Layover.com: Career Change / Driving Incident / Risky Proposition

Career Change / Driving Incident / Risky Proposition

The volume and level of questions provided by the readers of this column and Layover.com continue to impress me. Thank you again for the questions that were sent to me since the last column. Please continue sending questions and I will do my best to answer as many as I can. Remember, if I don't answer your question in the column, there is the probability that a similar one has already been answered in a previous column. So, I encourage reviewing the archives when possible. Thank you for making this column the success that it is.

I have been at same job for 18 years and have been considering a change. My wife suggested that we become OTR truck drivers. Neither of us has any experience, but we can attend a driving training school. I now make right at $800.00 a week with full benefits and four weeks vacation. Our children are grown and our grandkids are in school. We only owe a mortgage payment (10 years left) and boat payment. Am I crazy for really considering this?

I do not think you are crazy for considering this move at all; in fact, it may be an ideal situation for you. Team driving with your wife can certainly match the annual income you currently make, and most carriers do offer full benefits (although at some cost to the drivers). Without any real commitments at home (such as children), it seems you and your wife could spend a great deal of time on the road.

With proper communication, home time can become fairly frequent so you can still see your children and grandchildren frequently. And, because you are both willing to attend a driving training school, it seems that you are set.

Carriers that operate teams absolutely love, and most prefer, husband-wife teams. Being new drivers, though, it is likely you will be required to ride and train an additional four to six weeks at your carrier of choice--in a separate truck than that of your spouse. So, if you can get over that brief period of being trained separately you should be fine. The trucking industry seems like a good choice for you and your wife. Good luck.

I ran over a small patch of grass backing into a dock. I only pulled into the ruts left by other drivers, but I guess the company had gotten tired of drivers doing that and decided to make my company pay to plant some new grass. The company I worked for has listed this as a preventable accident. Can they really do this? Shouldn't they list it as an incident?

When you say that the company listed this event as a preventable accident I am assuming you are referring to the DAC report. On the DAC report there is no option to list an "incident," so if the carrier chooses to list the incident/accident they must choose either a preventable or non-preventable accident. It would appear that this was a preventable accident.

You are correct, however, that most carriers will consider it an incident. So, if you choose to apply for a position with a new carrier all you have to do is explain the situation. That carrier will then investigate it, and based on the information you provided here, it is likely their conclusion will be that it was an incident.

The carrier will take this into account as they examine the rest of your driving record and will make a decision from that point.

I am soon to be an ex-driver for a major company. I was in the process of purchasing a Freightliner Century through the company's subsidiary leasing company. Unfortunately, the truck came without Opti-idle as I had expected it to. Opti-idle was then installed on the truck and has never worked properly. Over the last seven months, I have had the truck into Freightliner four times now. I have asked my carrier to take back their truck and order a new one with the Opti-idle installed out of the factory. The carrier wants me to take it into Freightliner again. I cannot afford the downtime anymore. I am at home now with the tractor, but no trailer, and the carrier has been ignoring my emails and my messages I leave on their phones. What do I do now? I am tempted to just go out tomorrow, empty my belongings out of the truck, and tell the carrier they can come get the truck at their convenience. Then there is my $9,000 down payment. Do I have any chance at all of getting that back? Again, what do I do?

Leasing/purchasing a truck is a risky venture. It is not as easy as many might assume and the obligations are certainly very real, and by breaking a lease there can be very real and serious consequences. One such consequence is to lose accumulated escrows and/or down payments.

Without a copy of your lease agreement it is difficult for me to determine whether or not you will lose your money. It is also impossible for me to determine if the carrier is obligated to get you a different truck as you requested. My guess is that this is not part of your lease, yet the potential financial penalties are a part of your lease.

I recommend you work with the carrier and with the truck manufacturer to fix the problem. It also seems to me that if the truck has truly been to the dealer multiple times to be fixed there should be some form of warranty on the work. The real issue seems to be with the dealer/manufacturer, not the carrier. I do not recommend doing what you suggested with the truck as that is "abandonment" and you will experience future difficulties in securing a quality driving job.

Unfortunately, leasing and/or purchasing a truck is a risky proposition--just like any entrepreneurial venture.

Drivers' Corner - Ask the Recruiter

Career Change / Driving Incident / Risky Proposition