Podcast 10: Terminal Rats Are Derailing Trucking Careers

G-Town didn't realize who Dan was...

An btw there "Dan", you know absolutely nothing about me. You joined one hour ago and made this your 1st or 2nd post...

Opps my bad, I am totally wrong you registered under a new name,...you're the guy Brett banned for being a total jerk in one of the camera threads...

What's your game Dan? Yah wanna help people or make trouble? You wanna show us you are the smartest person in the room, or add some value? Up to you Chief...but I can all but guarantee; Brett will not tolerate the negativity and the insults too long.

Wow this topic went south fast. From someone that is getting into the industry I thank you Brett for all the content and all the positive moderators and experienced drivers who post frequently.

One thing I learned in college was about opposing viewpoints. To make this world keep spinning we need republicans and democrats, liberals and conservatives, good and bad. These are important to foster debate and change.

Had it not been for The info on here I would be left with the same prejudices against the industry and certain companies, one of which I will be starting school with in may.

By reading the various posts on this site alone many that contradict many of things I've heard before I am able to compare the two, what I thought I knew and what I have gotten here, and make better decisions.

Thanks again.

Love this site, and glad to know about terminal rats, so when I do finally get into trucking, I can turn off my hearing aids if I come across any of the "Rats"

Occasionally we end up with Forum rats. Just put out some bait and watch them gather.

Occasionally we end up with Forum rats. Just put out some bait and watch them gather.

The entire industry does. It's a performance-based industry in every way. If you don't perform, you won't succeed. Not as a company, not as a driver.

Since your perceived performance relies on the loads you're given, and you are somewhat at the mercy of others for that, I'd wager performance in terms of miles is as subject to whether said others likes you or not, as much as whether you're working hard and doing your job well. I actually have a neighbor who was fired from systems because she didn't have enough miles, but they weren't giving her any loads. They gave her no warning and took the truck she was driving away from her hundreds of miles from home, with no help getting back.

So is that a good thing? I'm not sure what you're saying. I don't understand the point of that to be honest.

I'm suggesting that you're blaming victims in some cases.

Actually I don't think I implied that at all. I certainly didn't mean to. I've never even had that thought. But the people I'm referring to in this podcast are not normally productive workers. That's why they're always sitting around truck stops and terminals. Even if they wanted to work hard, which most of them certainly don't, they don't perform at a top tier level so they're not going to get the miles that the top tier drivers get anyhow.

Maybe they're sitting around complaining because no one is giving them loads because someone in charge of them doesn't like them? Or maybe their company really is incompetent and has major issues?

...and some will invest in you. They'll pony up the cash, equipment, and personnel it takes to get you trained and get your new career underway. Then they'll hire you once you've completed their training. All you have to do is work hard, have a great attitude, and not screw it up for yourself. It never ceases to amaze me what a small percentage of people seem to be able to manage it, though.

If you go into it thinking the company is trying to exploit you then you're almost certainly doomed to fail for all the reasons I explained in the podcast. So you can choose to be cynical toward your new company or you can choose to be ambitious toward your new career. There are plenty of people on either side of that fence and the results they get are strikingly different.

You can also be cynical about your company and still work hard towards your goal, and that should be enough. No truck driver should have to kiss some idiot's behind to get a decent load and do well.

So what does being a "no" man enable then? And that's not a smart*ss question. I really would like to know where you think you're going to get by being hardheaded and difficult and cynical.

Obviously I'm not talking about self interest. I'm talking about not being a total tool. I want to be a truck driver, and I don't need people enabling expectations of being a sycophant towards management in order to do well.

But being a hardheaded failure instead would make you what, an admirable nobleman? And again, that's not a smartass question. But you keep making these one sided statements about how horrible it is to be this or that, but you never explain what someone should be instead or where they'll get by being that way. You're complaining and criticizing, but you're not offering alternative solutions of any sort. People need a strategy they can execute on, not just a list of complaints or a list of things you shouldn't be.

Success tainted by sycophancy isn't success. It's just having money.

Now interestingly enough, someone apparently signed in under your name or you took some strong meds and posted this:

Who said that? That certainly wasn't the same person who posted all that previous stuff, unless our friend Bolt had an influence on you:

My theme is the same, and there is a pragmatic side to me, but it doesn't compromise integrity, or allow myself to be deluded in lies so I'm more ambitious. I actually kind of like you, but so far my actual exposure to the trucking industry has been abysmal outside of these online communities. I posted my experience with the school I went to here over a year ago, and the school I paid to go to after that guarantees a pass, but they have a ton of problems themselves, and I ended up getting a new job before that worked for me. I quit that job and now trucking is in my sights again.

See, it's one thing to complain and criticize. Any knucklehead can do that, and they do it quite frequently. It's quite another to raise a valid concern and then start a professional conversation with the right people by offering some better alternatives.

Nonconstructive complaining tends to happen after constructive criticism is ignored. My trucking school simply didn't seem to care about any of their blatant failures, and I have this nagging feeling already that the industry is full of idiots. I can handle that mostly, but they're going to hear about it sometimes.

Speak of the devil!

He is referring to you Ryan cause you are so blind to your own misconceptions! I cannot believe you think, you know more than those who have been trucking or have trucked for 10-20 years. Whats more funny is you are just like the devil because all he does is lie and it looks like you do just about the same thing, except you are just lying to yourself by convincing yourself that you can be a successful trucker even if you are an outright complainer. I agree whole heartedly with Brett and G-Town cause they are the ones with the experience and you, well you are still a rookie. I do not mean to be negative but when someone like you drops in on a conversation like this and decides he knows more than the pro's ( G-Town, Brett Aquila, Old School, Errol V. etc), your type irritates me more than a driver who just cut me off selfishly, and trust me that is something that irritates me a lot! I am going to leave it there.......

Speak of the devil!

What single digit number did you get on your ASVAB to be a barber, turbo? The bringer of light deems you not so bright.

Actually my GT score was 129. I was an 15T (67T) in the Army. That is a UH-60 Blackhawk Repairer. I was on flight status as well for over 10 years. I did Barbering after I got out because I wanted a stress free profession. Schooling to. E one a Barber takes over a year. Not too mention you have to learn Anatomy, Cellular Biology, and Chemistry to be a barber.

Patrick C.,

Repairing Blackhawks actually sounds fairly impressive. Why did you decide to be a truck driver instead of a truck mechanic? I'd make a better mechanic than a truck driver myself, but I'd rather be a truck driver so I guess I should understand. Back when I was looking into truck driving years ago, I found some vocational studies and parsed it for truck drivers. Overall, they really did score extremely low on most aptitude testing. Then again, learning backing skills kicked my butt. I partly blame the school though... every single person in my group failed the DMV driving test the first time, and we had the highest scores in the classroom nonsense before that, and one guy was already a professional driver, yet he failed at the DMV. Partly the DMV is just completely inept too, though. I failed the first time due to air brakes for a reason that isn't even covered in the California handbook, nor the federal handbook, and I did it that way with a trainer every single time, but none of the DMV minions cared when I showed them. Every DMV actually has different class A expectations too. It's ridiculous. The whole industry is painfully ridiculous. It takes like 2+ months to get an appointment to be tested, and I couldn't plan that far ahead so here I am two years later and still without a class A.