Tips About Truck Driver Training

Mike Severin from Trucker.com has written a great piece about why truck drivers need to exercise more. It's geared specifically toward drivers and certainly focuses on driver health, but it's a good read for everyone, filled with tips we can all use, even if we never drive a truck.

We all know we make resolutions we rarely stick to, and the diet and exercise resolution is usually the first to go. Not too surprising when you consider it's usually made in the middle of football season and at the end of the holiday parties. It's not easy to start a new fitness program and diet when everyone around you is eating junk and watching TV.

And since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association has received some recommendations about driver health — including weight and physical health — now is the time to consider some of Mike's suggestions.

Mike suggests assessing your situation before getting started. Talk to your doctor to make sure you are healthy enough to take on a new exercise program. It's a good time to discuss any concerns you might have as well as your medications. He suggests setting reasonable goals and to remember that it took years to put on the extra weight, don't expect to lose it overnight and don't get discouraged when it doesn't happen that fast either. Keep moving and you will see results.

Keeping on the move is the best way to keep to those healthful resolutions. Mike suggests making time for exercise each day and to be sure to put it in a positive light. Don't say you are going to diet or lose weight instead tell yourself you want to get healthier and by making time for simple exercise each day like walking you can do just that.

Don't think getting healthier means you have to deny yourself things that you like like chocolate or some other treat. Instead, remind yourself of all the things you will be able to do better once you feel better. Remind yourself that looking better and feeling better is worth more than that extra helping.

Someone once said nothing tastes as good as healthy feels. Remember that and get moving.

In early January, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Medical Review Board formally voted to recommend the Agency require use of its "driver fitness for duty" matrix.

The matrix consists of medical and psychological conditions which could disqualify millions of drivers from commercial driving or force some truck drivers to undergo not one, but two, DOT physicals per year. Drivers with more than one physical condition, such as high blood pressure, diabetes or a body mass index of 35 or higher, would be either pulled from the road or required to be medically certified as often as twice a year. Haz-mat haulers and bus drivers with any diagnosed psychological disorder would face additional scrutiny.

These new recommendations, and the accompanying matrix, are not sitting well with truck drivers. 

“I personally get more and more frustrated every time this panel meets,” said Melissa Theriault Rohan, OOIDA associate director of government affairs, told Landline Magazine. “While there is plenty of talk about potential new standards and procedures, little evidence, if any, gets presented to show that anyone would be safer on roads and highways because of these measures.”

These recommendations are just that, recommendations. The board that created this matrix is advisory in nature and the FMCSA does not have to implement any of these suggestions. If the matrix is adopted, the industry that stands to gain the most is going to be doctors and clinics who will see a considerable increase in appointments from truck drivers. Truck drivers will have to take time off the road to visit their physicians causing more down time.

There is little proof that enacting these requirements will do anything to change safety conditions since no government agency or academic institution has produced a credible study linking poor commercial driver health to an increase in traffic crashes.

As we have already reported many times, drivers are more aware than ever that they need to be in good physical and psychological shape. In fact, we've written about it ourselves on more than one occasion.

More and more drivers are taking it upon themselves to make time for exercise and are eating better. Drivers aren't stupid and they certainly don't want to harm anyone while they are driving. Adding more hoops to jump through is hardly conducive to happy drivers.

It's a little too late for Valentines Day, but this love story needs to be heard, or read, as the case may be. Driver Solutions loves a great love story. The Trucker.com had a great story about a true truck driving team, Sam and Glenda Chatmon, who have been together for 16 years. They both weren't truck drivers when they met, but they did meet on the road. Glenda missed her man and decided to learn how to drive a truck. They have been team driving ever since.

This couple makes teamwork look easy. When Glenda finished driving school, Sam trained her for ten weeks. But surprisingly, now that they drive together they rarely see each other.

"She sleeps, I’m awake," he said. "I should be driving." (At the time he talked to The Trucker, Glenda was asleep in the bunk. They had just had the truck washed and he was letting it "air dry.") "It’s very rare that you’ll see us up together. We do our 34-hour restart together — usually on a weekend. We have about 30 minutes up together a day."

Both Glenda and Sam enjoy the freedom that driving truck allows. They aren't much into site seeing, but they love to travel. Truck driving seems like the perfect occupation for both of them, and since they get to do it together, it couldn't be better.

Sam had a little family encouragement before he began truck driving. When he was little his uncle had 12 trucks. He and his cousins would wash the rigs for money when his uncle was home on the weekends. Sam used to work with mainframe computers but, made a career move 17 years ago. He hasn't looked back. He hasn't needed to, with his wife by his side.

"The best part of trucking," Chatmon said, "is money, freedom and I am able to work with my spouse. Everything in trucking depends on 'you.'"

They certainly make it look easy, but since this couple is from Indiana I'm not too surprised, we are a hardworking group of people here.

Do you have an OTR love story you can share? If you met your spouse on the road, please tell us about it.

Ralph Garcia, a professional truck driver with more than 2.5 million accident-free miles under his belt, knows a thing or two about driving and safety. And he likes the current Hours-of-Service rules.

Garcia was one of many speakers recently at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) listening session in Dallas-Fort Worth. The FMCSA has held listening sessions around the country as it considers HOS changes requested by special interest groups like Public Citizen and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

Garcia spoke of the current HOS rules, how they are working and where some improvement could be made.

“When the current rules took effect, I noticed that I started feeling better,” said Garcia. “I wasn’t as tired.” Garcia is like many truck drivers in his preference to drive at night when the roads are less congested.

Garcia said the rules are good, but there is some room for improvement and flexibility, especially when it comes to sleeper berth provisions. Garcia went on to state that drivers are taking better care of themselves than ever before, because of their sometimes challenging sleep schedules.

“We are more in tune with our body’s time clock than most people. Our safe driving is a testimony to that,” said Garcia. And he would be correct. Just recently the U.S. Department of Transportation released 2008 figures showing that the truck-involved fatality rate decreased 12.3 percent from 2007, the fifth consecutive year the rate has declined.

“The American truck driver continues to keep America rolling,” said Garcia. “We are better trained, better informed, and improving the safety of our industry every year.” Representatives from other trucking companies also spoke at the session and suggested things like:

1. sleep disorder awareness, training and screening
2. promoting the use of Fatigue Risk Management Programs
3. increasing the availability of truck parking on important freight corridors
4. partnering with the trucking and shipping communities to develop an educational process that identifies for drivers the location of available truck parking, are among the ideas the representatives addressed.

While the current HOS rules have proven beneficial there should be more flexibility for the driver to choose his own sleep pattern. It helps keep drivers fresh and more alert, which leads to safer roads and fewer accidents.  





Log book photo courtesy of JJKeller.com
 

<p>It seems that at one time or another all of us have considered running our own business. This is no different for truck drivers who want to become their own boss by becoming an independent trucking company that they own and operate.</p><p>Many students enter truck driving school so they can learn the ropes of truck driving, which will eventually lead to their own business. Before any truck driver tells his boss to "take this job and shove it," however, they must do an in depth analysis of their abilities, skills and finances. According to an article on the TruckersReport.com, there are six key considerations to take into account before giving a boss the heave-ho. We looked at their six thoroughly explained options.</p><p>Are you a leader or a follower? If you prefer to get your route with dates, times and maps all laid out for you, then you probably aren’t suited to be an owner operator.</p><p>If on the other hand you believe that the best way to get any job done is to do it yourself you might just have what it takes to run your own trucking company.</p><p>Owning a truck driving company is an expensive undertaking. Do you have a considerable amount of savings to fund this endeavor? If not, how do you plan on covering expenses such as truck rental or ownership, insurance, health insurance, administrative cost (you will need to hire some help), and an emergency fund in case times get tough. All of these considerations need to be looked at deeply before deciding on an independent truck driver career.</p><p>Do you want to lease on to a carrier or go completely independent? There are pros and cons to both options but only the individual can make that decision based on his own personality and management style. What kind of equipment do you want to use. Some drivers prefer to have sleek looking trucks with little regard for the cost of looking good. Other more practical drivers know that having a good looking truck is nice, but being able to maintain the vehicle is more important. If all your hard-earned money is going toward the truck payment, how are you going to pay for repairs? While many people today live by the adage “Fake it 'til you make it” often that isn’t feasible or even responsible. Sometimes faking it can break the bank, leaving a driver with nothing when the repo man comes calling.</p><p>Make sure you set aside some of your income for legal and accounting fees. Too many independent business owners have gotten themselves into a world of trouble because they didn’t source this part of their business out to professionals. Don’t make this mistake. You might think you are saving a lot of money by having cousin Billy handle your taxes, but cousin Billy might not know all the tax laws that are necessary to running a truck driving business. And he's not equipped to get you out of trouble if the IRS gets comes sniffing around. </p><p>Before you buy that truck, think long and hard about what you are undertaking. Right now the economy is sluggish and the trucking economy is no different. Carriers are delivering less freight than they have in years because of the economy.</p><p>But as more and more freight starts to move, more drivers will be needed. Additionally today’s truck drivers are going to be aging out of the system causing a higher demand for truck drivers. This could be a great time to take the plunge of becoming and owner/operator but weigh all the different options first.</p><p> Just make sure you take a long, hard look at your options, at the market and the need, and then make your decision. And good luck.

Thanks to Predictive Analytics truck driving is about to become safer. Truck safety has always been a major concern and with today’s new technologies available to many carriers accidents can be reduced substantially. We were excited to see this story on TruckingInfo.com, about Dupré Logistics' amazing accident reduction statistics. Dupré Logistics, of Lafayette, LA, has adopted a predictive analytics technology which helps identify risk potential and allow its safety team to make corrections, resulting in significant accident reduction. Dupré has partnered with Fleet Risk Advisors to implement Advanced Predictive Analytics, a modeling system that aggregates data and presents potential accidents to the fleet's management team, before they happen. As a result, accidents have been reduced by 67 percent since 2004. What this means is that if a driver is identified as “at risk” for an accident, he or she is counseled by Dupré's management team to adjust the risk factors identified. As a result, a driver who has gone through the targeted risk management training, counseling, schedule adjustment or programs suggested by management, is 50 percent less likely to have an accident within the next month. "This is a major factor in moving us closer to our vision of being the safest transportation and logistics company in North America," says Tom Voelkel, Dupré's president and COO. "Predictive modeling helps us see the future today and gives us the opportunity to create the future that we want tomorrow." Dupré monitors all of their drivers by aggregating onboard computer data, and placing the drivers into three different tiers, top, middle, and bottom. The top and middles are left alone, but the bottom tier receives all the attention and counseling. This also lets management focus only on the drivers who are at risk, rather than pouring all their energies into the other drivers who don't need it. The Dupré team has designed a suite of targeted risk management and performance monitoring strategies, including:



• Focused driver training programs

• New safety field representative training

• Terminal and management scorecards

• Driver scorecards and enhanced incentive programs

• Alerts from in-vehicle technology
• Dispatch training.

We're all about driver safety here at Driver Solutions, so we're very impressed by Dupré Logistics figures. Hopefully we'll see this kind of thinking make its way through the entire industry.

If you live in Los Angeles and are considering attending truck driving school, check out the opportunity with USA Truck.  The trucking company has expanded it's freight lanes and is adding Los Angeles-based truck drivers to its ranks.  The trucking company is providing company-sponsored truck driver training at a well-known truck driving school.  This is a great way to obtain your CDL license and get a great job in trucking.  You can save thousands of dollars in truck driving school tuition and there's no need to go out searching for a job.  USA Truck is committed to help new truck drivers succeed in their trucking careers.

For more details about the CDL training program, check out the USA Truck job posting on the the Driver Solutions website.  

I think a lot of people believe all the need to do is learn how to drive a big rig and they can get any trucking job they want.  While there are a lot of job openings in trucking, this approach is not the best route.  It's important to learn about all of the rules and regulations that are intended to keep both the truck driver and those he shares the road with safe. 

USA Truck is looking for truck drivers in the Memphis, TN area.  Currently, the trucking company is offering a company-sponsored truck driver training for new truck drivers.  This truck driving job doesn't require any previous driving experience.  You can start a brand new trucking career with a reputable, nationally-known trucking company.  This CDL training offer is available to all qualified applicants agreeing to work for USA Truck after completion of training.  There's no upfront tuition costs and no credit check required.  This is one of the best ways to obtain your CDL licensse. 

So if you are looking at a truck driving career, check out the truck driving jobs available right now with USA Truck in the Memphis area.  See the job posting info.