Profile For Donald B.

Donald B. You will have a much happier life when you stop blaming your self created problems on other people. You went into Walmart to rob them. They thought you looked suspicious. Had nothing to do with the state they were located in. Every state has their own laws for driver's license. You must follow the rules. In your two posts in this thread you helped no one, just whined about how the world has done you wrong.

^^^^ this...

I usually don't pile on to these.

But really - "conservative state" (you will find most truckers tend towards conservative), "anal redneck bumpins" (you mean they FOLLOW THE LAWS?).

While you make the appearance of "owning up to your mistakes" (I did get caught) - you somehow think the only thing WRONG with what you did - was GETTING CAUGHT.

Sounds like you are going to do REALLY WELL with all the RULES you have to abide by in this industry. The first thing you are going to need to do, it CLEAN UP YOUR ATTITUDE and your perception of the world around you.

Rick

My beef is not with the DMV workers who "follow the laws" but with elected officials, politicians, people us Americans vote for, who legislate such nonsense on the books. My current driver's license is from another "red" state that has my non-birth-certificate alias printed upon it. I was in fact able to get a driver's license in Idaho, for all its conservative ways, with the assumed alias I posted about earlier. All I had attached to my birth certificate was a notarized sworn statement, a Declaration, saying that the alias I was assuming and the person on my birth certificate with a different middle name was the same person, myself. The conservative redneck state of Idaho even accepted this document and the state of California, a police state, also accepted the same document and I was issued a DL there also with no court-ordered name-change requirements. Oklahoma will not accept the same Declaration attached to my birth certificate as other states have. They have to be different. They demand a court-ordered name-change. I will then have to pay $30 to my native state of Arizona to have my name amended on the BC itself. My beef is having to shell out money for the cost of legal procedures that Okie-homie demands that was never even an issue for nearly 40 years of my life. I started using a different middle name back in 1982. I served in the military under that alias. The VA knows me under that alias. My misdemeanor record is under that alias. The social security administration knows me under that alias. The IRS knows me under that alias. In America we have to follow certain rules but the First Amendment guarantees us the right to say something about it. If you don't like the current law you can vote or petition for changes.

The petty theft (not robbery, which involves arms or threats) conviction happened in Idaho in 2017 and the judge there granted me a "withheld judgement" a year later for good behavior and my lawyer had told me that employers therefore won't be able to see this through background checks. The telephone threats conviction, plead deal, had not stopped my getting employment with several companies including a large tire store since it happened in 1999.

Do trucking companies even ask about misdemeanors on applications?

Ive been out of prison for 10months obtained my class b cdl 8/6/19 And getting doors shut in my face.wht road should i take

I have a couple non-violent/non-sexual/non-drug/non-vehicle-related misdemeanors on my record but I'm now in the legal process of getting my name changed by a local law firm. Here in Oklahoma the courts don't even run background checks for name-change petitions or ask about criminal history. Just can't be a registered sex offender in Sooner State for name change. I'm certainly not one of those creeps. Basically years ago I entered a plea deal for making verbal threats over the telephone to two bureaucratic college professors and leaving them on their answering machines like an idiot. The police claimed they had voice-print ID technology because I had disguised my voice . The other was for trying to shoplift Walmart for $97 in groceries. Covering the meat up with reusable blue Walmart shopping bags in the shopping wagon and saying "I forgot to pay" didn't cut it in one red state I was in. My lawyer said that case would have likely ended up as a conviction had it gone to a jury trial. In California maybe, but in any red state not. It's tough to plants the seeds of doubt in the minds of jurors in conservative states. They'll darn near hang you for spitting on the sidewalk. The loss-prevention women claimed she saw me cover the stuff on camera and then started to follow me around the store. I suspect that they stated to follow me as soon as I came in the store with a bunch of empty blue bags. This red state, being a red state, is not very environmentally conscientious and I'm perhaps the only person they ever saw using reusable shopping bags. Yes, I'm guilty on all counts. I was caught after all.

Why the name change?

Just the middle name is to be changed. It's actually going to amend my birth certificate name. Since age 18 I've assumed a different middle name (Howard) than what is printed on my original birth certificate: the name of Mortimer. I hated the sound of "Mortimer", my BC middle name. The state of Oklahoma requires one's name to match their BC name in order to get a driver license. These old redneck bumpkins at the DMV down here are very anal indeed. The out-of-state driver license I have now is different from my full BC name so I have to have a court order for a name change just to get a stupid driver license. Since I have to legally change my middle name by court petition anyway just to get a Sooner license, I've decided to go further and change Howard to George. This way future employers can't detect those misdemeanors on any background check since my little rap sheet has Howard as my middle name. Since I have to pay court fees anyway, I thought I may as well evade detection of those little raps by future employers. Kill two birds with one stone.

Sure Todd.

Don't know about this TODD dude, PackRat, but sorry if I bragged on myself a bit too much. I do envy any successful CDL holder here to be quite honest. An army 5-ton, even a semi, is really an oversize tinker toy. Those Allison 5-speed auto transmissions in the M900 series are junk but I do love the smooth and quiet non-blown Cummins 855's those things sported under the hood. Maybe TODD was my name in a previous lifetime. General Patton thought he was once Alexander the Great and latter on Napoleon. President Trump thinks he's Patton come back to life.

Ive been out of prison for 10months obtained my class b cdl 8/6/19 And getting doors shut in my face.wht road should i take

I have a couple non-violent/non-sexual/non-drug/non-vehicle-related misdemeanors on my record but I'm now in the legal process of getting my name changed by a local law firm. Here in Oklahoma the courts don't even run background checks for name-change petitions or ask about criminal history. Just can't be a registered sex offender in Sooner State for name change. I'm certainly not one of those creeps. Basically years ago I entered a plea deal for making verbal threats over the telephone to two bureaucratic college professors and leaving them on their answering machines like an idiot. The police claimed they had voice-print ID technology because I had disguised my voice . The other was for trying to shoplift Walmart for $97 in groceries. Covering the meat up with reusable blue Walmart shopping bags in the shopping wagon and saying "I forgot to pay" didn't cut it in one red state I was in. My lawyer said that case would have likely ended up as a conviction had it gone to a jury trial. In California maybe, but in any red state not. It's tough to plants the seeds of doubt in the minds of jurors in conservative states. They'll darn near hang you for spitting on the sidewalk. The loss-prevention women claimed she saw me cover the stuff on camera and then started to follow me around the store. I suspect that they stated to follow me as soon as I came in the store with a bunch of empty blue bags. This red state, being a red state, is not very environmentally conscientious and I'm perhaps the only person they ever saw using reusable shopping bags. Yes, I'm guilty on all counts. I was caught after all.

It's Todd:

If I am myself (a newbie) favoring the company-sponsored program approach, then I think this website and its various authors of articles herein are "reaching me" more than they think.

Rob, may I please ask, who is this TODD person?

A lot of you have probably answered this question in some manner on here already but how old were you when you started your driving career? 48 for me

age 30, in US Army, year 1994, an M900 Series 5-ton 6x6 tractor (3 axles, rear duals) day cab connected with a semitrailer (two axles, duals) dry-van. Trailer 40-feet long if memory serves me correctly. in Germany, and even on the Autobahn!! Never drove any Class 7/8 or held any CDL now at age 55+. I bet no CDL driver here has ever driven any Class 5 or heavier 18-wheel tractor-trailer on the European continent. The Autobahn or on the cobblestone narrow streets of Europe as I have!

So, how do you three suggest a load like this be secured to prevent movement in a hard brake?

I give up, so why don’t you tell us?

Bulkhead, of course! Would a football player take the field without padding and a helmet? A baseball catcher without a face mask, shin guards and a chest protector?

This fatality apparently resulted from an improperly secured load that shifted during hard braking.

Seventy-six year old truck killed by shifting load

That poor old man might have been saved by a sturdy bulkhead on his flatbed trailer. I would have bulkheads as standard equipment if I were to own any flatbed trailers or flatbed straight trucks. Some dry vans even have bullheads installed inside.

Training doesn’t make anyone a trucker. Just this week we had a young guy went through training done his 35k to 50k miles. His trainer said he was ready. Prime gave him a truck, he went to Walmart decked it all out. Plenty of pictures on fb. First load he had oil pressure problems with reefer, didn’t even know how to open door on reefer. He violated his hours two consecutive days. He was late to his 90. His second load he was posting his weights, said he had moved the fifth wheel three times and couldn’t get it right. Didn’t even know what hole his tandems were in. Prime pulled him back in to go with another trainer. He went to SLC now he wants to work at the prime terminal. Trucking career done!

So, the bottom line is people just fail because they are just incompetent maybe? Was the trainer incompetent? Why didn't this man not know how to open the door on the reefer? Was this man just dumb? Who was supposed to be responsible for training him this particular skill? Whose fault was the oil pressure problems? Violations? Did he even have any HOS training? Who was supposed to train him on moving the 5th wheel? What logical reason would he even need to move the 5th wheel? Did the company even test him on what he was trained before cutting him loose in a rig solo? Do motor carriers expect drivers to be miracle workers? People fail on jobs for a number of reasons: laziness, ignorance, apathy, not serious, they find out in time this whole thing turned out to be really no fun, they hate their employer or coworkers or perhaps lack of proper instruction and guidance.

When I was in army basic, I seriously had doubts that I would graduate in my third week. I had trouble with the PT part. I was no athlete. I was falling out of the formation on runs, at the double time. I had trouble with push-ups. A number of the the young men and at least one drill sergeant were telling me I would be recycled (restarted) through the basic training program all over again if I failed my PT final test or I would be put on the Dog home in shame. I asked myself what the devil was I doing here. What wildest thing did I get myself into? But when all was said and done, I did graduate through faith in God and went on to a full seven total years of honorable military service. In time my PT test scores even got decent though never maxed out.

I think I might have a ghost of a chance to make it as a driver provided I take the preferred route of company-sponsored training. The company will invest in me and make sure I know what I'm doing so I won't be as likely to fail on their time and on their dime. I do understand that companies are committed to driver success when the dump money and resources in to rearing them up. Time will tell.

If I am myself (a newbie) favoring the company-sponsored program approach, then I think this website and its various authors of articles herein are "reaching me" more than they think.

Rob D...I am glad your intention was NOT to do something unsafe.

That said, if the average person who knows nothing about trucking, were to read your statement about "Roger That"...very easy to take it at face value as a blanket statement. I had to "check" it, clarifying that is not the way to proceed in this career in most everything. That might not make any sense to you now...but it will eventually.

Here is just one example:

I frequently back-haul water from Nestle', especially during the summer. 99% of the time, it's a "drop empty, grab and GO" with the pre-loaded trailers in the ready line. On this particular day, the load I was assigned to was not ready, meaning I'd have to take a door and wait for a live unload. My hours were short and at the time, there were no "open" dock-doors, all were occupied. Thus leaving me with no alternative but to deadhead back to the DC. I asked the shipping clerk if there were other Walmart trailers pre-loaded and ready. She confirmed there were several, and my load was the only one not-ready.

What do you think I did?

I called Dispatch, informed them of the situation and suggested they swap me with a load that was ready to go and give mine to a driver that was hours from arriving. They agreed and minutes later I had a new dispatch on the QC that I accepted. Point is, I took ownership of the situation and kept moving. Our job is to safely and efficiently move freight from point A to point B. It pays to think outside of the box and not take an attitude of "Roger That"...

Pick your spots...

G-Town, you just gave me an example of whereby being a driver is a "thinking man's position". Apparently, you were smart enough to think about that. It sounds like the smartest drivers will get the richest of the lot. It sounds like you can't always rely on your company to assign you loads in such a fashion that you will max out your paycheck each and every time. Reading stuff by Brett and Old School here, I gather that drivers may have to fight tooth and nail to get loads. No loads, no money for the driver, righto? Unless drivers still get pay for deadheading. I understand they get detention pay, maybe, but most of us would rather roll than wait. The "Roger That" is where a soldier is given an order and nothing more is said. In the military we get a monthly salary, base pay. Drivers get paid by the mile.