I Am Poison To Most Trucking Companies

Watch this. ...

Gunner, War Eagle!

He's like a mix of Archie Bunker and Redd Foxx on Sanford & Son

OH.... This is the big one Meathead!

I've wondered, Patrick, if you were just having fun jerking some chains around here. I can understand how one might be tempted to do so... Now I believe you have been sincere all along ... a little lost, but sincere. I hope you get things on track with your new job. Never give up...

... and try to forgive the few ******-bags here that "bravely" pile on someone that's down...

I think I speak for everyone when I say this.

Patrick, I'll be praying for you buddy! I really have nothing to say to you (not that you would listen) and I won't criticize you and the way you choose to live your life. But I will pray for you.

Just before l read the above, I was thinking to myself, this guy really needs lots of prayers. God works in mysterious ways. And he has ways of teaching us lessons too!!!

And to Errol V. it sounds like you are talking about that Jesus person, and I don't need the religious garbage.

There is nothing religious in the comment I made, unless "teacher" has religious connotations. I purposely sanitized the concept just for you.

OK, try this phrase:

The Pot calling the Kettle black.

Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha nor Harry Krishna (peace be upon all of them) uttered those words, yet this patronizing situation is all too common inside and outside a church. Just ask Bertha Betterthanyou.

Now I am 66 and I have a very successful marriage. My wife married me because I am a very proud member of the 3 smallest minority groups around. I don't drink at all and never have. I thoroughly have no interest in any sports. I think sports are the biggest waste of time imaginable. And I am an atheist proudly. My wife and I have been married for 37 years, and we prize education and science above everything else. While I am driving a truck around the country I find a lot of religious programs on the radio, including Catholic channel, which brings me a lot of laughs.

Ok wait, I'm very confused. Here's what your bio says: "Patrick 's Bio:

I am a 25 year old from Texas who has always had no interest in sports, or marriage, or drinking. I am an atheist who thinks religion is just a formalized and ritualized mental disorder."

How did you age so fast? And if you have no interest in marriage, how have you been married 37 years?? Something here is fiction.

The "what not to do with trucking companies" thread. It could all be true but, most of it could be called a preventable accident if you will. I wish everyone the best of luck because I wouldn't wish going jobless, hungry, or homeless on anyone but everyone should set aside time to reevaluate themselves, their dreams, goals, aspirations, personality, and how they come off to others.

As far as a theist praying for a non-theist, take it as the equivalent of them saying they are hoping for good wishes and such.

I'm a perfectly well adjusted individual without religion but, I'm not going to fault the ones who believe. Belief is a personal matter and doesn't belong in anyone else's business.

I hope you stick with this new company and have the time to sit down and evaluate yourself, Patrick.

Some people are eternal victims, its always someone else's fault. Truth is that your destiny lies in your own hands, and the sooner a person realizes that, the sooner they can stop playing the poor me victim.

Since none of you have the least knowledge of the kind of person I am, of lived my life, and none of you have a marriage that has lasted longer than some of you have been alive, but you are so good at labels, then I will leave you with one last word. I just got hired by a company that the head of recruiting said I would be a perfect fit. So much for all you uneducated idiots. I am through with this forum because I think the most educated person here is just out of the 4th grade. My wife married me in 1978 because I don't like violence of any kind, and I think the abortion issue belongs in only one place......in a doctors office between the doctor and the woman who is pregnant. It definitely is not a man's issue, since men don't get pregnant. I have a very successful life, because I put priorities where they belong. First is family, then everybody else in the world.

Well, Patrick, I've been in love with my wife since I first saw her in 1978 when I was 17 years old, but you're right, we haven't been married all that time. And frankly, I am more of what you call an educated idiot. I am convinced that getting my degree made me dumber.

Anyway, I really wasn't trying to label you at all, but to help you see that in most or all of these eight jobs you've had in the last two years, there were other ways you could have handled those situations that would not have involved quitting or having your truck towed. I'm glad you have another opportunity, and I hope it goes well.

One other thing I wanted to mention for you and any future readers of this thread. Brett and the others here often say that job-hopping in trucking hurts you in the long run. Now I haven't ever recruited or hired for the trucking industry, but I have for other businesses quite a bit. I guess it's easy for me to put myself in the employer's shoes, since I've been there in the past, but maybe it's not so easy for others, so I'd like to try to spell it out.

Here's why job-hopping makes you a less desirable candidate from the employer's perspective:

First, employers want to hire the best candidates, the people who are best qualified to do the job well.

Second, employers want to keep that employee forever once they're hired and trained. Recruiting, hiring, training, and re-training are all expensive. They'd rather spend that money on other things. But realistically, they know that some will quit and some won't work out, so they have an idea of how long that person needs to stay and be productive before they actually start making money on them. The longer they stay, the more money they make with that hire.

Third, whether you like it or not, when they compare candidates, someone who has stayed at their previous job or jobs for a length of time that is as long or longer than their break-even point is much more attractive than someone who has had more job changes in shorter periods of time, because that behavior is very likely to repeat itself. You can say in an interview you plan to retire from this company, but no one is going to believe you if you've had, say, eight jobs in two years. It doesn't really matter why you left in that situation, all that matters is that you left. Eight times. In two years. The odds of this candidate staying past the break-even point are much, much lower than someone who has worked at their last two employers for a year apiece, and the candidate who has had two employers in ten years is way better than that! Guess which one they'll choose first?

Trucking is one of those industries where lots of people come and go. Somehow the trucking companies have figured out a way to make a profit despite that, but it's one of the reasons they don't have the same kind of training that, say, the insurance business does, where you might spend eight weeks in a classroom with someone and another month with a mentor before you're let loose on your own. And the trainers do nothing but train new hires, re-train current employees, write new training modules for changes in process or technology or law, and go to training to learn how to be a better trainer. They are professional trainers. That's all they do. There are precious few of those in trucking. The insurance industry can afford to do that because the people they hire often stay ten or twenty years or more. It's also why they're a lot pickier about who they hire in the first place.

But even in an industry that has a hard time filling open positions, like trucking, at some point job hopping will kill your odds of getting another chance, because all of a sudden you're at the bottom of a very deep pile of possibles and you don't make the cut. Say they can "only" take in 100 or 120 students a week, and they get 130 qualified candidates every week. Job hopping will put you at 121 or lower, and you won't get a call. You're perfect driving record and utter lack of criminal history won't matter.

On top of that, remember that their criteria for experienced drivers is different than complete newbies. They'll also want to know whether you were late with loads, argued with customers or other employees, had any injury claims, etc. And whatever they can find out about that, they'll use to make a decision. It's perfectly fair, too. After all, they're paying the bill to hire and train you. If you look too expensive, they might just leave a seat open in that class and make it up the next week.

I hope this helps.

Yes Patrick you are poison. Your every employers worst nightmare. Not just the trucking industry but every industry. I have one word Welfare. I would love to be a recruiter checking your references. It's like the who's who of the trucking industry. You asked we answered no buts good bye