Trans Am Trucking Employment Or Non Employment Question?
Topic 28696 | Page 2
Kearsey
For a long long time I knew I was going to be an OTR driver. I joined this forum about four years ago. After a good many years, the right time, and I went for it. So, here I am.
In my profession of over fifty years I was involved with alot of training. In my past profession training = safety for all concerned and I'm a believer with training in general however if it begins or ends with driving a truck, training is paramount to safety.
Trans Am's training (or lack of) policies to me are mind boggling. I dont profess to understand their rationale and frankly put, I dont care except to say that I'm not included.
At the risk of repeating myself I'll offer an overlook at where I'm at and am 100% satisfied with the process and the company. At CFI, about a week of orientation. Then a test drive with a CFI trainer. Then a few weeks on the road with a CFI trainer (Finisher as they call it) That brings me to right now back in Joplin. My finisher issued his findings re me to training. My view also issued. Going on the premise I go forward today includes: Obstacle course Written exam Verbal exam Determination if I'm ready to be on the road solo. I'm in 100% agreement with CFI'S safety policies.
Want my opinion of my abilities? I dont think I'm ready because I have some serious backing issues. I need to work more with my backing skills.
When I am on the road solo with CFI it will be that I'm ready to be which I think is a great policy and a great company to work for.
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
The only reason you do a move like that is to cut costs. My bet is they aren’t doing so hot financially. Imo there’s no other explanation
Kearsey
For a long long time I knew I was going to be an OTR driver. I joined this forum about four years ago. After a good many years, the right time, and I went for it. So, here I am.
In my profession of over fifty years I was involved with alot of training. In my past profession training = safety for all concerned and I'm a believer with training in general however if it begins or ends with driving a truck, training is paramount to safety.
Trans Am's training (or lack of) policies to me are mind boggling. I dont profess to understand their rationale and frankly put, I dont care except to say that I'm not included.
At the risk of repeating myself I'll offer an overlook at where I'm at and am 100% satisfied with the process and the company. At CFI, about a week of orientation. Then a test drive with a CFI trainer. Then a few weeks on the road with a CFI trainer (Finisher as they call it) That brings me to right now back in Joplin. My finisher issued his findings re me to training. My view also issued. Going on the premise I go forward today includes: Obstacle course Written exam Verbal exam Determination if I'm ready to be on the road solo. I'm in 100% agreement with CFI'S safety policies.
Want my opinion of my abilities? I dont think I'm ready because I have some serious backing issues. I need to work more with my backing skills.
When I am on the road solo with CFI it will be that I'm ready to be which I think is a great policy and a great company to work for.
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
From what I can glean from the data over at the FMCSA , Trans Am's drivers seem to be holding their own as far as safe driving goes. Maybe that will change if eliminating going out with a trainer happened only very recently. But until the data shows an actual flaw in their particular approach to getting drivers in their trucks as compared to other companies, your own subjective sense of whether it is too unsafe for other people than your own self could just be wrong, counterintuitive as that may seem.
Unsafe driving...
Carrier violations or crashes are weighted by time and severity to produce a measure for that carrier in each BASIC. The measure only considers individual performance, with a measure of 0 indicating best performance.
Prime: 1.47 Trans Am: 1.43 Swift: 0.95
CSA:
Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
The CSA is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) initiative to improve large truck and bus safety and ultimately reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities that are related to commercial motor vehicle
FMCSA:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
The FMCSA was established within the Department of Transportation on January 1, 2000. Their primary mission is to prevent commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities and injuries.
What Does The FMCSA Do?
- Commercial Drivers' Licenses
- Data and Analysis
- Regulatory Compliance and Enforcement
- Research and Technology
- Safety Assistance
- Support and Information Sharing
Fm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.
Midnight fox
Trans Am can do what they wish but I do not find any compelling reason for me to sign on with them without any training. I absolutely refuse and have refused to drive seventy feet of truck with maybe eighty thousand pounds of weight over the road with no training to do so. What has or has not worked for Trans Am is fine for Trans Am but that does' not mean it's Ok with me as to my employment and my future driving a truck safely.
I will not accept the fact that a brand new holder of a CDL with absolutely no solo experiance with a truck can then be given a truck and say it's Ok to go on the road safely as Trans Am does'.
A nice young mother with her three children in their car seats going down a 6% grade does' not need me behind them with no experiance......none.....nada.........in a 70' unguided missile weighing perhaps eighty thousand pounds unable to stop the damn thing because I was never trained to do so and put on the road without said training.
Trans Am's seemingly new policy is fine for them and I guess others but not me.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Over The Road:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
Midnight fox
A follow up
The orientation class that I attended for three days had about ten or twelve people in it, more or less.
I do not think there was a single experienced driver in the class.
As it was explained passing orientation was required for employment and the employment included immediately, right away, being issued a truck and trailer as a new solo operator. Immediately means just that in that orientation ends in something like a week +/-, you are issued a truck and down the road. This was made clear to the extent that it was told that there was no parking available at the Tampa terminal for personal vehicles. So, when you are given a truck you cannot leave your car at the terminal because there's no parking room.
midnight fox
You cant make this stuff up and put it in print
Terminal:
A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.
You cant make this stuff up and put it in print
The government puts it in print that you can legally drive a truck without any solo experience, so I don't see what is so far-fetched about what you're saying.
In all honestly I have the impression going in that it's less than ideal to not spend a couple of weeks on the road with a trainer, but when you set aside whether or not you personally accept the fact, the fact remains that for each of the past six months the FMCSA crunched the data to show that, by their unsafe driving on-road performance metric, Trans Am tended to have slightly lower numbers than even Prime did.
I could be missing something about what those figures mean or how to compare them because I'm new to it, so maybe someone else can confirm, but it seems to suggest Trans Am isn't currently having any more of a problem with unsafe driving, despite offering no additional training, than a company that offers a lot of it.
CSA:
Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
The CSA is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) initiative to improve large truck and bus safety and ultimately reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities that are related to commercial motor vehicle
FMCSA:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
The FMCSA was established within the Department of Transportation on January 1, 2000. Their primary mission is to prevent commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities and injuries.
What Does The FMCSA Do?
- Commercial Drivers' Licenses
- Data and Analysis
- Regulatory Compliance and Enforcement
- Research and Technology
- Safety Assistance
- Support and Information Sharing
Fm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
Midnight fox
I believe your missing my point.
What the government allows or does' not allow is not my issue. What Trans Am's safety record reflects is not my issue.
I do not feel I'm a safe driver on the road solo with no training. That is a decision that I have come to that pertains to me. If I do not feel that I'm a safe and competent driver on the road solo then it's upon me to make the call as to how to proceed. My decision was to seek out a company that will give me the training I require and want.
Obtaining a CDL thru a school offers the bare minimum of what is actually required on the road. The school gives you enough information and training to pass the minimum requirements to obtain your CDL.
Trans Am can do whatever they wish. Whoever signs on to the program is perfectly within their rights to do so. I have a problem with their program and my choice was not to proceed.
My issue with Trans Am is their showing me as an ex employee which I am not.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
We get your point
TransAm has no training. You want training. TransAm was not up to your standards and you do not want them on your DAC.
We get it .. dead horse beating
Again... I repeat...if you filled out an I-9 and W4. You were indeed an employee. Most trucking companies do this on the first day. I know people who left a company after seeing their first truck, after two nights in a hotel. And on the first day of orientation. And never received compensation. Because they filled out the IRS tax forms they were considered hired just as you are considered hired if you filled the forms this will remain on your DAC for 10 years unless you dispute it which is what someone told you to do about 2 pages ago. Then they have a time period to respond. However all they need do is produce those forms and you lose your dispute.
DAC:
Drive-A-Check Report
A truck drivers DAC report will contain detailed information about their job history of the last 10 years as a CDL driver (as required by the DOT).
It may also contain your criminal history, drug test results, DOT infractions and accident history. The program is strictly voluntary from a company standpoint, but most of the medium-to-large carriers will participate.
Most trucking companies use DAC reports as part of their hiring and background check process. It is extremely important that drivers verify that the information contained in it is correct, and have it fixed if it's not.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
Kearsey
How do I dispute the DAC entry Where do I send my dispute?
DAC:
Drive-A-Check Report
A truck drivers DAC report will contain detailed information about their job history of the last 10 years as a CDL driver (as required by the DOT).
It may also contain your criminal history, drug test results, DOT infractions and accident history. The program is strictly voluntary from a company standpoint, but most of the medium-to-large carriers will participate.
Most trucking companies use DAC reports as part of their hiring and background check process. It is extremely important that drivers verify that the information contained in it is correct, and have it fixed if it's not.
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MIKE C I didn't expect you to know which is why I said it. I made no indication that you were homeless. It is just like the DOT drug test Clearinghouse.... You do not need to be employed yet but if you fail the preemployment drug test it gets recorded in a database for future trucking companies to see. Some argue "that isn't fair I wasn't a trucker yet and never even got my CDL"
Did you sign the W4 and I9 forms? If so and they processed them, you were employed. If you fell and got hurt on their property and these forms were filled out then you could have received workers comp. If they can produce these forms with your signature then you were employed. Compensation or no compensation. Work or no work.
I agree it is nuts that they aren't offering training and in my 5 years here, and literally millions of people who view this site and the only two people who mentioned this are on two threads simultaneously. I would have expected more people popping in here.
When you spoke to these managers and trainers... Did you ask "since you don't do training what is the job title of trainer all about?" I would have been like hey I want his job lol
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.