Profile For Alexander H.

How do you respond to the question about how many accidents you have on trucking applications? When they ask for howcmany accidents you've had, are they asking like how many (aka, crashes, or aka, what the company defines as a preventable accident)

For example, I have accidents that my company said we're accidents, like (1) turning the truck around, and the steer tires going on the grass. (2) blowing a tire on the highway. (3) Bumping another trucks bumper at under 2 mph with little damage. Law enforcement never came out to the scene, and police reports were never written and citations were ever issued.

When I've gone through different forums about accidents, people are always talking about police reports, and the motor vehicle record.

Also, when I check my DAC Report right now with Hire Right, it's totally blank. Hire Right toldxne that's because they don't have any information reported to my file. Another trucker told me that's because some companies don't report to your DAC until you get fired or terminated.

I asked my friend 2hos been in trucking for a while, and he told me that when companies ask for how many accidents, they want to know how many accidents involving police.

He told me that his first year, he had several accidents/incidents that his company deemed preventable on his DAC, and when he applied to Averitt, he said he told them he had 0 accidents, and he got the job. He told me they didn't even bring up a thing that was on his DAC Report. Now, he's been with them for 10 years.

Do any of you have experience with this?

Thanks a lot y'all.

I requested join the Facebook group that you referred me to. I'm just waiting for them to accept me.

Would you even advise a new driver to avoid going into liquid tanker hauling, even if they go through Schneider's 5-week training.

I just thought that I went into tanker/Hazmat as a new dtiver, it would be best to go to a company like Schneider, because they are self-insured, and I've heard people say that they have one of the best training programs out there.

I'm trying to get as much guidance as I can in the next couple weeks so I can make the best decision for me and my career.

Thank you.

Alexander, consider pulling dry vans for at least a year before driving tankers. You already have an incredible amount to learn with driving a semi. Get a year’s experience under your belt, driving in all types of weather conditions and facing the multitude of scenarios that we do, before adding to all that the challenges of pulling a loaded tanker. You can pull dry vans for Schneider; they have excellent training, equipment, and facilities. I assure you the tanker jobs aren’t going anywhere; it would be very easy for you to switch divisions if you’d like after a year. Just give it some thought please.

I am just coming out of school.

How much experience do you have driving and with pulling tanks?

Does anyone on where ever been a Schneider dedicated hazmat/tanker driver? I'm trying to get what people think who have been on the position. I have a conditional officer for their hazmat/tanker dedicated account for ECOLAB.

I don't know about this. I've had several friends in the last 2 years who have gotten on with their first company, then left after 3 to 6 months. Their second job paid them substancially more. A lot of midsize carriers here in Virginia require 3 months of verifiable CDL miles and a clean MVR.

Robert F wrote:

I attended community college. I opted for their 20 hour course and got my CDL at first time of trying. Got a job straight away. For a number of reasons I won't go into it wasn't to my liking. Just been offered another job so would have to say the community college route suited me fine and only cost $2000 for everything and I am completely a free agent!

20 hours? That doesn't sound right.

And to be clear, the free-agent thing is highly over-rated, quite the joke. Fresh out of school you have no real value other than a warm body with a CDL. Totally untested and unproven in a performance driven and highly competitive industry. Regardless of a contract or not, an entry-level driver should absolutely commit to their first job for one year minimum. I am glad the CC route worked out for you Robert, but please chill on the notion of being a "free agent" as a great reason to avoid Paid CDL Training Programs, it's total baloney.