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USA Truck adds driver recruiting website for military veterans

Mike

Well-Known Member
VAN BUREN, Ark. — USA Truck has announced the addition of a new driver recruiting website exclusively for military veterans.

Entitled "We Hire Heroes" and located at www.HiringMilitaryDrivers.com, this new site is designed to make the transition to civilian employment easier for military personnel.

"USA Truck has a proud tradition of honoring military service. In addition to our new website, we have several programs for transitioning military and for those experienced drivers with past military service," Sherry Bass, USA Truck's director of driver recruiting and orientation, said. "Recently transitioning military can use a special military hotline and speak to a fellow veteran about joining the USA team, and they may be eligible for a Hiring Heroes Bonus of $1,000."

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As a vet and a truck driver, I have standing on this one. Trucking companies are just taking advantage of folks. Period. This rot about how they respect and honor military service is so much PR dribble it makes me want to vomit. Most carriers advocate positions that are diametrically opposed to what veterans swore an oath to protect America from.

"may be eligible" for a hiring bonus up to $1000. Now that is really "honoring" veterans for their service. For a job that will treat them like second class citizens, by carriers, represented by the American Trucking Association and the Truckload Carrier Association, who both formally advocate positions that are in opposition to the best interest of drivers. And after they take advantage of them, they will give them little trinkets of appreciation like patches and pins and maybe throw a bone like Driver of the Month stuff. What a bunch of shallow minded rot.

No, USA Truck's motto is not "We Hire Heroes", it is as many other trucking companies motto is, "We Take Advantage of Fools". USA Truck is not the only one. Throw them a money bone to get them to sign on, then keep them away from home for weeks, pay them less, in real dollars adjusted for inflation, that drivers were getting a decade ago, then throw them overboard when done with them.

I have seen this from the inside for over 3 decades. This "we honor vets" PR rot is nothing more than a game carriers play to take advantage of folks that are apprehensive about the transition from the military life to civilian life. Hey, guys, millions of us have transitioned from military to civilian. Don't fall for the "we just adore our vets" fluff by these carriers. If you do this job, you better have your eyes wide open to what you are getting in to. It can be satisfying at times, but it also asks a lot from you. And when it is a matter of the carrier or you, they will cut you loose so fast it will make your head swim. This not some tight knit deal like any unit you may have been a member of.
 
They probably like to hire veterans simply because in the military, they get used to following orders without question, staying deployed away from home for extremely long times, and not getting paid 1/100th what they're actually worth.
 
I honor all you miltary men and women to the fullest.But now that I think about it,this could just be a front to lure every driver in.People see that ad and think USA must be one of the best.
 
I always had a great deal of respect for truck drivers. As I've mentioned there have been a good number of friends and family members that made a living behind the wheel. Driving truck was, to me and most other people my age, a respectable living if you could handle it. I've always loved trucks, if I hadn't been so attached to sleeping in my own bed and showering daily in my own shower I would have probably been driving instead of what I do.

The trucking industry has gotten a real bad rep over the years. The attitude of people like me has shifted from "I wish I could go do that for a living" to something closer to "Oh hell no!" Before any of you gets a chance to get your nose bent out of shape let me explain the view from outside the cab.

We meet hundreds of drivers every week on the job and the majority of them are lowlife dirt bags. For every decent, friendly, intelligent, educated driver there are 5 (closer to 10 if we are loading shipping containers) that can't speak English, stink, disrespect us because we are American. To many companies have a hiring policy of "If it's breathing we'll hire it."

The 'hire anything still breathing' companies are the ones we hate to deal with. Occasionally they have some good drivers that come in but the majority of drivers look like Borg walking in the door and probably have 3/4 of their ass hanging out of their low hanging pants going away. We watched a driver climb out of his cab then retrieve his cane and oxygen tank. At the corner of the building he stopped to lean on the wall and catch his breath sucking on the oxygen for all he could get. "ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING!?" Then I read through the post about the guy getting hassled over the CPAP machine and physical and thinking about the 500 pound guy with the cane and oxy cylinder. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING!?

Don't get me wrong. I have no particular hatred for people from other cultures. I often want to talk with them and learn about their people, customs, land and lifestyles. When they walk in with a crappy attitude towards us because we are American then it's GAME ON! One of those Russian sounding guys showed up in a one ton van to pick up a 7,000lb load. He had his crappy attitude on so the guys on the dock loaded the van. They just wanted to see if the tires would explode.

Sorry about the side rant.

I see those adds on TV and in the trucking magazines drivers leave laying around and to be honest they **** me off something terrible. Everybody knows that veterans face a huge challenge when they come back from serving in those war zones. They'll be looking for work, trying to readjust to civilian life and many of them are dealing with PTSD. As far as I'm concerned the trucking companies, especially the ones with their own "schools" are little more than vultures. "Hey Buddy, yeah, you in the fatigues, spend your military education money in our school. We'll give you an awesome job, you'll love it!" After 6 months of being no better off than they were when they were sleeping in a pit in Iraq and treated like shit by guys who look just like the ones who used to lay IEDs in the road for the Humvee they are that much poorer and looking for a job that will let them stay home with their family.

My son even thought one of those truck driving schools would be his answer to an easy, well paid lifestyle. When I heard which company was going to sponsor (loan him the money for school) I thought it in his best interest to rain on his parade a little. I said "Dude, they seriously drug test when you get started and a DOT cop can pop a test on you if he thinks you're fugly". Besides that you'll be a slave working for next to nothing until you pay back the loan. I don't know if it's true but it steered him away from trucking into delivering pizzas.

From another perspective I'm thinking about veterans fresh back from hell behind the wheel of a truck in a high stress, rat race job. Does it make sense to target guys that may be unbalanced by PTSD for employment? I know that not all the vets come back with major issues lurking but how many combat vets with flashbacks and anger issues do they want driving their trucks and mingling in truck stops with guys that look and smell like terrorists? Some of those guys scare the hell out of me.

End rant.
 
...For every decent, friendly, intelligent, educated driver there are 5 (closer to 10 if we are loading shipping containers) that can't speak English, stink, disrespect us because we are American......

...


Don't get me wrong. I have no particular hatred for people from other cultures. I often want to talk with them and learn about their people, customs, land and lifestyles. When they walk in with a crappy attitude towards us because we are American then it's GAME ON!

:thumbsup:



....From another perspective I'm thinking about veterans fresh back from hell behind the wheel of a truck in a high stress, rat race job. Does it make sense to target guys that may be unbalanced by PTSD for employment? I know that not all the vets come back with major issues lurking but how many combat vets with flashbacks and anger issues do they want driving their trucks and mingling in truck stops with guys that look and smell like terrorists?

That might not be such a bad thing, if you think about it. :)
 

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