At TruckingTruth, we spend a lot of effort attempting to educate people on how to be successful new truck drivers. When individuals start going online to attempt to educate themselves about the job, we know the issues people will encounter. We hate the wild, inaccurate material that is so easily accessible.
We remind them to stay with their initial trucking job for a year. We attempt to prepare people for the foreseeable challenges they will face during that first year because that is a lucrative approach for some very good reasons. To avoid being one of the many people who give up early on in their truck driving careers, I hope I can lay out a few of the things you will need to prepare for when you start your profession.
Starting a career as a truck driver is more like migrating to a foreign country with a whole new culture than just changing professions. It involves a complete lifestyle shift. That alone takes a lot of folks by surprise. They believe,
I need a job, and truck driving employment isis available wherever I look. I guess I will become a truck driver since trucks are very awesome.
It seems sensible. The compromises that we quickly learn that professional truck drivers make while pursuing this vocation and lifestyle do not seem rational. Let us examine what challenges the typical truck driver encounters and how they impact his ability to stick with it for the first year. Let us simply acknowledge that this little post will not cover all the factors contributing to these rookie-year issues, but I still want to give you a general idea of what to anticipate so that you will know what you are getting into. Knowledge may be useful in certain situations, but if it is just misinformed or useless information, it can also be harmful. I would want to provide you with some sound advice in the hopes that it would set you off to a good start.
Concentrating On The Wrong Things Would Quickly Ruin Your Career
It is so simple to start concentrating on the wrong things. You should concentrate your efforts there if you know your ultimate objective. Do not let all the little small irritants divert your attention from your objective.
Those who gripe about the behavior of their recruiter on the phone then make the enormously unreasonable leap of asserting that this is the corporate culture.
We have heard complaints about how tough their driver training is; they see it as a reflection of the business. Because of the garbage you hear on the internet, everyone is already on high alert and as anxious as possible that the corporation will treat them unfairly.
When I say that false info is often taken to be knowledge, I mean this. It is useless and kills many trucking careers before getting off the ground. The success rate for new entry-level drivers is 5%, and the other 95% are the ones that everyone looks to for guidance when considering a career in driving. We fight against it day and night even though it makes no sense. As a rookie driver, you will have trouble with it, and I want to let you about this now so you can be ready. You will fail if you allow it to capture your attention.
Keep your eye on the prize. Make the necessary efforts to get through all the little irritations you do not find delightful, and prepare yourself to go alone in your vehicle. After you have accomplished it, you may focus on the next objectives.
The Challenges of Working with a Trainer
We indicated that you were experiencing trouble with your trainer. It is a typical occurrence, so be ready for it. My trainer was a total jerk. Notwithstanding how unhappy I found him to be, I persisted. I handled the circumstance best since I knew it was only temporary. I concentrated on completing that phase and on to the next one.
I tell you what. I have had a great deal of success as a truck driver. My terrible trainer did not hinder my capacity to succeed in this line of work. You should not expect your trainer to properly prepare you for everything you will encounter when working on the road, and you should not anticipate becoming skilled in this line of work within that time. It is a trial stage, like training wheels on a bicycle.
A second person is in the vehicle with you when you start, ensuring you do not make any major mistakes. Being with that trainer will ease you into this enormous new duty you have accepted. They will let you go once they are certain you can operate the ship by yourself, and you will be left scratching your brain and questioning your readiness. The trainer’s primary role is to explain corporate policies to you, including how to submit paperwork, communicate with dispatch, and manage fuel purchases and vehicle issues while on the road.
Driving Reverse
Someone recently complained in our forum that they still felt poorly trained to back their pickup into a parking space. They had planned to quit their work and look for another trucking firm in the hopes that the new employer would teach them how to drive a truck correctly reverse.
The shocking part was that this business employed them for a year! They were proud of themselves for persevering for a year but were still preoccupied with their alleged lack of training. You can learn to back a truck into a parking space by yourself. We all act in such a manner. “Practice makes perfect,” they say.
You must resist allowing yourself to get fixated on this type of information. Since they were still preoccupied with their training, this individual was dissatisfied. They could have easily fixed this issue with a little self-initiative, but instead, they preferred to blame their employer, which has made their decision to pursue a career in this field unpleasantly.
Every one of us has difficulty backing a huge rig, but we simply go slowly and carefully and use each time we do so as a learning opportunity. Even if we sometimes have to chuckle at ourselves, we pay attention to what is happening in the background each time we do the exercise and take something away from it.
You are incorrect if you believe working with a trainer for three or four weeks can make you an expert at backing a huge rig. It will take at least a year or three to feel certain about your backing abilities. It requires developing motor skills. To get the caravan to turn left, you steer to the right, and to go right, you steer to the left, but after you get over that, it simply takes practice and exposure. This is a significant issue that makes individuals stutter. Several of these things will be left up to you to find out. Even though it will be covered in training, you will never feel competent.
Total Isolation
For novice drivers, this is quite important. We travel for weeks and sometimes pass through three or four states daily. We often lead itinerant lifestyles and seldom ever encounter people we know or have any connection to. Some folks find it to be a major shock.
As a new driver, I will not deny that I sometimes began crying. Sometimes, the loneliness would simply come over me without warning. Happily, there are many methods for people to connect nowadays, but sometimes the absence of personal contact and engagement was a tremendous shock to my senses.
I would get preoccupied with what I was doing, and sometimes the utter absence of genuine engagement with another person was debilitating. One issue like this makes this profession impossible for beginners. We do not even consider it. We are preoccupied with thinking about the joy we will have touring the nation when it suddenly comes up to us and smacks us in the face. Some people find that this is a major career killer. Therefore I want you to be ready for the day when it does.
False Expectations
That is a big deal. I am not even sure whether I should mention these unrealistic expectations. Still, I want you to be ready for the possibility that they may play a significant role in your decision to leave the trucking industry early. To help you think about the kinds of things I am referring to, let us start by making a shortlist.
False expectations from the training experience were previously stated; this is a significant one that causes a lot of individuals to stumble. Sometimes, our perceptions of how much money truck drivers earn are inaccurate. I have often seen individuals resign over the issue; I can not tell you. Also, it is troubling since you will essentially choose your own income in this line of work. Your performance will determine your salary level, as is the case with our pay.
I recently heard a terminal rat moaning about their salary, and they claimed to have met with their dispatcher to discuss it. The dispatcher had informed him that truck driver compensation was “performance-based” during the meeting, which made the poor driver furious. It was the driver’s first exposure to the idea.
Many rookie drivers have unrealistic expectations about how many miles they will do each week. Here is when the annoying notion of performance once again enters the picture. The drivers that show themselves weekly and get things done on time would be rewarded with the greatest loads and turn the most miles.
As inexperienced drivers, we cannot anticipate regularly putting in long miles. Being listed as one of the “top tier drivers” by our dispatcher takes time. Learning how to control our clock to have enough time to log some significant kilometers requires practice. However, just gaining the strength to complete the long distances takes time. We can not expect to come into this situation and immediately act like seasoned veterans. False expectations are a major problem for rookie drivers, and I hope I have given you some insight into what to look out for.
Fatigue
Another thing that some newcomers find surprising is this. Our working hours are irregular and lengthy. Unlike most other employment, this one does not have a defined timetable. Depending on what our workloads need, we sometimes work all day and occasionally all night.
We essentially hold down the responsibilities of two full-time jobs. Some find this upsetting. We do a lot of work that is not always compensated in the way you would anticipate from an hourly job, where you are paid for the time spent working. Many have left their jobs because they were not compensated for the time they spent sleeping in their trucks, in my experience. They seem to believe they ought to be compensated as if they were manning the company’s property like a security guard. These absurd notions are often generated by the same individuals who find the whole “performance pay concept” incomprehensible.
My primary argument is that new driver will often hang up their keys early due to the impact of weariness. It may sometimes be a draining profession. Some individuals suffer from irregular sleep schedules and long work hours. It takes some getting accustomed to at first, and some individuals have decided this vocation is just not for them due to the consequences of weariness.
Be Ready for a Difficult Task
My primary goal in putting this together was to assist you in being ready for some of the things that could surprise you as you begin your new job. Sometimes, it might be a real shock. You can keep yourself in control if you are somewhat ready for some of the shocks that may impair your ability to maintain some “skin in the game.”
Maintaining focus on your objectives is crucial. Do not allow the little diversion to take you off course. In this industry, finding your footing takes some time. While the work is worthwhile, it will take some time before you become excellent at trucking.
I love my life as a nomad and hope you will too. Before you reach the point when you are enjoying your new way of life, do not allow the things that divert most new drivers to knock you off course.
