22 years of age + Story about "Arrow Trucking"

[russwasherejr]

First off, i'd like to say hello to everybody. I recently got my cdl's last june (07). What a horrible time I had trying to find a place to get a job. I ended up landing a job with a local pipe cleaning company driving vacuum trucks which was a class b job. Which I just quit about a week ago...Thinking it would be easy to get a trucking job...wronggggg...

I apply for ARROW TRUCKING! Let me tell you two things!

1.) If your not interested in flatbed don't do it.
2.) There training SUCKS.

Let's me get started and tell you how ****ty this company is.

First off my recruiter knew i hadn't been in a tractor-trailer for over a year, so everything was very rusty for me, although she didnt seem to care..so she said when is the soonest you can start? I said ASAP. So I take a greyhound bus out that took 27 hrs to get there. Get there on tuesday (school was monday...was late cause of bus) then we go through road tests..and maybe 2 hours of training for mirror's. That's all. Mirrors. So we go on the road test on that thursday, everything was very rusty for me grinded gears, ran over a curb, and had trouble remembering what gear i was in) but all in all they told me $40 a day to go to training, so im there for 4 days and they boot me friday morning. Saying i failed and 4 weeks was not enough time for me to train OTR with a trainer. So they also decided they werent going to pay me..complete BS. i was never told any of this...the training program just sucks, you have a manly girl that sits down all day, and 2 overweight lazy people that dont want to do anything. So all in all I could careless about them, oh and there safetystat or whatever it is, is a score of 99 (75-100) being the worst score u can get. Thats how bad there training is.


But anyways, my next question is, what schools can i go to that will train me TILL I PASS AND PAY ME? like 40 bucks a day to train..i know theres schools out there that do it.. Help me out I really want to get into the buisness...

Also i have a rusty MVR

7/3/05 - Careless Driving
7/3/05 - Stop Sign Violation
2/5/07 - Suspension

let me know..thanks guys much appreciated

swift wont take me neither will werner..i dont know who else to try

[Walking Eagle]

With the 2/5/07 suspension you will have problems. What was it for ??

[Chasing Daylight]

McDonalds offers paid training and free uniforms.

Seriously, with a major violation (careless driving) and a suspension in the last three years, you don't meet anyones qualifications for a driver. Add your attitude to that and I don't think you're really cut out for this business.

[1xtruckindj]

Yup...sounds like it's gonna be a tough row to hoe for you. The driving record is going to hurt, and if Swifty won't hire you...I'm real concerned that you won't get a look anywhere except MAYBE a fly-by-night outfit.

Advice, directly from the "For What It's Worth Department": Let some time pass, allowing your record to clean up. Stay clean in your personal vehicle. Then get retrained with a training company. It will be a while.

Oh, and one more thing: When looking for a position, ask more questions. Many, many more questions. Sure, recruiters will lie to you. But if you have to, talk to more than one. I've done that, just to see what the spin would be on several subjects from different people.

Good luck.

[russwasherejr]

my attitude isnt bad..im actually very respectful i just dont like how arrow treated me, and my suspension was not paying on a fine that i had but the suspension didnt get any points...the careless comes off july 5 of this year...

any companies that i should try? arrow took me..so theres gotta be more

[im6under]

CRST will take you and train you, more than likely.

Don't do it unless you can team drive, be away from home 10-14 days, and stick it out for a year.

They charge for training, after you start driving for them. You quit before they get their money and they will hunt and haunt you.

The attitude most are referring to, I believe, is the whining over arrow and how they treated you. They gave you a chance and you ran over a curb and forgot what gear you were in... They didn't do that, you did.

Had you not done these things you'd probably be driving for them right now.

Had you not screwed over your driving record you probably wouldn't be in this situation either.

Arrow and every company you go to will bring in 50 guys for 25 spots to fill. They will hire the best 25 in what is actually a very straight up and fair competition.

I'm sure you have your excuses, we all do, myself included. But really dude :wink: you need to keep them at home. Not here and definately not at work.

Your next job interview, please don't mention arrow beyond saying it wasn't a good fit for me with hometime, pay, ect...

If you bad mouth Arrow, the new company won't hire you either. They don't want somebody running up and down the road bad mouthing them like you do arrow.

Anyways... just food for thought and I do wish you the very best of luck in your endeavors.

[russwasherejr]

I have no problem being out over the road for 10-14 days..and truthfully i rather be out for like 3-4 weeks so i can be home a little longer when i do come home.

SO CRST will take me in and train me UNTIL i am able to go out? cause im not gonna go sign up for a school, get stuck paying the tuition while they also send me home if i cant pass the test, thats riduculous.


Also, thanks to everybody thats giving me the info. Keep it comin!

[Chasing Daylight]

Some companies may work with your suspension, ask for the reason and take it into consideration. Many companies will consider a suspension a suspension and send your app right to the circular file.

The major is just that and will haunt you until July 5. Insurance companies really frown on such things and it will normally disqualify you. On top of which, two majors in a three year period will disqualify your CDL, which makes you a risk to the company. They could wind up with a driver with no license rather easily.

Incidentally, how did you get a careless driving citation? That is purely a discretionary ticket, the officer can write fro the infraction or for careless driving as he sees fit basically. Generally, a careless driving citation is more a matter of an attitude problem (which you claim not to have.) If your polite and respectful to an officer, he'll generally write the infraction, sometimes for less than the infraction. Act like a jerk and it can become "careless driving" real quick. Of course this isn't a hard fast rule, some cops are just hard noses and will write whatever the maximum they can get away with is, and sometimes there is a "sweep" going on in which the cops in a given area will write a stack of careless or agressive driving citations to prove a point to the public. Both situations happen, but generally it's more about attitude.

[russwasherejr]

about 3 years ago, i was dating this one girl that didn't have a liscense, and i was sleeping at like 9am so she asked me the night before to take my car to get her paycheck..i said ok cus she wasnt a bad driver, well she ran through a stop sign and smashed into a fire hydrant and she had to walk up like 10 blocks to her house to wake me up and get me to tell me she had done it..so i go walking down there and the cops are there and they ask me how it happened and i said the brakes went out, cause i didnt want to get her into any trouble..big mistake on my part, so they said i was lying about the brakes and thats what she told me so i went with it, they wrote me a careless and stop sign violation, but thats all they gave me..i dont tell the carriers that because then theyll end up thinking ill let someone drive the rig so you know...but the suspension was just from not paying on a fine..

its amazing how stupid some people are in there younger years, me being one of them, i wasnt being a jerk to the cop i was just sayin the brakes went out and he started snapping and gave me that lol so you know...



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Will most of these companies train you until you can pass your road tests, and what not..or if u cant pass them they just boot you out like arrow did to me? thats my biggest question..i dont wanna pay tuition for nothing

[Chasing Daylight]

Sounds like a bad situation, one that you brought on yourself. Chalk that up to young and dumb. It's still a major and still a problem. If I were you I would wait until after July 5 to jump back into the drivers seat, you'll find it a lot easier to get a ride without that one on your current record, more doors will open.

On a differnt note, you seem entirely too worried about passing the drivers test. Many companies will work with you somewhat, but there is a limit. They aren't taking you to raise. And the truth is, the economy is getting tighter, freight volume is going down so driver need is going down. Right now they are going to cut you loose a lot quicker than when things are booming and they are desperate for drivers. The reality is, they will put you through a training program (and don't count on getting paid for it, you'll likely get free board and be on your own for food and the rest.) but if you can't cut it after a period of time, they are going to let you go. The entire CDL mill concept of training is highly focused, it teaches you exactly how to pass the drivers test and very little else. If you can't make the grade with that kind of focused training then you won't make it as a driver. Remember, they are teaching you how to pass the test, not how to be a driver, that you will have to learn in a trial by fire manner with your road trainer and on your own after that. The carriers know that if you can't come up to speed in a controlled training environment, then you aren't going to be able to pull it off when you're out there on your own. They have to consider that since they will be entrusting you with a damn lot of expensive equipment and freight.

If it is really that hard for you to drive at a level that will get you past the test, then this isn't the career for you. If you're just psyching yourself out over it, then you need to figure out how to relax and believe in yourself.

As to CRST, you have a pulse so you meet there key qualification. If the insurance will allow for you with the suspension and you wait until the careless is off your current file you probably have a good shot. But, be forewarned they will chew you up and spit you out. They run a lot of expedited and air freight. You'll do a lot of 10/10 do it again, as they say. Meaning you'll run 10, your codriver will run 10 and you'll hop back in the seat. You're either behind the wheel or sleeping in a moving truck. You'll also wind up sitting a lot. I know a few of there drivers, and they regularly wind up sitting. CRST has some hot routes (LA to Chicago and back) but they also run hard into certain areas of the country where they haven't developed the freight base to get you back out (Pacific Northwest, New England, Florida.) For a large national carrier, they have a lot of dead spots in there customer base, which can mean a lot of sitting around waiting.

[russwasherejr]

nice. thanks bro for the info. i'm just concered about passing a test for the fact of I haven't touched a tractor trailer in over a year, last week being the first time since i got my cdl liscense from schooling in june 07. I am a pretty good learner, if the trainer/instructor will show me what i am doing. AKA: mirror sight, etc. Such as arrow, they told me how to do such and such in the mirror but wouldnt show me in the mirror for themselves, i need a instructor in the seat to show me what i am looking for and all that. But i am a pretty good learner, just a few touch ups i pretty much need, my driving isn't horendous, it just needs a little bit of work, such as tight turns, and backing up thats pretty much it. I have no worries about being over the road what so ever. I can stay out for 2 months if need be. I am all about $$$. main thing is i' never give up, just was that arrow sent me home. But other then that the main problem was probably it being flatbed, i never had touched a flatbed trailer in my life, so things are a little complicated with that, i like the dry van and all that, alot more easier for me backing up and seeing what im doing.

As for jobs..i just applied on here for like 7 jobs that i met qualifications for. And i got a local company called SOUTHERN PINES TRUCKING that wants to hire me, so i'm gonna call them up tuesday and see what the deal is. I'll let you guys know as soon as something comes up. I hate flatbed though that's probably the worst job i ever seen lol maybe a few years down the line i'll like it, but not now i need to get expierence with the dry van first

[Chasing Daylight]

Have you taken a good look at Southern Pines? Be forewarned they are predominantly suicide jockeys. Meaning they focus on serious HazMat (including radioactive materials.) It might be a good fit for you, but personally I have no interest in glow in the dark freight.

[russwasherejr]

yea not everything they do is hazmat cus i dont have hazmat just tanker endoresement, there a decent company and i live like 5 mins from thme

[chuck3507]

When I went to work for Arrow we were busy training Monday through Friday. We did not do as much training for driving as we did load securement. But then again orientation is not a CDL TRAINING CLASS.

[dle]

2.) There training SUCKS.

then we go through road tests..and maybe 2 hours of training for mirror's. That's all. Mirrors. So we go on the road test on that thursday, everything was very rusty for me grinded gears, ran over a curb, and had trouble remembering what gear i was in) but all in all they told me $40 a day to go to training, so im there for 4 days and they boot me friday morning. Saying i failed and 4 weeks was not enough time for me to train OTR with a trainer.

Ok, let me see if I'm understanding this. You go to their orientation and you take the driving test. During the test you run over a curb, without much information it sounds like you could not control the vehicle. It also sounds like that you were given an opportunity (4 days) to get your 'rustiness' out - but again without much more information given I can only assume that you did not shake that much rust off. You then blame them for not 'training' you right?

Sorry, but the only thing I can say is ---- good luck.

[russwasherejr]

i only had one day of training with the mirrors. i got there tuesday and they were suppost to road test me tuesday and never did, and they had there favorites there. believe me they did. i didnt get a road test till thursday and i only got two (one after another) and that was it..i was gone..

im really not worried about it though i'll eventually get to where i need to go im just gonna keep reading and practicing

[Chasing Daylight]

I think part of your problem is exactly what others have pointed out. You went into this expecting training. Orientation is not training. Yes, at a flatbed company it often includes load securement and the like, but no one is going to teach you how to drive or shift in orientation. Perhaps what you need is to find a company that offers a refresher course. Not full training, but a quick run through to get you back up to speed.

[Mtc_Is_Hell]

I can stay out for 2 months if need be. I am all about $$$.

If your wanting a job driving a semi OTR for the money. Well lets just say you won't last long out there, by your self, driving all day every day making peanuts.

Driving all day dealing with 4 wheelers, rush hour traffic, low overpass's, New York!. You could make the same money working as a manager with overtime at Mcdonalds. It's a stressful job at times, then factor in your 2000 miles from home and won't see home for a long time.

Waiting several hours to get loaded can be fun, several more hours to get unloaded. HOS are fun to follow to. Work 80 hours, log 60 get paid for 40!

I spent a year out there, may go back when I'm older, Only 24 myself. My new job I get paid hourly and no free time anymore its nice.

Oh and about the money, I went in with nothing to my name, came out after a year with a street bike and 15 grand in the bank... So you can make some, just be smart with it.

[russwasherejr]

like i said and i appreciate everything you guys are telling me i really do. in the long run it will HELP ME OUT. im not worried about work. $$$ is not the only thing i care about, i also like trucking because I dont have to have a boss in my face 24/7..it seems as if most of you pick out the flaws and keep running with it, i dont see why..i understand im being selfish and all but from my stand point you have to understand, i'm only 22 years old..I've never driven over the road, i'm sorry Im not 30-40 years old and already know about this stuff, because I dont. I come to you guys asking for advice. My biggest reason for trucking is i get to spend time by myself (alot of time) and i know about alot of the stuff that happens. believe me it will not bother me working as much and what not, you see theres sacrifices that have to be made in life and this IS the career i want. Yes, it may be stressful but thats life what isnt stressful? If i go out there and spend 1-3 years over the road, then i can come back and get a local job my dad works at this one company that wants to hire me in december, so we'll see what goes on. I'm a fighter not a quitter, and I will make it through this time. I just cant see myself working a labor job for 8hr the rest of my life, Ive done that since i was 17 and i just cant do it anymore im sorry. I need something less stressful on my body.

[chuck3507]

When I went to Arrow I had just gotten my cdl. Did not even go to a school. And like you the recruiter got me in as an experienced driver. However, before I ever took a road test I went to Dave Turner himself and explained that I was actually at a level below a cdl grad. Because I went to them , we were able to work through the situation and they agreed to send me with a trainer and let me have 2 extra weeks.