Starting School Next Week, Better Not Be Smokers.

Trucking schools that are respected and professional should have smoking-designated areas.

Two reasons: 1.) It is unsafe to be smoking around diesel fumes -- not just tankers. I think the CDL handbook had mentioned it too. 2.) If you want to smoke that is a persons' right, but that doesn't mean I have to inhale the smoke too.

Yes you are correct and in the same vain it's against the law for people to be texting while driving or drinking and driving but people are still killed everyday because of these actions. Does not make it right but it happens.

I dont like smoke either but id just like you to try saying this to a shipper or receiver after you have to walk through some office persons smoking cigarettes on the stairs into the driver checkin area. Or the big burly trucker smoking outside the entrance to a truck stop door. Im sure it will go over REAL WELL! Listen in this industry you need to be flexible. PERIOD. We all have an ideal of what this life should be about. Take it and throw it out the window. You can only control yourself and your actions. The end.

Listen in this industry you need to be flexible. PERIOD. We all have an ideal of what this life should be about. Take it and throw it out the window.

AMEN! Seriously, that's a really big deal that statement right there because very few people drop out of the trucking industry because they can't drive a truck. They usually drop out because they can't handle life on the road. And the worst part to me is that most of the people that drop out could have handled life on the road just fine and would have been terrific drivers. But when you expect something to be a certain way, or even worse when you decide it should be a certain way and you won't accept anything else - that's when it all starts to unravel. People quickly become disillusioned when their expectations get turned upside down. They prepare themselves mentally for things to be a certain way and come unglued when they're not what they had expected.

One of the main things we try to do here at TruckingTruth is help people understand the realities of life on the road. And the first realities you should accept before you ever even walk into your first day of CDL training are:

1) You have no clue how the trucking industry works

2) Almost nothing is going to make any sense to you for a while

3) Nobody cares what you think about how things are done or should be done

4) You're going to feel completely overwhelmed like you're in over your head most of the time from the day you walk into the classroom until you hit your 6 month mark driving solo. Then you'll only feel slightly flustered most of the rest of your career.

5) When you do figure out how the trucking industry works you're going to be shocked at how different it is than you ever would have imagined

Trucking is a really tough job to learn and an even tougher lifestyle to adjust to. It takes a lot of time, patience, fortitude, and flexibility. Like Redgator said, take everything you feel about the way things will be or should be and throw em out the window because trust me - nobody ever gets their trucking career established and looks back on their first 6-12 months in trucking and says, "Yeah, it wasn't too bad getting to this point. It pretty much went like I expected it to." Not a chance.

T.W. - we're pullin for ya and for that reason we're all suggesting that you take every expectation you have and toss it aside. Approach your first year in the industry with one primary goal - reach one year of safe driving with the first company you sign on with. That's it. Don't expect to set the world on fire as a rookie - you're going to be a clumsy knucklehead just like the rest of us were as rookies. Don't get hung up on all of the things that aren't the way they should be because other than the tires being round I can't think of anything in trucking that's done the ideal way. Everything is a compromise. Things aren't done the way they are because that's the way they should be done. They're done the way they are because someone in a position of power feels it's the most efficient way of ultimately turning a profit. They really don't care if anyone thinks it's ideal or not.

So there's going to be a lot of swallowing your pride, closing your mouth, and making the best of the things exactly as they are if you're taking the right approach to getting that trucking career off the ground. Because very few things are done the ideal way and trucking rarely changes. I got into trucking in '93 and very little has changed in the past 20+ years. Take away GPS, the Internet, and the 14 hour rule and you're basically trucking in the early 90's. Very little else has changed or likely will change for many years. So just go with the flow. There's no fighting the way things are done in the trucking industry. You either roll with it or roll elsewhere. That's about all you can do.

I have a question for you, You hate smoking like so many others. I get it, the new rule in our great country is its all about me. You have no tolerence for smokers. Ok got it. Now you go to school and manage to **** off 3/4 of your class and most of your instructors with your "its all about me" attitude. But you pass with flying colors. You get the job of your dreams with the only company you ever wanted to work for. Now your trainer/mentor hops in the truck says ok Jr. lets get the show on the road. You are grinning ear to ear just full of excitement. Then he lites up a smoke. What now? I will be having a smoke while I wait.

Good luck bro. I really mean that. As Bret says this job is great but it can suck to. You have to be flexibale, others dont.You are the FNG. They have been doing this for years. You are entering thier world. Dont get caught up in changing it so quickly.

Thanks Brett!

I like how you put a positive perspective on things which is very cool.

Good words. "Trucking is a really tough job to learn and an even tougher lifestyle to adjust to. It takes a lot of time, patience, fortitude, and flexibility." That is a realistic approach and I appreciate you for saying that because I expect it to be difficult. Attitude is just as important to succeed in this business too. Thanks for feedback from everyone else.

BTW, I am studying the CDL Training Materials. I've read your book too. Excellent read.

Much appreciated Brett.

You sound like a real easy going guy with a great attitude, im sure you wont have any trouble with the attitudes and personalities you will encounter in the trucking business.

Now THAT was funny...

I'm glad you got the sarcasm, I was laying it on pretty thick

I tell ya....I think anyone going to a cdl school will be to stressed, to busy, and to insecure to get their tidy whities in a wad over the way the wind blows...And when ya get out on the road...with everything goin' on out there....it ain't even gonna be a faint memory....

Complaining about people smoking in trucking is about as useful as going into a bar and complaining about people drinking. No offense but if it's that critical to you perhaps you should consider another profession or accept the world isn't willing to go by your standards no matter if they are right or wrong.

Lot of things I don't like but I accept I can only control my own actions and understand I can't control other peoples choices.

Glen