Before complaining about a company

The point I was trying to get across is the whole spectrum is there. There are good companies and bad companies. There are good drivers and bad drivers. You take the mix of a good driver at a bad company, he has a legitimate complaint.

Do trainee's really deserve only $300 a week? That's minimum wage you can make at McD's. Even though they are green, they are vunerable to be killed in a wreck. They are away from home. They should get paid more.

Currently the pay scale runs about $18,000 to $100,000 to drive. Heck of a big span there.

 

That may be true, however, there are very bad companies out there that should not be in business, and most of them honest hard working men, like yourself, but still were played.....

 

dude..whatever....go sudercoat the industry...but dont speak for the good drivers who have been wronged....dont be an idiot

 

I don't think he's trying to "sudercoat" anything. I just think he's speaking for the small business owner who's been wronged by their employees. Look in any truckstop looks like plenty of drivers who would rather stand in the buffet line than drive the truck. There always seems to be plenty of trucks parked at any casino you drive by also.

 

Rather have this SUGARCOATED than SUDERCOATED

 

I got sudercoated once and it hurt like heck!

 

Especially when the ants start getting to you!

 

I saw a cow with a skin rash getting its UDDER COATED , did not look non too happy.

 

I drove for almost 20 years OTR, I spent five years as an owner operator. I am currently a driver manager for a trucking company. In all my years in the industry, the one thing that has always bothered me is the complaining that drivers do.

As a driver, I would hear all the horror stories that truck drivers talk about - can't get no miles, can't get home, DOT harrassment, etc. What's funny about all of the complaining is that the majority of drivers who aren't successful on the road aren't doing the job the right way, or they just keep trying to have it their own way and are unwilling to conform to what the company they work for has hired them to do.

As a driver manager, I see it even more plainly. The drivers who are always having "trouble" with miles are the ones who complain the most, are unwilling to run short miles or drive at night, etc. They stab themselves in their own back because they don't like what the company they work for has asked them to do.

"I'm not going to NYC", "I don't go to Chicago", "I won't go to California", please......If you are working for a 48 state OTR carrier, and the company hired you to go where their customers are asking freight to be hauled, then do your job!

I can't tell you how many times I have heard truck drivers complain that they can't do a run because they are tired, or they don't like going to a certain place.

Example: A driver got a new load assignment that was going to require him to pick up at 2300 and deliver 212 miles away at 6AM. He got the load assignment 36 hours before pick up. He emptied out at his previous stop at around 9AM and was 35 miles from the shipper. He was told in the load that it was going to be a drop and hook and he could park at the customer until the load was ready. He got to the customer, dropped his trailer around 11:30 AM. His load was ready on time and the shipper told him he could hook up and get his bills around 10:45PM. The driver got the load, drove 45 minutes to a truck stop, and went to bed. Obviously the load was not delivered on time. When I came in to work the next morning, and noticed he didn't deliver the load, I called him. I asked him why he didn't deliver and he said he got tired. After furthering the conversation with the driver, he finally admitted that he stayed up all day long knowing full well that he was going to have to drive in the middle of the night. He wanted to then complain that the company was asking him to do "too much." This driver was a 10 year veteran of the road and when I looked back at his history, he was late picking up and delivering about 60% of the time, and he declined loads all the time based on where they were going. Yet, he wants to constantly complain about his miles not being good enough. I asked him, if you can't even pick up and deliver on time and you are always declining to work then how can you expect the company to trust you to give you decent miles? He hung up on me.

When I started driving in 1992, I had one trainer that I ran with for about two weeks. I learned more from this guy in two weeks than I did with the other two trainers I was with the previous 6 weeks. One thing that he said to me that I have always hung on to was this: "There are two kinds of truck drivers; whiners and runners. Before you get your own truck, you need to figure out which one you are going to be." I took that into consideration when we would get to a terminal or truck stop and listen to all the griping that drivers did. I realized fairly quick that if you do the job, trucking can be good to you. If you don't, then it won't.

Now in 20 years, I've done my share of complaining about things; when I had a legitimate argument about miles, etc. But I always did the job. I went to NYC, I went to Chicago and New England and the Pacific Northwest in the wintertime, etc. This industry has been good to me because I chose to do the job to the best of my ability.

I also teach a class in our orientation each week about doing the job. It is company specific, but I focus alot on simply doing the job to the best of your ability. I have been teaching it for a little over a month now and the guys that are taking my class are doing pretty well.

Now I don't say that to pat myself on the back. I'm just a messenger. But I have found that you give someone the right information, you peal away all the B.S. about the industry, and motivate them to go out there and work, most drivers will respond.

Trucking is what you make of it just like any other job. There is no perfect industry, there is no perfect job. Like I tell the guys in my class, (and I got this from a hugely successful businessman), Success is not an accident. It is a destination that you run into at the end of effort.

 

Heart of Dixie, Gears, good posts. I just want to add something. I'm in training at a good local truck school in Albuquerque, Rocky Mountain Truck Driving School. I just got my permit, and I'll work hard to pass my skills tests. Class A, HazMat, Tanker. I don't know who I'll work for yet. Please believe me, I won't be part of the problems. I plan to work hard, stay clean, drive with understanding and cooperation, and make a good living doing it. Trucking is such a big part of the American way of life, and those who want to do it should be glad to do it right. My $.02.