I have seen over the past few days more than a few people saying "I have heard to many bad things this company or that school"....
First I will say...NO you have not 'heard' anything. How could you? You are sitting at home behind your computer and not out here on the road. You are reading information posted on some other forums board that ANYONE can post on including anyone that wants to post negative stuff about a company they filed with and was fired.
To use an expression that people are saying now a days "They got fired cause they screwed up and now they are "butt hurt" cause trucking was not like the movies they grew up watching and they are mad at everyone but the one person they should be mad at....themselves.
Want to know why the training companies get a bad rap? Because there are thousands of people going through training across the US right now that have a grandiose idea of what trucking should be like for them. When they either fail out of training or quit cause its not what they thought it was or the money is not as good as they were told....or god forbid they actually had to actually work for the first time in their life the first thing they will do is run off and tell anyone that will listen their version of what happened and how they were screwed over and not given a chance. The truth of the matter is about 95% of the people that are fired or quit was because of something they did or failed to do. In trucking you will be pushed longer and harder than most any other job in the world with little to no reward or recognition. At times you will feel like you are being thrown to the wolves. You just have to suck it up cause your an adult and at least by this time have learned 'problem solving skills' that you will have to put to use.
This is why we,Trucking Truth, exist. We are here to help new drivers get a good start along the path of driving a truck but we can not hold your hand. All we can do is lay a hand on your shoulder and try to guide you along the right path.
Unlike those people that have an axe to grind on the 'other forums' I don't. I am working. I have a job. A dang good driving job which is about as close to a dream job as one can get in the trucking industry. I have no reason to lie to new people that come here looking for help. No one on this site has a hidden agenda. We help new people cause we WANT to.
So people can run off to the other negative websites and read all you want to there but please don't come back here saying you heard this and that about certain companies or schools cause you will get the standard response of "Oh you are on THAT other site".
I could not agree with you More. We are not experienced and all we know is what read on the internet, and one thing I learned a long time ago, that rather than "hating" a company just because someone said they are aweful, I need to see for myself. I will usually call and have a conversation with that business and see where it leads to. I am grateful that you all have come up with this site for us that are clueless. Something I would suggest however, is to maybe update the section about schools some of those schools don't exist anymore. I am by no means complaining I cannot wait to get this party started!
Brett is am army of one. He has worked his butt off making this site work as well as it does. I am sure something's will slip through the cracks and become a little outdated. I am sure when he gets the time he will get the schools updated.
The trucking industry is forever changing. Its hard to keep all the info current unless you had someone doing it full time and that is all they did.
I am working for one of the more bashed companies that is out there, and if you listened to some of the other forums, you would think they were run by Darth Vadar and working to build the death Star to the trucking industry.
When we were in school, we would get together in the evenings at the lobby of our motel and have their free coffee and shoot the breeze. One of the things that struck me, was about how misinformed some of my fellow students were about our company, and many of them were shocked at the base pay we were starting out with. Yet every student is sent an information packet before they leave, that spells out everything, and to date, I have seen nothing working here, that was not spelled out in that information. They just do not bother to read it. And of course, those people always said that the company was a crook and cheating them. The sad thing is, this was a majority of the people there. My room mate and I had both read the material so our expectations were a lot more realistic.
One of the other litanies I hear is "My recruiter said..........." and then again, "they are big crooks and ripping me off". My recruiter told me that to start, the pay was low, the hours long, and I would not be home for weeks. He also told me if I stick it out, it gets better fast, and you know what, we get our first raise in 3 months. At 6 months we get a big raise if we are still around. That second raise will put us within 2 cents a mile of what they pay drivers with experience to start, and there are experienced drivers lining up to get jobs here, because in a well run team truck, we can out a lot of miles in.
Another reason I came in with very real expectations is I found this site first. I have not seen anything in the info from here, that was not true. Expectations play a big part in what is posted in those other forums. That and the idea of instant gratification kind of pervades peoples belief set these days. I came from a profession where I started at the bottom, and after 25 years with only a high school education, I was making 50 grand a year. I now find a career where I can start at the bottom and after only 2 or 3 years experience, get back to where I was after 25 years, I am actually kind of amazed.
If you don't mind saying, what outfit was this and at what cpm did they start you out at?
I'll PM you the same question if you don't want to state it publicly :)
I am working for one of the more bashed companies that is out there, and if you listened to some of the other forums, you would think they were run by Darth Vadar and working to build the death Star to the trucking industry.
When we were in school, we would get together in the evenings at the lobby of our motel and have their free coffee and shoot the breeze. One of the things that struck me, was about how misinformed some of my fellow students were about our company, and many of them were shocked at the base pay we were starting out with. Yet every student is sent an information packet before they leave, that spells out everything, and to date, I have seen nothing working here, that was not spelled out in that information. They just do not bother to read it. And of course, those people always said that the company was a crook and cheating them. The sad thing is, this was a majority of the people there. My room mate and I had both read the material so our expectations were a lot more realistic.
One of the other litanies I hear is "My recruiter said..........." and then again, "they are big crooks and ripping me off". My recruiter told me that to start, the pay was low, the hours long, and I would not be home for weeks. He also told me if I stick it out, it gets better fast, and you know what, we get our first raise in 3 months. At 6 months we get a big raise if we are still around. That second raise will put us within 2 cents a mile of what they pay drivers with experience to start, and there are experienced drivers lining up to get jobs here, because in a well run team truck, we can out a lot of miles in.
Another reason I came in with very real expectations is I found this site first. I have not seen anything in the info from here, that was not true. Expectations play a big part in what is posted in those other forums. That and the idea of instant gratification kind of pervades peoples belief set these days. I came from a profession where I started at the bottom, and after 25 years with only a high school education, I was making 50 grand a year. I now find a career where I can start at the bottom and after only 2 or 3 years experience, get back to where I was after 25 years, I am actually kind of amazed.
Drivers are often paid by the mile and it's given in cents per mile, or cpm.
I dont mind telling you at all. I am working for CRST. For a contract student, which means I went to their school and am working under the 8 month contract to pay for that school, I start at 22 cents a mile. The miles are split. That means, if we run 2000 miles, I get paid for 1000. At 3 months, that increases to 26 cents a mile, and after 6 months, it is 31 cents a mile. While that does not sound like a lot, that 6 month raise equals 90 dollars per thousand miles. I just finished my last week of training, and we ran over 6000 miles. That means I earned before taxes around 660 dollars. At 6 months I would have earned 930 dollars. It,s important to note, we are a team driving company and if you go to work for a solo company, those kind of miles would be impossible. Alos, we are not going to get 6000 miles every week. Our teams are rated and starting this week, once I get with my codriver, we will be starting at the bottom of that rating. To get the best miles, we are going to have to prove ourselves. We are not going to get 6000 miles a week. Those miles are going to go to the teams that have a consistent record of getting the job done. All I am getting now, is the same chance as everyone else to make it to those top teams.
My trainer is one of the top rated drivers here, so he gets good miles. CRST also tries to give good miles to training teams, because those of us contract students have been without pay and away from home while in school. We ran from Ky to Wa unloaded at 10 AM abd had a load back east by 4 that afternoon. The truck stop where we were waiting for a load had at least 10 other trucks from our company waiting on loads. Several of those guys had been waiting for days. That means they might not have been the best rated teams. But if you talk to those guys waiting, most of them are going to tell you, they are being cheated.
I have seen over the past few days more than a few people saying "I have heard to many bad things this company or that school"....
First I will say...NO you have not 'heard' anything. How could you? You are sitting at home behind your computer and not out here on the road. You are reading information posted on some other forums board that ANYONE can post on including anyone that wants to post negative stuff about a company they filed with and was fired.
To use an expression that people are saying now a days "They got fired cause they screwed up and now they are "butt hurt" cause trucking was not like the movies they grew up watching and they are mad at everyone but the one person they should be mad at....themselves.
Want to know why the training companies get a bad rap? Because there are thousands of people going through training across the US right now that have a grandiose idea of what trucking should be like for them. When they either fail out of training or quit cause its not what they thought it was or the money is not as good as they were told....or god forbid they actually had to actually work for the first time in their life the first thing they will do is run off and tell anyone that will listen their version of what happened and how they were screwed over and not given a chance. The truth of the matter is about 95% of the people that are fired or quit was because of something they did or failed to do. In trucking you will be pushed longer and harder than most any other job in the world with little to no reward or recognition. At times you will feel like you are being thrown to the wolves. You just have to suck it up cause your an adult and at least by this time have learned 'problem solving skills' that you will have to put to use.
This is why we,Trucking Truth, exist. We are here to help new drivers get a good start along the path of driving a truck but we can not hold your hand. All we can do is lay a hand on your shoulder and try to guide you along the right path.
Unlike those people that have an axe to grind on the 'other forums' I don't. I am working. I have a job. A dang good driving job which is about as close to a dream job as one can get in the trucking industry. I have no reason to lie to new people that come here looking for help. No one on this site has a hidden agenda. We help new people cause we WANT to.
So people can run off to the other negative websites and read all you want to there but please don't come back here saying you heard this and that about certain companies or schools cause you will get the standard response of "Oh you are on THAT other site".
Guy,you are a huge asset to this forum. Absolutly no BULL**** in any of your replies to any post. Can't tell you how refreshing that is. I don't know the relationship between you and Brett but you are an absolute commodity to this website. I've only posted a couple of times and only in the infancy of my journey which won't begin for a few weeks yet. Kudos to you and keep shootin' straight from the hip. Keep the sugar coating out. Be safe, Ron. '
THANK YOU GUYJAX! Couldn't have said it better...standing ovation.
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I have seen over the past few days more than a few people saying "I have heard to many bad things this company or that school"....
First I will say...NO you have not 'heard' anything. How could you? You are sitting at home behind your computer and not out here on the road. You are reading information posted on some other forums board that ANYONE can post on including anyone that wants to post negative stuff about a company they filed with and was fired.
To use an expression that people are saying now a days "They got fired cause they screwed up and now they are "butt hurt" cause trucking was not like the movies they grew up watching and they are mad at everyone but the one person they should be mad at....themselves.
Want to know why the training companies get a bad rap? Because there are thousands of people going through training across the US right now that have a grandiose idea of what trucking should be like for them. When they either fail out of training or quit cause its not what they thought it was or the money is not as good as they were told....or god forbid they actually had to actually work for the first time in their life the first thing they will do is run off and tell anyone that will listen their version of what happened and how they were screwed over and not given a chance. The truth of the matter is about 95% of the people that are fired or quit was because of something they did or failed to do. In trucking you will be pushed longer and harder than most any other job in the world with little to no reward or recognition. At times you will feel like you are being thrown to the wolves. You just have to suck it up cause your an adult and at least by this time have learned 'problem solving skills' that you will have to put to use.
This is why we,Trucking Truth, exist. We are here to help new drivers get a good start along the path of driving a truck but we can not hold your hand. All we can do is lay a hand on your shoulder and try to guide you along the right path.
Unlike those people that have an axe to grind on the 'other forums' I don't. I am working. I have a job. A dang good driving job which is about as close to a dream job as one can get in the trucking industry. I have no reason to lie to new people that come here looking for help. No one on this site has a hidden agenda. We help new people cause we WANT to.
So people can run off to the other negative websites and read all you want to there but please don't come back here saying you heard this and that about certain companies or schools cause you will get the standard response of "Oh you are on THAT other site".
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.