My Journey To A New Life As An OTR Trucker Begins

Well, I jumped the gun on the Hazelwood exemption. It will not cover the training, but only a fairly small portion of it. I may be back to carefully considering company sponsored training again. I talked to a Con-Way recruiter today. They have a deal with Crowder College near their headquarters in Joplin, MO. The tuition is around 2500, but it includes room and board, CDL , and other perks. VA may still pay a good part of it, and I really like what I have heard about Con-Way making them a top choice in my book. The school is five weeks of very good training. You get the CDL, then go out with a "finisher" where you do all the driving and he sits in the jump seat. No team driving while in training. Con-Way pays well by comparison to other companies that start inexperienced drivers too. I will be in contact with Crowder College to see how much tuition assistance I can get. If it is agreeable, I think this is the way I would like to go. One way or another, I intend to be driving by the end of September, as I should still be able to go with the vet scholarship through Swift if I don't get my first choice.

Dear Tim: Here at Midland College it is a four week course of study.

I enjoy reading your posts and hope you will continue to share your experiences here on Truckingtruth.com Man, you might see a big difference when you go to class. My experience was that many of the others were struggling with Combinations, General Knowledge, and Air Brakes and I sailed through these tests. And then the one on Tankers I came away thinking it was "childs play". The training here was what did it and this gave me a lot of confidence AND made it more fun! You gotta have fun!!!

Good luck to you Tim! I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

-Dave

Just wanted to let anyone know that has followed my thread that I am still here almost every day. Right now things are just in a little bit of limbo as I settle my mother's estate. I might actually come into enough inheritance to foot school tuition. It will just depend on how big my mother's hospital bills total. Also, in a couple of weeks I get my hearing aids, then I will take a DOT physical, and go for my learner's permit. Once I have passed the hearing test, I will begin school soon after that, either with company sponsored or jr college. My other worries about my physical conditioning and blood pressure should be alleviated. I am in a health club and working out, especially focusing on my leg strength so I can squat under trailers. That has already improved to the point I can duck walk a bit without too much strain, and that should continue to get better. My blood pressure has been normal with my meds, diet and exercise. As I said before, failure is just not an option.

Tim, your attitude is awesome! There's nothing I enjoy more than hearing you talk about all the different ways you're trying to improve yourself and your life - getting your hearing aids, getting your permit, working out at the health club, working on the blood pressure - that's the way to do it man! You have to keep marching relentlessly forward, one day at a time.

Every day I get up and ponder the various things I can be working on. I come up with a high priority list of things I'd like to accomplish that day. As long as I go to bed knowing I've made progress toward improving myself and my life, I can sleep at night. But I'm relentless about it. I'm not like most people. I'm highly motivated and I have very high standards I set for myself. I strive for excellence with everything that's important to me, and I dare say I expect it of myself. I won't settle for less.

Keep marching on. You have a lot on your plate right now but it doesn't sound like anything you can't handle. In fact, it sounds like you're handling it extremely well.

Before you know it you'll be out on the road in a big rig thinking, "Wow! It was a long, hard road getting here, but man was it worth it!!!"

Like Tom Hanks famously said in "A League Of Their Own":

It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.

Keep marching forward Tim.

Thanks, Brett. Your advice and encouragement, along with the other mods, has really helped.

Later today I will be driving into San Antonio to get my SS card replaced, and also get my birth certificate replaced from the County Court, since Trucking Cos. ask for an un-laminated card, and my birth certificate is barely readable anymore. While in town, I am going to again go to a couple of truck stops to talk with drivers. I will post what I find out as before. This time I hope to catch a Con-Way driver or two, among a couple of other companies.

Yeah, I'd like to hear how it goes at the truck stop. Drivers are generally friendly, especially face to face. If you listen on the CB or go to website like TheTruckersReport you would think they're the nastiest human beings on the face of the planet. I guess there's a lot to say about a person's character based on how they act when nobody is looking or they're not being held accountable. But that's a topic for another discussion. I think you'll find that most are really friendly though.

Yeah, I'd like to hear how it goes at the truck stop. Drivers are generally friendly, especially face to face. If you listen on the CB or go to website like TheTruckersReport you would think they're the nastiest human beings on the face of the planet. I guess there's a lot to say about a person's character based on how they act when nobody is looking or they're not being held accountable. But that's a topic for another discussion. I think you'll find that most are really friendly though.

Brett, the last driver I spoke to while fueling his truck would not let me walk away. I think he would have kept talking until drivers behind him in the fuel aisle started honking.

Well, I just returned from San Antonio. While there I spent an hour at the Flying J again wanting to take Brett's advice and speak with drivers with companies that interest me. Today, fate smiled upon me because two companies high on my list had trucks there that pulled in for fuel. I spoke with drivers from Con-Way Truckload and Stevens Transport. I just missed a Knight reefer that was just pulling away when I got there. There was also a Tyson driver there, but I did not have the chance to speak with him, because I was with the Con-Way driver at the time. I also saw trucks from Arnold, Averitt, Marten, and Werner pull in, but they went directly to the parking area, so I did not want to bother them there, although I really would have liked to speak to them as well.

I know one person in another thread mentioned that he had trouble approaching drivers to talk because they appeared to him to be standoffish, but that has not been the case at all with my visits to the Flying J. Both drivers I spoke with today were very patient and forthcoming. In fact, the Stevens driver spoke with me so long, I was beginning to be concerned that he was taking too long being parked in the fuel aisle. However, it was not super busy, and no trucks were waiting behind him.

Brett is right on the money with his advice about speaking with these folks. All of the drivers that I have spoken with verify what he and the other advisers here have been saying in their blogs, posts, etc. It is advantageous when you can look a driver in the eye and ask questions. I like the internet trucking sites for all the great information, but there is just no substitute for speaking one on one in person.

I will give a great example with the Con-Way driver. I asked him how he liked the job, was he getting good miles, etc, etc. He had only been with Con-Way a few months, but he spoke very highly of the company. Of further interest to me was what he said when I asked him where he worked before Con-Way. He told me that he drove for C.R. England and went through their training program and left after a year. He said he preferred Con-Way by a good margin. I thought to myself, he is now going to run England into the ground. He did not. When I said that I may need to go through a company sponsored program, he actually recommended England as a good place to start. Anyway, I heard nothing about my first choice, Con-Way, that was disparaging at all.

I was really happy to see a Stevens truck pull up a short while later and two fellas climb out. It turned out that it was a trainer and his trainee. The trainee had been with him only a week. It was the trainer I actually spoke with, and he really bent my ear. He had nothing negative to say at all about Stevens other than exactly what Brett and co. have said. The job is what you make of it. He had been with Stevens for over two years and was very happy working there. He was an Alliance lessee, and it was working out for him, although he did say he struggled at first. He said he is now making more money leasing than he would as a straight company driver. He did not recommend it for the inexperienced by the way. He went through Stevens training program, although the fella he was training did not. He told me that if I go through Stevens training program, take it like going into the military. He said they are tough and will bark, but to not get discouraged. He was driving a gorgeous black KW himself, but he said all the equipment is top notch at Stevens, with every truck APU equipped. He said the mileage is very good, but the starting pay rate is not that great.

What is really being reinforced in my mind by all my research is that making it in trucking is more than anything being able to adapt to the lifestyle and just paying your dues, stick it out for a year or more when first getting in, and things will be fine. If you are able to adapt to the lifestyle, then it is just a matter of putting up with the day to day baloney that people might face in any job in dealing with others. Basically it is just what Brett and his mods are advising here at this site all along.

Reefer:

A refrigerated trailer.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

WOW man.....that was an awesome post! I'm really excited to hear you went and got a chance to speak with some drivers. Isn't it shocking to find out how generally positive and friendly drivers are about their job and their companies compared with the garbage you read all over the Web????

Now you've seen a glimpse into the challenges I face trying to help people get their career started in trucking. You're exactly right - trucking is what you make of it. It's all about attitude and performance. Those who handle themselves like professionals and are safe, reliable drivers get treated well, get good miles, and they're happy with the company they're with.

But so many people come into this industry that either don't belong there or have horribly cynical, negative attitudes from all the garbage they read at TheTruckersReport. They wind up ruining their own chances at a great new career and then wind up back at TheTruckersReport to confirm the negative garbage they've heard all along - that the trucking industry is the last place on Earth you'd want to be.

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy! If you believe the negativity, you then take on that negative attitude. That in turn leads to a negative experience which in turn heightens your negative attitude. You then feel compelled to go the TheTruckersReport to warn everyone that the negativity you heard was indeed true! Your hate rhetoric then becomes fodder for the newbies coming into the industry behind you.

It's a painful, vicious cycle that is ruining a potentially wonderful career for untold thousands of drivers every year and it's the one thing I'm trying desperately to help people understand - trucking is awesome if you're the right person for the job and you handle yourself like a professional.

Kudos to you for putting in the time and effort to go seek out opinions from the drivers who are out there doing it successfully everyday. I had an amazing 15 year career that was just priceless to me and I know there are millions of current and former drivers out there today that feel the exact same way. If we could get the vocal minority to be quiet long enough for people to discover the trucking industry for themselves, it would change the lives of many thousands of people every year.

Those who put in the hard work and have the right attitude thrive in this industry. I have every reason to believe you're going to be one of them!