Glassdoor.com And Similar Sites

How does one relate to the trucking company reviews on a site like glassdoor.com? I am not young and naive, but it seems to me that reviews on such sites are probably negatively slanted. How do you relate to those reviews when one's personal exploration of a company has pointed to something more positive?

Lawrence Hopeful CDL owner.

Excellent question, and one of our most occurring themes: What information do you need and where do you find it when deciding upon which company to work for?

For starters, you don't want to evaluate companies based upon opinions in forums, on blogs, on Facebook, or any of the sites like RipoffReport or GlassDoor. You have no idea who these people are or whether or not anything they're saying is true or not. There are a ton of people who screw things up for themselves and immediately blame those around them for their failures. There are people on there trying to make competitors look bad. And of course some people get started on a path of "slight exaggerations" and before you know it most of the story is completely fabricated. But all in all, those type of opinions are junk when it comes to the trucking industry. It would be wonderful if we could trust them, but we can't. Not a bit unfortunately.

You want to evaluate Trucking Companies, Truck Driving Schools, and Company-Sponsored Training Programs using quantifiable metrics - things you can actually compare. For instance, mileage pay, average miles per week, benefits, home time, equipment, pay raises, opportunities amongst various divisions, type of freight, etc, etc.

What you don't want to do is make career choices based upon things like "TruckerBobby2121 says Swift sucks and Werner treats their drivers like cr*p!"

Now I fully understand that even after comparing quantifiable metrics you'd still like a little more. You'd like to hear their drivers experiences first hand and find out all you can about what life is like inside the company. Well the perfect way to do that is go to a local truck stop and speak with some of the drivers face to face that are currently working for the companies you're interested in. You can talk to them while they're fueling up, or ask them if they like the company they're working for when they're on their way into the truck stop. You'll be shocked at how friendly the vast majority of the drivers are and how much happier they are with their company than the people you hear from on various parts of the Web.

The bottom line is you want to hear valuable opinions. The most valuable opinions you'll find about a company will come from the drivers that are working there and out on the road doing it successfully day in and day out. People who are happy and productive do not generally run around blabbing about how great life is. They're too busy turning miles, making money, and enjoying themselves. It's the ones who flunked out, got canned, quit, or screwed up somehow that wind up sitting home and rambling on forums about how lousy their former employer is.

We have an excellent series of articles, including an 8 part series that I wrote, that cover how to choose a truck driving job and you can find those here:

How To Choose A Trucking Company.

Read through them all. They all have great information and they'll clue you in on what to look for, what questions to ask, and where to find the best information.

Hope this helps!

Thank you, Brett, for the thorough response. I did perform some searches to see if the topic was covered, but came up short.

I am wanting to get my CDL , but a main problem I have is funds. Of course, there are company sponsored training schools, and also many companies reimburse tuition (the problem there is that I would have to have the up-front money).

I was making headway with one company on your Company-Sponsored Training Program page, but I have not been impressed with the response after making the initial phone call. I applied the Wednesday before Memorial Day, knowing that the recruiter I spoke with would be gone from Thursday to Monday. Tuesday would be her first day back. She sounded like she was going to get right on the application, but I didn't hear anything. So Tuesday afternoon, I left a voice mail. Wednesday morning went by, no contact. I left another voice mail, after making repeated telephone calls. Yesterday noon, I still hadn't heard anything, so I left another voice mail. Near the end of their business day, I called again and spoke with another recruiter. He pulled up my application, and told me that I wasn't eligible because I stated I was fired from my last job. (In one respect, I was fired; in another, I wasn't.)

He stated he would send my original recruiter a message to call me, and I haven't heard anything (their business day is over).

I really don't know what to think of this. Is she just chicken to tell me no? I have made every attempt to be kind, professional, and nice on the phone (my last job was at a call center for 6 years, so I know what it is like to be on her side of the call). Should I give up on them? Should I try some more to talk with her? Should I maybe contact the HR department and see what is going on?

I just don't know.

So, I started looking at other companies, and that is when I decided to visit GlassDoor. And that visit prompted the start of this thread.

I do have a "fall-back" plan for getting my CDL from the local Community College, but that doesn't start until the middle of September, and I would have liked to get it sooner. And even if I do wait (which it appears that will probably be the road I will follow), will I still have the same problem with other trucking companies?

I have considered off and on being a truck driver for forty years! And at this time of my life, it just seems right. But even though I know that the people writing those reviews probably have some sort of ax to grind, it still discouraged me.

Oh, well. Didn't mean to cry on your shoulder. :)

Thank you again, Brett.

Lawrence

The way I see it you won't know until you try other companies. Maybe there are things going on behind the scenes that you are aware of with them like an illness or something. Dont know but maybe. Maybe she never called you back because you were fired from your last job and she figured it was easier to just not call you back and say no. I would hope not because that's pretty shady.

I believe I've seen on here that sometimes it is difficult to get ahold of companies. I assume they get quite a bit of people to deal with daily so I can see them getting a bit behind especially on a holiday weekend. But after a few days you would think they would call back. I would say to keep trying and go down your list of companies and apply to all of them. Then if you don't get your number 1 choice the ball is rolling for the others.

Good luck to you. I'm going to apply to my number one choice this weekend so I may be in the same boat next week. Today I was trying to nail down backup plans at other companies. Sorry I don't have any better advice or anything being new to it all myself. Just keep grinding and if it is meant to be it will come. Maybe you find another company to go with and it all will be better there. Never know.

As a side note my roomate works at a call center and I don't blame you for wanting out. The stories he has told me would make me crazy if I worked in that field.

As a side note my roomate works at a call center and I don't blame you for wanting out. The stories he has told me would make me crazy if I worked in that field.

::Chuckle::

Yes, it can be pretty stressful.

Lawrence, just keep at it. Try some other companies - these recruiters can be awfully busy at times, and it's understandable that they would concentrate their time on more viable candidates. What you've got to do is make yourself more viable to them. I'm not wanting you to lie on your application, but you don't always have to tell them everything. I don't know your situation on that call center job, but if you think you can consider it that you quit rather than actually got fired, then go for it.

Also try and stay away from all those websites if you can, they are really not helpful at all for someone like yourself who is just trying to get their foot in the door. There is a ton of valuable resources right here, and I can guarantee you that you've only scratched the surface of what is available to you here.

Company-Sponsored Training is the way to go for someone like yourself who may not just have an extra 6 or 7 grand laying around that they don't need right now. Not only will you get excellent training, but you'll have a guaranteed job to go along with that. They front the money, and you get all the benefit! That's a sweet deal!

Again just keep at it, don't let one rejection get you down. I got rejected lots of times, even got sent home three different times, but I'm enjoying my second career now as professional driver and you can too!

I totally agree with what was said above. Just keep at it. Recruiters are famous for being hard to get in touch with and not calling back. They're swamped with work.

Also, if they have a company policy that says they won't hire anyone who was fired from their last job, then she knew you wouldn't be hired so she dropped it and moved on. You see, they get paid commission to bring drivers in the door. They have a massive pile of applications to go through and very little time to do it. So they have to pursue the best prospects in order to maximize their chances of bringing in drivers and getting a nice paycheck. That's just how it goes. Forget it and move on to other companies if you can't get a favorable response from this one.

Also, whatever you do, do not judge a company based on their recruiters. A lot of people make that mistake. They get a recruiter who's really on the ball and they assume the company is very professional. Or they get a recruiter that won't call them back and figure the company is disorganized and unprofessional. That's not the case at all. Don't read into it. It's simply the luck of the draw. Every major company has a room full of recruiters. The one you wind up with is totally random most of the time and should not be used as a proxy to judge the company.

Oh, well. Didn't mean to cry on your shoulder. :)

Hey, not only were you not crying about anything, but we want you to share your thoughts and questions with us. This is a really complex industry and an unbelievably challenging career to get started in. There are no dumb questions, and every thought you share with us will help us understand where you're at so we can lead you in the right direction.

Keep the thoughts and questions comin. We'll help get you where you want to be.

Lawrence...you're my neighbor !!! I'm a little down river from ya..lol. Are you a Vet ?? The VA has a special program that pays for CDL school. I'm sure you've heard of the little CDL school in Pasco, T Enterprises. Thats where I went to my 4 day CDL school. Nowadays its 5 days long !!! I woudln't suggest it, if you've never driven before....its a basic brushup for previously trained drivers. If you want to stay on this side of the US, you may want to research companies from here, that have training. Theres alot of good companies right around our area... Good Luck !!