Profile For PJ

Here is a new headline

Good article. Hopefully the fed’s take heed.

They did the same thing with the schools they did with ELD’s. They let each enitity self certify they were following the federal guideance.

What good is guideance that is mointered or even looked at??

My agent didn’t specify, but from what I have seen the systems all have foward and rear facing. Rear ones are configured in the software. He did ask me several questions about mine, which is what sparked the conversation. He has never asked about it at all the last 3 years I have been with him.

I have been following along and I can relate to all that has been said. Here are a couple wrinkles in this issue.

I know the self insured carriers don’t directly get effected by this, but talking with my insurance agent he revealed many insurance companies are starting to mandate cameras for clients. Of course the client is free to refuse, however their insurance will get cancelled.

We are in an era that cameras are everywhere. They have some value in my opinion, but tying it to driver pay is a mistake. Everyone from the gov’t on down always want to paint everything with the same brush. That just doesn’t work in our society.

Ca has done it again. They are pushing a bill that mandates cameras be turned off during rest/meal breaks because it infringes on the employees privacy. A violation would be a $500.00 fine for each occurance. It is currently expected to pass. This should open a whole nother can of worms.

No matter what size carrier you work for it probably won’t be long before most if not all trucks will have cameras.

We make recommendations to folks based on our experience on what we have seen in this industry. And between all of us we have seen alot. We don’t bash anyone for doing what they feel right for them.

Many, of course not all private schools operate on tight budgets. The equipment is often old and in some cases in bad shape vs company sponsored schools that have newer and better maintained equipment.

Company sponsored schools do the necessary workups before a student arrives and the student has a job immediately after passing school. Private schools often have a handfull of companies that recruit from them. They usually call it job placement assistance. No guarantees at all.

Company schools have more of a vested interest in students passing. Private schools don’t, they are there to take your money in exchange for a CDL.

There have been vast amounts of folks over the years coming here asking for help after paying for private school only to not find a job afterward. They don’t do any background checks. You pass a drug test your in. They have no idea if your hireable, and they really don’t care.

These are a few of the reasons we recommend going company sponsored. Getting into the industry is stressful enough without adding to it by not finding a job after passing school.

I’m glad you did well, those are the success stories we love hear.

Welcome, what to expect?? That is a very subjective queston. Your trainer should be getting ahold of you, probably sometime tomorrow morning. He/she should give you an idea how the program will go. I don’t know if Western has any set timeframes, but you can expect to be very busy during training. Your timeframe will likely be based at least in part by your performance. You will struggle with backing and trip planning, everyone does.

Depending if your van or flatbed those are very different divisions. Vans can have appt times just about anytime day or night. Flatbed is more daytime hours.

Your trainer most likely won’t know for sure when the truck will be ready, until it is. Shops are notorious for giving unrealistic time frames on repairs.

Take a deep breath and relax. Wedtern has trained many drivers and know what they are doing. Learning to roll with the punches is hard for most folks to get used to. It will all come together.

What brand is your APU?

I have an old Thermoking and it goes down to 55 deg. It will freeze me out of the bunk. This may just be a setting that needs adjusted. Also if it is low on freon or the filter is dirty your cooling will be diminished. I would check the filter first and go from there.

I had a terrier on the truck for awhile and she shed so much I had to clean the filter once a month.

I’ve read the post twice and still don’t know what to say, since everything is pretty vague.

What I will say is all rookies struggle. Many come into this industry without a clue as to what they just got into. Carriers advertising many times makes it look like a paid tourist position.

Also most large carriers not only have high turnover rates for drivers, but dispatchers as well.

To OP, lets break down things by line item and we’ll do our best to help you out.

Yes sir, and ATA is still pushing the debunked story of a major driver shortage. They have got a congressman to sponsor a bill giving a 7500 tax credit aimed at primarily new drivers.

On it’s face it looks great, but when you look under the cover it will be devasting. Freightwaves did an anayalis of the bill and applied the numbers to dry van freight. They estimate it will drop the current rate per mile at a bare minimum 11 cents per mile and could drop it as much as 83 cents per mile. They also said it would decimate the spot market all together.

That may be good or at least decent news for large carriers but it will kill small fleets and owner operators.

We are living through very un chartered terriority right now.

If you were convicted or plead out to a dui your cdl will have a mandatory 1 yr suspension at the minimum.

Also I would be very wary of and leasing program and if the current adminstration has their way those programs are going away by way of federal mandate.

This is a bit strange to me, but probably I find it that way because of a ton of missing facts surrounding the situation.

I’m going to take it you must have been showing signs of impairment and was in at least constructive control of the vehicle. If you haven’t adjuicated the case yet, get a lawyer and fight it in court. If it’s already done, then your career is on hold for awhile. A DUI in a CMV is a career killer. I don’t know the rest of your record so how long your license will be pulled is at a minimum 1 yr.

In alot of ways this is worse than failing a drug test.

You need good legal advise from someone looking at all the circumstances.