Posts Tagged ‘CR England’

Some trucking professionals like to tout their collective careers by adding up how many years all together they have in the industry with colleagues and count this as experience.

Few of them have ever operated a commercial motor vehicle, nor have they been enclosed in a small space with a total stranger and harmed.

This weekend I took notes on a Woman’s story that had elements eerily familiar to many other women I have interviewed over the past two years. I published her account on the Facebook fan page called “Real Women Truckers’ in a note titled “Abandoned CR England Driver“.

The real hero was a male driver who met this woman as she was trying to reach out for help from her training employer, CR England.  He witnessed how she was being treated and circulated it on facebook, he also sent an email to CR England.

There was immediate shock when the entire chain of events was shared, especially from others who work in areas of trucking not related to truck driver training.

I was advised by these true professionals to share the story in Linkedin and in any way possible to get action.

What is odd is that right after the Dan Rather Report series, it was CR England who posted the following remarks on twitter with this post.
“Dan Rather was wrong! Trucking is a great profession. Go to truck school and see the Country. “

The link with that tweet led to an article called “10 Reasons to Choose Our Trucking School” and they mentioned the Dan Rather Report in the post. I say odd but in reality this is typical hyena trucking capitalism. I have seen it time and again, whether it be stealing content from another trucking blog or an organization trying to use an issue they had absolutely nothing to do with advancing take credit and utilize it as a membership drive opportunity.

One of the top reasons listed by CR England on their blog mentions the Smart Way EPA partnership which ironically is a post I recently made about this sham program and how it affects employee drivers and lease Owner-Operators. ( Read: Smart Way or Dumb Way – Examining the EPA Partnership with the American Trucking Association ) The particular incident with the CR England student though had to do with violence against women in the trucking industry.

There has been an outpouring of concern by male and female drivers and it has been been phenomenal but what about the carriers? Where is the accountability?

Under no circumstances should they be able to put a person off a truck and leave them! Even if it becomes violent, carriers are responsible to provide a safe training atmosphere… end of story!

YOU HIRED THEM, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE TO GET THEM HOME SAFELY!

This woman simply wanted to work like so many others who have been cheated out of a dream and a chance by the trucking industry’s mismanagement!

Who was disturbed by this story? Professionals with a quarter of a century in the industry, a parent with Daughters, A representative of a Fortune 500 company listed in the top 100 companies to work for, Social justice attorneys, countless people on twitter and a good community of drivers on Facebook who shared the story over the past few days, many who shared CR England horror stories of their own.  So what does that add up to ?  Um , let’s see … ( 25 cents + plus kids + 500 +100 + all those other people = more collective experience with a conscience than the collective experience of those without it! )

I am asking the trucking community for assistance in this matter to examine their collective conscience on the astounding denial that exists in this industry.  It should come as no surprise that the transition to CSA 2010 will require an environment of greater professionalism yet here are some of the accoutability items that continue to be rejected: Violence against women entering the industry,  Crimes against truckers from lack of parking and Criminal activities in exisiting parking areas such as human trafficking, drug activities, and frequent disturbances that affect restful sleep.

The National Association of Truck Stops (NATSO) and the major trucking carriers have evaded responding adequately to “Jason’s Law” which is more than a safe trucker parking proposal; it is a statement about the conditions these powerful lobby groups and trucking carriers have permitted to occur by inaction. If you treat people like animals, they begin to act like them.

There is a climate of ignoring crime and disrepair yet blocking any sort of competition, it is a battle to maintain an oligopoly at the expense of drivers.

While national news from the state department has made human trafficking a priority, groups like “Truckers against Trafficking” have not been embraced by NATSO despite their locations being centers of trafficking activities.

It is not organizations leading the charge to raise awareness of these issues, it is individuals taking action. Truckers have had a part in saving trafficking victims from truck stops.  Trucking publications have noticeably snubbed Jason’s Law, human trafficking issues and violence against women in the trucking industry yet most of the activity takes place at truck stops!

While there is applause for such campaigns as “Highway Heroes” , no campaign currently exists to encourage better conduct among the driving population. We have trucking heroes but the industry wants to choose which topics to publicize. Is it any wonder that the the Homeland Security program called Highway Watch failed? A program which asked drivers to be the eyes and ears to protect America from terrorist activities?  This very same industry that does NOT embrace human trafficking awareness information, does not make a priority to fight for safe and adequate parking for it’s own, it does not encourage personal safety training or offer guidance to expendable student drivers.  Thankfully, individuals are taking action.

Watch this Video from “Truckers Against Trafficking” about kidnapped teenagers being sold at truck stops , Human Trafficking Video , the heroes are not NATSO , they are individual drivers who care about humanity and grassroots volunteers who put forth time and effort to make a difference.

I do not believe every person in this industry does not care, I believe that they are insulated from the truth of what is happening at the indoctrination level into this industry. The story of the Abandoned CR England Driver  is a snapshot of a system that does not care about the human factor in the supply chain.

Understanding what we drivers experience on the road, what is taking place in the training fleets, learning about the crimes against truckers due to the parking situation, coming to grips that human trafficking is occuring in this environment, my hope some will take the initiative which is the first step in getting out of the cycle of denial in which the trucking industry dwells.

Good citizen truck drivers are taking the initiative to clean up this industry so how can the industry continue to justify the way they bury their head in the sand about what is going on at the entry level fleets?  These things are all connected and I’d like to see some concerned professionals step up and speak up about what is right and wrong.  The court of public opinion outside the trucking industry understands that what is going on in trucking is wrong.  What we lack is a few courageous people to step up and IMPLEMENT a plan NOT a PR Campaign or we will go nowhere.

The problems persist in training fleets due to poor in-house support on crisis situations where the knee jerk reaction is to blame the victim,  poor communication, antiquated logistics software applications, no follow-up and predatory recruiting. The tracking of the freight is state of the art but the human beings who move it are expendable.

Good trainers quit because the bad targeted recruitment, there is a shortage of female trainers because of this. In the CR England post this woman was assigned to training situations with drivers who were not trainers and had only a few weeks or months driving experience! She also had the opportunity to become a trainer herself yet she admits she was not taught to back the truck or even adjust her tandems. This lack of seriousness in the training programs should alarm EVERYONE!

There are carriers who have attempted to curb the way they handle the personality disputes and personal safety issues but they have yet to dig into the core issues with a vengeance. We can easily determine who is doing it and eliminate them but instead we have a climate where untrained in house staff do and say things to encourage the abuser to continue.

By this remark I mean that often abusers lay ground work to “cover their ass” in advance and if personnel is not trained to recognize this they are part of the process of aggravating the situation and possibly making the carrier more liable.  As with Nancy’s story, by the time she made it to the HR department she was the villain and the meeting was handled like a criminal in a debriefing session. This is very common in training fleets due to the volume of turnover but it is not unique to trucking.

Industries still operating in the dark ages still place you in the center of the bulls-eye if you dare visit the HR department where often you will be targeted, retaliated against and eliminated.

For drivers,  generally the DAC is ruined and the women who experience what Nancy did are given a bad reference so they cannot re-enter this industry. Among women drivers this is very well known and it is only now that some concerned men are becoming aware of the problem.  Many erroneous DAC reports have been filed on women truckers who reported harassment or refused to comply with some form of misconduct from the employer.

Question: Who do you think are the biggest foes women drivers?

Answer: Women who work in-house in the trucking industry.

WHY? Because predators make a point to befriended the outer circle of a target. Part of the challenge to these people is to gain respect and trust. This makes it very difficult when they are accused to have the friend remain unbiased.

A disenfranchised person, especially a woman who is desperate for a new life is a perfect target to isolate. Ask any criminal profiler, women like this are preferred targets for crime and violence because no one is looking out for them and it is easy to destroy their credibility if they report being abused.

“Acquaintance-Rape” scenarios occur when a person lets their guard down and the victimizer knows it. If the victimizer has made effort to buddy up with in-house staff this aggravates the situation because they have laid the foundation to discredit the target in advance. This goes on frequently for women in truck driver training; the stories I collect are almost verbatim.

In my own story I became aware notes were being taken about me and entered into the company computer. This meant when I called in distress, I was being prejudged and treated according to the perception made about me on a computer screen. I was not a person; I was an employee number, a gender and an ethnic race with comments about me.

While many carriers say they have a toll free number and emergency system to remove a trainee from a bad situation, the truth is that these systems often do not work. Especially on night and weekend shifts which is when most issues occur. Poor communication during shift changes aggravates these incidents and often the ball is dropped when the regular weekday staff comes in. There is no oversight, no cross check or follow up.

Poorly prepared females who have been misled into this industry often think they are welcome with open arms and that trucking is one big rootin tootin party. That image that is part of the problem not only for the women entering trucking but for the inexperienced men entering trucking who think all women truckers are “good time sally”.

There is no path to lead any student successfully from CDL training, into reliable training and into a long-term carriers that require stable experience to meet their qualifications standards. For students,  it is a crapshoot but in-house staff can help alleviate much of the trials by being better trained for a crisis. UNLESS this is occurring on purpose?

“We always kept the experienced drivers housed away from the students so they won’t tell them what’s going on “- Quote from a former Driver Liason

Normal corporate structure employees generally have some sort of training to work in environments with the opposite sex yet it is non-existent in truck driver training where total strangers are supposed to live together in a room the size of a closet.

These are people who are expected to follow the letter of the federal law yet many have never worked with opposite gender co-workers. What is acceptable if no one advises them? Combining a former construction worker and a former longtime housewife with zero guidance?  She was recruited at her local workforce office and received paid training compliments of the American taxpayers, if she gets harmed during her training are we to toss her off on the side of the road because she has no “Street Smarts”, she deserved it?

What about the Wife of a truck driver who is not made aware that a female has been put on her husband’s truck and an affair occurs? I understand that CR England may have a waiver that the Wife is supposed to sign to give permission but this policy is not always followed.  Alienation of Affection = Interference with Marriage lawsuits and they can be costly.  States such as Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Dakota and Utah and North Carolina still permit cases where allegations of emotional harm are caused by a third party to the marital relationship. Wait? UTAH? CR England?

How about suing the carriers whose negligence permitted the situations to occur?

No training in conduct says  ”we don’t care who gets hurt, not on the highway, not in the truck, not in your home“!  Having a supervisory staff that is 20 or 30 years old who have no life experience to answer phones for crisis situations is a huge part of the problem.  If your staff has no idea how to deal with a crisis they should not be in supply chain logistics!

The human factor that is required to move freight is grossly absent from trucking. Someone who cannot handle a human crisis should not be permitted to speak or treat a victim of a trauma. If they cannot recognize a predatory behavior or complete their job in an unbiased manner they should not be placed in a position to deal with people in any capacity. 

Predators can be engaging, charming and they aim to make friends with those who can help them when they are accused. That way no one will doubt one word they say. Predators are not always men, women can also be predators, control freaks and understand we have a growing Pink Collar Crime population.

Hundreds of students each week are being recruited and churned into truck driver training fleets right now and there is a shortage of good trainers because poor recruitment by the trucking industry, trainers who have lost their jobs FINALLY from their misconduct and because some trainers have been accused of doing something that was false or misconstrued.

These are ALL management failures from poor management guidance and lax policies. These are human nature issues that exist in an industry that puts two or more people in super heated training atmosphere and offers little support. There is a whole lot of drama occurring in this training atmosphere which is unsafe for the motoring public as well as the occupants of the truck.

As a trucking professional how do you feel knowing that people who have harmed others have been insulated by your industry and are permitted to drive anonymously state to state?  We need some real men and some real women to step up to the plate to make a broad statement that we are not going to live in denial and we are going to fix this.

We need a real plan to take action, not a PR Campaign and phony facade. I believe the problem is so great now that many of these carriers don’t know where to start.  If you do not take action, you are collectively condoning, violence against disenfranchised women and benefiting from it which is no better than a human trafficker in my opinion!

This is a national problem because the carriers involved are very large truck training carriers that travel all 48 states, right in your backyard.

Following my post about the Abandoned CR England Student, I was contacted by someone who wanted to make law enforcement nationwide be aware of this neglected trucking issue. I personally would like to have truck stops create a safe haven program which would benefit the human trafficking campaign, domestic violence victims and situation like the one Nancy encountered.

Let’s face it; there is more criminal activities at truck stops represented by NATSO than at rest areas or tollway parking areas.

Last night I watched a show about Father Murphy a Wisconsin Priest who sexually abused as many as 200 deaf boys in his care. The little boys are now old men and still trying to get justice. These little boys went to the police and were sent back to this priest to live with him! People get hurt from collective inaction.

The problem with CR England is a problem with all of those who “KNOW” but do nothing, even though the little deaf boy is jumping up and down in front of you begging you to hear him!

Additional Reading:
CDL Trainers should be held accountable for their actions

CR England Training Reviews

Abandoned CR England Driver

U.S State Department – Human Trafficking

Truckers Against Trafficking

Technorati Tags: CDL Training, CR England, Dan Rather, EPA, Human Trafficking, Jason's Law, Smart Way Transport, Truckers, Trucking, Violence, Women

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This series of posts on Solutions for Ethical Truck Driver Training comes as a result of many long ignored suggestions made by actual truck drivers to their companies who train students and receive a good deal of government funding. The turnover rate in trucking is 125% which is outrageous and most of this turnover is due to predatory lending & poor recruitment. Poor Training & Support, Personal Safety & Harassment Issues, Retaliation by carriers & Industry to push truck drivers out of the industry who protest being mistreated and provoked.

Let’s cut to the chase:  As predicted when the economy crashed in 2008 the phony truck driver shortage that the ATA and the carriers it represents rely upon to keep the government money coming in, also dissapated.  Now it’s back right when the jobs bill is coming up and all the usual suspects are in high gear for recruiting, but have they corrected their ugly ways?

Sexual Predators and Control Freaks are drawn to environments where they can get what they want and operate without notice. Religious Organizations, Religion based dating sites, Pediatricians, Boy Scout Leaders, Girls Schools; even organizations like Trucker Buddy will attract a risk taking predator. Religion plays a part because denial provides a safe haven for such predators to utilize this fertile ground as a place to feed their illness. This is why these organizations should recognize they have greater responsibility in screening the people they give positions of power to dominate over another person.

“Shunning” is how a person is treated after they have complained about mistreatment or abuse. A sanction to isolate a person further is often associated with religious groups but the behavior is common in the trucking industry, which we refer to as retaliation for reporting abuse. There are many more extreme cases of retaliation that occur in the form of threats or intimidation. Most commonly a ruined DAC and/or telling prospective new employers that the driver is no longer hireable. This has effectively ended many truck driving careers.  For Women, the misuse of lifting requirments or agility tests in a manner that is not equal to test given to men and in some cases making the weight inappropriate for the job has eliminated some veteran women truckers from the trucking industry.  This is why few people hear much about Women Truckers,  most want anonymity.

The ATA advocacy page I have linked says nothing about the recent outpouring of social media, investigative reports and lawsuits about abuse to student truckers by predators and control freaks.  Still the media hype machine is hard at work to create the basis for the next wave of student truckers.  Articles in Fleet Owner & Reuters ; describe a false image, those of us who have had pay cuts know these articles are complete rubbish.  Moving on to more ethical companies is not a viable option because most are not hiring. Only the training companies are claiming to be suffering for truck drivers. Curious isn’t it?

In one manner or another, the government is funding the handful of student training fleets who will most benefit from this next wave of recruiting.  The ATA has not acted responsibly when they have continued to ignore that many of the carriers it represents think nothing about hiding behind religion or skewed statistical data which makes it appear everything is fine in the world of training student truckers. This makes the ATA and the Organization “Women in Trucking ” nothing more than an accomplice to abuse.  The flip-flop advocacy of what is a priority depends where they can get media attention, it is repugnent and obvious.

“Working behind the scenes” is no good. “Serving in Silence” makes a sinister undertone of a cover up to that which is unacceptable to protect something that is well-known.  Partnerships with companies who have lost, settled or are in current litigation for rampant problems of sexual misconduct and discrimination look to be nothing more than a public relations recovery rather than a pro-active approach to correcting a fixable problem.

Many former female trainers from the handful of government funded mega-fleets have written suggestions to help but they have been ignored. There is no reason a $100,000 grant should be awarded in order to create a solutions code, or any other amount in my opinion when real truckers have written endless letters and suggestions to make a better training environment for all student truckers and they have been ignored.

Trucking Companies who train government funded students or receive favorable tax incentives to train workers should be held to a higher level of corporate accountability.  Hiding behind religion should not be a factor to avert attention but rather make these companies held under a microscope more closely when it is well known this particular environment makes it easy for a pleasant liar to thrive.

Predators thrive in an environment where there is denial; just ask someone who was raped as a child by a Priest, Pastor, Minister or Deacon of the Church.

I recently had lunch with a Woman Trucker who I had met some months back, she dresses in a rather eccentric manner but she is older than I am. She is very animated and sweet but I could see most people would judge her by her appearance automatically. During lunch she said whenever someone brought up the “P” word meaning “Pedophile” she would go crazy. She never knew why, she had no recollections of her childhood. She had been abandoned by her Mother and raised but her very religious Aunt & Uncle. As a young lady, she got herself involved in troubles that lasted until she was in her 30′s and she came close to dying.  A social worker suggested she talk to a therapist and she began to realize she had been raped her entire childhood by her uncle who was very respected in the community and a church leader.  Most of the people in her small town already knew about the abuse but they said nothing. They only whispered behind her back. She did not know because she had blocked it all out. Even her childhood friend confessed that there were rumors in the town that her children were fathered by her uncle. She told me when she came to grips with these truths she became liberated and began living her life. She said she dresses in a manner she feels good and she does not care what others say because she feels like she is a teenager for the first time at 50 years of age.

She began driving a truck about 5 years ago and was thankful for the government voucher to have a chance for a new life. The trainer she was assigned told her she had to have sex with him in order to learn to drive the truck, when she refused he threw her off the truck. Her second trainer used her only as a second log book and did not teach her anything. This is a very common training experience for single women entering trucking. Veteran Women truckers may not be fully aware of this because many have become Owner-Operators and have never had to work for one of the Government funded fleets. This woman I met loves the freedom trucking gives her to live far away from that small town where she can be herself. She is not a highly educated but she is very astute in her perceptions. She is  thankful she has found trucking but frankly, when CSA2010 comes into effect I feel many of us poorly trained students will be replaced.

It is very difficult to have a student insured obviously because they come from CDL Schools with barely enough experience to hold the steering wheel, PTDI certification OR NOT!  NOTHING can prepare a Student Trucker for being in charge of a big rig on the open highway until they get out there and do it. I would also like to add a word of advice to single women who have been offered to learn to drive from a “Owner-Operator”. While this might sound wonderful that someone has taken a personal shine to you, the truth is they probably want a relationship or a 2 week sex partner. For insurance reasons like I said above it would not be possible for a veteran to take you on their rig and for you to receive the hours needed to be considered experienced.  I have met many student females who bought this line only to be put off a truck after they refused sex.  They often say that they never learned to drive but were only badgered for sex the entire time.

Student Truckers are funneled into a handful of Truck Driving Training Fleets where they are to be trained to drive and most will not make it.  There is no shortage of truck drivers but there is a shortage of good trainers who are not Control Freaks and Predators.  There is also a problem in poor recruiting which makes good trainers quit.  This is especially true for Women trainers.  Retaliation for reporting predators remains a problem and as one former CR England Trainer alleged in a June 2009 blog talk radio program for “Truth about Trucking “, sometimes groups of trainers will work in conjunction passing a female student around until she has sex with one of them.

Being a trainer for a student means you are risking your life at the hands of someone you do not know anything about. This is a huge risk when the quality of students is very poor and trainers often quit because of it.  The quality of students has been poor because of the government money to foot the bill for anyone with a pulse thus creating predatory lending.  The good trainer suffers the consequenses of this chaos which leaves predators who see student truckers as a ripe opportunity for additional company money and sex.

Contrary to the assertions by Ellen Voie in the Q & A about the CRST Sexual Harassment Case here on this site, the Women did not all want to be part of a lawsuit.  Tracy Hamm for instance had filed with the EEOC prior and had never been contacted.  She saw others being hurt by the same people and wanted change so no one else would be hurt.  This is in her deposition and Ellen Voie had no business making such remarks at any juncture when she had never talked to any of these women at length.  Another former Woman Trainer who sucessfully sued U.S. Xpress shared this ridiculous question she was asked when she was deposed for her case. “What color panties were you wearing?”  her story will be in a future post about some of the unsafe training situations these companies put female recruits into.  It becomes overwhelming when the companies are linked to “Women in Trucking” AFTER the lawsuits & allegations. Personal Safety is equal to Highway safety for this line of work. You cannot concentrate on the highway if you are afraid of your trainer or co-driver, or want to kill them as in a recent case from “Falcon Transport ” where one driver murdered his co-driver, while the truck was rolling!

The particular woman trucker in the U.S. Xpress case was able to go on to work in the industry because her settlement included not being blackballed which is most commonly done to women truckers who ever dare speak out about the treatment they receive.  She later married a trainer and became one herself.  They are no longer married but she told me her former Husband has had multiple complaints against him for sexual misconduct but he has not beenn taken off the training board except for short periods. He was eventually assigned to train only married couples but was caught multiple times masturbating while he was training, even kicking the students out to stand on the street while he finished!  Why is he still a trainer at all?

She is no longer a trainer and like other women trainers I have met, they are given the problem students who should not be on the road at all but for some reason the company retains them.  The clue to this may be that in order to receive the funding on each student they must be employed for a certain period of time, even if they are a menace to highway safety.  That is the student trucker industry!  These are the students who after a good deal of time are not learning and/or have many “issues” that prevent them from becoming good, safe truck drivers.  It is because of this, Women trainers are scarce.

Tracy Hamm the Woman Trucker from the CRST Case who first made contact on the Trucker Desiree blog had offered solutions from her perspective after having been a student who had troubles and as a former trainer. We have all seen many competent truck driving students fail to succeed because of the system which protects predators. We have also seen many incompetent truck driving students succeed who should not be on the highway or go on to become predatory trainers themselves.  This is why we are demanding solutions!  If you read the entire Q & A of Ellen Voie you would have seen Tracy Hamm’s name brought up time and again.  Ellen Voie contacted Tracy following a phone conference we had when I advised Ellen that her information was incorrect. Tracy also spoke at length with WIT Director Marge Bailey who took away a very different view once she spoke to Tracy. I am not at liberty to share the remarks that Marge wrote to me following her chat with Tracy, but I can say it was lengthy and Marge Bailey expressed a concern that indeed these issues are much more complex and need to be fully addressed. Tracy like many other Women Truckers provided Ellen Voie & myself solutions that have been suggested to carriers for a good deal of time.  The problem is that the carriers ignore these suggestions.  Recruiting seems to be a priority but not conduct to insure success.

Here are some of the Solutions from Tracy Hamm and other Women Truckers:

1. The trainer & trainee should spend at least 24 hours together prior to training.  During that time, they should ask one another questions and talk about their expectations.  The carriers should help by preparing a “Common Concerns” Checklist to help facilitate this interview process.

2. A general compatibility questionnaire would help determine the appropriateness of the match. This will also benefit the “Team Business Model” where some carriers require a team driving component to training: For Instance, Music Preference, Cleanliness, Personal Hygiene, Bathroom Stops, Sleep Patterns, Gambling Stops, Storage… answering these questions verbally will reveal personality traits such as inability to work together OR over accommodating behavior which can turn into “I gave you everything…” tantrum later.

3. The Student Company should be required to have a liaison that will be responsible for the trainee’s success. That person will have the trainee’s phone number and will call him/her once each day to inquire how the training is going. The trainee should meet the liaison in person during on site training. The trainee should be told how to make an S.O.S. via Qualcomm prior to leaving with their trainer and be given phone number that WILL be answered should they need assistance for an emergency to get off the truck. This should be discussed prior to fully understand what would be considered Urgent and what is NOT.

4. To avert retaliation or confrontation by trainer/co-driver for requesting to be removed from a “situation” the liaison and student should devise code words or phrases to indicate that there is something wrong that needs the attention. For example, “I need more vitamins in my water” could mean, “get me out of the truck immediately!” (something to that effect.)

5. The trucking carrier should supply the trainer and trainee with a code of ethics that they must agree to by reading, signing and keeping a copy with emergency numbers before departing the terminal. This should also be done for truck driving teams in student fleets. Any violations of sexual misconduct are grounds for termination.

6. A series of conduct films are very much needed in truck driver training because of the highly unusual training conditions. Two complete strangers from very different backgrounds, religions, political affiliations are expected to conduct themselves as professionals who live and work together without guidance?

I’d like to see my CEO teamed in a truck with the very outspoken 50 year old woman with a gold grill on her teeth. I’d like to see them work together to put a set of chains on at donner pass at 3 a.m. How about Clayton Boyce as my trainee when I’m PMS? We all have our daily issues but in this super intense environment in which we expect to teach and learn we should also provide more guidance before we hand out keys to 18 wheelers.

Other former Women Truckers have offered suggestions such as putting cameras in the cab which for training trucks might be fine if they were activated by a panic button rather than rolling constantly. This is rather impractical given the sleeper size, the reality of changing clothes, having to pee in a cup or bottle at times when facilities are not available. Cameras open up the door for too much weird behavior which is already a problem in trucking where abuse of power is an epidemic.

The first step in making solutions is freeing ourselves from denial and understanding that being a trainer for a trucking student who cannot drive can very well end someone’s life, including the trainers.

The trainer should not be put on team miles from day one which has been common practice. The reason why is that students who come from ANY CDL School ARE NOT prepared to drive an 11 hour shift.  This is something you build up to and throwing students out on the road to move cheap freight puts every single person on the highway at risk!  The trainer is there to train a person who has little more than a few trips around the city where they went to school.  They have barely driven enough to understand lane changes , changing weather and how to manage traffic flow.  The trainer is placed in a catch 22 if they must be in the sleeper for 10 hours by law. How can they ever supervise the student legally?  That is a question I would like to ask Ray LaHood U.S. Secretary of Transportation. I know this man cares about safety because I follow his news closely on Twitter and I highly doubt he is being told the correct information about what goes on in the REAL World of training truckers and what female recruits have to put up with in order to learn.

The trainer should not be expected to break HOS laws to train students.

Putting trainers in unsafe training situations makes good trainers quit and leaves only the ‘Hot Dog” trainers and Predators who have another reason they take the risk. There is a shortage of good trainers because predatory lending brings unsuitable candidates into trucking.  There is a shortage of good qualified, screened students. There is a shortage of proper & effective support from the carriers to teach conduct skills to recruits who are expected to live, work & learn in a truck the size of an elevator.

This is the first part in a series of solutions that have been contributed by various REAL Truck Drivers who care about Highway Safety & Personal Safety.  These things should not be for sale , they are free and we hope ethical professionals in the trucking industry will recognize that it’s time to do things differently.

Correct the manner in which you train trucking students and your driver shortage will cease.

Not there ever was one…..

Additional Reading:

A Pedophile named Trucker

Tennnesse Sex Offender owns Trucking Company

ATA – Why is Everbody picking on me (The Clayton Boyce Story)

Center for Sex Offender Management

Rate your Boss – Hostile Workplace

Trucking Company sued by EEOC for Retaliation

Retrain the Dispatchers

Technorati Tags: ATA, CDL Training, Clayton Boyce, CR England, CRST, Ellen Voie, Falcon Transport, government spending, Highway Safety, Marge Bailey, Pedophile, Ray LaHood, Sexual Predator, Tracy Hamm, Training, Trucker Desiree, Truckers, Trucking, U.S. Xpress, Women

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