Mentoring Potential Employees Without School

FIRST get into a truck and then learn what it takes to drive. YOU are trying to do something that takes a lot more initiative and thought than just buying trucks and putting drivers in them.

Second, while it may sound good, it is a rather dumb idea. No way would I 'train' potential employees or drivers unless they have a skill set I need or know them very well. I've done this and I was just a gateway to a better job for them, but never got upset about the time I put into their training.

Third, you are going to be surprised at the insurance costs. A couple weeks past I met with my insurance agent and the underwriter reps and we talked for a few hours about issues in this industry, their number one issue is new drivers and how they are a huge liability. While one of them mentioned that the accident rate for trucks is on the rise, another said that there needs to be harder CDL entry requirements for drivers because (I have tag CDLs as crackerjack licenses) it is too easy to get and that opens the door for problems for all of us.

 

So I find this post a little confirmation on what I have been suspecting so many years.

There was a time the top major companies had schools that trained drivers to the order of around 400 to 600 thousand per year collectively using information from the mid 90's when the companies realized that the drivers they were training were not able to stay with that specific company for a variety of reasons such as discharge for preventables, service failures and so on. I myself had tasted the bite as a new driver discharge for wrecking another company truck with mine own and several were bad service failures through miscommunication and one in particular was over literally less than 50 dollars comcheck until payroll on a tire load that was not to be delivered that week, shutting down a multi million plant for a while and idling it's workforce when they finally ran out of tires JIT service. All that over a stupid 50 dollar comcheck that was denied (I had the payroll to cover it, but it was denied across the board... I quit that day and bobtailed home after using a loop hole in the system to interchange the trailer, leaving the company to decide what to do as far as sending a team to get it and roll it asap.)

I managed to recover from that incident and a number of others over the early years in trucking. But as bad as I thought I was, I consistently saw other drivers newer than I was and possibly considered worse than myself butchered by officers in a company aghast at the amount of damage they were incurring. I remember one with two weeks experience from school sitting in his destroyed cabover crying one friday evening after being fired and then billed for that tractor's replacement value. He was on US 20 in upstate NY East of Buffalo, where a particular town has specifically BANNED all big trucks from attempting entry, and had detours and marked truck route which was at the time a massive 30 mile grid type route square around the entire place. But due to his lack of english he rolled into town and hit that 11 foot bridge which proceeded to destroy his tractor and then the trailer and the load that was in it. So I know there are drivers coming into the industry with no mastery of english required to use critical thinking to generate a decision series and route himself around this town that has bent over backwards with barn sized signs both banning trucks and routing trucks around it due to a low bridge in it's center square on US 20.

That was one example. As I gained experience I cost my employers less and less money each year ultimtely proving myself to be a profitable revenue generator who only asks for a full set of virgin rubber each october (And gets them put on that day too.... on the spot ready for winter) I don't know of too many companies able to spend 5000 dollars on my askance for a set of tires when I ask for them each year. That makes them pretty much worth showing loyalty to and feel a sense of that is actually my truck and I need to take care of it.

Most people today coming into the industry worry too much about what is in it for them personally and do not ask how they can be good drivers with a goal of becoming a trucking company themselves someday and hire people, many people to work for them as everyone does well in a bright future.

I don't work anymore in the trucking industry for a variety of very good medical reasons unfortunately, but I feel increasingly obselete these recent months and years because the imposition of Elogs, computer survillence (Driver facing cameras etc) and other measures to absolutely micromanage all drivers in it's electronic grip that will dictate to them, no matter who they are what they can do, cannot do, will not do and a long list of prohibitions that will get them fired in real time should it be detected by a dispatcher watching them in a driver facing camera commit a violations.

This morning I view a video from our Scottie where a England truck takes out a hood of another truck in a truckstop that has absolutely tons of room, if not miles of fields in which to safely avoid all other trucks to get into a parking spot. But nooo it has to snuggle up to and destroy another tractor trailer right there with it's stupid trailer in view of everyone present. I don't feel anything except a sense of disgust and condemned the stupid trucker in my mind today about how dumb and wasteful costly this little manuver has been. What is he thinking (He isnt....) and how much easier I can put that trailer anywhere he likes in a few moments with no damage. And there is a trainer inside bunk sleeping possibly? Pray tell is the trainer really stupid too? Every time My spouse come off the big road that engine revs down and the transmission, brakes etc works through the slowing of speed prior to manuvering she is doing to get into a stop Im in the passenger seat rubbing sleep from eyes and doing my best to wake up fast before she gets into trouble possible.

I am a good trainer. Have been. I also am a good driver. But Im no good to anyone now. Trapped in a ever increasing numbers of apparently non native drivers who choose to do stupid *&^% and cost companies so much money that they should be fired and removed from the industry.

Then I get to thinking how stupid does a person must be in life not to avoid damage? It's almost as if they don't personally care. They come around crush your tractor's hood and engine plus front end because they want to park it there. Not safely 200 yards away with no damage and 50 acres to turn around in trying to park it between lines. Do a circle if that helps even... But no... they have to **Repeats myself...

Maybe I am the one who is stupid. Getting worked over young workforce unable to make critical choices to protect lives, property and cargo and should be fired constantly until we run out of money to fix other people's trucks or we start hiring honest by god old American truckers like myself and waive a bunch of laws and regulations to allow people like me to roll out again. (Which is NOT going to happen.) Ergo, buy Otto computer self aware self driving trucks entirely no more stupid humans breaking stupid stuff.

Just like the fast food places firing the 15 dollar an hour flipper to buy one time a robot flipper to assemble the food on a cashless order by the customer himself paying for it with a swipe of his cell phone tied to a bank account far away. At that rate fast food will have two people. One on call to fix broken robots and computers and another to count the digital income each day against the expenses of what was consumed by the people buying the food. Everyone else will be out of work.

What will we become? A Nation of unemployed living off Robots that are taxed like working citizens so that we are provided with a income cradle to grave with no motivation or reason to go to actual work after high school. Colleges will cease to exist because google will answer all questions in a few moments fast enough for anyone in any occupation to be effecitve, Provided they are not trying to drive or park a big truck around other expensive big trucks.

Im not sure if I want to be around still for such a Nation. And all for what? Refusal to properly train workers and truck drivers? because they actually cost too much money to train?

Maybe just having a trucking company with any number of trucks from 2 to 15,000 is itself too costly to have for the USA. if the people want's it's truckload of butter tomorrow morning delivered to Hunts Point NYC, they will have to go get it one pound at a time. With 10 million people in the city, it shouldnt be too hard for private citizens to buy and ship in 48,000 pounds of butter via us mail or fedex etc overnight shipping via internet. No more trucking needed. One pound of butter at a time instead of whole truckloads of butter.

This is a grotesque example. I understand from another example in the AMerican Industry for dairy cows that they are getting too costly to raise and feed for milk. So kill em off in the meat plant and import milk from Canada who are more than happy to double or triple their pricing so taht the Americans will have some milk today. Even if there is no more milk cows or farms left in America to do it.

I try not to think things too much, it's horrors upon horrors what is happening to us all. All because we refuse to train costly expensive trainees who smash other people's trucks anywhere any time.....

 

There is no training. Even back in 2005 when I got my CDL, my trainer with PAM only had 3 mo experience himself. He had some brains, though. But we still ran as a team. I.got in the driver seat, 30 mins later he went to bed. Got mad when I could only make it 500 miles that night.

I just bought my first truck 7 months ago. I don't believe I will ever buy another one and put someone in it unless they had at least 5 years experience and clean driving record.

Whatever you think you're going to pay your driver, add about 20% for taxes and workman's comp etc to that plus another $250/week for insurance. $1000/week quickly becomes $1500/week. And then the risk of your equipment getting ruined.

 

X1, I agree with much of what you said but the other part to this is having an industry that allows companies to be self-insured to skirt the standards for drivers. All over this forum are posts and threads about people with 15 over tickets to vehicular homicide looking for jobs and companies are hiring them. I can see why we are going to the "robotic" truck driver, why our regulations are what they are but also see where the gaps are in training.

As it is right now, the tests are really easy, any one of my kids could past any element of a CDL and may even pass the road test seeing a couple of them drove trucks in the yard (without my permission) and did a better job moving them than a few driver applicants I've had.

So to me, and a few others, making these actual professional level tests with professional level training is a must. I mean we have requirements for people becoming a plumber and have to have 2000 hours of training and no one dies because of a toilet backing up or not flushing, so why not here?