Finding Employment after graduating from truck driver training school
In this episode of the Life and times of a rookie driver I will chronicle some of the difficulties I was faced with in finding employment within the Truck Driving Industry.
While I was in truck driver training school and, prior to my admission, I researched several companies that hired students out of truck driver training school. Generally speaking, a company would take a student following completion of truck driver training and bring them to their facility, generally at the company’s expense, than train them further both in a classroom and on an obstacle course. Following the continued on-site training Recruiting companies typically put a new driver in a truck with one of the companies certified trainers generally for a period of 6-12 weeks to continue learning in real world conditions (in truck driver training school you basically learn basic control but are not able to be loaded at all only empty). Recruiters come to the school telling you about all of the great things their company has to offer. With everything going on students are generally so overwhelmed with the high paced environment of school that sometimes they don’t realize what may make a company good or bad choice for that individual.
I had my mind made up with which one of these Companies offered what I was looking for (pay, training, job challenge, home time, equipment, and overall atmosphere of the company) prior to attending truck driver training school. The company I chose and was “pre-hired” by was a high profile flatbed company that offered exactly what I was looking for. a “pre-hire” is typically nothing more than a company taking a quick glance at your application and believing you would meet their requirements. When I was a young man I was very ignorant in my driving habits, speeding tickets which after so many resulted in suspended licenses and since I refused to obey the suspensions and drive anyways I got driving after suspensions. I got most of these cleaned up but while looking for a job I still had a speeding and a driving after suspension on my record. With 2 violations one of which is considered major on my record when the company I was pre-hired for turned me down as a result (I fully disclosed this information on my application and lied about nothing!). I was heartbroken to say the least, I got the highest score of anyone on my exam, got high marks on all of my written tests, and demonstrated excellent competency while in school(according to my instructors), none of this mattered. Insurance companies frown upon the marks I have on my record and generally are the reason why a company chooses to or not to hire someone.
I applied online to several companies over the next month mostly online. I finally decided to access Minnesota’s job bank (which is a free service that you have to register for (most states have similiar services)) to look at driving opportunities that might be willing to hire me. I stumbled across a company that was small in size and seemed ok to me. I applied and was hired a short time later.
After 5 weeks of scraping and searching for a company that a) was hiring in a bad economy b) would hire me with the current marks on my driving record and c) was still able to offer me what I was looking for I was hired pending a driving test with a representative of the company.
Because of my driving record I had to make some sacrifices to take this job but knew that it was invaluable experience and would pave a path for a better opportunity in a year or so. I sacrificed hometime up front since I wanted to be home every 7-10 days but with this job I could be out for weeks at a time. I gave up the desire to take on the challenges of a flat-bed to take on a different challenge of pulling a reefer-van (reefer is a self contained refrigeration unit on a trailer used for hauling perishable food products in general). The way the economy is and where freight rates are in today’s economy anything that moved food wasn’t a hard sell to me because everyone continues to eat regardless of anything else.The equipment was a 2007 kenworth T600 with a tv, built in refrigerator, 2 beds, and a very nice interior (I love my truck), it has a healty sized 475 hp/st cummins isx motor with a 13 speed manual transmission (this posed a new challenge since they are very different than the 10-speeds I was accustomed to from school more on that in a future blog) and at the time a 10 year old 48 foot reefer van in good repair ( I could not complain about my equipment they wanted the driver to be happy and comfortable 
). I was very excited.
My Kenworth T600 in a tight parking space at a loading dock
One thing I mentioned earlier was the company certified trainer this was not an option with this company as we only have 5 trucks total I was going to be on my own to figure it out the hard way. I was not bothered by training myself only because I have been involved in trucking for so many years and having seen it first hand growing up I knew what to expect ( I would not recommend this to most though). I was well on my way of actually becoming a truck-driver. In my next blog I will focus on my first day in my new career and my first trip out and some of the things I did by mistake that I didnt realize at the time but do now and what I learned.
