Profile For Carmen K.

One week of so called training and they put you on your own?

Yes Sir. They go through about 50 new drivers a week. No license, new license, and experienced. You can guess the retention rate. Their present training model is to give us 1 week OTR and see who sinks or swims. Something about that must be cost effective but rough on people. Lucky me, I was finally hired at another company to drive dry van. Then just before 5pm today someone phoned me with the news they could only hire me for flatbed. 🤣 I'm almost 65 years old and a 6 week old kitten can beat me up. Had to say no. I'll let you guys know if I have any luck. Thanks.

Im a new CDL-A holder, worked at a mega carrier for about a month. Two weeks classroom then driving around the city for two days with trainer. One week OTR training. I felt I wasn't trained well enough and asked for more training for backing up. They pushed and said experience is all I needed. On my first solo load, I crushed a small tree in a dark parking lot. It was stuck in my tandems. My fault. No cops. No towing. No ticket. RIP little tree. 😞 One guy trained me on backing up for half a day. I told my supervisor I needed a couple of days practice at it. The trainer did teach me one good trick but I still need practice. She then told me I'd take a test. Pretrip, driving, and backing up. I thought, Oh great! They can see where I am and then I can practice on improving. Nope. The test was to see if they should fire me and needed documentation for their reasoning. Thought it was odd the instructor said he was not allowed to instruct me at all. Now I am fired for "Unsafe Driving Practices." It's fair enough to fire me for not being cost effective, since they churn out about 50 new drivers a week. But don't try to hurt my chances at a new job that would give me more training. My delimma is I have found a company that is willing to hire and train me but they need my DAC report. My first company one hasn't filed it with the state yet. I phoned to ask when they would file it and they said they didn't know. I asked for their copy of it to show my new company and they said their copy is proprietary and they never give it unless a lawyer pushes for it. Is there a legal time limit to make my DAC on this incident available to the TX public depth of safety? Is the company even legally obligated to file it at all? We have a family lawyer I can use but that feels weird to be so pushy. Should I just wait until they are good and ready? Thanks for any advice or suggestions. Much appreciated.

I just started for a company that may very well be willing to give you a chance. The exact opposite of what you experienced, if you need more training after the required 200 hours with a trainer, they will give you the time and training that you need. My employer is Dutch Maid Logistics. The company is OTR, but most of the loads are a bit regional. We are located in Willard, OH (myself living in Texas). The average length of haul for solo driver loads is 350-500 miles. It is refrigerated freight. Outside of Ohio, there are a lot of loads going to Baltimore, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Chicago. There is a farm owned by the parent company (Wiers Farm) in Sarasota, FL, so all along the east coast are good locations to live in working for this company. I mention all of this because you haven't said where you live and this way you can use the information to assess for yourself.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks Kerry. I will apply to them. I live in Texas too.

Weird they fired you over something so simple, I’ve worked for Schneider and knew right away the company before you even said which company it was based on how the training went. Did you get your CDL through a private school or did they pay for it?

When I worked there, I had a friend who hit a pickup truck and wasn’t fired, along with backing into two trucks not long after that.

Lucky for your friend. I was never allowed that much leeway. They got tight since then. Really frustrating. I paid for my own school.

One week training after getting your CDL and then straight up solo is a terrifying prospect. Who was the mega carrier? I really hope you'll let us know.

The good news is that they aren't all that way. After you obtain your CDL, Prime Inc requires you run team with a trainer for 30,000 miles. At that point, you should be comfortable with all aspects of the job and be fairly proficient on backing. Even if you obtained your CDL elsewhere, with the short time you have OTR Prime will still require training. If you're interested, driveforprime.com.

Hi Chris. Rob T. Guessed it right. It's Schneider and there was another trainee in the truck with me. The TE spent most of her time playing on the phone. She tried a little bit but it wasn't enough. It has put me in a bad position but on the up side the TE made a thousand bucks off the two of us trainees.

Hi carmen

Putting things on a dac report is completely voluntary. If the mega carrier doesn't put it on there so be it. You can get a copy of your dac report through a company called hireright. I find it interesting that your new company wants you to get a copy because normally they can just look it up.

Hope this helps.

Thanks and gotta apologize here. It is a copy of the Incident report my new company wants. I can't correct my original post . I'm going to the Texas Public Safety office tomorrow to get a copy of it.

Im a new CDL-A holder, worked at a mega carrier for about a month. Two weeks classroom then driving around the city for two days with trainer. One week OTR training. I felt I wasn't trained well enough and asked for more training for backing up. They pushed and said experience is all I needed. On my first solo load, I crushed a small tree in a dark parking lot. It was stuck in my tandems. My fault. No cops. No towing. No ticket. RIP little tree. 😞 One guy trained me on backing up for half a day. I told my supervisor I needed a couple of days practice at it. The trainer did teach me one good trick but I still need practice. She then told me I'd take a test. Pretrip, driving, and backing up. I thought, Oh great! They can see where I am and then I can practice on improving. Nope. The test was to see if they should fire me and needed documentation for their reasoning. Thought it was odd the instructor said he was not allowed to instruct me at all. Now I am fired for "Unsafe Driving Practices." It's fair enough to fire me for not being cost effective, since they churn out about 50 new drivers a week. But don't try to hurt my chances at a new job that would give me more training. My delimma is I have found a company that is willing to hire and train me but they need my DAC report. My first company one hasn't filed it with the state yet. I phoned to ask when they would file it and they said they didn't know. I asked for their copy of it to show my new company and they said their copy is proprietary and they never give it unless a lawyer pushes for it. Is there a legal time limit to make my DAC on this incident available to the TX public depth of safety? Is the company even legally obligated to file it at all? We have a family lawyer I can use but that feels weird to be so pushy. Should I just wait until they are good and ready? Thanks for any advice or suggestions. Much appreciated.