Whining And Crying You Read On Other Trucking Sites, Starcar's View....

Its not so much everyone else's negative comments about a company...because that just tells you how THEY interacted with that company...THAT is the magic of it all...every company can end up bad for some people. They go in with preconceived ideas on what THEY want from the company...what THEY are worth...what THEY will accept..WRONG.

The company trains you in their school, trying to make sure you learn and understand all you can. Then they send you out with one of their drivers, to learn everything there is to know out on the road. After you do that, then you are put in your own truck. You are trusted with a vehicle unit worth nearly $200,00.00 empty...then you add on average, another $100,000.00 worth of freight. So do you think you should be able to do things "your way" ??

HECK NO !!

And these people who cry and complain about companies have, somewhere along the way, gone in the ditch, be it schooling, on the practice yard, out with a trainer, or solo for the first time. So many people think that they don't need to "work" in the school.."any fool can drive a truck" mentality. Going to any trucking school is INTENSE...repeat INTENSE.You have to work to get thru any of them. (Thats why we push the High Road..learn before you go). If you are self important on the practice field, you won't learn what you need to know, cuz your mouth will be open talkin' when it should be shut so your ears can hear....The very same thing when they go out with their trainer, EGO...EGO...EGO.

As a newbie driver, you have no ego...you have fear, and uncertainty, and questions...tons and tons of questions...and you better be asking every one of them. And even then, if you clear that hurdle, and you get sent out in your own truck, you will be scared, uncertain, and then have no one (but TT..we'll be here!!) to answer your questions. THATS when you wish you'd spent more time trip planning, and getting familiar with your atlas, and QualComm..But those folks who get in their solo truck with all that ego and nothing else are doomed to failure sooner or later...the ditch will find them.

Theres no place for ego in trucking, ever. You will learn every day you're out there, for as long as your out there. Just ask us old drivers...we learned until the last day we sat in the seat. So when you read, or hear some whiner complain about how the company " did 'em wrong"...just wonder what the person did to run themselves into the "I am the best thing that ever happened to trucking" ditch. You have to go into cdl school with all the early learning you can get...your permit and all the endorsements you can get, and a willing and open mind.And you need to stay that way for as long as you have someone to answer the questions you are going to have.

You do research, alot of it. THEN and only then do YOU pick the company that fits YOU...irregardless of what happened to Ernie Ego, when he was there.... I like this post so much, that i'm going to copy and past it on the general board...maybe it will give some other new folks a different way to look at all the negative whining they see on other sites...

I know this is an old post, but I feel like it's not just,the newer ppl that have an ego, the "super truckers" have them as well, and big ones, my father had one, is that different? And I'm really not being a smartass, just wondering. I understand that yes they have all that experience and know the roads like the back of their hand, but is that a reason to think so high and mighty of themselves? Correct me if I'm wrong, but are all the older truckers like that?

I'm old and crusty now, P.R. Wife. Here's my opinion:

The majority of the complainers we're talking about get into truck school or the truck job believing things will be just like they were at home, or like the stock clerk job at Kroger they did after school.

It's not. Schools and truck companies have a business to do, and you, newbie, need to hit the ground running. Hotel room? Yes, but it's no resort. Class? One, maybe two shots at a topic and you're on your own. Backing practice. The instructor will show you how, now get busy practicing yourself.

If you notice, people ex-military have already got the play-school stuff squeezed out of them. Yes, others come in with mature attitudes, too. But they don't whine on forums, either.