By
Rick & Christine.
 ...
Back to school!
It has been over ten years
since I sat in my last college classroom. This week it felt like I had
been thrust back into elementary school. It is our fifth day of class at
trucking school here in Fresno, CA. Besides Christine and I, the class
is composed entirely of felons, welfare moms and various other societal
outcasts. We are the only people in the
class of twelve that are
not having our schooling paid for by some form of government sponsorship.
As a matter of fact, in addition to their paid
schooling, they also get
paid by the hour while attending school and even receive a gasoline allowance.
Your tax dollars at work folks!
This would not bother me
near as much if it were not painfully obvious that the majority of these
people are only here to meet whatever requirements the various agencies
force upon them in order to retain their benefits. To be fair, there are
about three students who do actually seem motivated to learn this trade
and obtain gainful employment. Unfortunately, with past felonies, spotty
(if any) work histories and previously failed drug tests, their chances
of landing a decent job are very slim.
I am beginning to understand
why the trucking industry has such a huge turnover rate. I doubt
that our experience here is unique to the industry. The majority
of truck driving students throughout the country are probably there on
some sort of government sponsorship. The problem is, most of these folks
have done no research whatsoever on what life as a truck driver is all
about. They were simply offered a few career choices that they were told
they could get free schooling for and thought, “Hey, driving one of those
big rigs around might be fun!”, and with that, they were enrolled in school.
The students in my class
had no idea that OTR (over-the-road) drivers have to be away from home
for weeks at a time. No clue that local routes are hard to come by until
you actually have a couple of years experience driving long-haul. One girl
has never driven a stick-shift! The funny thing is, that the trucking industry
is so short on drivers right now, that some of these guys will still get
hired on. Is it any surprise that the majority of them will not last a
year?
The good news is that Christine
and I now hold Class A Commercial permits! We both aced our three
core tests and also passed our three endorsement tests (Hazardous Materials,
Tankers, Double-Triples) with only a couple wrong. We went ahead and took
them early. The rest of our class will be taking their core tests this
Monday while Christine and I play hooky and go down to Magic Mountain!
WOO-HOO! Been waiting 10 years to get back there and it looks like they
have some spectacular new coasters! I can’t wait!
We will FINALLY start driving
the trucks around this coming Wednesday. Then things should start getting
interesting!
Talk to you next week!
Rick
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