Things you need to think about....

Well I guess the only thing I can do here is say sorry. I didnt take your post as a personal attack. I lived in a shrew cut throat business for quite a while and Ive learned not to take #### personal. Im sorry you take my post that way. Perhaps I could have sugar coated my post to .You cant deny that alot of posters in these forums seem to get a thrill when someone fails in the industry and get to put the dreaded "I told you so" posts up. Maby I jumped the gun and lumped this in with one of them. If that is the case then I appologize.


So here is the sugar coat version of my post....

Give us a chance and judge us after our merits in the industry and not because we ask questions before going into it. Give us a chance and not judge us because of something that may have happend 10 or 20 years ago. Judge us for who we are today and who we have been since. No one person is pefect. I am sure everyone on this forum has made mistakes in their lives. You are not special. You are just as human as we newbies are.

Also, so you dont think I am ungrateful or dont listen, Thank you for taking the time in your life to educate us. Thank you for taking the time in your life to tell us your experiences. This forum is invaluable and so are the people, such as yourselves, that are here all the time posting. It has given countless newbies, such as myself, alot of information. I for one appreciate.

 

Scott, no one asked you to sugar coat a single word. We were just trying to..........ahhh forget it.

 

God I guess I cant even get my appology right huh.

/peace nana

 

Man.... relax .... it ain't all about you.


............... Jim

 

Thank you Jimbo........that's the point I was hoping to make but gave up. LOL # myself.

 

every newbie like myself need to take these words to heart and learn form the other drivers on the road.
The only source of knowledge is experience.
Albert Einstein
and experience doesnt mean holding the wheel and getting from point a to point b it means trying to reach the standards that made the trucking what it once was Like a instructor i had in the classroom at C1 said trucking is a great experience but its not what it was 10 years ago and 20 years ago it was a lot different than 10 but we need to go out on the road everyday and try to change the image of todays driver one person at a time and that means treating your truck as a busness and presenting yourself as a professional not pulling in in sweats and t shrits full of holes and being presentable and being good natured not being billbig rig the a hole h who knows it all learn for the people you meet on the road and leave a good impression of yourself with them when you part. Trucking today is not the brotherhood once was and it will take you changing the proseption of todays driver one driver at a time to get it back to where it once was.

 

Huh.... I didn't see w900's remarks in the same light you did. I sure didn't read the tone of the post as being 'harsh'; I felt it was more about 'tough-love'. He certainly wasn't hammering at newbies, or trying to snipe at folks wanting to get into commercial driving; what his post did was raise 'fair warning' of what I consider to be the minimum issues that anyone wanting to be a commercial driver, or who has already entered the field, need to keep at the front of their minds when considering this profession for a career.

All of us have a history. All of us have tales of woe and grief. I think you'll agree, however, that none of that applies to the issue raised in w900's thoughtful post: being a commercial driver requires a specific, unapologetic lifestyle and quality-assurance standards. Think of w900's post as a counter-balance to the glossy brochures and the honey-laden promises of the CDL mills and the trucking company recruiters.

 

Scott as much as I would like to say of course you're right....guess what you really wont get that chance out there. Right or wrong that is the way that it is....sink or swim with an 80,000 lb anchor. We realize that you didnt take it personally and you didnt need to sugar coat anything for us. The trucking industry chews up and spits out people in a BIG WAY! Really good people too that made a mistake small or large it doesnt matter. None of us are perfect, and all of us that sit behind the wheel of a rig learn something new everyday, or come across something new everyday.

If you get behind the wheel you had better be prepared for the unexpected because it happens all the time and you never get enough warning, but with focus, skill and luck you survive to fight another day and soon it's more skill than luck, when you get to that stage you just might make it as a trucker provided that some idiot four wheeler or newb steering wheel holder for a driver mill doesnt ruin your day. Just saying man.....it aint roses and lollipops and noone gives you a break..you have to create them for yourself

Just my 2 cents for what it's worth

 

if you cant take constructive criticism, public safety and trucking are twpo jobs you dont need to be in...Ive given that advice to EMS workers for 20 years....underpaid and overworked....such is the life of alot of the truckers, as i understand it. Its somethiing you have to want to do...Ive done my research and think I will like it.(trucking, that is). I loved EMS, but 20 years of death, blood, gutsa and sickness were enough for me...alot of BAD dreams and memory baggage.

 

Good Post. Agree with it 100%.

I made it 9 months before I decided it wasn't for me. Not because I dislike the driving. I was just #### tired of being away from my kid. Spent the majority of the first 5 years of her life gone (Spent 8 years in the Military). The year and a half I was home before I hit the road really changed my mindset from "You can be gone".. To "WTF am I doing?"

I kind of miss it though, and a part of me believes if I had found a better company to work for, I might have been able to adjust to the away time again, and still be out on the road. However hindsight is always 20/20 and I'm on a different path now.

BKW900 may seem like a harsh old cuss.. But that's ok. He also strikes me as the type of guy that would help a new guy out on the road too. Even if his help came with some stern advice. Nothing wrong with it. Sometimes stern advice sticks better than "sugar coated" advice.

Hell- I can't count how many times I had to get "stern" with Boot Camp Newbies when I was in the Navy. Sometimes it's the ONLY way to get through the thin skinned, thick skulled kids that are coming up these days.