Earning Your Stripes On The Highway
Rookies in every field – from pro sports to construction to crab fishing – are normally ridden hard and abused by the veterans. They’re generally looked down upon by everyone that’s been around a while, and half the time people won’t even call you by your name. Well, again, in trucking you can consider yourself lucky. The veteran drivers may tease you some, and you’ll hear some garbage on the CB radio about “stupid rookies”, but that’s just radio talk, and the vast majority of drivers are quite friendly and will readily give advice to those who seek to improve their knowledge and skills and show some respect and a good attitude.
But life on the road is extremely difficult. Handling a rig safely takes a long time to learn. Traffic, weather, solitude, not enough sleep, and time away from home take their toll and wear you down sometimes. And at the same time your company is going to push you to figure out just what you’re made of. They’ll give you two or three lousy runs in a row, try to assign you loads they know you can’t legally make, get you home later than you were supposed to be, and all kinds of other little tests and trials to see if you’re going to stick it out, or jump ship at the first sign of trouble. Customers will make you sit in the parking lot for hours, and you won’t know what to do. You’ll have a delivery in downtown Chicago at 9:00 am in January and the traffic and weather is going to jump up and bite you. Then after weeks on the road you’re going to finally get home, only to find out that life has gone on just fine without you, and although everyone is glad to see you, you kind of get set aside because you’re no longer in the flow of people’s everyday lives, and it’s gonna hurt a little bit.
Fightin Through the Rookie Treatment
Yap, life on the road can be incredibly hard sometimes. In fact, it can be hard a lot of times. There’s so much to learn when you’re new, and so much to deal with no matter how long you’ve been driving. But if you have the personality for it and you see it through the hard times, it can be one of the most rewarding careers you’ll find anywhere. The adventure, the scenery, the amazing feeling of accomplishment when you make a tough run safely, the interesting people you’ll meet, the freedom of the road, the traveling lifestyle – it’s always an adventure, always something new, and always challenging – and that will never change no matter how long you’ve been driving.
But that first year is the toughest, and there’s a lot to endure. You have to give yourself time to learn the ropes and adjust to the lifestyle and the demands of the road. You have to remain steadfast in your resolve to get your career off on the right foot by staying with your first company for one full year, and doing it safely no matter what. You can always change companies once you get a year of safe over the road experience under your belt – that’s no problem. But that first year, keep your cool, take the pain, push through the hard times, and learn and learn and learn.
Don’t make any judgments about how you think things should be and how you think you should be treated that first year. You don’t know anything yet. You don’t know what makes a good company a good company. You don’t know what being a good driver really means. You don’t understand how the trucking industry works. How do companies get freight? How to they determine which drivers get which loads? What is the DOT enforcement like and how does it vary from state to state and season to season? How do you handle a rig going down a mountain in a snowstorm in January? How do you get in and out of a big city safely, and make that delivery and pickup on time in spite of terrible traffic and road conditions on only 3 hours of sleep? The truth is, you don’t know yet. So don’t pretend you do. Just stay safe no matter what, stick it out, and after a year goes by you’ll know way, way more about the industry. But in the beginning, you don’t know anything – it just seems like you do. Earn your stripes and learn the ropes, then you’ll know where you wanna go from there.
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It has been mentioned that if you had a DUI you can forget about driving. Does that include 20 years ago???
Hi Shelly.
There are some companies that have a ban on hiring any drivers that have ever had a dui, but many companies require it be older than 7 years. It will be tougher having that on your record, but certainly not impossible.
I think it’s tough when you’re starting out any new career. Making sure you remember your training, and asking questions when you need to is they only way to get ahead! Good luck, and great article.
Mike, yes you have to pay your dues as a newbie, but don’t forget, never let anyone walk all over you or treat you like !!@##$ because you are new. Respect is a two way street and I had to set a few drivers straight with the way they wanted to “discuss” things with me. being new, you need to learn the in and outs at a terminal,some drivers will just as soon talk down to you then to help you out, but stand up for your self. but then again, being new you need to be open to help and not display that ole timer tude with only months on ! or you will be talked to like crap.
Brett, I gotta hand it to you…you certainly seem to know your stuff, and thanks for providing us all with a forum where we can blow of steam, or even pass on kudos to those we may have found helpful and supportive during our rookie times.
Like many posts I’ve read here, I too made the career-change decision to truck driving late on in my life. The economy just doesn’t seem to support factory workers ( particularly those over 50) very well anymore.
I did my research, shopped around, and finally settled on a school that provided everything I felt necessary…160 hours, accreditable certification, and even placement.
Now I’ve lived long enough and rounded enough corners to realize that entry-level personnel are the bottom of the totem and usually have to toe some pretty stringent lines. However, never have I seen this so evident as in orientation to a major trucking company.
I’m well aware that when it comes to the safe operation and control of a commercial motor vehicle, even at my age I’m still a rookie. But I do believe that my life experiance should count for something. For instance, I expect I’m apt to be far more cautious on the highway than a much younger driver, as well as carrying around the common sense my years has afforded me.
I was just as frightened and nervous as everyone else the day we started our orientation. But when one of the yard instructors took it upon himself to scream and yell at my face what I was expected to do, I felt it was time I drew that proverbial line in the sand.
I pulled him aside from the group and calmly explained to him that my hearing was just fine and asked him if he would use the same tone to explain these maneuvers to someone like his Dad for instance. He must have got my point. He apologized, I accepted and we moved on from there.
I’ll be the first to admit there were important things this man had to teach me and I respected his experience, but at the same time I felt he should have also respected mine. I also realize he was only one instructor of many and not all have that “in-your-face attitude…but it is out there.
Anyway, I went on to graduate from yet another “refresher” course (the second for as many companies). Due to medical issues, however,I have yet to feel that experience of driving my own rig to deliver the load. Hopefully, one day I will. Being a rookie and being treated like a rookie doesn’t really bother me.
It’s being the ill-treated rookie that gets my goat, and from what I’ve been reading it seems to be happening more and more. Perhaps it is the influx of student drivers all these schools are putting out, or the more stringent regulations being imposed on companies and drivers, or perhaps even a combination of both. Either way, one of the first things the rookie driver needs to contend with is the fact that he/she will start out on the bottom of the totem. The sooner you can get your mind-set around that, the better you’ll do and the faster that first year of “rookieship” will pass.
Once again, thanks for a great site and the chance to spout off a bit.
Hey, we love having you here and we’re glad you enjoy the site!
Indeed the rookie treatment can be quite rough. I think it’s a huge shock that CDL training is so incredibly stressful. You wouldn’t think it is, but it is. I think the schools and trucking companies make this far worse than it needs to be, but that’s how it’s always been. I went to school in ’93 and was #1 in my class right from the start – but it was still quite stressful for me, as good as I was doing.
Keep on pushin forward – you’ll get to where you’d like to be soon enough. You obviously have a great perspective on things – that alone is 90% of what it takes to get there.