SET UP TO FAIL

The state of the trucking industry just kinda sucks right now. I have worked for three different companies over the past two years and I might leave my current employer because I'm having similar problems with them that I had with my last one.

My first company was a starter company that I was happy to leave after I realized how bad they were jerking me around. After that I went to an oilfield company in North Dakota and they had severe issues with their equipment, both trucks and trailers that made my ability to effectively do my job incredibly difficult and stay safe, also I always got the blame when their equipment failed. My current company is actually very good to work for but even their brand new trucks are having a lot of major issues and their old trucks are very long in the tooth needing to be replaced badly but they are having to wait long periods to get new trucks and those trucks have ended up being junk. It has become an intolerable situation for me.

The good news is that everybody seems to be hiring and it's something doesn't work out for you you should fairly easily be able to at least find someone else who's interested in hiring you somewhere else. The grass will not necessarily be greener but for me I'm at least willing to take my chances.

 

Very unfortunate that you had to experience training like that. Before back in the 80's going into the 90's it wasn't that bad. You got one of the worse kind of individuals that the trucking industry can possibly have. And its really just a mirror reflection of the current state of trucking industry.

 

That's not unheard of at all....if you're terminated while on the road, companies do that with regularity. Some are classy enough to at least bring a driver back to the yard and then fire them. If you have a dirty drug test, for instance, you're getting fired on the spot wherever you are. I've heard of stories of guys getting fired for other reasons and getting stuck at the truck stop.

 

I'm sorry for your troubles man. Unfortunately, the real training for trucking comes when you're out on your own. Every scenario just will not be covered while you're with your trainer. Me personally, I do not use a GPS. I haven't used one since my rookie year(2010). It didn't take me down the right roads, and I figured that out very quickly. Google maps was mentioned earlier, which is great to use while exploring an area. Also you gotta keep an atlas handy. It's better for trucks to stay on the marked highways. Sometimes it takes a little longer, but it's better to do that than to have a tough situation. We all have incidents early in our careers. Some of us will admit to them, many will get self righteous and act like they're perfect. I certainly had my share of incidents/accidents. That's what makes you......experienced.

 

Believe it or not, most of what you experienced is YOUR fault.

10 months ago you joined the forum to complain about your trainer. Since then you have made no other postings or otherwise engaged with the site - at least that I can tell. If you had questions on the HOS, trip planning, or other matters this forum could have answered them. Heck, just lurking like I do most of the time would have given you knowledge and insight. You failed to utilize this resource, and I'm guessing that you also failed to proactively use the resources PTI provided. You seem to wait until time is running out before taking action.

On the empty trailer move, you should have looked up where you were going and noticed the stops were reversed. But let's assume that there was no indication that the work assignment was wrong - once you got to the repair yard and realized the screwup you no longer had time to safely go to the other location, hook, move back to the repair facility and get to safe/legal parking. You should have informed Dispatch that you were out of time and going to head to safe/legal and pick up the trailer in the morning.

All the way through your story there are obvious points were the driver needs to take ownership and control of the situation. Even up to the last moment before you hit the bridge you abrogated your responsibility and critical thinking skills. You should know from doing your vehicle inspections that the top of the truck is just a tad shorter than the top of the trailer, so it would be responsible to assume the truck is a minimum of 13'5" and safer to use 13'6". You're also bobtail at this point - getting turned around shouldn't be that challenging.

Mistakes happen and companies like PTI will typically work with new drivers. I'm left wondering how much latitude they've given you over the last 6 months.

I wish you the best, but like I told you last year - "even if you get a different trainer (company), nothing will change until YOU make it".

 

This just adds to the fact on how declining the profession is getting unfortunately.

 

Good luck with the job search.

A friends son got his start at PTL years ago. He was told by his dispatcher to pick up a certain trailer in their drop yard, in Murray. He went to both, couldn't find it. So he called his dispatch, and got his arse chewed out, for not finding this trailer. Turns out they had another drop yard, no one ever mentioned it to him. He quit shortly after.

 

Seems to be the trend there. Seasoned drivers at a lot of Megas. Swift, Werner, TMC, Melton, JB Hunt, etc. all have a decent amount of million milers.

The common trend there seems to be coercion, low miles, and a stressful work environment (but not because of work load and running hard)

 

Give Danny Herman Trucking a call. They go under the radar for new driver companies, but you're probably in their hiring area if you're in PTL's.

I made a whoopsie there and received a permanent vacation lol, but it wasn't like your situation, so dont panic. It was me actually being dumb . They have good lanes, KW's with APU's, and none of that company GPS and chasing trailers around drop lots BS.

Not the best pay in the world, but would probably be decent for a newbie. I assume they still have their training program that they had for new drivers when I was there.

You'll get to run true coast to coast as well, so you'll get a few days to relax on a 1500 mile load and pace your miles to your own schedule instead of fighting the clock trying to run down trailers.

 

You have your own gps on your phone , and don’t just blindly follow it
A coupe weeks ago some idiot truck driver was in my residential neighborhood with a sleeper cab and a 53 foot trailer .
Because he was blindly following his gps instead of zooming out and realizing the gps was telling him to turn off the door lane highway he was on , cut thru a residential area with lots of hills and curves to get t another four lane highway

these two four lane highways were connected by , you guessed it , another short four lane road .

which he would have seen if he’d taken 12 seconds to scroll out and get the big picture .


and if you don’t have paper maps and a road atlas , get them .

I always stopped at each states rest area welcome center and picked up the official state road map .

you can grow and learn but as mentioned , you gotta take ownership of it .

yoire the captain of the truck .

Every decision is up to YOU .

If you need advice , ask for it .

if you get in a jam and can’t get under a low overpass or need help backing into a busy highway , call the local police and ask for help with traffic control

On a very rare occasion you might run into an officer that’s rude but 99% of them would much rather stop traffic and get you safely gone than spend Hies filing our accident reports .