The REAL Truth behind Trucking

I sure wished someone could explain this one to me. I have seen a lot of posers, you have too. The DanRather report is sure bringing a lot of them out.

Seems to me that only half the “story” got told. It’s really sad when a lot of people are getting behind a person who has only been in the industry for a couple of years.

What gets me is this video is supposed to show how students are poorly trained. I saw a person in this video who evidently was properly trained, they have not had any accidents or tickets in their two years of driving. They didn’t get sent back to driving school, for more training.

I saw a comment the other day somebody posted in one of the trucking forums I go to. It basically said that in the video, they noticed that the trucks shown were all day cabs and looked like they were pulling �œpup�� trailers. These people couldn’t get the proper training to pull a fifty three foot trailer?

The purpose of a truck driving school are to get you a license, a CDL. Some help get you a job as well. There never has been a trucking school, or ever will be a trucking school, to completely train you to be a truck driver. The “proper training” comes from experience.

Some may disagree but I can tell you this first hand. I went to a trucking school and got my CDL. Then went to work for a company. The first thing out of the company trainer’s mouth was,”forget everything they taught you at school”. I soon realized what he was talking about. It was totally different out in the real world than what was taught at the school. That’s when I realized what the schools were for.

No one can properly train someone to become a truck driver. You have to gain experience to become a truck driver. The company trainers are there to teach you the basics. Then you have to gain experience. Schools are just giving you a “taste” of that experience.

Some people come into the industry with a bad attitude that never seem to get rid of. They want to blame a lot of their own problems on others You know after a while you would think that person would stop and think, “hmm maybe it’s me?”.

I do feel bad for the victims of sexual harassment, rape, and all the other bad things that were mentioned in the report. CRST was named in this video and was held up as a bad company for not doing what was believed to be the right thing to do. But CRST did do all they were required to do by law. They provided a chain of command to report harassment and would switch a woman to another trainer, what else could they do?

Most women I know are smart, and they use common sense and conduct themselves not just as a woman truck driver. But as a true professional drivers. It takes a lot of common sense to survive, that’s why I said in an earlier post not everyone is cut out to be a truck driver.

I agree that the training given by companies need to be changed, as of right now, they are only doing what is required of them. Will we ever see the training get changed? I am not sure if we will, it has worked this long, really why change it?

Truck drivers are not looked upon with respect, because the government has labeled truckers as unskilled laborers. As such, we are not covered under fair wage laws or by labor law requirements for overtime. Some changes are going to have to come from a government standpoint, otherwise nothing will ever change. This is the real truth behind trucking.

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