Should I Keep My CDL?

Zach,

Please don't tell us you are having problems at another company? It seems like no matter where you go or who you are training with you have problems. Either take a deep breath and look yourself in a mirror and evaluate what you are doing wrong and correct it. Maybe you had better respond to Western Express and accept their offer to come back, learn from your past mistakes and become a successful driver or find another profession. You are quickly running out of options.

Zach, speaking from experience of 28 years working for type A personalities like that, I feel your pain. When I began that career, I made the decision that it was important to me to succeed, and I chose to take a deep breath, nod my head, smile, acknowledge the direction, and move forward trying not to provoke a similar Outburst in the future.

At the rate that they are going to run you, 200 hours should be right around 3 weeks total. I managed to survive 10 weeks of Academy, 14 weeks of field training, and 18 months probationary period working for people that were type a, knew everything, and would accept no questioning or resistance to Direction. I read earlier that you had military experience. Do you mean to tell us that you never had an NCO, senior NCO, platoon leader, or company Commander with similar behaviors and attitudes?

Dude! Put on your big-boy pants and suck it up! This is not an I told you so, it's simply acknowledging that you're struggling, and telling you that you can either choose to succeed, or you can walk away and acknowledge the fact that you chose not to cut it. Maybe Western will take you back, but you need to examine yourself and ensure that the issues are not with the driver instead of the company.

Your successes and failures rest solely in your hands, no one else can make the choices to succeed for you. I wish you well.

Zach,

Please don't tell us you are having problems at another company? It seems like no matter where you go or who you are training with you have problems. Either take a deep breath and look yourself in a mirror and evaluate what you are doing wrong and correct it. Maybe you had better respond to Western Express and accept their offer to come back, learn from your past mistakes and become a successful driver or find another profession. You are quickly running out of options.

Not having problems with Swift, Swift seems like a good company just things with my trainer aren't working out I said something that he took as me being disrespectful and as of right now he's tossing me of off the truck next terminal

All is not lost yet Zach. Maybe they will just find you another trainer.

How much do you want to be an actual trucker?

Did you think about asking for another trainer before you two arrived at this point?

200 hours training. OMG! At 10 hours driving a day, add in a few 34 hour resets, some weather shutdowns, and a few flat tires, that should take all of a month AT THE MOST! 30 DAYS! 1 MONTH! If you can't hack just about anything for a month, you will not make it doing something as easy as being a truck driver.

"Western wants me back." So? You couldn't make it there before, so somehow things changed in a couple weeks at Swift all of a sudden?

Zach,

Please don't tell us you are having problems at another company? It seems like no matter where you go or who you are training with you have problems. Either take a deep breath and look yourself in a mirror and evaluate what you are doing wrong and correct it. Maybe you had better respond to Western Express and accept their offer to come back, learn from your past mistakes and become a successful driver or find another profession. You are quickly running out of options.

Not having problems with Swift, Swift seems like a good company just things with my trainer aren't working out I said something that he took as me being disrespectful and as of right now he's tossing me of off the truck next terminal

Why aren’t things working out?

Zach I have to agree with Packrat, if you can’t hack it with a disagreeable trainer for a month, I don’t know how you can hack a career in trucking.

You may just not be ready for this yet. I’m saying this with no judgment, because when i was your age, I definitely did not yet have what it takes to do this.

I needed to do a hell of a lot more living and growing up first.

Go find something else, get some life experience, let life dish out a few hard knocks, dust yourself off, pick yourself up, grow some thicker skin, and if you really want this, come back and give it another try.

All is not lost yet Zach. Maybe they will just find you another trainer.

Pianoman's Out take ... Paul Wright.

I don't have 'much' .. but I sure remember some gems!

Best to you, Z.

~ A ~

Never said I couldn't hack it with a trainer or wanted off, we just had a bit of a misunderstanding that almost got me tossed off. We were both having a bad day and I got my ass chewed out becuase he thought I misplaced a Bill of lading which I didn't and I said something the wrong way and he took it as me copping an attitude. Nothing serious happened i apologized and I'm not getting kicked off the truck.

would love a good "I told you so" if things didn't work out here at SWIFT

You think that all of the responses and advice you received were so that people here can say "I told you so" if you failed.... That couldn't be further from the the truth. A lot of people here told you how to solve your problems at Western Express step by step and you did none of it. You popped in every now and then to cry woe is me, but you never said "this is what I did to correct the problem".

The fact that you considered going back to Western when things got a little murky at Swift tells me they weren't all that bad. Again, your problem is your temper and your attitude. Fix it, or you'll be back here in a few weeks telling us how it didn't work out at Swift because it's swift's fault.