I remember John Wayne saying, “I do not like quitters!” in an old movie. That is how I, too, feel. Regrettably, the trucking industry has a high turnover rate. I do not like quitters in general, but I have a different attitude when starting a trucking career. I have some sympathy for them. I do not like how so many of them fall for false information or terrible advice regarding this job and then begin working under many unrealistic expectations. I am certain that most people who give up on their trucking jobs at such an early stage might have been successful. They gave up so easily most of the time because they were operating on faulty assumptions.
A brand-new member recently complained about his training at a company-sponsored training program on our forum. He told us that since he had been a police officer for 40 years and had extensive experience instructing other officers, he felt prepared for his truck driving instruction. He expressed to us his deep disappointment and the following:
“I left this specific firm. There must be a business that values its training.
Even though this situation is so typical, he appeared to believe that his training experience was an exception that needed to be avoided, like the plague. Instead of just deciding to leave, he immediately jumped onto various trucking forums to support his worries.
This kind of individual makes me wish we could coach them for a few weeks before they even take their first steps into this demanding and fulfilling career. Hundreds of these men and women fall victim to this identical trap every year. Seldom do any of them succeed in pursuing what would have been a lucrative trucking profession. I want to outline some of the many obstacles you will face when you attempt to establish a new trucking profession.
The Research Trap
Many are concerned that if they do not start with the appropriate firm, they will be stuck in a terrible circumstance. To find that one hidden needle in the haystack that will be the ideal spot for them to start their career, they will invest endless hours doing various types of research and even setting up elaborate spreadsheets. It is a tenacious quest often driven by anxieties generated by pointless internet reports from people who gave up before them.
How can a quitter teach you something? So, for starters, you can typically devise perfectly acceptable excuses to give up. And exactly how much good is it going to do you? Here’s the major issue with all this research that individuals perform. The trucking firms that use rookie drivers hardly vary from one another. The only distinctions that should concern a new driver are:
- The kinds of freight they deliver.
- The salary range (and only to a small extent, in my opinion).
- Their home-time regulations.
- Maybe their pet and rider policies (if those are important to you).
For a beginner, everything else will be so identical that it may be overlooked. The reality is that these businesses operate the same trucks under the same circumstances, and laws seem to escape new drivers. They utilize the same fuels, travel on the same interstates, and provide services to clients. It is so similar that identifying the distinctions is pointless and annoying. Spending so much time researching is a waste of time. You are just making yourself more anxious than you need to be. The basis for all the other issues that lead individuals to give up so quickly is often the anxiousness developed throughout your new trip’s research phase.
The Training Trap
When they begin a new profession, people often have quite unrealistic assumptions about how training will be conducted. There are no officially accepted training criteria for this occupation. Everyone uses a similar system, which evolved using the Darwinian principle of “this is what has worked for us. Therefore this is how we do it.”
One of the main reasons people drive up is that they believe they will be dealt with one-on-one and that their training would enable them to be skilled at this. The aim of the training is competency in the majority of other professions but not in trucking. Before you can ever feel as if you are competent at this, it will take you a good solid year of driving that truck and understanding the tiny intricacies of the profession. In reality, there are multiple levels to the training in the trucking industry, or maybe we might call them career progression phases.
- Organize work to help you ace the exams and get your permit.
- You must pass the driving test to get your CDL.
- You go out with a trainer after getting a job. Why? Because you are still completely clueless.
- After that, you get your single truck, and I promise you that you will feel foolish for the first week or two.
- Your dispatcher will check in with you once a month to see how things are doing.
- You can get a quarterly evaluation to assess your progress as expected.
- They will begin to trust you after a year.
- You will be responsible for teaching yourself how to do this successfully over the next few years.
This is important:
Truck driving is a vocation that demands strong independence, and the best drivers are often self-starters who want to solve problems.
As a result, the others often get left behind since each level of the training is increasingly tailored for those personalities to rise to the challenge. Instead of fostering proficiency, the program aims to weed out people who do not exhibit the necessary traits for success in this field. Exposure to all the little differences contributing to successful driving results in proficiency. And the people who are exposed are the ones with the unique capacity to persevere while overcoming all of their irrational expectations.
The Solo Trap
Oh wow, what a rush it is to acquire your first set of keys to a vehicle. You feel like you are on top of the world right now and can not wait to earn all that money. You have come this far, and now everything will pay off greatly! When you get the initial load, what happens?
- You get turned around on your way to the consignee.
- You eventually arrive, but you are running late.
- You then accidentally enter the incorrect gate.
- You are now in the parking lot for employees.
- You have had to back the vehicle out of this improbable circumstance.
- You eventually manage to move inside the reception area.
- You find out they stopped receiving it 30 minutes ago.
For a second, this is not what you were anticipating! Do not ask me how I know you will experience this. As a new driver, you will find yourself in some insane scenarios that could even be worse than that. We all have experience with this and know how it will turn out. It finally occurs to you at this point that you must essentially learn how to accomplish this on your own. They can only do so much for you during training.
You will encounter ten thousand distinct situations while out here, and training will not be able to prepare you for all of them. The training is designed to provide people who readily give up the opportunity to leave while they are still sane. The people who choose to persevere and resist the temptation to think that “this is no way to teach someone to drive a truck” are the ones who finally learn about all the minute details that go into making a new driver successful.
The Starter Company Trap
How long a new driver will remain with his “Starter Business” appears to be a personal decision for each driver. Some people decide to remain for a year, some for six months, and others even dare to leave after only three months. The simple notion that some of these businesses are “Starter Businesses” and, as such, less attractive is a major misconception in and of itself.
Some businesses use novice drivers while others don’t, but it does not mean that those using novices are less attractive than others. One might argue that they are more suited to assist someone in establishing themselves in this field, which should make every new employee think of them as truly fantastic organizations to work for. There is a fallacy that claims all you need to do is get sufficient experience before switching to a “legitimate” trucking business where you will be treated with “respect.”
The trucking businesses are aware that you are falling for this gibberish despite this being utterly false. That is why you will see recruitment signs on their trailers listing everything whiners and complainers are griping about.
Join our team now to get all you are due:
- More Miles
- More Money
- More Respect
- More Home Time
I tried to get my first trucking job and finally accepted a position with a business that had received negative internet and trucking forum ratings, some of which were terrifying. I understood the same things I am attempting to convey to you here at that point. I was as tense as I possibly could be. Because of all the material I had read from all the others who had resigned before me, I was confident they would take advantage of me.
I ask once again, “What can you learn from quitters?”
You may pick up all the incorrect approaches to success. And practically everyone begins their careers in trucking by doing just that. In the trucking industry, a tonne of extremely terrible information is available online. Sadly, most of it is provided by people who were unsuccessful in the industry.
You must be fiercely independent and ready to take whatever steps are necessary to establish yourself to get your career off the ground. I vowed to succeed regardless of what the online evaluations said, and I later learned that they included just false information from losers and quitters. This “Starter Business” went above and above to make sure I was successful, but only because they saw in me the tenacity essential for success out here on the road.
I was disappointed to see the new forum member leave so fast due to his erroneous assumptions about how the training should go. He had not even put a foot in the door yet, but he had already joined the group of people searching for confirmation of their worries from seasoned drivers who know better. To be completely honest with you, the design of the training procedure takes into account the large number of people who leave this in the blink of an eye.
You will encounter new difficulties every day you are out here working in trucking. Every day, I still need to be agile and capable of making rapid judgments. Such choices affect my success for that specific day or week. Avoid the frequent pitfalls that lead individuals to leave this industry too soon. Be strong and persistent throughout the first year, from training to work and beyond. The ones who prove they have what it takes to complete the race get the prizes.