End Of My Career Before It Started

Well I was on my second week of school day one. Feeling good I was running a little late got to class 8 min late. Instructor with a salty tone said you need to be here on time so you get the most road time/ truck time (this will play into my story). Little salty but I understand for a 3 week course.

Well last week I posted that topic to help other vets who had VA insurance only about the problem I am experiencing. (https://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Topic-17536/Page-1/va-and-driving-school) Well getting briefed on what going on today we (me and this other vet) get told our doctor release aren't good enough and to stand fast. Well they weren't ok I understand my wording they are incorrect it said truck instead of commercial vehicle. And the director who been out since school started chimes in that needs to say this not that ok again would be fine knowing this Friday that the info was not up to parAfter our doctor already sent stuff in. The VA is a large machine that you just cannot go up to and get stuff done. And with my one med release the clinic was down for two days the doc had to go to different clinic just to do something I had no contact no email with them. So even if I drive the hour back to my house I have to drive another half hour to find out if the clinic was open. Wasting time and fuel. So the instructor gives us this ultimatum. He said since we assumed with that salty attitude the release where good which I never seen mine it got fax over. You can try call your doc get it change today dribble road later today or do it tomorrow. Well what was this weekend? What is the VA ? a federal government. It's closed today going back to my statement above I'm missing out on road time that is upmost important. So I went to the director I asked if he ran this place he said yes I said it bull snot(for censorship) what going on. The recruiter I was dealing was in the room at the same time I said I applied over a month ago as I said that the recruiter pivoted on his right foot armed crossed was right in my face. I said you need to get out of my face numerous and the director kicked me out. One of the instructor who was dealing with us this morning told me to leave I went to my car chilled out. The director came out asked why I was still here. I said so I am getting kicked out of school? He said yes I said I would like a letter saying so. He said no I said I would he said he would call the cops. Then I left. There goes my Gi bill money money to get up to school and and to get my permit.

Sorry for the long rant and rambling. Here something else I don't understand he kept saying it for dot. I passed the dot physical. What I feel like it's for them to make people miss class and fail test twice to pay the extra hundred dollars (yea it's just hundred buck but that still more then what I have in my pocket right now) to retake it just spit balling and never be able to prove it.

Well your career is by no means over before it started. I don't know what the situation will be with your tuition and your G.I. Bill money and all that but there are plenty of Paid CDL Training Programs that will train you with little or no money out of pocket.

It's probably pretty obvious to you at this point but there are a ton of hoops to jump through to be a truck driver. There are background checks, medical tests, written test, driving tests, fingerprinting and Federal background checks (for Hazmat), random drug screens, random truck inspections, and ten million other things. That's the nature of the beast with trucking and that will never change because of the obvious liability risks involved.

There's no question you can easily get your trucking career underway by either attending a different private school or company-sponsored program. But nothing on Earth is more important to becoming a top tier professional driver than having control over your thoughts and emotions. You're going to get cut off and flipped off and cussed out and mocked and disrespected a thousand times over as a truck driver. Again, that's just the nature of the career and no one can avoid it. What it all boils down to is how you handle it. This time you didn't handle it well and got tossed out on your ass. Next time you'll go into it with a whole different approach knowing that losing your temper or disrespecting people of authority isn't the way to get things done in this industry.

Trucking attracts mostly Type A personalities who like to speak their mind, who don't really like following rules, and who don't tolerate what they perceive as being disrespected. But you learned even more quickly than most that truckers have no authority in our society. The only thing you can do is refuse to drive the truck if it's unsafe or illegal to do so. Other than that we have pretty much no say in anything, especially when you're new and unproven.

Take a little time to ponder what happened so you can learn from it and formulate your next move. Keep moving forward. This is far from the last obstacle you'll face getting your career started. We have some members of our forum who have been through ten times the problems that you're facing but they stayed the course. You should too.

1st The V.A. is a broken system so issues should come as no surprise. 2nd Don't be surprised if the V.A. doesn't let you off the hook for the money now. 3rd. You cant speak your mind so bluntly to civilians in a position of authority/power like that. I doubt you would have talked to your commander in their office like that so freely? 4. Try other schools or company sponsored programs. Disclaimer my advice is just being given as a fellow veteran and not as anyone with any trucking experience.

To the one less hot head comment off the road it's cool. Because I've been driving back and forth on my dime wasting my time when I should be in class. I been dealing with it for a week being polite and nice. And the tipping point came out. Thanks Brett for the info I understand jumping through hoops. And deal with all the time. Dirtyred the VA is one broken system that get worse each and every day. And yea a paying it back is what I fear. I just don't know

One less hot head on the road.

1st The V.A. is a broken system so issues should come as no surprise. 2nd Don't be surprised if the V.A. doesn't let you off the hook for the money now. 3rd. You cant speak your mind so bluntly to civilians in a position of authority/power like that. I doubt you would have talked to your commander in their office like that so freely? 4. Try other schools or company sponsored programs. Disclaimer my advice is just being given as a fellow veteran and not as anyone with any trucking experience.

What Brett said ^^^. I hope you pictured what he's saying with an arm around your shoulder, or sitting across from you over some chicken fried steaks and a Dr. Pepper. Whoops sorry my visualization got carried away. You can do this. As Spock said in "The Galileo Seven", "there are always alternatives". Embrace the suck and keep moving. And thank you for your service.

Well I was on my second week of school day one. Feeling good I was running a little late got to class 8 min late. Instructor with a salty tone said you need to be here on time so you get the most road time/ truck time (this will play into my story). Little salty but I understand for a 3 week course.

Well last week I posted that topic to help other vets who had VA insurance only about the problem I am experiencing. (https://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Topic-17536/Page-1/va-and-driving-school) Well getting briefed on what going on today we (me and this other vet) get told our doctor release aren't good enough and to stand fast. Well they weren't ok I understand my wording they are incorrect it said truck instead of commercial vehicle. And the director who been out since school started chimes in that needs to say this not that ok again would be fine knowing this Friday that the info was not up to parAfter our doctor already sent stuff in. The VA is a large machine that you just cannot go up to and get stuff done. And with my one med release the clinic was down for two days the doc had to go to different clinic just to do something I had no contact no email with them. So even if I drive the hour back to my house I have to drive another half hour to find out if the clinic was open. Wasting time and fuel. So the instructor gives us this ultimatum. He said since we assumed with that salty attitude the release where good which I never seen mine it got fax over. You can try call your doc get it change today dribble road later today or do it tomorrow. Well what was this weekend? What is the VA ? a federal government. It's closed today going back to my statement above I'm missing out on road time that is upmost important. So I went to the director I asked if he ran this place he said yes I said it bull snot(for censorship) what going on. The recruiter I was dealing was in the room at the same time I said I applied over a month ago as I said that the recruiter pivoted on his right foot armed crossed was right in my face. I said you need to get out of my face numerous and the director kicked me out. One of the instructor who was dealing with us this morning told me to leave I went to my car chilled out. The director came out asked why I was still here. I said so I am getting kicked out of school? He said yes I said I would like a letter saying so. He said no I said I would he said he would call the cops. Then I left. There goes my Gi bill money money to get up to school and and to get my permit.

Sorry for the long rant and rambling. Here something else I don't understand he kept saying it for dot. I passed the dot physical. What I feel like it's for them to make people miss class and fail test twice to pay the extra hundred dollars (yea it's just hundred buck but that still more then what I have in my pocket right now) to retake it just spit balling and never be able to prove it.

I would call whoever administrates the GI bill payments, and see if they can reverse the charges to the school, since they kicked you out because the school failed to accept VA doctor certs. Perhaps get you into a different school. Describe the situation to them. I'm certain that I do not know the whole situation because your description was not very clear (to me).

If the GI bill administrators call the school, and the school says you have not been kicked out, then see if you can withdraw. If they do say you have been kicked out, then they need to document why, and you can go from there.

At the risk of seeming aggressive, I will say this. It sounds like you got very emotional when you felt you were having your chain pulled. Having your chain pulled is going to be a fairly common occurrence when you are on the road. Whether or not it's intentional on the part of other drivers, shippers, receivers, driver managers, planers, trainers, etc., some highly annoying crap is going to drop on your head fairly regularly.

If you are short-tempered, and can't control it to a high degree, driving may not be for you, and you might want to redirect that GI Bill to a welding or diesel mechanic school or something.