this with new drivers until they know it's safe.

 

You heard from a "Navy Seal" at a Petro that M Bjorn Peterson was good......

I guess nobody broke the Santa story to you yet.....

 

I think what is true, is that there are more Navy Seals as truckers these days then ever before. If only 1/16th of them actually really were.
From what I recall watching some program on the History Channel (or similar) regarding military, is that hardly ANY former Seals ever admit to it openly.

 

There's an asinine and childish culture of fear that pervades most new drivers and new-age drivers in this industry. What's that mean? The boys and girls who copped out and went to some trucking school, be it Sage, community college, company sponsored...

And then they copped out and went to the biggest mega-fleet that would hand them an application and "guarantee" them miles... guarantee them money... right.

If it were that easy... everyone would be doing it.

Wait... anymore, everyone is.

The truck driving schools, and especially the mega-fleets, breed a culture of fear about the DOT, about this, about that. They don't teach you judgment, they just teach you regulations. Not to mention, the DAC Report BS. I wouldn't wind up the landing gear for a company that uses DAC reports. All a DAC is, is a way for one company to blackball you the moment you piss them off.

You're not a truck driver once you graduate your little joke of a six week program.

You're not a truck driver when you've been hired on at Swift, CR England, Prime, Schneider, or the other mega fleets.

Doing this job takes much more than the half-assed training some "school" gives you (I don't care if it's 6 or 10 weeks, $1000 or $10000, you haven't learned enough, period). It takes judgment, and mechanical knowledge.

And no, knowing how to pry a screwdriver on the slack-adjuster doesn't give you mechanical knowledge.

90% of this industry is steering wheel holders anymore, not drivers.

98% of this forum fits into that category.

Most people on here don't drive, they drag their feet making a 3 day run out of something you should get done in a day and a half.

Mega fleets and trucking schools breed you to be scared, breed you to do as you're told at the company.

And that, in itself, compounds problems on top of the astounding ignorance of today's flip-flop and sweat-pants wearing steering wheel holder.

You want to enjoy yourself in this industry?

Don't cop out.

 

nobody is going to fire you unless you roll the truck or your knowing the boss's wife in the biblical sense. relax