TRUCKING RECRUITING SCAM - Shortage Caused By Slavery Employment Conditions & Abuse

Driving those big rigs is a lot of fun. The only way to get a break for a successful career is to know somebody really well or have a relative with a small trucking company to get you started after your CDL.

But the regulations are getting crappy.

Many trucks are 'governed' so they cannot drive over 60 mph. That is why all the 4-wheelers have to pass them all the time. Fuel economy. Unsafe, right?

OBAMACARE may well take it all down. I wonder...

Same link, facts from January 23rd blog:

"Truck driver wages have remained the same for decades with no adjustment for inflation or other such economic factors. In fact, drivers were actually earning more money in 1980 than they are today in 2013."

"Yet the nation's truckers average an unskilled wage (Department of Labor classification) of .34 cens per mile, and they have seen their earnings fall by 40% during the past 33 years."

Last Edited by 13th-Century on 02/13/2013 01:29 PM

I've heard of similar stuff myself, OP. In this day and age if one can't get on SSI or be goddamn ecstatic with a shitty ass job that pays minimum wage or less, you'll become extremely desperate for money. I myself absolutely hate being so money centric but in order to survive in this vile world of our's I MUST be as money centric as possible. I sincerely hope that those who are forced one way or another to join up with any of these trucking companies. It's all about victimization and Corruption these days. For those of us who aren't Corrupt nor willing to become Corrupt we'll be the new victims till we do become Corrupt. It's a Mad, Mad World.

Ive been a transportation industry recruiter for many years. Although I only deal with experienced drivers (The commissions just arent high enough or worth my time for newbie drivers and students. There are some problems with your post.

First of all, everyone has to start somewhere. Yes the schools will push you into the bigger companies. Even though those big companies kind of suck, here is why a recent graduate should choose a big company.
* No matter where you go for your job of driving, the pay is going to suck. You have to pay your dues, you will have to suffer a bit. If you find a small "Mom and Pop" company that will hire a newbie, it will most likely be a poorly run company, or an outlaw company that wants you to run illegal. Plus in 6 months or so, when you become qualified for a better paying company, those companies will want to see one of the big trucking companies that trained you...Not some small mom and pop company. Companies like Swift, Werner, Ect, really wont pay you well, but thats EXACTLY who you should be driving for first. It will only help you get a better job later down the line.

Truckersreport.com is a bit of a worthless website. You have a bunch of truckers whining about every company out there. You cant name name a company that you can find something bad said about it online. Here is the deal. Its human nature. When someone has something negative to say about a company, they want to vent. They will take the time to go online and vent. As opposed to if they are happy with a company, they usually wont post it online. Truckersreport is just a bunch of drivers venting. A truck driver really shouldnt use that message board when deciding about a company.

Ive been placing drivers in jobs for 15 years. I hire for 31 companies all across the nation. I dont work for anyone but myself and owe these companies nothing. If you want the straight dope about companies and what to avoid in this industry, feel free to ask me any questions.

This is true. For most companies I hire for, the pay for drivers is the same as it was 15 years ago when I started. With a few exceptions. This does NOT mean its not a good job to do, nor does it mean you cant make a great living at truck driving. You can make a shitload of money driving a truck. I have jobs to fill that pay 80 grand plus a year. You just have to put up with a lot of shit to get to where you qualify for those jobs.

With respect to a guy behind a desk, no I don't need to ask you any questions. I have been there.

I know how the Truckers Report forum comments are ridiculed by the honcho administrators.

Recruiters? They routinely lie, present company excepted, of course.

Sorry, but until your cowboy boots have been on the ground, and you are looking for a place to park your rig that is legal, when your hours are up to drive, and there are no spaces left at the truckstop...you are always going to be part of the problem, not part of helping people by being a shill for the industry like this.

Too many of them.

People are being shafted by the trucking industry everyday, and these are not wimps. These are people are dedicated themselves to do the job, eat the canned beans from Walmart, sleep as well as they could in a bouncing truck, hoping they could trust their team driver at the wheel (LOL), shower once or twice a week - and do it all with a smile for the customer and a respectful "Yes, sir" for the Safety Manager.

You think Big Companies don't have their ways to make people drive illegal?

Boy, bud, you are naive. But I know - you have a job to do, and you want to keep it like everybody else who chews up the lives of others to make sure they and theirs stay secure.

Let the other guy drown.

Last Edited by 13th-Century on 02/13/2013 01:43 PM

HAHAHAHAHAHAAA I know the truckin industry well.


If you can stay away from home for long periods, truckins for you. If mama don't mine ya being gone all the time, the open roads fine. If ya babies don't be needin a daddy than go do it.

If you a little bitch who has to sleep in bed by nine and wake up to coffee and eggs sizzlin in the pan flipped by the wifey, forget it.

Truckin is big bullshit, hard times, rough roads, lousy food, sleepless nights and days, gettin kicked around by shippers and receivers and the company. Pay is low, hours long, days turn into nights, then weeks on end out on the road.

You a gypsie boy, than you got what it takes to be out there.

If ya can't do nothing else, be a bartender

Big company CRST got nailed for years of ignoring sexual abuse, by the way.

Class action lawsuit.

Sorry, lady, we don't have enough women trainers, so share a cab for 2 months' additional required training with this married man.

Guess what happens?

I know plenty a story of trainers being guys training wominez and wanting some from all the open road loneliness. Wimenz quit cause they want a job as a trucker not a whore.

The stories I can tell.

Hell, I went true truck driver training back in the 80s and the truck driver trainers where tired old hands who couldn't drive anymo and went to training young and dumb whipper snappers.

Seems a trainer or two was a bedding down the young and dumb wimenz during training. They got caught and relieved of duty.

My first truck driver job I was no kid idiot that just fell off the boat into a truck seat.

My driver manager tried to play me like a dumb kid till I told the asshole I maybe new to trucking but I'm not new to bullshit. I never got good runs after that. Fact is, we were told never to call into after hour dispatch. I had a problem with that cause I don't listen to well.

I'm a notorious problem with dispatch cause I know the ways of the world

Let me also add:

Since Ive been doing this for a long time and literally talk to 200-300 drivers a week, I have come to know the secrets of how to succeed being a truck driver. I will be happy to share them with you.

* Negativity breeds negativity: If you come into this industry looking for the negative, you will find plenty. There are plenty of things that suck about truck driving. If you sweat those things and let it create a negative mindset in yourself, you will fail. When Im talking to a driver, looking at their resume and filling out applications for that driver, I can tell by his attitude and what he is telling me about the other companies he worked for, if hes going to fail at the job Im placing him in or not. In this job you have to put up with a lot of shit. Deal with it.

* You are paid to move freight, so move freight. You might have been "promised" home every weekend, or something like that. Here is the most true words in trucking I can ever post. Read them well, and learn them. NOTHING IS GUARANTEED IN TRUCK DRIVING. If a recruiter tells you GUARANTEED home every weekend, dont believe him. Companies can try to get you home every weekend. Hell, most of the time they might. But there will be times when your fleet manager or dispatcher wants you to take a long load friday evening and not go home. Take the load and dont bitch about it. Face it, a driver that whines about hometime to his fleet manager, is going to end up getting the short runs that keep him close to home. Short runs = more hometime = smaller paychecks. Getting on the good side of your dispatcher or fleet manager is the best thing you can do for your career. Do you know which drivers at a big company are getting the best runs, most miles, and the biggest paychecks? The favorite drivers of the fleet managers or dispatchers. The drivers that make their jobs easier. The drivers that dont gripe when asked to take that run instead of going home. Im not saying to kiss ass, but I tell my drivers all the time to say these words when they first meet their fleet manager, "What can I do to make your job easier, and make my paychecks bigger?" Find out what he wants, then do it. The drivers who make the most money in this industry are the guys who dont bitch about anything and just do it. They are the driver who will take any load, good or bad. They are the driver who even though was told "no touch freight", is not scared to get back in that trailer and sweat if a lumper doesnt show up. The diver that succeeds in this industry is the one who has a vision and goal for the future and is willing to put up with the most shit to get there.

My husband has been trucking since he was 17. He has run into this stuff ans when he drove for Garber Ag Freight he had to sit ALOT in his truck at the feed places. Unloaded every week by ramp and cart 90,000lbs AND drove iver 3500 miles per week!! Literally back breaking work!
He was there almost 20 yrs and has been with an excellent co for the oast 4 yrs now.
Like any co.you go to work for you HAVE to check them out. The things im seeing posted are pretty normal these days.

Yup!! Mine has DEFINITELY paid his dues!! Now he makes great money and he LOVES his job. His company is great! But you cant start off at the top of the ladder!! And... OF COURSE u have to pee wherever u can! If your not gettinv to your load on time then your sittin in truck stops all the time and NOT humping your butt! PERIOD!
86 the whining guys! Really. I mean THATS ALL PART OF THE JOB THAT COMES WITH BEING A TRUCK DRIVER!! Telling ya....there are good companies out there to be found...If you want to make the BIG BUCKS you have to drive the miles....but it CAN be done!!

I started out as a trucker pulling a company wagon behind a company truck. They tell me I have to drive by their rules and do 55. I like my job and I paid $2500 to train for this.

I went to school with a bunch a other guys and we all got to drivin and seeing one another every once in awhile on the road or back at the 20.

I told them guys back in school I was gonna get my own truck one day. 7 months into the job I made a discision. I had enough of being kicked around by the driver manager on the phone. I was told to either get with it or get out.

I was ordered to go down to kenosha and pull empties from the american motors drop lot and bring em back to the yard. I go sure, ya, ok man, I'm on it, cause I do everything I'm told thats why I paid big money to work and all.

I get to american motors home of the rambler and other fine american made cars and find these trailers in the fucking mud and knee deep water.

I call back and report the bad news cause man, I'm not going in there for those trailers if there in knee deep water. The driver managers gettin pissy with me and I tell it like it is, No man, I'm not treadin water to hook empties and american motors can get the spotter mobile out there to yank em out of the water for me to lock on and pull.

The bitch didn't like the idea a new son a bitch kid was tellin him how it is and big guy on the phone tells me I have to and I go not happenin.

Well hahahahahaaa as fate would have it that day, I came back empty, walked into the dispatch office, sat down with one of the guys who was told to tell me if I can't do the job that I may as well hit the road.

I listen to the yes man tell me hows it going to be and I shake my head up and down and act like I care till he is done. I sat there and said, ya know, I'm out a here, all done, I quit. Ya should a seen the look he gave me.

I walked out that door and up the road to am a&w where I called someone to come pick me up. I was hundreds of miles from home but just made the most exciting choice of my trucking career.

There are always the old pros and their wives who think they are the experts.

Fast forward. 2000-2013.

Since you both have no idea what is happening to people now, it is so so easy to call them "whiners" - while you get a charge out of gutter talk.

Oh, 'negative attitudes' huh, Mr. Recruiter?

Well about one thing you are right. Sometimes, if you swallow enough of the s-h-i-t, cover for some small crimes here and there, lie against another driver, if the pack wants you to do so, etc. etc., yes, you too can make enough money to get your own truck and make some money... or switch to transporting guillotines in unmarked trailers for the U.S. government.

Maybe now is the time to mention:

THE LEASING SCAM

The driver thinks he is running his own business. Ha! He is paying through the nose for an old truck that won't be worth half of what his lease payments will be -- if he ever gets through the lease. And since the system is created for him to fail, the driver will lose thousands of dollars of his own money and end up having having to walk away, knowing he has only paid the company's own bills in the meantime.

TEN-FOUR

Last Edited by 13th-Century on 02/13/2013 02:22 PM

Yes, some recruiters lie, so do some drivers. In reality, its just human nature to lie. Im lied to every day by drivers. Hell, I just got off the phone with a company about a driver I was supposed to have in orientation on monday, he lied to me and failed to tell me about the 2 DWIs he had. Wasted my time and cost me a shitload of money. Its just part of the industry. Deal with it.

Sure some big companies will find a way to make you run illegal. But with electronic logs its getting much harder. And given a choice, running illegal for a big company, or a small company, the better career choice is the BIGGER COMPANY.

I chew up the lives of others? Not at all. Its my jobs to place drivers in jobs they are looking for. I will tell them the truth about every job I have. I will give them many options with many companies, and answer any questions they have about those companies and let them choose the job they want. I will tell them the good and the bad of the job. I will tell them what the successful drivers I have sent over their made, and I will tell them about the guys who failed and why they failed. Like I said, I can tell if a driver is going to fail at a job before they even work, just from their work history and their attitude. Its not my fault if a driver fails at a job. Their success is NOT MY JOB. Its my job to give them the opportunity to earn. Once they get in that truck and drive, what happens with them is 100% up to them. I never promise paycheck amounts. When a driver asks me "How much will I make weekly". I say "honestly, I dont know.....I dont know what kind of driver you are." I can tell them what my most successful drivers made on that job...I can tell them what the average driver makes...But I will never promise what they will make (unless its a salaried position). Thats up to them.
Expample: I have a position where I need 5 drivers. I send the company 5 drivers. 4 of them do very well. One of them fails. Its not my fault that driver failed. But you can be sure as hell, that driver that failed will blame me. He will claim "THE RECRUITER LIED TO ME". When it fact, i didnt...he failed all by himself. Like most humans, its easier to blame others to accept personal responsibility for failure.

Here is how honest of recruiter I am. I have many clients who have "Lease Purchase". Most of those companies will pay me $2000-3000 bucks commission to get them a "Lease Purchase" driver. Even for $2000-3000 bucks, I will do everything I can to talk a driver out of lease purchase. Most of the time it works. But when I cant talk a driver out of lease purchase. I will do the best I can to stick them in the best lease purchase possible and tell them what I know that will help them make it work. Lease purchase is not a good thing. Its like rent to own. But face it, even though rent to own is a rip off, its still a billion dollar industry. Lease purchase sucks. But for those who have bad credit and want to own a truck, sometimes you cant talk them out of it. And even though lease purchase sucks, there are some lease purchase programs out there that dont suck as much and drivers can actually succeed doing it. They just have to put up with even more bullshit...lol

On with the tale of a lonely smart trucker.

I walked out on the company that paid me 17 cent a mile and thought they owned me for the past 7 months.

I walked into another driver job paying more with an O/O for 4 months. I made good money here but I had to have it my way. I went to a lease company called gelco and leased a T-600 kenworth that ran me $3200 a month.

I signed a hauling contract and pulled a dry box for the next 9 months as I planned to buy a new freightshaker. I knew I could do it cause I was making money paying 3200 amonth for the lease truck and if I buy with 15k down which I saved up in those 9 months, I would cut that 3200 into a 1500 a month payment for a brand new large car.

The money was big and it was easy and I was now an owner operator pulling my own shit. I went on to buying a reefer and another large car this time a kenworth L900.

Let me tell you people, I did it, I was on my own, I went where I wanted to and seen shit no one gets to see while being paid to do it.

I rode all the major roads of canada and the 48 states in a large car all blinged out with chicken lights and chrome and fucking pride. I did it, yes I did.

This is funny. Do you know what the best paying job I have on my list right now? A JB HUNT dedicated job. Family Dollar account in Laredo TX. I placed a driver on that account that made 98 grand on it last year. Its also a very hard job to fill. Face it, its 2000 pieces of handloaded freight, and in Laredo TX, sometimes that trailer is going to be 140 degrees inside during the summer.
What makes this funny, is JB Hunt will have the worst reputation online. I agree with most of it. A lot of drivers have gotten the shaft at JB. But that still doesnt change the fact that right now, thats absolutely the best paying job and the best benefits of any job I have on my list. If I talk to a driver today about that job. Most likely he will say "I heard JB HUNT SUCKS" and then hang up on me. Did he hurt me by saying that? Naaa not really. He missed out on a very high paying job by not listening to me, and listening to chatter on the CB or meaningless shit online. Oh well. Comes with the job. But I assure you, that driver I put on that job and made 98 grand last year was sure glad he listened to me, and not other drivers.

Over the 15 years Ive been doing this. There arent too many major companies I havent hired for at one time. And there sure arent many companies in this country I dont know about. I assure you, at every company out there, no matter how much bad crap you read about them online, there are drivers succeeding and making a shitload of money at. And there are also drivers failing at those companies.

You had the right attitude for this industry. I can tell that.

Now a word to the clueless.

Lease purchase options dangled to truckers has a draw back.

Your exciting lease option from a company running company trucks soon becomes a lease truck competing with the company truck.

During times of slow business, which choice do you think moves more often than not. The company trucks pulling freight with miles get the loads with the miles before the lease operators cause the company comes first from the point they have a payment schedule to meet and employees to pay.

You, the lease operator, gets whats left over if anything.

I remember when I was paid 17 cent a mile with that company that owned me and I was at a reciever once and a lease operator was there also and he was looking for a load from the same place I was driving for, he was a leased operator who leased one of their trucks.

I had a load ready for pick up as he was all frantic cause I realize now, he was starving from lost revenue and no freight. He actually wanted me to give him my load he was so frantic. I told dispatch this and they said he can get his own load from his dispatch operator. This guy was pissed and menacing he was so mad.

I suggest don't go lease option with a company that pays drivers to run their trucks along side a lease program for guys who think they can get a bigger slice by doing it that way. You will lose.

Okay, I will eat my hat. You really do know what you are talking about.

Yes, people want to sign on to a lease, and if they have their mind made up, and they are gullible, you cannot stop them.

And the Laredo job with J.B. Hunt, dedicated Dollar General -- I am sure that guy is pulling down the 98 grand just as you said. He must be "The Incredible Hulk" and sweat gallons a day.

Wonder if you know the linked site:

www.askthetrucker.com

I haven't looked at it for months, which is what got me started with this subject today.

The January 17th blog gives us a true statistic.

70 per cent of new drivers who work for the big carriers will quit the industry in six months nowadays.

My experience (2006-2008) was that most of these rookies are really nice folks, often with children, wives, husbands, mortgages, solid job experience, and realistic about trucking. But they didn't know how to handle the toxic stuff, and I don't mean HAZMAT.

Last Edited by 13th-Century on 02/13/2013 02:59 PM

And again from the linked website, January 17 - the real goods people have wondered about for years... here in black and white:

"When the U.S. government decided to enact government subsidies and grants for CDL training in order to combat the industry-induced driver shortage problem, the idea was a noble one in the beginning.

"What the government failed to realize is that these schools and starter companies, and motor carriers with their own training facilities, quickly realized that there was more money to be made off the backs of the unsuspecting students.

"Motor carriers and CDS schools 'teamed up' under the guise of working together: the motor carrier would hire students from a particular school and 'share' in the free government money. In order to keep the 'free' money coming in, the industry developed the 'turning-over' of drivers, keeping an influx of trainees as an on-going process and a continual money-maker business relationship between these truck driver training schools and the motor carrier..."

Of course, the carriers hire rookies from schools which are not limited to their own 'buddy' network. But the modus operandi remains the same.

Many students go through an entire 2 months of 'drive with a trainer' hell, only to be cashiered on a flimsy excuse, or because they didn't do a favor, sexual or otherwise, for the trainer.

Trainers stick together. If a student reports a trainer for drinking on the job, for example, that trainer has friends who will retaliate against the whistleblower, once they get him in the driver's seat.

The carrier is actually happy to have a hundred new drivers in orientation every week. They get their freight carried quickly by a team, at much less money than they would have to pay two experienced drivers.

Now the trainer himself may only have SIX MONTHS EXPERIENCE.

Is the public safe?

When I am driving my car, I try to stay away from heavy trucker lanes, and give them a wide berth at all times.

I am very careful when passing them, also.

Last Edited by 13th-Century on 02/13/2013 03:11 PM

FANTASTIC SUCCESS STORY - That is the road to take.

Plus the fact that the T-600 Kenworth you rented for the 9 months was probably in good mechanical condition -- much better than the junk they are trying to get people to sign on to lease today.

Are you still driving?

I like this thread so thats why I keep at it.

I ran my truck operation for many years till I realized where the economy was going. It was a time fuel was still affordable and rates were good and freight aplenty.

Deisel was way cheaper than gas per gallon. I think it was like 60 cent a gallon and 9 years later it was 1.50 a gallon. When I gave it up fuel was running around $1.50 gallon and from my forcast of future business, I seen it do nothing but going up as the rates staggered. Sure they had fuel surecharge to compensate for the higher fuel cost but I knew trends and it wasn't looking to profitable staying in the game.

I was pretty burnt out anyway with well over a million 200k miles on myself. I ran coast to coast in a matter of three and a half days. I did west coast runs wisconsin to california in two and a half days by myself.

I went from an owner to a dispatcher in 1997. I got to see the shit from the inside and just how drivers are treated and act.

Let me tell you, trucking companies are vast interlocked gearing grinding operations that some time move by shear volume alone and everything else is a matter of just doing it to keep it running.

Drivers are there to do a job that the machine demands. If you have a different idea of it, then you have to do what I did. Unfortunately, most drivers want to be told what to do, how to do it, when to do it and are robots.

I found that to be so true as I managed people. Some thought they knew better but didn't have what it took to make it on their own as an owner operator.

It was a lesson that drove me mad dealing with these multitude of wildly varied pov.

I think the reason so many new drivers leave in industry so soon is because they were fed a load of Bullshit by the driving schools.
I think too many drivers go into driving school thinking they can get that 50 grand a year, home every night and off every weekend driving job they "heard about", right out of school. Then when they graduate, they find the only job offer is SWIFT, for 23 cpm and they will be on the road for 4-5 weeks.

Like I said, I dont like dealing with recent graduates, the low commissions for newbies arent worth my time. But when I get a call from them, Im happy to point them in the right direction. When they call me about one of my jobs, I will tell them "Go work for a big company like SWIFT or WERNER. The pay is going to suck. You will be on the road for weeks at a time. You will most likely be on the verge of starvation from low pay. Do it for 3 months, and call me. After you get 3 months exp, I have a few better jobs for you that will pay you better and get you home more. If you get 6 months experience, I will have even better jobs for you. And once you get a years experience, and stay clean on your MVR, I should be able to put you in a great job.
I try to explain to drivers that their first year of driving is like a continuation of school. I say "At least you are making "some money" at it. I spent 6 years in college and grad school and didnt earn squat for those 6 years. This is just a year out of your life"

Nothing could be said on this thread that could be MORE TRUE" We are all just parts of a giant machine used to move product. If you dont like being a part of the machine, then this industry ISNT for you.
The JOB of the trucking company is to move freight for a customer. That is the ONLY JOB of a trucking company. Its really not the job of the trucking company to get you home on time, to make sure you get 3000 miles a week, and to baby to your wishes. You were hired to be a "Tool"... I dont mean "Tool" in a bad way. We are all tools with a purpose. The best way to succeed in this business, is to strive to be the most efficient "tool" in the tool box.

It wasnt a class action lawsuit. It was one women, who sued CRST. CRST recently settled with that woman for only 50 grand.

Since you mentioned Werner Enterprises...

After I had a godawful experience with Werner myself (twice by the way), I tried my best to dissuade a former school teacher friend, fortyish, from signing on with them right out of CDL school. But no, he would not listen to me. "I am not going to pay attention to negativity... blah blah"

What happened? Well he got through training all right, and was assigned a truck. There were mechanical problems with losing power. He was in and out of the shop for several weeks. The Werner mechanics, at more than one location, could not find out what was wrong.

(I think the mechanics are dealing with pay and working conditions, as well as the drivers.)

Anyway, my friend is a pro and a gentlemen. His parents have a farm in Missouri. He is a country boy and not afraid of work or getting his hands dirty. He loved trucking, so he kept at it.

One day, he was ascending a hill, with another tractor-trailer behind him, and the truck he was driving suddenly lost power. No warning.

He was rear-ended, of course. Glad no one was hurt. Damage to both trucks, of course.

Well, did Werner acknowledge the truck had a mechanical failure, since they had the records of all those times in the shop?

No. They fired my friend.

No sweat, he took off for Korea to teach English as a 2nd Language, and he has been there for the past 4 years. He loves teaching also.

He never wants to talk about truck driving. Big hole in his life. Like being a war veteran who keeps it to himself.

Last Edited by 13th-Century on 02/13/2013 07:29 PM