A potentially lucrative and much needed 'trucking' website!!

Tacomapup

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I have an idea and am looking for lots of Positive and Constructive feedback. ABFer gave me something to think about when he mentioned on my 'objective feedback' thread that after I submit my resume (my underlining) to various trucking companies about the job I'm looking for, I should post the name of my employer. In essence though, he was wishing me good luck because he knows that what I'm looking for (decent pay, benefits and home-time, company that cares about its' drivers, etc.) things that every trucker desires and deserves are very difficult to come by. So given that, why not turn the tables around and set the bar as potential employees for the best companies out there?

Here's where I'm coming from.... Where do you go when you are looking to buy a house? Probably a Realtor or a real estate aimed website. Same for when you look for an apartment, there's the nationwide resource of 'apartments.com', among many others. There are several websites that ask you to chose/ filter what it is you are looking for; ie. price, amenities such as pools, trash and snow removal, club house, garage, security features, vaulted ceilings, hard wood flooring, fire places, ceiling fans, etc.
For employment in the 'customer service' industry, every State features Temp Agencies that specialize in matching people with certain skills to companies that are seeking such employees, part time, temporary and full time.

With that in mind, why is there no place on the net where I can submit my resume one time and also have the opportunity to list the items/ perks I am looking for in my next employer? The projection is that the trucking industry is going to be hurting even more in the next 15 years than they are right now, to attract seasoned drivers. So if anything, current truckers as well as retired ones are faced with an incredible opportunity to not only give their input and advice, but to also determine what is acceptable to them and what is not. Wouldn't a website like that have the potential to more or less force companies to take notice? Why not band together and have companies compete with each other to attract you?

I don't know about everyone else, but I would gladly spend $100 to sign up with a legit website that would filter out all of the crappy employers, especially when I have certain priorities. For example, I myself would not consider any company that is not 'pet friendly'. Another driver may need an automatic transmission due to arthritis. Team drivers greatly benefit from a 72" cab versus the 60", etc. Lumper or breakdown pay? Drop and Hooks, as well as NYC hazard driving compensation? Live pay? Mileage...All miles? Practical miles or something as ridiculous as zip code or even air miles compensation? How about going from 'competitive wages (thanks again ABFer :6799: ) to actual statement of pay? Same with benefits and everything else.

I don't know how to develop a website of such proportion, but I'm really good at research, policy development, critical thinking and thinking 'outside of the box', all of which I'm happy to donate to help move this forward.

How about it???
 
the problem that i see, is that nearly everyone says they are the best to work for, the best benefits, the best equipment, etc,etc.

fact is, many are crap as you know, so how do we believe every Tom, Dick and Harry, that complains about a company he worked for?

one thing goes wrong, and suddenly that best job, is the worst job.

i do not believe any company will be as upfront with all the information we need. things change on a daily basis like the Iranian Bible, so no way, no how, will what ABC Trucking says today, will still be true tomorrow.

i had gone to work for a company, was a great job, great pay, great benefits.

2 months later, they lost the contract. they didn't tell me nor my co-workers a thing. the new company came in and interviewed all of us. i was hired on, some were not. the very NEXT day, we were under a new company..!!

better pay, yes..benefits..???

i had to laugh at them, but i still needed the work for the time being.

some great job, as that is how fast things change.
 
I think that there are some websites out there where an individual can post their resume for a job and that prospective employers can peruse them and contact one if they like what they see, basically the inverse of the job seeker seeking employment. It may work in the future if there ever becomes a genuine shortage of drivers but I would expect it to be more of a local thing where the driver would approach their neighboring freight companies and present their credentials (resume) and their asking price. If health insurance ever got straightened out to where we were covered by something other than our employer (i e socialized medicine or genuine affordable health care) we could shed our need for a single employer and farm ourselves out the highest bidder on a daily basis. Provide our own retirement in the form of a Roth IRA or something similar and all the employer has to do is pony up the pay.

I say, "If there ever becomes a genuine shortage of drivers", because by my standards one does not exist yet. A genuine shortage results in an increase in price of anything...supply and demand. I see no bidding war for drivers...yet.
 
I think that there are some websites out there where an individual can post their resume for a job and that prospective employers can peruse them and contact one if they like what they see, basically the inverse of the job seeker seeking employment. It may work in the future if there ever becomes a genuine shortage of drivers but I would expect it to be more of a local thing where the driver would approach their neighboring freight companies and present their credentials (resume) and their asking price. If health insurance ever got straightened out to where we were covered by something other than our employer (i e socialized medicine or genuine affordable health care) we could shed our need for a single employer and farm ourselves out the highest bidder on a daily basis. Provide our own retirement in the form of a Roth IRA or something similar and all the employer has to do is pony up the pay.

I say, "If there ever becomes a genuine shortage of drivers", because by my standards one does not exist yet. A genuine shortage results in an increase in price of anything...supply and demand. I see no bidding war for drivers...yet.

There may not be a critical shortage of drivers yet, but only because large companies train their own drivers and then let these young and inexperienced drivers lose on the road. I think that there is a huge shortage of experienced, safe drivers out there.
 
There may not be a critical shortage of drivers yet, but only because large companies train their own drivers and then let these young and inexperienced drivers lose on the road. I think that there is a huge shortage of experienced, safe drivers out there.
We will all agree with you on that. There was a day, way back when, when I was first embarking on my driving career. Back when drivers could raise a family on their income while mom stayed home and raised the kids. There I was, 18, good work ethic, grew up around equipment and farms and all the ads (and there were enough of them) required 25 years of age, 3 years of four season driving experience. How would I ever get that? I'd be 30 before I could get a driving job! Yes, what they have done is lowered the bar to fill the void and it has not been lowered to the bottom yet, there is still room for it to go lower. 26 years ago they were talking about a driver shortage. Back then I said that they would find a way to lower the bar and permit less qualified drivers to fill the seats and that is exactly what is happening. I see it every day on the streets and not long ago I took a road trip. I wanted to stop at one of my favorite truck stops and enjoy a nice meal, take a look around at what used to be. And what used to be is no longer there. Now it's a Petro and the clientele is the same immigrant population I see getting loaded at my delivery stops. But wait, our gubment now is allowing Mexican trucks to enter our country. As far as they need to go to make their deliveries. And guess what? Those trucks are not susceptible to the same safety regulations that our home fleet is. How are we to compete with Pedro? There will be more of that to come as home grown, experienced drivers get harder to find.
 
We will all agree with you on that. There was a day, way back when, when I was first embarking on my driving career. Back when drivers could raise a family on their income while mom stayed home and raised the kids. There I was, 18, good work ethic, grew up around equipment and farms and all the ads (and there were enough of them) required 25 years of age, 3 years of four season driving experience. How would I ever get that? I'd be 30 before I could get a driving job! Yes, what they have done is lowered the bar to fill the void and it has not been lowered to the bottom yet, there is still room for it to go lower. 26 years ago they were talking about a driver shortage. Back then I said that they would find a way to lower the bar and permit less qualified drivers to fill the seats and that is exactly what is happening. I see it every day on the streets and not long ago I took a road trip. I wanted to stop at one of my favorite truck stops and enjoy a nice meal, take a look around at what used to be. And what used to be is no longer there. Now it's a Petro and the clientele is the same immigrant population I see getting loaded at my delivery stops. But wait, our gubment now is allowing Mexican trucks to enter our country. As far as they need to go to make their deliveries. And guess what? Those trucks are not susceptible to the same safety regulations that our home fleet is. How are we to compete with Pedro? There will be more of that to come as home grown, experienced drivers get harder to find.


Just wondering... are you located/ driving (now or before) in the southwest of this country? I was driving from Greensboro, NC to New Jersey and what I have noticed more than anything, has been the influx of young male drivers who look like they're barely old enough to be out of high school. Utterly frightening!!! When you get a free minute, could you see if you can find one of those websites? I have tried to find one and haven't had any success. Thanks for your response and it's always wonderful to know that there are still seasoned drivers out there who have a strong work ethic.
 
the problem that i see, is that nearly everyone says they are the best to work for, the best benefits, the best equipment, etc,etc.

fact is, many are crap as you know, so how do we believe every Tom, Dick and Harry, that complains about a company he worked for?

one thing goes wrong, and suddenly that best job, is the worst job.

i do not believe any company will be as upfront with all the information we need. things change on a daily basis like the Iranian Bible, so no way, no how, will what ABC Trucking says today, will still be true tomorrow.

i had gone to work for a company, was a great job, great pay, great benefits.

2 months later, they lost the contract. they didn't tell me nor my co-workers a thing. the new company came in and interviewed all of us. i was hired on, some were not. the very NEXT day, we were under a new company..!!

better pay, yes..benefits..???

i had to laugh at them, but i still needed the work for the time being.

some great job, as that is how fast things change.

I definitely hear what you are saying and what you are describing will probably always be an issue to some extend. But at the same time, there are a lot of huge companies out there now and they are not likely to close shop anytime soon. Why not start with them and work our way down from there? I'm not ready to give up on the idea yet, I guess. Can we chat some more and maybe look for some answers? Thanks!!
 
Just wondering... are you located/ driving (now or before) in the southwest of this country? I was driving from Greensboro, NC to New Jersey and what I have noticed more than anything, has been the influx of young male drivers who look like they're barely old enough to be out of high school. Utterly frightening!!! When you get a free minute, could you see if you can find one of those websites? I have tried to find one and haven't had any success. Thanks for your response and it's always wonderful to know that there are still seasoned drivers out there who have a strong work ethic.
I'll snoop around and see what I can find on the job hunting website, I never saw it first hand but have a friend who told me about it.
I have been to the southwest and it is much different from what we have here in PA where I live. We have traffic, old decrepit, windy roads and high strung drivers.
 
I'll snoop around and see what I can find on the job hunting website, I never saw it first hand but have a friend who told me about it.
I have been to the southwest and it is much different from what we have here in PA where I live. We have traffic, old decrepit, windy roads and high strung drivers.

The farther north east, the worse it gets. Still remember my first time driving through the Bronx. I think that alone took 20 years of my total life span. People in general tend to be a lot nicer farther south. Never regretted to have left New England and am loving it in NC. It's about 72 degrees out here right now. Who can argue with that? What works great is to hire on with a smaller NE based company and pulling loads to down here. As you know, the cost of living is higher up in your area and increases farther north; so making 'northern' wages while living in the south is a pretty sweet deal.

So how did you bridge the 7 years gap when you were 18 and were trying to get hired? I've heard before that the minimum age back then was 25 but didn't know that 3 years of 4 season driving was a mandate. I wish they would bring that back because no driver has any business being in a big rig without knowing how to safely navigate in snowy/ icy road conditions. And what the hell ever happened to keeping both hands on the steering wheel instead of just a couple of fingers?

I read or heard a while back that a recent study determined that the 11/14 hour rule with a 30 minute break has not brought down the numbers of trucking accidents and I'm wondering what the government will do next to try to curb those numbers? Lowering the bar even more sure as hell isn't going to do it.
 
I'll snoop around and see what I can find on the job hunting website, I never saw it first hand but have a friend who told me about it.
I have been to the southwest and it is much different from what we have here in PA where I live. We have traffic, old decrepit, windy roads and high strung drivers.

Not to mention long and :shit:ty winters. LOL Thanks for trying to find out about that website. I'm really interested in that!!
 
Tacomapup may I ask how you found a job that met most or all of your requirements ? I like your idea and wonder why there isn't such a website already doing such a thing.
 
Tacomapup may I ask how you found a job that met most or all of your requirements ? I like your idea and wonder why there isn't such a website already doing such a thing.

Hi Pancake. Another Newbie on TB. Yeah!! To answer your question, I'm still researching various sites and companies. My first step - I categorized my priorities. Number one on my list is that I'm able to take my dog. So I just did a search on 'pet friendly trucking companies'. My second priority is 'team driving opportunities'. My third one is the ability to obtain short and long term disability coverage through my prospective employer because trucking is a dangerous job and I'm not going to be blinded by 2 cents per mile more pay, while leaving myself unprotected in the hopefully unlikely event of a serious injury. My fourth priority is working for someone who is large enough to be fiscally sound, but small enough to know my name. Fifth: The culture of a company is very important to me. Mutual respect, team work, integrity, authentic communication, etc. are of high value and I can't see working for anyone, while being miserable every day. Everyone has different needs Think about what is most important to you and go from there. It does take a good amount of research, but I found that the process of elimination works better than looking up individual companies. I think that it is about finding a good balance, rather than striving for the perfect job; whatever that may look like in the eyes of every individual. Also, look up company reviews and know how to interpret the info. For example... keep in mind that many people are more likely to post negative reviews than positive ones. I tend to ignore the ones where everything that is being said, is negative. No company is all good or all bad and just because it isn't a good fit, doesn't mean that all of it is awful. I pay most attention to the reviews that are more on the positive side but also state that improvements are needed. If a lot of reviews state that a company's equipment is not being taken care of properly, then that probably has some truth to it. If the majority of reviews are somewhat positive, then I take a closer look. Glassdoor.com is a good site to start. I look for companies that have at least 3 out of 5 stars in their totality of reviews. Always keep in mind that you will never really know a person's degree or even ability to be objective. I once had a co-worker who was just one huge bundle of pure hatred and fury on two legs. He complained about everything and I mean everything!! After a while, it was easy to see who avoided him and who latched on to him because misery loves company. One time when I was walking by him, I heard him yelling about how dirty 'his' truck was. (it was a day cab, used by several drivers every day). I walked over to him and simply pointed to the bucket, soap, brushes and water hose. I thought he was going to have a coronary right then and there and I almost started laughing, but thought better of it. LOL Needless to say, he screamed in my face that it wasn't 'his ****ing job to wash that ****ing truck, when other drivers were just lazy ****ers who were too dumb to ****ing know how to even turn on the ****ing water hose.' See what I'm saying??? I think we can all imagine what kind of review this guy would have left. And although I did consider him to be an extreme individual, most companies have employees that are virtually impossible to please. So my advice is to not take everything at face value.

Feel free to write me via PM (Personal Messaging) on this site and I'll be happy to chat with you further. Enjoy your day!!

ABFer remembers a friend telling him about a website along the lines of what we are looking for and he said that he was trying to get that info.
 
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