why are so many people going to school, only to find that they don't have the job?

I learned alot on this forum, before I decided to sign up at the college. Get the school first, no choke hold on ya. I did a early DOT physical because of my eyes, good thing I did. No Interstate driving for me for 3 years. If you a very pure record, FBI, DUI, DMV, old enough, goof physical, you have a good chance. also, go to ripoffreport dot com, type in company names, schools etc. Research. Laws for cdl are diff now than when I first tried the career in '84. New CSA 2010 laws will hurt alot to Any' Q's on individual state laws, I can point ya to it.

 

Trucking is a funny industry because low lifes are given a chance because of driver shortages. Everyone has their excuses and vents on forums about losing a job. If you a looking for a company to work for I would look for what campany has the most good things said about them as a start. Also remeber if someone is happy with a company they drive for, they most likely don't have a lot time to be reading and posting on forums. Good luck!

 

You won't.
Nothing is guaranteed in this biz...miles, hometime, pay, nothing.
Want to know when a trucking recruiter is lying?
His lips are moving.
These companies know drivers are a dime-a-dozen and you will be treated as such.
I talked to a guy who left Werner who said he had to wait 2 weeks (unpaid) for a trainer.
He finally got on a truck and the trainer was screaming at him, didn't bathe, even had sex with a lot lizard in the bunk while the guy was inside the truckstop getting some grub.
If I were you, I'd try and get another office job: home every night, off every weekend, sleep in your own bed, treated like a human being.
If you have absolutely nothing going for you, then trucking might be OK.

 

From JNM0313:

Welcome to the forum!

No, it's not just you!

Some of the "trivial matters" that get reported here are, in my opinion, just part of the story. I do, however, believe that there are situations in which a carrier dismisses a student for reasons that should have been fleshed out long before the student arrived at the school.

Expand your possibilities for as long as you can. There are many carriers that 1) have in-house programs and 2) accept students from private driving schools and community college programs.

Dig deep into your background, on your own, prior to handing a carrier a "carte blanche shovel" to use to do their own digging. We live in a transparent society....there are databases full of "oh, I forgot about that" information that a carrier will, with your permission, have access to.

1) Get a copy of your MVR(s) on your own (it's cheap).
2) Evaluate your health history on your own (with your primary care doc).
3) Evaluate your aptitude for trucking on your own (keep reading the forum. It takes all kinds of folks to succeed as a drivers but, from my own reading, I've come to believe there's a "common thread of aptitude").
4) Evaluate your criminal, drug, alcohol use backgrounds on your own. If you have one or more of these backgrounds, expect a real uphill climb into a driver's seat.
5) Get a commercial driving textbook on your own (about $15 on-line). Read it...there's more to learn than what is found in a state CDL License manual.

I'm a wannabe! I'll leave next Saturday morning for Swift's Academy in Memphis (Millington). I'll begin classes Monday morning May 24. I've done each of the things I suggested in 1) through 5) above.

Do I know I'll have a job when I finish school? Probably.
Do I know I'll make it through school? Nope.
Am I confident that I can pass the physical? Yep.
Do I know I have a clean background? Yep.
Have I dotted all the "i's" and crossed all the "t's"? I think so.

Just as it is sometimes a crap shoot of a sort for new drivers when choosing carriers, it's also a crap shoot of a sort for carriers.

Make #### sure you are employable!

 

from what I've been hearing, trucking starting to pick up, so grab a college course, wait for it to be done. By then, things SHOULD be moving along for work. My state will pay the unemployment while in school.

 

Most of these 'trivial' matters are things like unreported DUI's, perhaps a felony that wasn't reported or just plain physically unfit.

The story is, these companies make money after SUCCESFULLY training you to drive. (government retraining funds). It does them no good to bring you to orientation, then drop you. It's because they know you have a slim chance of making it, ergo a slim chance of they're being paid. So why spend the efforts?

Look for a company that does the physical BEFORE you turn up for orientation. I know Watkins Shepard does that. If you get invited there for orientation, you have to have really screwed up to be sent home.
(no, I don't work for them. I just know they're a good company)

If you do your homework, you'll do fine. Just interview the prospective employer well. there's a post on here recently about interviewing a prospective employer by Maxwellite. check it out.

 

I wanted to get with a smaller company, not one of the huge start companies once I graduated. That's why I accepted AM&S's offer over Werner's.

When I got the call from MCT saying that AM&S was accepting my applications I got the cell number for the owner and talked to him for a few minutes about the company introducing myself. It's good to know that if i need any help, the only person I can talk to isn't one of 500 DMs or dispatchers or whatever they want to be called. If I have a problem I can go to the top. I like the idea that they know me as a person, a face, and a name, not just a soc sec/truck/trailer number.

 

,

Actually your chance of getting a brand new truck is pretty good.

Veteran drivers in a company get pretty attached to what they drive, so at times they have to be forced out of their old truck for it to be sold off. At the same time these drivers usually don't want to got thru the month or two of breakdown and recalls that brand new trucks seem to all go thru. So new drivers tend to get these new trucks.

Also the major fleets have just now started to buy new trucks to add capacity, making more units available. Then there is the problem of older units needing replacement. A lot of fleets stopped buying new units for the last two years, making their average fleet age a lot older. These trucks are starting to be replaced as well.

Now is a good time to be coming into trucking. The driver pool is the most experienced (highest average driver work experience), and the safest. A lot of marginal drivers, as well as a few good but unlucky ones, got released from the industry. Pay should be going up by the end of this year. The model is shifting from OTR to regional and dedicated, which is a lot less stressful for drivers with families.

I have a very positive outlook about the near future when it comes to driving.