Comments By Kerry L.

Im a new CDL-A holder, worked at a mega carrier for about a month. Two weeks classroom then driving around the city for two days with trainer. One week OTR training. I felt I wasn't trained well enough and asked for more training for backing up. They pushed and said experience is all I needed. On my first solo load, I crushed a small tree in a dark parking lot. It was stuck in my tandems. My fault. No cops. No towing. No ticket. RIP little tree. 😞 One guy trained me on backing up for half a day. I told my supervisor I needed a couple of days practice at it. The trainer did teach me one good trick but I still need practice. She then told me I'd take a test. Pretrip, driving, and backing up. I thought, Oh great! They can see where I am and then I can practice on improving. Nope. The test was to see if they should fire me and needed documentation for their reasoning. Thought it was odd the instructor said he was not allowed to instruct me at all. Now I am fired for "Unsafe Driving Practices." It's fair enough to fire me for not being cost effective, since they churn out about 50 new drivers a week. But don't try to hurt my chances at a new job that would give me more training. My delimma is I have found a company that is willing to hire and train me but they need my DAC report. My first company one hasn't filed it with the state yet. I phoned to ask when they would file it and they said they didn't know. I asked for their copy of it to show my new company and they said their copy is proprietary and they never give it unless a lawyer pushes for it. Is there a legal time limit to make my DAC on this incident available to the TX public depth of safety? Is the company even legally obligated to file it at all? We have a family lawyer I can use but that feels weird to be so pushy. Should I just wait until they are good and ready? Thanks for any advice or suggestions. Much appreciated.

I just started for a company that may very well be willing to give you a chance. The exact opposite of what you experienced, if you need more training after the required 200 hours with a trainer, they will give you the time and training that you need. My employer is Dutch Maid Logistics. The company is OTR, but most of the loads are a bit regional. We are located in Willard, OH (myself living in Texas). The average length of haul for solo driver loads is 350-500 miles. It is refrigerated freight. Outside of Ohio, there are a lot of loads going to Baltimore, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Chicago. There is a farm owned by the parent company (Wiers Farm) in Sarasota, FL, so all along the east coast are good locations to live in working for this company. I mention all of this because you haven't said where you live and this way you can use the information to assess for yourself.

Best of luck to you.

Seeing as I've already been accepted through WOIA and I can certainly pass a UA (if that's the test the college uses) would it be possible to go ahead and get school out of the way In January, get my CDL and then take a BS job (Uber or something) for 6 months or so to be absolutely certain I've cleared the one year threshold before applying for a trucking gig or would that be suspect from an employer's point of view?

I have read horror stories about waiting. It can leave you with a stale CDL, that is a CDL with no experience, many carriers want to see experience with the CDL. The CDL just opens the door to training, which in turn opens the door to becoming a driver.

That makes a lot of sense. Even if I knew for sure the school just did urine test and had a company picked out that also did urine, company policy could (or that law that's been kicking around since 2015) could change at any time. I guess the only way to be sure is to push it to next year. I just hope that doesn't forfeit my WOIA grant.

It would be best to make sure that you are 1 full year clean. As for the WIOA grant, if you got approved once, you can get approved a few short months later.

Friday afternoon I received a call from HR. They told me my medical card was due to expire and we needed to get an appt setup with their chosen physician. The last couple physicals I've had expired in mid December so I thought I had time it turns out it expires today (Dec. 1st). I completely forgot that last year we got it done a couple weeks early with all uncertainty and increased demand from covid. Clinic was closed Friday and all weekend so HR wasn't able to setup an appt until Monday. First available appt was today at 9am. Thankfully I was able to get it but due to DMVs requiring appointments I'm unable to get it updated in person and instead need to email it. No big deal but given how close I am to expiration the states system will show I'm not qualified to drive and I'll likely receive a letter in the mail I'll be downgraded in 15 days because I doubt they'll get it updated by the end of today. I'm still legal to drive because I indeed have a new medical card (and will keep in my possession) but this could have turned very differently and costly.

Just thought I'd share my experience to serve as a reminder to NOT rely on office staff to keep track of our status. Its your career on the line and driving with an expired med card is NOT what you want. Not only will your career be negatively impacted but the fines and penalties are severe as well. Depending on your state you could be looking at a fine of $2,500 to $5,000 plus potentially a year in jail. And for those wondering there is no grace period for an expired med card and the covid exemptions ended yesterday (Nov. 30th 2021)

According to federal regulation that Dutch Maid Logistics has explained to us, it doesn't matter if you have a medical card in possession. It is required to be attached to your license with state agency. I wouldn't take a chance on it. Training manager here at Dutch Maid Logistics told us during orientation that he has seen a couple of drivers with the company who had gotten physical completed, but hadn't taken it in to the state agency yet when pulled over. The drivers were cited, had to arrange for transportation from where DOT officer had shut them down. Company had to pay for recovery of the trucks in both instances. I wouldn't take a chance on it. Risking your CDL isn't worth it.

Hi all,

I was a live sound engineer before covid laid waste to the industry. I was lucky to find a work-from-home gig that paid the bills these last couple years. Since I was stuck at home, bored, and a little antsy I ended up smoking pot regularly.

Last month during a conversation with a good buddy I decided I want to drive a truck. It'll be nice to get out and see the country after 2 years locked in the house. Obviously the first thing I had to do is quit smoking and that was no problem. The second thing to do is learn everything there is to know about the job including training and certification. For that I've spent the last 3 weeks immersing myself in forums like this one. Up until now I've found answers to all my questions in previous postings. Only recently did I look into the drug testing regime and I've read some absolutely heart-breaking stories of drivers, some of which seemed like top-notch candidates, that had their careers extinguished before they even began due to a failed test.

I don't want to take ANY chances of going down that road. Twenty years of driving at $50k/year amounts to a million-dollar opportunity and I'd be a fool to jeopardize that so I want to take every measure I can to not fall afoul of the law. To that end I've ordered a couple different brands of at-home test kits and intend to have my own lab urinalysis done before I go for the school's test.

I'm 35 days clean at this point and classes don't start until January so I should have no trouble passing a urine test but I'd be toast if asked to take a hair test. I'm going through a community college program and the information packet says I'll be required to pass a drug test shortly after registration at the end of December, but they didn't specify whether it is a urine or follicle test. All I know about the test is that it costs $500. So my first question is does anybody know definitively which method is used by community colleges and does it vary from school to school or state to state? For those of you who've gone the college route, what was your experience?

My second question is do the community colleges report a failed or refused drug test to any governmental or third-party agencies (such as HireRight) either as a requirement or voluntarily?

I've already decided when I finish school I won't be interviewing with any company that uses follicle testing initially. I'll be 120 days out by then but I've read quite a few accounts where employers have gone back 6 months or even a year and I'm not going to chance it until I'm at least a year clean. Also I'm very concerned about second-hand smoke as my entire family continues to smoke and I can't afford to move out right now. The companies that manufacture the tests say it's "very unlikely" that 2nd-hand smoke can cause you to fail and they point to the fact that there are no peer-reviewed scientific studies that say you can. Obviously there are no studies to back their contention either but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence throughout this and other trucking forums. I take the manufacturer's word with a grain of salt because if they were aware of 2nd-hand smoke causing false positives it would be in their financial interests to keep that under wraps.

This brings me to my third line of inquiry. Is there any legal requirement that a company tell you up-front what method of drug test they require? Can I even trust the word of the recruiter if I were to ask them or could they tell me one thing and then spring a follicle test on me, forcing me to take a chance or refuse and am I correct that if I were to refuse that would be on my DAC by the end of the day and in a gov database within the year?

I appreciate any insights you may have on these subjects.

As far as I am aware, schools test according to federal regulation, so urinalysis within a certain number of days of starting school. Hair follicle will come into play when starting orientation at a company.

Specifically:

No driver shall;

Be on duty or operate a commercial motor vehicle while the driver possesses wine of not less than one-half of one per centum of alcohol by volume, beer as defined in 26 U.S.C. 5052(a), of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, or distilled spirits as defined in section 5002(a)(8), of such Code. However, this does not apply to possession of wine, beer, or distilled spirits which are:

(i) Manifested and transported as part of a shipment; or

(ii) Possessed or used by bus passengers.

Thank you, Turtle.

I have 3 years of class B driving, what companies will hire me to make the transition to a class A driver thanks

It's the same companies that will hire someone with no experience driving a CMV at all. You will be treated as having no experience at all because driving a combination vehicle is substantially different from driving a class B vehicle.

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Kerry,

To people in states that have legalized smoking pot, it's no different than drinking alcohol to us. We don't think of it as a big deal that some company is going to get on our case for it because we smoked it months ago. I think it's really dumb, infact, and I don't even like weed. Definitely don't smoke it and then drive, but to use it responsibly? Sure, why not?

Also, nice pun.

Even drinking alcohol IS a big deal to some companies. My first company told us (Orientation day 1) if you get caught drinking in the hotel bar OR with alcohol in your hotel room, you’ll be gone. And a few days later, some were. My current company says no alcohol in the truck, INCLUDING inside your body.

Please understand, these companies are putting us in control of hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of dollars worth of equipment and freight. They’re unleashing us onto public roadways where many people consider driving secondary to watching videos on their phones and texting.

When you write the checks, hire the lawyers to defend your company against negligence charges or face the families of people your employees killed, you get to make the rules.

Something needs to be pointed out here:

Having any alcohol, even in a sealed container, is a violation of federal law. Having even a trace of alcohol (.02% BAC) will result in automatically being put out-of-service, by federal law. These are important distinctions because violations of carrier policy can result in a driver losing his/her job, whereas violations of federal law concerning the operation of a CMV can result of in a driver losing his/her freedom.

Thanks for the update; I hear ya!

Any chance of going BACK to Knight, at some point??

~ Anne ~

Anne,

Isn't your plan to get back on the road in a little over a month? Are ya counting the days?

If I were to have to go back to driving, then Knight would be my first choice. I have no complaints about them.

But (ain't there always a "but"?) -

I cannot see going back to driving unless the oilfield has a repeat of March, 2020. With the current regime trying to kill the oil business, I reckon that's always a possibility.

Bush Country, there's always a little 'butt' .... yet/but my scale says otherwise; hahaha!!!

My youngest turns 18 at the end of January; we are actively working on HIS life choices, and MINE!!!! Daddy drives a truck; so he's supportive either way.

This dang shoulder injury from 3 months ago is now MY quandary/dilemma . . . we shall see how it works out, hopefully sooner than later! I've got a HUGE opportunity of a ride along scheduled, that I can't fulfill until it's sorted out. Sux. Three points contact or I can't go.

Be safe, good sir. Stop IN here, sometimes! You still contribute! Post pix of the 'messies' even, haha!

As always, thanks~! Be good at what ya do!

~ Anne ~

Don't try to rush that shoulder. Keep the longview, big picture in mind.

Good luck man. I hope Dutch Maid will be a good fit for you. Keep us posted.

It definitely feels like a good fit so far.

You KNOW I'm following, good sir.

Glad it's working out for ya. Extremely excited 4u!

ps: If you see a FAB Express rig tomorrow around or after 4 pm next door (almost!) at Pepperidge Farms, shout a HOWDY to Tom!! Either truck # 1213 or #2010 depending on weight. One's single screw; other's twin!!

~ Anne ~

I will try to keep my eye out, but will not lie that I may forget.

Not sure why this guy wanted to be a trainer.

Money. That's why most of them become trainers, ESPECIALLY the Fleece Drivers.

Why else would someone volunteer for the extra stress and frustration, sacrifice miles driven, and surrender their space and privacy to a different stranger every few months? "Love of the industry"? Doubtful.

Hang in there! Eventually you'll be a solo driver. Just think of this as paying those dues.

Maybe some like the company? It does get lonely at times, right?