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XPO | What is most important: Experience or education ?

icuicp

icuicp

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When it comes to hiring a new driver what's most important experience or education? When it's management , do you want college education and tons of book smarts or common sense and experience?

In a perfect world , you want both - in the real world you're lucky to get either one.
 
Do drivers ever have either ? When I hired in. I had neither. It would be questionable to to say I have either now. 3 years later. If I had book smarts I wouldn't be a truck driver. And running lines for an outfit like this don't exactly make you much of a truck driver.

For management. You get one with book smarts, and hope to instill common sense as they learn the position.
 
As an employer, I couldn't care less about your formal education.

I want experience and aptitude. I want enough experience to not have to teach you everything on my dime. However, not so much experience that you "know everything". You must have the aptitude and the willingness to learn new skills quickly. You must have a great work ethic, be responsible and dependable, be able to present yourself in a positive manner. Good attitude is a must.

If you are in a supervisory position, in addition to the skillset above, good people skills are a must. I am also looking for someone who can be a leader 95+% of the time and a dictator less than 5%.

All that being said; get an education first. Having an education certainly isn't going to shut doors. Should you decide to change employers or industries, you will It certainly won't hurt you. Should you decide that some other company or industry is calling your name you will be better off.
 
If your a driver or fos, experience is the best, if your working in the payroll department, please have an education.
 
What do you think Con-way values the most ?

If it was experience , wouldn't long-time employees ( drivers and the support staff ) have more of a say in what goes on?
It would seem that you can find people highly educated that have no common sense whatsoever nowadays. ( some are even working at Con-way)
 
Education is important, but with experience comes wisdom and education isn't worth a crap without the wisdom to properly implement it.
 
icuicp said:
When it comes to hiring a new driver what's most important experience or education? When it's management , do you want college education and tons of book smarts or common sense and experience?

In a perfect world , you want both - in the real world you're lucky to get either one.
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Depends on which person you ask ..
 
I can only speak for myself, but I have an opinion. I have had a CDL since I was 16, and I also have a college degree. I used to drive in the summers, and I loved it.
My philosophy has always been that, if all else failed I could always get a job driving somewhere, for somebody. We all know the want ads are full of driving jobs. I started as a DSR at Con-Way (though I'm not anymore), and I'd like to think it was experience and a record of safety that helped get the job, but once I was hired, after a time it was that experience combined with the proven aptitude and social skills that helped me advance.

I really regret Con-Way dropped the tuition reimbursement policy, because I would be using it. I fully believe in continuing to learn throughout your life. I am currently taking university classes online, at my own expense, in an effort to continually broaden my knowledge.

Currently, they are very reluctant to hire any FOS who doesn't have a college degree. That baffles me, because from what I see, you don't need one to be an FOS. That's no insult to current ones without a degree, I've known FOSs who have degrees and those who don't, and either way...some guys suck at it, and some don't. The degree has little to do with it.

To get back to the question, I'd only hire DSRs with at least a year of driving experience. I'd like to see experienced DSRs get first chance at becoming FOSs, if they want it, but understand that it's usually a pay cut for them, and that is why Con-Way hires outsiders for those jobs. Often inexperienced people, fresh out of college, who come with a steep learning curve, which can make for some tense times when dealing with guys who've been doing this 5-10+ years, and here's a new guy telling them how to do their job, when he's been at it 3 weeks.

I try not to get stressed out. Come to work, do what I can, stay out of trouble, and go home.
 
free_thinker said:
I can only speak for myself, but I have an opinion. I have had a CDL since I was 16, and I also have a college degree. I used to drive in the summers, and I loved it.
My philosophy has always been that, if all else failed I could always get a job driving somewhere, for somebody. We all know the want ads are full of driving jobs. I started as a DSR at Con-Way (though I'm not anymore), and I'd like to think it was experience and a record of safety that helped get the job, but once I was hired, after a time it was that experience combined with the proven aptitude and social skills that helped me advance.

I really regret Con-Way dropped the tuition reimbursement policy, because I would be using it. I fully believe in continuing to learn throughout your life. I am currently taking university classes online, at my own expense, in an effort to continually broaden my knowledge.

Currently, they are very reluctant to hire any FOS who doesn't have a college degree. That baffles me, because from what I see, you don't need one to be an FOS. That's no insult to current ones without a degree, I've known FOSs who have degrees and those who don't, and either way...some guys suck at it, and some don't. The degree has little to do with it.

To get back to the question, I'd only hire DSRs with at least a year of driving experience. I'd like to see experienced DSRs get first chance at becoming FOSs, if they want it, but understand that it's usually a pay cut for them, and that is why Con-Way hires outsiders for those jobs. Often inexperienced people, fresh out of college, who come with a steep learning curve, which can make for some tense times when dealing with guys who've been doing this 5-10+ years, and here's a new guy telling them how to do their job, when he's been at it 3 weeks.

I try not to get stressed out. Come to work, do what I can, stay out of trouble, and go home.
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A college degree is not required. You either need a degree or relative work experience. I have the experience but no degree. I also know several SCM's and FOM's with no degree.
 
If Con-way would promote from with-in like they used to do, promote driver's to fos's and then to fom's and then tm's, we would be in alot better shape. Hiring young college guy's with a degree in business and throwing them into the lion's den is crazy and caus's nothing but problems. We all know there is a big difference between what the "book" say's and how things work. But if all they know is the book, that's the problem and it takes them awhile to figure it out and some of them never figure it out.
 
j-man said:
If Con-way would promote from with-in like they used to do, promote driver's to fos's and then to fom's and then tm's, we would be in alot better shape. Hiring young college guy's with a degree in business and throwing them into the lion's den is crazy and caus's nothing but problems. We all know there is a big difference between what the "book" say's and how things work. But if all they know is the book, that's the problem and it takes them awhile to figure it out and some of them never figure it out.
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There aren't any drivers willing to take the pay cut to be management. At my barn we have several former white shirts that are drivers now.
 
icuicp said:
When it comes to hiring a new driver what's most important experience or education? When it's management , do you want college education and tons of book smarts or common sense and experience?

In a perfect world , you want both - in the real world you're lucky to get either one.
Click to expand...
No back bone or opinion on anything!
 
highspeeds said:
There aren't (m)any drivers willing to take the pay cut to be management. At my barn we have several former white shirts that are drivers now.
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^^^slight tweak to the above^^^

Depends on the situation. I took a paycut to get into the office many years ago. Yes, hour for hour I was making less money. I went home with a headache instead of a backache. I loved being indoors 6 months of the year and wished I was outdoors driving the other 6. Bottom line: there was more opportunity for advancement in the office.

It's like those folks, without an education, who are happy making $20/hr today. What other opportunities do they have to make that kind of wage without an education or additional/different skills? Fifteen years from now they may not be happy making $25/hr, wishing they would have taken a hit back then, to be ahead today.

If you like to drive, do it. Be the best you can at it and enjoy your work...just don't complain 20 years from now that you aren't making $200K a year.
 
It is just a measure and a tie breaker. It is the honest truth. So many people lie today and want handouts, that it will exist. Yes, some of the best employees have the knowledge, yet no education. You can't fault management to use it. You have to be selfish first, then realize you aren't anything without a team.
 
I'm a driver but I do have a college degree - I have a chemistry degree that I quietly finished while already being a con-way driver. The 1.5 years of otr I did previous to con-way means more to me in terms of job experience but I take a lot of pride in the fact I have a quality degree from a quality university. It all is what it is but I've found I can make substancially more money and have more control over my life as a driver here than I would in any of the opportunities I was offered based off my degree.
 
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