Where do you as a driver look for jobs?

AGREED 100% lol. Learned those tricks many, many years ago. Funny they still use that ploy to lure unsuspecting newbies in.LOL

 

Oh the part of "No Nyc,No forced Dispatch,and the "Presidential Wages... $68K To $75k...Just to get Ya to Suit Up.

 

Yeah, i remember those lies. If one make 28,000- 35,000 per year, they are lucky. New York City, where is that. Is that part of Canada? lol

 

I'll be the first one to tell you that what she states is truth. They do not force drivers to take loads that they aren't comfortable with, and they don't force.drivers to drive in regions they aren't comfortable with.

 

I started driving in the mid 90’s. Had 4 driving jobs since then. Biggest one had 50 trucks. Every one of them came from word of mouth. I wouldn’t even consider working for a company without talking to a lot of their drivers over a long period of time and finding out exactly how they are.

Companies worth working for shouldn’t need to advertise. They should have a stack of applications sitting on the boss’s desk, waiting on one of the old hands to retire.

Any company with a “recruiter” would not be on my list.

 

I go to the McKesson if I wanted to get back into trucking off medical fixit stuff. Then I spend a day writing down MC DOT Numbers off the sleeper trucks coming and going from the facility after dropping empties and picking up loads.

Go home, google the numbers, come up with the carriers (Generally unmarked or very very minimally marked trucks) and contact them. I used to run medicines out of McKesson and these are high dollar loads. I would never be going back to potatochips again. (No offense...)

If it's a mega?: Forget it. I go to the smaller fleets say 200 trucks or less. The people are better, easier to get to know and so on. Ive only worked for two companies with larger than 5000 trucks in my life. Several with 1000 or so like FFE.

If it's only 30 trucks, then I am not a unit number anymore when I check call in by phone. Come to think of it I don't call in too often, unless they tell me to over satellite.

I do not do recruiters very well. (No offense... Sir..) always something to be hidden somewhere for me to discover should I actually survive orientation and it's deliberately camouflaged process of elimination. That mental health test asking about what to do multi choice in a scenario where you are 2 hours prior to running out of hours tonight and shipper will be late getting that load? Do you run it anyway or not?

The answers fed to master control within the company's pre-selected systems will decide if you are the driver for them or not. I had three companies do that kind of thing with me over the years.

It's really hard to recruit me. But oh so easy to walk into a class room filled with 21 somethings fresh from school ready to see the United States gathering nuggets of Gold every mile. (Ya right.) It's not fair to them. You follow me?

One example of how hard it is to recruit me is you can easily end the entire process of hiring me with five simple words. "We have driver facing cameras" Im going to work else where. It's a waste of your time and mine. It would have been nice that I knew about this before I even met you for a interview. But no no one advertises that sort of thing so I have to ask you or better yet peek inside the row of tractors while waiting outside to be called in to meet you.

Every company I have ever signed onto I have at one point or another managed to buy a driver working for that outfit a coffee, a meal or whatever it takes to nail him or her down long enough to teach me a little bit of the good and a little bit of the bad with such a such a outfit.

For me Medicines is it. Million dollar loads plus, it's going into very sick people and save some of them tomorrow morning by noon at the latest by needle or IV. It has to be there at the DC overnight on time.

Memphis has many predators who will kill me in nothing at all for the narcotics piled onto the pallets inside that unmarked rig. I am the right sort of driver to work the battle problem as it were getting the hell out of there safe and no damage or loss.

You will not bamboozle with detention, unloading pay or anything like that. I refuse to go to Americold and then sit three days waiting on them burning all my fuel. IF your shippers are not drop hook accounts forget it. And so on. Small examples.

A 21 year old would be like tossing steak in front of wolves. They will get consumed before they have a chance to learn anything.

Recruiting is easy. Teaching them is not. I prefer to teach. That is why I am here alot. I hope to give someone that little thought somewhere where they may yet find something still good in this industry without being misguided by glossy ads printed in colors on paper with suggestive equiptment and showgirls etc. tsk tsk tsk. And the money? HA forget that money, I prefer to figure how much I can save on a given load once it's paid to me the moment that 5th wheel clicks onto it. Then I can decide how best not to overspend around the USA.

at the end of the year I should have a little something in the bank. A car? Maybe. Or even a house or a new used truck in a few years if I lasted that long. Who knows?

But there is a percentage of people who will not rise to the occasion in this industry when a problem comes up. I have always flogged the GPS technology and so forth that is getting quite excessive in our trucks today. Causing new generation to be rather non functional mentally. That's not good.

You the recruiter has a opportunity. I hope you help them rather than herd them.

 

They do have stacks of applications, but many of them can't pass the sniff test, the bosses here are busy running the different sides of the company. 4 brothers one over the brokerage, one over maintainance, one over operations, one over all. They have somewhat strict requirements, biggest one is finding drivers that live within 100 miles of a terminal. Used to be 60 miles. Most applicants they get are Via word of mouth, some they get when they seek out drivers through job postings such as indeed.

 

Well, You did well defending your position. Along with some thoughts I have not considered on my side of the classroom so to speak.

My driving days are over, for very good reasons. The knowledge is there what's left of it.

I have always advocated drivers to purchase a good camera these days because 4 wheelers usually once in a while in my experience set up a insurance scam with a no win scenario of forcing you to slam the brakes as you hit them and 4 people inside it. Without a camera and with 4 people complaining of whiplash in the ER after your company potentially is buried in expensive claims. Plus a potentially good driver being fired.

My position on facing cameras is personal choice. Although I recall a recent big truck wreck where the driver refuses to let go of the cell phone that caused that wreck as his entire rig came apart around him. (*That was educating...)

3 people left of 10? I have to say that's really difficult to accept. Especially what it takes to get any of them to show up there in the first place. at this rate you need a month of weekly orientations to get 10 good drivers.

My question becomes how can you stand it? At some point you would have to either find a hobby that is fulfilling or perhaps allowing you to leave work exactly where it stays on your off time at home. It's not a easy job and people like me do not make it any easier. (Not intentional.. it's what it is.)

I appreciate the thought that maybe I am a good driver. I could be. But I am not as ... good as I am supposed to be with the ever increasing and tighter dont do this dont do that and so on. I would cause problems with your company's policies more than anything in many minor things that might come up out there on the road. In short I know I am good, but I am not the sort that is willing to toe the line and comply strictly and be nice day and night every day with the company. Something comes up that needs doing, sometimes I have to ... find a solution on my own. And it's not going sometimes be that which the company would approve of. You follow me?

I recognize perhaps that the industry must evolve further to ensure that no one becomes a wild man with a 18 wheeler at any time out there and for many other reasons as well. Ive considered myself a outlaw at one time and on the other hand with certain freighting such as Medicines Ive considered myself a professional at least once. (Maybe I was delusional who knows.)

I think that I should close this and say I wish you best of luck. You need to go through a awful lot of people to find good ones to trust with a $200,000 rig and lord only knows how much in the box on it. That is probably something that I could not do. Choose the good ones the way you have to do.

If something else comes up I can think about it then. Other than that I think all is well here.