Profile For Old School

Hello Gregory T!

The clearinghouse is for recording drug test failures. It has nothing to do with your driving record. So, don't stress over that one.

Your DAC is where your employer can list this accident if they choose to do so. It is a voluntary system and not every company uses it. The employer uses their own discretion when reporting to DAC.

What are your concerns? I wouldn't worry over it too much. The action to take is evaluate why this happened and figure out what action you can take to avoid it in the future.

It sounds like a classic case of not taking the time to G.O.A.L. Get Out And Look.

How many of you go home for Thanksgiving and Christmas? I almost always get home for both holidays. I know some people get extra pay for being available during these times. What do you guys and gals choose to do?

Last year I worked during Thanksgiving and took extra time off at Christmas. It's easy for me to take time at Christmas because they close down the Hydro plant I'm dedicated to for a week of maintenance work.

This year I've got all three of my children and all nine grandchildren coming for a full week at Christmas. So, I'm taking a few days off for Thanksgiving and a then taking a full vacation at Christmas.

What are your plans?

Your explanation here leaves me a little confused. You keep stressing how you requested more training in backing, but didn't get it. Then you give the reasons for which you were fired, none of which have anything to do with backing.

I'd leave the backing issue out of any explanation to future employers. It adds nothing to the reason you got canned. It just sounds confusing.

You took way too long moving a couple of trailers and you got yourself on a dead-end street where you had to get turned around. You also damaged a fuel pump by leaving with the hose in your tank.

All of that suggested you needed some close quarter training. It became even more obvious after you failed the close quarter training.

I think all you can do is apply all over the place. Just be upfront and honest. Tell them you are brand new and you made a few mistakes. Tell them what happened, but don't muddy up the water by bringing up the backing stuff. None of us feels confident about backing when we are new. It's practice that we need. We've already been trained, but we are terribly clumsy at it. We need real world repetition.

You are in a tough situation now. Very few companies want to take a chance on new drivers released during training. Be persistent. Try applying through our web site. This link will allow you to fill one application and send it to many different companies.

Apply For Truck Driving Jobs

Don't lose heart! I can't even tell you how many companies rejected me. I persisted and prevailed. You can too.

Getting started in this career can be harsh - I know it all too well. Be resilient and tenacious. There's a seat for you somewhere. You can't be picky at this point. Take the first opportunity and make up your mind that you can prove yourself a great truck driver. One year of safe driving will prove you are capable and will open all kinds of doors for you.

You can't make leasing great again.

That presumes it was great at one time.

I cannot think of a single thing you can do as a lease operator that you can't do as a company driver to help improve your income. It's all a game. Why do you think companies offer these programs?

Seriously! Why would a business offer to set you up as a subcontractor to them? It provides them a way to have less offsetting expenses on each load.

Where do you think those expenses go? They go somewhere. It doesn't take long to figure this out.

Bobcat, that's a bummer!

I'm sorry that happened. Hopefully when you re-bid you can land something solid. We all hope that works out for you.

How does the extra board work? Are you basically "on call?" Do they just let you know about runs that come available on a daily basis, and you decide if you want to take it?

I feel like I know a good deal about trucking, but the LTL world remains a mystery to me. It's a large sector of our industry, but I haven't had any real world exposure to it.

Probably most of you never think about the articles I've written over the years, and I don't blame you. This week reminded me of one of them. I got Dispatched over five thousand miles this week.

My dispatcher called and asked if I'd be willing to run a load to Portland, OR. Typically I am kept east of the Rockies. I jumped at the chance and it was settled.

I'm a dedicated driver for "Hydro," and they have a plant in Portland which easily provided me a backhaul load. As soon as I was empty, I got loaded with a load returning me to Delhi, LA, where my dedicated plant is located.

I got to get re-aquainted with some old friends. I ran "Cabbage" twice, went through Spanish Fork Pass. I ran I-84 through the Columbia gorge, I-80 through Wyoming, I-70 in Utah and Colorado, and just thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I love this job, and all the little perks that come with it. As I was fueling up somewhere in Utah, the driver next to me started going on about how this job sucks and he didn't understand why he keeps doing it.

I responded with, "Man have you noticed this beautiful morning? I got out of bed @ 3:00 this morning. My feet hit the floor and I was thanking God I could still drive a truck in the good old U.S.A." His response was, "You must be a rookie driver." I was climbing into my cab to leave as I said, "Yep, that must be my problem. I'll catch you later brutha!"

It's been a great week. I had five thousand plus miles handed to me, and I've enjoyed every minute of it. I know this job can be tough. I know it beats the *#!* out of a lot of people. It's an extraordinary job that requires extraordinary people, but if you can step up and fill some big shoes, there's a lot of rewards to this. God bless trucking!

Well Apex, I was looking forward to more documentation. How's it going?

Do you know what job you are doing after being with a trainer? You said you expected to be OTR. Typically you should be with an OTR trainer. Do you know why you aren't? Is it just a shortage of trainers?

Do you have a contact person at the terminal? I would go to them and have a discussion about this and request to be trained for the job you'll be doing.

Quentin, do you have any suspicion why you're being denied? Sometimes it can be as simple as not providing them claer information they are required to gather.

They are required under federal regulations to know what you've been doing for the last three years. That's why they need a detailed work history. If you can't provide verifiable information with contact numbers and approximate dates, you are not going to get anywhere.

We might be able to help, but you kind of need to fill us in on what you think is making your applications go into the round file instead of a recruiters "to do" list.

You need a mega carrier. Small operations are not going to be able to hire you unless they are running a complete outlaw operation. You definitely don't want to start that way.

I completely understand your frustration. I started my career with nothing but rejections. It is disheartening and frustrating because they generally will not tell you why you're being denied.

So... can you think of any reasons why you don't look good on an application?

How did you obtain your CDL? It's possible that may be an issue.

Hey Francis!

I want to encourage you to

Learn The Logbook Rules (HOS).

It's always easiest to do what we are comfortable with, but it keeps us struggling unnecessarily. Many truckers settle for much less than they deserve. Stretch yourself and practice the things that will help you outperform your peers.

I'm curious... if you've burned up your 70, using 10-13 hours per day, what kind of miles did you turn in?

I think you're leaving a good bit of money on the table. Knowing the rules, and understanding how to take advantage of them, is absolutely something you need to get familiar with.

That link I provided you is a great place to start.