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[jedihorn]

Merry Christmas everyone.

I talked to my brother-inlaw today about his experience with OTR Trucking. He just finished getting his CDL and was doing his training session with another driver. He told me that he was doing all of the driving and had only gotten 8 hours of sleep in 3 days. The rest of the time he was driving. The driver that he was driving with showed him how to fudge his log books to cover the time spent driving and not resting. He kept 2 different logs one that was fudged and a correct one. He ended up quiting because of what was happening. He stopped at a rest area and said here's your truck back and climbed out and waited for is girlfriend to pick him up. The company he was working for was Star Transportation. Is this common or was he right about quitting.

[stldude44]

It's probably pretty common in OTR that trucks are abandoned. It's not an easy life at all and some find out they just chose the wrong company to train with. I'm guessing it's Star out of Peoria, Illinois? I'd say that it's common enough that many other truck lines won't even hold it against your brother in law. Most OTR companies just want meat in the seat, so to speak, and it shows by the way you see people dressed in truckstops. I won't say he was right to do it but I also wasn't in his shoes. And it does happen.

[grocery thrower]

A quality trainer would never do such a thing, sounds like this one was using your brother in law to lighten his load, all the while making extra money, I would doubt this is the norm, the trainer should be fired. Fudging your logs is a personal choice, its against the law, but you have a choice to do it or not, we have computers in the truck, they take care of everything including our logs. Your brother in law should take his 2 log books back to the boss and tell him what was going on, ask for a qualified trainer to finish his training and go on with his career, I'm sure that if the company does an investigation, and they probably will, they will get alot of other stories just like the one you told, that trainer will most likley be relieved of his duties with the company, he would if it was my company. I wish him all the best of luck, I hope this bad experience doesn't sour him on an industry that has been very good to so many, including myself.

[jedihorn]

he didn't abandon the truck he had a trainer with him. He was still in the trainee stage and yes it was star. I know the trainer was mad at him.

[jedihorn]

My brother in-law just told me that the company had showed him how to fudge the books. Not the trainer.

[stldude44]

Jedi,
If that's the case then your brother in law just quit the job. That is very common in OTR as most of the companies in OTR have 100%+ turnover. Not a big deal, it happens every day in OTR. He can get another job almost anywhere.