How do you get the right stuff

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Dear Editor,

I read your column in the December 1999 Truck News regarding the shortage or truckers in the trucking industry. I hope companies read your message because the industry has me totally frustrated. I was also impressed with John Curran’s story on Andrew Rowlands and his efforts to drive in our country and in the United States.

With reference to my frustrations about meeting the entry standards of most companies in the trucking industry, I personally have over 25 years’ experience in this industry, of which eight years have been in operating from Class 1 to forklifts. They say I don’t have enough Class 1 experience.

How do you get the “right stuff” if companies don’t have a training support system at the initial employment level?

Furthermore, Class 1 operators with 10 years’ experience driving in Atlantic Canada would, themselves, need a couple of weeks’ training to drive efficiently in the southern Ontario trucking belt.

I have spent most of my working career in the safety and maintenance management of equipment fleets. I want to close out the remaining 12 years of this career driving. That option, unfortunately, presents many roadblocks – not indicative of an industry desperate for drivers.

Just recently an ad appeared in our local paper for a Class 1 shunt driver. The job paid $9 per hour and required five to seven years’ experience. The employer was a major player in the industry.

I ask, would anybody shunt if they had this amount of experience?

Clesson C. Monk

St. John’s, Nfld. n

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Truck News is Canada's leading trucking newspaper - news and information for trucking companies, owner/operators, truck drivers and logistics professionals working in the Canadian trucking industry.


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