Well, we lost our "newbies"...

I started off pulling chemical tankers straight out of school and did alright, no accidents or spills, the only reason I left that company is I got smart and decided not to drive unsafe equipment like my dispatcher and terminal manager kept asking me too. So it can be done but you definitley have to be the right person for the job. The company I left hired another newbie and one of my old trainers told the company the guy wasn't ready to go out on his own but they threw him in my old truck and whatya know he rolled a full tanker of caustic. So like I said it's not the right place to start off for everybody but it definitley made me a better driver!

 

sure,keep job hopping.then all of a sudden you'll wonder why nobody hires you.

 

I absolutely hate this 'cookie cutter' attitude towards recent trucking school graduates. Your statement would seem to indicate that every new grad from a trucking school is a clueless idiot that somehow miraculously passed their CDL test. I will admit that is the case at times, but it's akin to making the statement that all black people that happen to live in urban areas are drug dealers.

 

Most tank carriers will hire drivers with one or two years OTR experience but no tanker experience . They put these drivers on the road with loads with maybe a week orientation and a week or so with a trainer .

 

I'll jump in.

I had a little over 4 weeks of trucking school training.
During this time we focused on the DMV book for testing, pre-trip inspections, ally docking, straight line backing, and some road time where the focus was on shifting and getting a general feel for the vehicle.
I will definitely agree that trucking school did not teach me nearly enough what I needed to be ON the job. It was a good start. I paid attention and was highly motivated, listened, and was probably (in complete honesty) the best student in a class of 11.

I hired on with a bulk cement company. I told them I was fresh from school and needed a shot to prove that I can drive. So I was put with my future trainer for a road test. I passed the road test just fine. His complain to me? I didn't know how to "float" the gears. I double clutched every shift. No matter, you'll be floating in no time.

I was with this trainer for 3 weeks. And let me tell you, DRIVING (as has been said) is only PART of the job. I had to learn proper hooking and unhooking procedure, which, btw, was different than I was taught at school. We have air ride trailers (some) which have to be deflated before putting the brake on the tractor and lowering the gear. ALSO, we dump our air bags. Was never taught that at school. Why? Because we drove empty dry vans around. THIS was a new ball game with 50k lb+ of product.

Electronic logs, driving in NYC, rain, all of it.
I thank God and say that during my training I didn't goof up too bad. Made some mistakes. Sure. And felt like a total dip. My trainer had been driving for a very long time so I thought I had something to prove. Turns out (in the end) I didn't. I was trying to impress, and make stupid mistakes, that did the opposite.
In my line of work, there is much more than driving. It's properly loading the product, unloading the product, knowing the types of cement and unloading properly - WHICH, is a unique challenge because EVERY trailer unloads/pumps differently, as does EVERY place that I unload into. When you're running at 10 psi because the place you're unloading into is a 12psi MAX, you get a clogged hose and it raises QUICK! Ya better know what to do!

At the end of 3 weeks, he asked me "you think you're ready?" I said yes and no. Yes because I knew that w/out him in the cab, I'd be more relaxed and less prone to make careless mistakes because I'm wound too tight. But no because more than once (like backing a flat bed into King's masonry in NY) he got me outta a tight jam and some jerk almost ran him over.
This is when the hard nose side was lowered and I felt for the 1st time, I was "accepted" by this man. The whole time he smiled ONCE! And that was because an older driver encouraged me and complimented my attitude and technique.

I've been driving solo now for 4 weeks averaging about 2,500k miles a week.
And again, thank God, accident/incident free.
I've been to NYC areas at least twice a week each week.
It's a challenge.

I've seen this industry compared to the military. As prior service, I'd second that.
Start at the bottom, earn the respect, work your way up, and keep your head on a swivel. Straight, sober, alert (situation awareness) the WHOLE time you're behind the wheel.

Guys, trucking school? You aint seen nothin yet. Wait till the "new" wears off and the reality sets in as you're going down the road at 65-70mph with 80k lbs of rolling death, and you think about having a blow out, in a curve... it gets real.
Or, you're coming up on a merge point in the road, and a little sports car MUST squeeze in the 10ft wide space left between you and the concrete on the right side, to get ahead of you.
Or, when you're pulling onto a little "logging trail" and you cut it so close, you're looking into your mirror and you see the rocks crumbling and sliding, and your tandem starting to slide down into the ditch, your tanker starting to cant, and your heart races, hit the brakes? BETTER NOT! you pull out of that mess, QUICK!


I smiled when I saw my trainer with another trainee yesterday in the yard.
I'm thankful I had a good trainer.
No doubt he taught me many things school never covered.

You guys that are in school, or just coming out w/out a job yet, MY advice to ya is like KittyFoot said. Be cool. If you are new to driving, like me, you don't know what you THINK you know. Don't be so quick to judge or jump.

 

I believe that is the real key here. I also started pulling chemical tankers fresh out of school 4 years ago, and I'm still at it and love the job. But I was old enough to have finally reached a maturity level that allowed me to take the time to evaluate the situations I find myself in and act accordingly. A few years back that would not have been the case.

Along with a sufficient level of maturity, being alert to potential hazards both along the road and at pick up and delivery sites is essential. If a driving candidate doesn't show this situational awareness capability, pulling tanks would be a bad choice.

And of course a mechanical aptitude is required, which I suspect the majority of people interested in driving trucks for a living would have.

Just my .02 worth.