How relative is age discrimination in the trucking industry

It is an acronym for a couple of things, in trucking it means "over the road".

 

That is more the norm than not, I am lucky in that I drove back in the 70's and early 80's, I was lucky to find a good company to work for without all the BS of driving with a trainer, attending a co school,ect. ect. I am paid hourly while around town and per mile when driving out of town, I sleep in my own bed 5 to 6 nites a week most weeks and am averaging what i made while a manager at the dealership with zero stress and no wanabe general manager telling me how to run my department!

I have a lot of buds that work for the Parts and Service division at FORD ant when they would come to my shop, they all had to spout the Company line, after that we could have a good visit and regular conversation, Ford wants to tell you how to run a dealership and its various departments BUT they have never been succesful in doing it in a company store, the up side is that they provide you with great training and support.

 

"I was not drunk in public. I was drunk in the bar and I was tossed out into public!" -Ron white

 

Age is not an issue for drivers and discrimination based on age is not readily found.

As a newbie, he will need to get his training at a good truck driving school. Some of the bigger companies have their own schools. If you go to the Schneider national web site, they have a list of all the schools in a pull down menu when you do their application. An easy way to see the list. Expect to pay about $4,000 for school, unless you go to a company school.

After graduating the training program, you will find that 75% of the companies want to hire drivers with 1 - 2 years of experience. The top tier companies, like Ruan, want 2 years of experience. Most want 1 year of experience.

So he will have to work a year for one the 25% companies, that are likely mom and pop companies, that do not require any experience. Go on your state's employment listing and see what companies do not requiire experience.

I have been working two part time jobs hauling milk, grain, and fertilizer and just having fun, after spending 31 years behind a desk.
I now have 6 months experience and am going to apply to Schneider for a regional route in this area...as they want to hire 30 drivers in this area to drive reefers for Target...this may be more stress than I want, so I am only considering it at this point.

I want to stay local or have a regional route. I will not do Over The Road OTR, due to my wife's medical condition.

There are a lot of local driving jobs and day route jobs...just look at the number of trucks on the road without sleepers (known as Day Cabs)...seems like half the trucks are Day Cabs.

So if he doesn't want to do Over the Road, he doesn't have to. My longest drive is 1,000 miles and it is 500 out and 500 back over a 36 hour period.

I am not under financial pressure, so I can be picky about what job I will take, and with the milk job I can decline a load if I don't want to go to Philly, which I did decline the one time it was offered. Next time I may take it.

There is a lot to learn about driving and the customers in each area, and I am enjoying the agricultural related hauling I am doing...I am not so sure about driving a reefer to Target stores, as I am sure there are time deadlines that I am not now faced with.

I like the smaller companies, as you deal directly with the boss and not a dispatcher....that is probably the biggest negative going with a large company, like Schneider.

I should probably stay away from any company that is big enough to have an employee handlbook....since I used to write them.

Wishing you and yours a good holiday season.

 

Why not use some of your savings from your last gig, to buy your own rig, set up your own company and run local or regionsl or power only for some of these big companies like Schneider, jb hunt, or just pick and book your own loafs

 

I am aware of the baltic as relates to shipping. Ty for the reminder.

Anyhow there is no age discrimination worth talking about. Im in my mid 50's and frankly the knowledge and experience is a powerful thing as I work on the body medically. There may be trouble getting going again because I have been away for a long time medically among other things related to it. Surgeries are turning me into a form of Terminator with parts added after the dead bones are chopped out and new joints put in. Thats about the size of it. The last one was major but that was the one that solved many issues.

Part of that was wear and tear from trucking that did some damage to the skeleton. Today's trucks are clouds of luxury equal to the very best cadillacs and merchedes. if not better. So that takes care of the bones.

The closest problems with age would be when I was 21 and in those days anything goes. If there was a problem the company leadership would be involved but otherwise if you were a good driver you made changes for the better. I was not necessarily a good driver in those younger days. that came much later. Say the 30's after I have been seasoned in it.

What I was good at is nursing trucks over mountain in the worst of storms. The kind in which weather men cry on television begging everyone to stay home. Guess what, my load is moving through. IF I am told that the road is already closed? never seen the likes of it through the whole storm. One night in St Georges Utah was a big western storm that showed up out of nowhere over Denver in 2001. Next thing I see is grey skies, wind picks up and my wife is asleep (Second team driver) in the berth. a few inches no problem. 7 inches? Eh... one foot with more to come from NOAA? Well now we have a problem.

Past St Georges lie the Virgin River Pass territory I did not know what the weather was with Vegas as the goal. I gambled that two feet in St Georges later that day was worth the gamble to get through it as it was developing over Denver far to the east of us. So we managed to get to Vegas. However coming through Mesquite I had comments on the radio and explained the St Georges storm and the denver problem (I-70) Safety is number one. And I was tempted to gamble but was on the fence should I go or should I stop. I went. It worked out. Load was ontime. It was a rather hot one and fuel was short. That was the other final reason we did not stop until Vegas 76 truckstop downtown off Tropicana for blessed fuel all around. hundreds of gallons of it.

Somewhere in my chaindrive wallet Ive got a dollar slot token that was won there. SO maybe a little bit of luck.

If I was younger faced with that scenario I would not have done as well or have had the experience with the truck against those conditions so what I would have had to do back then is stop and sit.

In those days bosses hired you to drive. Not sit. Weather had no meaning. Today decades later it has every meaning. The freight will get there when it gets there. Just hope you have a good boss who accomodates you.

And that is the otherside of the coin.

In high dollar medicine loads my dispatcher was ex army at 23. Young enough for me to be paw paw. yeesh. but he was my boss. So.... (ahem...) I had to live with it. I managed to help him understand me and my wife (Former Marine) and once we had something together then communication was very very clear, short and effective. One of the best.

I have been bosses for a crew of temps in my previous pre medical work and there is 20 under my wing from 18 on up. Licenses had little meaning to me provided they take lessons on the autos and manuals nicely. Thats all I asked of them. And I gave the old grey hair the oldest truck so he is very happy going back tot he days of his youth. And so my crew had very little to no trouble in the truck sales in those days. For that I consider myself fortunate. If I am not yelling or bawling at them over this or that, there is nothing to worry about. No stress.

Age? HA... lets say 100 wanna drive at 21. half will. In 5 years about 40 will be replaced by another 40 21 year olds.

The rest are out of the industry by then. When you get into 40's and 50's to 80's and beyond as truckers those are true treasures. And we should cherish and keep them.

The young have the worst of it bottom line. Some will not be trucking long enough to even be proved in it. They will be out of the industry for one reason or another because they wont settle down and do what is needed to be done out there. And that would be a waste for some. I remember one company Paw had his son at 22 busted for drugs in one of his semis. Soon he was given a desk and a telephone. Told to sit there and take calls all day and sometimes all night. Minimum wage. He wanted OUT. But he did the decisions he made and got burnt for it and thats that.

I cannot imagine in today's drug situation where some are legal here and there, if the youngster partakes in it its going to destroy his CDL A in no time at all. All that expense and effort out the window in a puff. This industry is not tolerant. As long they understand that going in then alls well. Another side thought pertains to age of adult consent. In my time we went into Canada. And in those days at 21 I understand that 14 and over are age of consent making for situations that are a problem legally. as long you behaved yourself and stayed out of trouble that way alls well.

The most dangerous problem with the young versus trucking is that they feel that they are indestructible and live forever. Not so. Especially out here in heavy industry and so on. They can be killed so easily. A puff and they are gone forever.

 

I know we are responding to a 10 year old thread but...what were we talking about?
Oh yeah, old farts.
Experience good
Tickets bad
W age comes wisdom.

 

One would think 10 years now all of them tykes would be seasoned drivers by now eh?

Ty for the call out on the 10 yr thread, that one got by me.

 

I didn't read any of the replies so I don't know if this was said.

If you are hoping for a quick fix for getting money into the account by him getting into trucking, think again.
It takes many years of experience and hard work to start making good money.
The first year you will be lucky if he is able to send you a hundred a week.

 

And funny.
Didn't even notice it was a 10 year old thread.

But after 10 years, I don't think my response would have been any different.