Wheels of Justice

Trucking jobs in this crazy economy

Hey, Driver! Do you want a job (a good job) or a great career with a great company? Look at the national news and trucking magazines or newspapers and you might see driver shortage numbers for the next couple of years reaching anywhere from 150,000 to 250,000 truck driving jobs. Are these real or outlandish claims or are these numbers close to the truth? Only the crystal ball knows for sure.
     What do you know? First, any good job in this crazy economy will have 10 people waiting on it. (Yes, this does include truck-driving jobs.) Think about this: how many people or families do you know that have or are in the process of 1) losing their home, 2) losing their job, 3) losing their unemployment benefits or 4) even losing their families to the stress of lost income.
     How do you set yourself apart from other drivers for the good jobs and great careers? Start with the basics: keep your resume current. Your prospective employer is required to contact your past employers about your work history, but they fail to ask about the special things you can do and awards you have received. 
     Sound like too much trouble, keeping up with what you have done? Guess what, I am an employer, and I look for things that set the people I want working here apart from the rest of the applicants. I ask applicants what they want to tell me that would make me want to hire them.  Sure, you can get a job as a driver, but suppose you want a good job or great career, what can you tell this recruiter or their boss about yourself that will make them choose you over the other drivers for the good job or the great career? It would be nice to hand them a list of your accomplishments, abilities, licenses and experience along with awards you have won. It just might be enough to get you the job you really want, one that pays you a fair wage and gets you home when you want with a company that respects you and what you do for them. 
     Keep your CDL clean. Make your driving ha-bits fit the rules, regulations and laws that govern driving a truck. Sometimes even the good guys get charged for something they did not do, so make the effort to fight any claims against your CDL. Remember, a clean CDL will be your ticket to a good job.
     Educate yourself about the rules, regulations and laws that govern your job.  Make yourself more valuable to your company by being a good driver, by becoming a trainer or the go-to guy when the company is in a bind with a load. Bend over backward to help the company, then you can ask them for help later. If you go beyond the call of duty for your company and they will not back you, MOVE ON.
     This crazy economy could energize you into taking steps to get the job you really want; one that pays you a fair wage and gets you home when you want…a company that treats you like they really do like you. Now that's a good job.
     Jim C. Klepper is the president of Interstate Trucker Ltd., an organization that provides legal defense protection to commercial drivers. Jim is a lawyer who focuses on transportation law and the trucking industry in particular. He works to answer your legal questions about trucking, and he holds his Commercial Drivers License.

    
Jim C. Klepper
Attorney at Law
Interstate Trucker
800-333-DRIVE
interstatetrucker.com
driverslegalplan.com