by Scott Allison

Created on: December 16, 2008

As an over the road truck driver a few years back, I was talking to a young driver in a truck stop in Texarkana. I had told him of my truck being hit during the night by another driver who drug his trailer over the right front fender of my tractor. It bent the bumper a good bit and did some damage to the fiberglass hood but was still driveable. But before I could get out of the sleeper, half asleep, there was no moving truck in sight, only parked ones. Sad reality being the driver may have been too tired or too inexperienced to even know he hit me. This young driver I was speaking with proceded to show me some pictures on his camera phone of the damage someone did to his truck. The entire hood was ripped off laying on the ground in a mangled heap. He had to have his company bring him another tractor to continue on his trip. So, you're asking, who hit him? Another driver from the same company. He said it wasn't the other drivers fault, he was just a rookie. I asked him how long he'd been driving and he said just over one year, a seasoned veteran by todays standards.

That's the biggest issue in today's trucking industry. Retention of experienced drivers is steadily declining bringing more rookies to the highways. There is a huge demand for drivers and most of the larger fleets will fill this demand with trucking school graduates. What one must understand is that a driving school doesn't teach someone how to be a truck driver, they teach them how to drive a truck or, better put, how to pass the CDL exam. There is a big difference. Not to say the schools are doing anything wrong. The only way to learn to be a truck driver is to get out there and do it. Four weeks of schooling can't compare to steering an 80,000 pound, 72 foot long commercial vehicle through New Jersey during rush hour the day before Christmas Eve. The schools do exactly what the trucking companies require of them though, get the students a CDL and let them do the rest.

The trend, though, of more experienced drivers leaving the industry creating the need for more rookies is the industry itself. I hear alot of discussions about how dangerous drivers are by not following the rules and regulations of the DOT, most importantly hours of service. What most people don't understand about that is the driver 99% of the time doesn't want to break these rules. He or she is forced into it by companies expectations of freight being delivered regardless of what the drivers log book tells them they can do. The

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>