I deserve better

i have 4 1/2 years in, and make decent money now. when i first started, at werner, I was at my wits end, pretty much on a once a week basis, so don't feel too bad. I swear, the day I gave up and just thought, "I'm going to do my best, I no longer care about my dispatchers impossible delivery times and nonexistant directions, it will just have to get there when I can legally get it there", was THE day that everything started to get better. I started nailing the backups that used to suck. I started getting into a groove that was more consistent. I was placed on a dedicated acct and made respectable money.


how old is your felony, and what was it for?

 

nope, it means carpenter's usually make better money than company drivers, and if/when the work comes back, go back to it.

Having a CDL seems like a great "backup/emergency" job, because if you have a skilled trade and get laid off, even hopping into a crappy werner/swift/schneider truck beats sitting around waiting for unenjoyment checks. As long as you have a clean record, that is....

 

...and that's part of the problem with this industry. There are a lot of people driving trucks who DON'T care, because it ISN'T their chosen career path. They are here because they failed at everything else they have tried and see no other opportunities, and only plan to stick around until "something better" comes their way. Others are here because they have hit rock bottom and will be gone as soon as the economy improves and they can get back to their regularly scheduled life. These two groups don't care what damage they cause along the way...they aren't in it for the long haul....it isn't what they WANT to be doing...it is just a paycheck.

If you don't want to drive a truck, don't drive a truck. If you are getting into a truck, do it for the RIGHT reasons.

I'm sure the OP, as a skilled carpenter, wouldn't be too appreciative of me showing up and trying to do his carpentry job (and cutting his rates) just because freight rates generally suck right now....and I sure as hell wouldn't be "experienced" after only 90 days on the job. Hell, just the apprenticeship program alone can take more than a year to complete, and it ain't even all that hard to swing a hammer.

Yeah, I know there's more to being a carpenter than driving nails....just like there's more to driving a truck than just holding a steering wheel. You won't fully know what you are doing in EITHER after only 90 days.

For one reason or another, you wanted to do this job...so do it. If you have come to the realization that you aren't cut out for this line of work, get your butt out of the truck and go back to driving nails.

 

Excellent response... some of us are here by choice, not because we were "laid off" from another job.

 

Absolutely not true. I know drivers at FedEx Freight that have never driven another truck, there is 21 year old driver on this board that works for UPS Freight, we have million mile drivers here that had no experience when they started here, and a few weeks ago I took a trainee for a couple nights that was 22 and just got his CDL. All three of these jobs are top-notch LTL jobs..

 

I agree....however, it is a little harder to get a carpentry job, or apprenticeship, than to get a trucking job. It sucks, I know, but if all of those other people from other lines of work didn't do it, I am sure werner and swift and schneider would still be able to fill their trucks and cut rates on everyone.

 

No, and i dont pay cash for the diesel i put in it either. It was for a company-paid rental car to pick up a truck. And in true trucker fashion i only fueled up at turnpike service plazas (easier than repeatedly paying #### tolls to get off and on to get fuel!) and truckstops. Did not take that car anywhere that a big truck did not fit rofl...

I guess thats just how i roll, i recently drove my motorcycle to a flying J and got a free courtesy drink off my card. Now im holding a ###### fountain pop and trying to figure out what to do with it....hahaha. had to drink it real fast lol

Man, thats werner for you. but thats how i roll and it is not very stressful usually. I got that way after i helped on a dollar general dedicated account. Only thing i do is, i tell dispatch when im gonna be there, unless im planning on being just ontime. Way early, i tell em. Late, i tell em. On time, i dont even send the ETA on the loaded message..they can figure it out. Infact, they can figure it out anyway, when i send them an ETA its just "hey man, LOOK at it!"

 

9 pages later . . . . . the OP still isn't entitled to anything more then what
he originally signed the application to work for.
A felony in the USA is a life sentence,you never out run it
Like so many others,you will work for junk money till you get a chance for better.
Same rules still apply regarding the employee,you dont loose the attitude you have now you will do the same thing your doing now and will soon be looking for "better" once again,again,again. . . . . . .