Well you just received your CDL and are ready to begin your career in the wonderful world of truck driving. The next step is to figure out what company you would like to work with and unfortunately that means having to deal with recruiters. A recruiters job is basically to sign up new drivers and in order to do so they will make a number of claims (lies) that you will soon find out are not a hundred percent truthful.
In this article on Truck Driver CDL 101 we are going to explore the most common lies that truck driving recruiters tell
Truck Driving Recruiters Lie: Average Miles
Everyone wants to know about how much money they are going to make and especially when it comes to OTR (Over The Road) it is all about the number of miles you are going to average throughout the week as more miles means a bigger paycheck
A common tactic that truck driving recruiters use is to tell you what their top drivers average per week in terms of miles. Sure truck driving Joe may average three thousand miles per week however Joe has been with the company for ten years, is 100 percent reliable and gets all of the choice runs that the company has to offer. You on the other hand are going to get all of the garbage runs until the company decides whether or not you are reliable and its going to reflect in the number of miles that you run per week
Truck Driving Recruiters Lie: Hometime
The majority of truck drivers would like to get home on a regular basis and another tactic recruiters use is the promise of guarantee home time. Unfortunately this does not mean you are going to get home on a Friday and then leave on a Monday on a regular basis.
Home time in trucking means you need to stop driving for a thirty four hour period in order to get all of your hours back. Hopefully you will be sitting at home doing this reset and not some truck stop in the middle of nowhere
Truck Driving Recruiters Lie: Signing Bonus
So you found a truck driving company and everything looks pretty good and the bonus is the signing bonus. You decide to sign on with the company and very quickly learn that the sign bonus is not a one time payment
The most common signing bonus when it comes to truck driving companies tend to be structured in a similar fashion:
90 Days – 25 percent of signing bonus
180 Days – 25 percent of signing bonus
365 Days – 50 percent of signing bonus
Obviously the companies structure the signing bonus to ensure that the driver stays for at least a year and not sign on, get the signing bonus and then proceed to the company down the street
Truck Driving Recruiters Lie: Type Of Stop
The type of stop that a truck driver needs to perform weighs greatly on the number of miles that you are able to drive per week.
As I covered in a previous article on trip planning there are two main types of stops (A) Drop and Hook (B) Live Loads. Drop and hook are the ideal stop in terms of time wise as its a matter of dropping one trailer and hooking onto another trailer. Live stops can quickly turn into a nightmare as if the company is running behind it could take hours to get you unloaded so you can get back on the road
Of course truck driving recruiters like to say a high percentage of their stops are drop and hook for this is what the truck driver wants to hear however that tends to be a stretch. Now the company may have a high number of drop and hooks however they tend to be on certain types of runs which are given to their more experienced drivers. The rest of the company is given a mix bag of the two stops
Truck Driving Recruiters Lie: Equipment
A common tactic you will see when looking at ads for truck driving jobs is that the company has top of the line tractors and trailers available to their drivers
The reality is they may have a few brand new tractors and trailers but this is not going to be given to some new driver off of the street. The best equipment goes to the drivers who have been with the company for a long time and are running high paying routes.
The new driver will receive a tractor that should have been put out of service and spends more time in the garage then it does on the road
How To Fight Truck Driving Recruiters Lies
When you are looking at a truck driving job and need to figure out where the truth actually lies there are things that you can do in order to protect yourself
- Talk to other drivers at the company – Maybe you will find one of their drivers at a truck stop or ask a forum such as Reddit about the company
- Realize that a truck driving recruiter job is to hire you no matter what – A truck driving recruiter is basically a car salesman however instead of selling a vehicle they are selling a job
- Bad companies make big promises – The more a company promises the more my defenses go up. If the company is promising everything under the sun that normally means the are hiding something
Dealing with truck driving recruiters just goes with finding a CDL job. Realize that a recruiter will tell you just about anything to get you to sign on to their particular company. Do your research and talk to other drivers of the company you are thinking of working for before signing your name on the bottom line
