Ripoff in The Trucking Industry

During this financial readjustment that our world has been involved in, I’ve been unable to find my regular work.  No work, no money, no rent, no food.  Always paid my own way.  Don’t know the system for living off the government and don’t want to.  Too proud, I guess.  I’m a 63 year old female.  Done bookkeeping, taxes, admin, managed a horse boarding barn—no career really.  (Anything with horses would be OK but I don’t ride well enough.)

Several people told me that driving a truck is pretty easy.  Said that there are jobs available in the industry. 

In July 2009, I enrolled in truck driving school in Stockton, CA using a Federal grant.  Passed all my written tests.  And, passed the driving test.

Then, I signed up with a firm out of Nebraska that will take on new drivers.  They send them out with “trainers” for 300 driving hours and then, if the trainer certifies them, hire them as a regular driver.  What do they get for this?  They get a $10,000 tax credit for every student they put through their system.  They get that credit whether they hire the student or not.  Most other trucking firms won’t hire new drivers because of insurance liability.  You have to have a minimum for 6 months and preferably 1 year OTR (on the road) experience.

So, what type of training are you supposed to get and what is the reality? 

You are supposed to learn how to perform a vehicle inspection on your tractor, how to hook up a trailer and inspect it, how to scale your cargo if necessary, how to record your trip information, follow directions (not always easy as GPS systems are not provided by the carrier—they should), drive a tractor/trailer combination vehicle safely down the road, enter and exit freeways, roadways, driveways, back your combination vehicle, drop your trailer, do paperwork, keep track of your hours, and keep rolling.  The U.S. Department of Transportation, allows truck drivers to work a 14 hour day, 11 of those hours driving and a total of 70 hours a week.

The reality.  In all, I went out with 5 “trainers.”  Except for the first and last ones, none of them taught me anything.  None of those middle 3 would allow me to hook up, unhook or back the combination vehicles.  The first trainer was very good.  If his blood pressure had been normal, I would have learned a lot from him and had a much better chance in the industry.  The last trainer, a woman, was also very good and I learned a lot from her.  But her dedicated run was with an outfit that was not the usual backing into loading docks which I needed to learn.