What has happened to this industry???

You, Sir, are a breath of fresh air. I have no doubt whatsoever that you will indeed capture the American Dream. If, just for the very simple reason, you're relying on yourself and not others to get it for you.

 

Thank you I am trying. Its just so different. I'm currently in the process of pre-employment with a Drilling company and they recently changed their policy to check mvr's from 1 year to 5 years.
The kicker is that its not a driving job. The oilfields IMO got hit the worst with the safety stick.

 

Lets leave the Great Oprah out of this...

 

If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost.

 

Last I checked this is a trucking website not the oprah fan club.

 

Actually, the whole thing with the purse was twisted from what really happened so that Oprah could cry "racism". What she says happened didn't really happen that way at all.

 

Bit of a high horse you're on there. Lucky has nothing to do with 600,000 miles accident free, that is good driving. Same goes for million milers, and those who have hit the million mile mark multiple times. Skill, knowledge, patience, and lack of arrogance. Schools these days don't teach a dang thing except how to go down the road straight, and that is not enough. Sat for over half an hour at a receiver today while some rookie that doesn't know how to back took forever to put his truck in the dock. Why aren't schools teaching backing properly? Where are drivers learning to NOT look when backing into spots a truck stops???? We now have to get a bumper and quarter panel replaced on our truck because some idiot doesn't know how to back. Big company drivers with governed trucks in high speed limit states blocking the fast lane for trucks just because they think they are the playground monitor or whatever sorry reason they have for being in the middle lane of three lane highway, with the left lane closed to trucks and the speed limit is 75, they are doing 63 . . . get your butt in the slow lane where you belong!

I had been out of the seat for more years than I had been in it until about 2 months ago (finally able to go back to driving!!!!), and I forgot more than most of the rookies out there learned in school or from their trainer. They are being taught at schools that don't care about anything but putting butts in the seats whether the student will actually get hired or not because of the felonies, drug charges, DUI's and other issues in their recent past, and that is being followed up by being trained by some clueless rookie with only three months of experience on the road.

How about the little rookie that is going 25 mph at the scale house, where the signs clearly say MAINTAIN 45 mph???? They weren't taught any better and think they know it all. Sure, there are some old timers that are jerks, but I see more bad attitude from rookies than anyone else.

The generation you are raking over the coals wasn't all doing drugs and running two log books or more, only a few were. It's the insurance companies looking to make more money and idiot safety groups run by people whose only agenda is to stick it to truckers because someone they know was involved in an accident with a truck, whether it was the trucker's fault or not, and whiners that thing we don't have enough regulations as it is.

While I may not qualify as an old school trucker time wise, I do in attitude, and there are too many steering wheel holders and door slammers that have no business being in a truck, but seem to think the right thing is to run down those of us that take pride in doing a good job, are courteous on the road, and take the time to help the new drivers when it's needed, yet we get run down by other newbie drivers who think they are the NEW thing and we should just shut up and do what the newbies think we should. Guess again!

 

The industry is NOT short of drivers, just short of qualified drivers . . . big difference. But the industry monkeys saying we are short of drivers are the same ones that want to pay peanuts, offer crap benefits and treat drivers like garbage.

 

What you're not getting though, it's that a standardized schooling requirement can include having to back. just being trained, pours that new driver completely in the hands of how competent his trainer is. if the trainer sucks at baking, how much can he really teach the new guy? by requiring school for this job, it opens the ability to set standards of who is safe on the road, and who should never get behind the wheel. with these schools not teaching baking, leaving out up being trained by a driver, clearly it's not working out or there would be a lot less accidents, right?

 

Do you really think that those that created this requirement give a rat's backside what is actually being trained, since the big companies that turn out the steering wheel holders and door slammers are behind most of the stupid regulations and requirements in the first place?