As a nation, we depend on the transport system to survive. Many people hate those trucks that travel along our highways, yet we would soon run into difficulties if they were suddenly banned. Trucks transport food, produce, and those every day requirements in life. Even fuel used in heating and to operate our vehicles require trucks for transport. Love them or hate them – we need them, and the drivers as well. The question is, do you have what it takes to become a truck driver?

Anyone can gain a commercial drivers license (CDL). All it takes is a truck driver training course and the ability to pass the tests associated with that license. However, having a CDL doesn’t make you a truck driver – it just gives you the legal right to drive trucks. While driving skills are obviously important, a truck driver needs attributes that often exceed those required in other occupations. Do you possess these attributes?

• Patience – Truck drivers need loads of patience. You know how busy roads can become, and you know there are a lot of crazy drivers around. Truck drivers need patience to navigate through traffic jams and away from crazy car drivers. Truck drivers also need patience when dealing with officials, both law enforcement and Department of Transport. Getting loud and abusive to either is never going to be a good career move.
• Reliability – Businesses that employ truck drivers need to rely on the reliability of those drivers. Reliability is required in several areas including turning up for work on time, getting your load delivered on time, and maintaining important areas of the job such as log books, paperwork, and the truck itself.
• Compliant – Most truck drivers hate documents such as a log book, yet it is an important part of truck driver’s working day. Compliance comes through in several areas ranging from following road rules, even though they may seem outdated, to following requirements set down by the Department of Transport. You must also be willing to comply with the various rules that trucking companies place on their employees, even if they too seem to be outdated. That doesn’t mean you cannot seek to have any of these rules (road, DOT, and employer) changed – you just need to comply with them until they are changed.

If you are reliable, have plenty of patience, and you’re willing to follow the rules, then you’d most likely make a great truck driver. All you need now is the training and the commercial drivers license. If you’re ready, then so are we. Call us to find out when our next truck driver training program starts.

One practice that has been around for a long time is that of relay truck driving. It’s a practice that can be traced back to the stage coach days where stage coach drivers would handle a team for 8-10 hours. Stage coach companies had way points dotted across the country and when a stage coach arrived, the team and the drivers where swapped over allowing the stage coach to continue on its way. The same process is used today, however, we don’t change the horses, just the drivers.

Relay truck driving jobs are ideal for those who don’t mind spending every second night away from home. The job requires a truck driver to take over a load and to drive for 8-10 hours before handing over to another driver. After a break from driving, the truck driver would then take over on the next truck heading towards their home town.

Some relay truck drivers take a permanent night shift while others do a permanent day shift. These jobs typically pay around the $20 per hour rate and you may be required to work six days per week. In most cases, you would work a regular route driving similar trucks with similar loads each day. This is a popular approach by some trucking companies as it keeps their rigs on the road for the maximum number of hours possible each day. In the trucking business, the vehicle is only earning money when its on the go – the moment it stops moving, it’s no longer earning an income.

Relay truck driving is just one of many different types of truck driving jobs. This type of truck driving generally involves large vehicles so a commercial drivers license is essential. Most trucking companies now prefer drivers that have been through a professional truck driver training program along the way to gaining their commercial drivers license. If relay truck driving, or any form of truck driving, appeals to you, contact us at ATS Heavy Equipment Operator School – we can provide the truck driver training and assistance in finding that first truck driving job.

Have you stepped into the cab of a long distance truck lately? Known as a tractor in the business, modern cabs can be real eye openers. You can often get to see inside some of these rigs at truck driver training school open days, or through industry field days, or through regional trade shows. If you get the chance, I suggest you take a closer look.

When you do have a closer look, check out what’s behind the drivers seat. You’ll find a comfortable bunk bed, perhaps a microwave oven and even a television set. I have even seen rigs with a toilet and shower cubicle. These trucks are designed to look after the comfort of a driver when they are forced to take time away from the wheel. For drivers, these rigs are their home away from home – in fact, for some drivers, they are their home.

Long distance truck driving is a career like no other. You spend hours each day on the highway, sometimes traveling from one side of the country to the other – perhaps even across international borders. Truck drivers soon learn the best places to stop and eat, stop and sleep, and even to stop and socialize – and they are a tight-knit community, always ready to help each other.

Does that sound like a career that would interest you? The trucking industry is always in need of new drivers and one of the greatest needs is in long distance driving. Your first step to a successful career as a long distance truck driver is to undertake training that is well respected by the trucking community – and that’s where ATS can help you. Contact us for details on your truck driver training options.

There’s no denying we are living in an era where our population is rapidly aging. The baby boomers (those aged over 55) are rapidly reaching retirement age and this is starting to leave skill shortages across a wide range of industries. The truck driving workforce has an average age of 44 years with over 50% of all drivers aged 35 plus. With a high proportion of those drivers being from the baby boomer era, their retirement from the workplace is starting to create a truck driver vacuum.

Statistically, the trucking industry is only recruiting at a rate of around 1.2%. Meanwhile, the rate of those leaving the industry is around 2.5% – this is leaving an annual shortfall of at least 1.3% – while percentages may mean little, with over a million people employed as truck drivers, that’s an annual shortfall of 13,000 new drivers. As demand for more goods rises, this shortfall will only become worse.

The trucking industry has reached a point where younger drivers are needed. It has not quite reached desperate status yet, however, in some regions it’s not far off it. Trucking has struggled to lure younger people, with most new recruits being in the 30-plus age group.

For those in the 21-30 year age group, now is a great time to seriously consider truck driving careers. Wages and conditions are good and new drivers are assured of long careers with relatively stable employment. During the recent recession, few drivers lost their jobs and those that did were able to find new employment fairly quickly.

If you’re considering a career change, then look a little closer at the trucking industry. It only takes a few weeks of truck driver training and you’re ready to start your new career.

This is a true story that was related to me recently involving a middle aged man who had grown up on ‘the wrong side of the tracks’. He could barely read or write and had spent much of his adult life either unemployed or working as an unskilled laborer. He would have remained unskilled as well if it hadn’t been for the efforts of one employer.

I won’t go into names. I don’t want to embarrass anyone, but this employer noticed one thing about this man – he was fascinated by trucks and could name every truck model used on a work site. That employer took the time to teach this man how to read and how to write – not as well as many of us, but well enough to learn the road rules and to pass a test to gain a driving license.

Once he had his driving license, he starting working on gaining a commercial drivers license. It took several attempts before he could even get his permit, but once he had that there was no stopping him. So what is he doing now? Those events happened almost ten years ago. That man, who was once illiterate and really going nowhere in his life, is now one of the best truck drivers working for this construction company – and yes, he’s still working for that same company. He’s now married and with a couple of youngsters, something he had never dreamed could happen to him.

I know many would argue that it’s not the commercial drivers license that changed his life, however, I would beg to differ. Learning to read and write certainly changed his life, however, fulfilling that dream of driving a truck is what really had the biggest impact. It made him self confidant and able to stand up tall and proud. We can’t promise that something as simple as a commercial drivers license can change your life, but if you think your current career is going nowhere, then perhaps it’s time to change.

It doesn’t take long to obtain a commercial drivers license and once you have one, there is plenty of work just waiting for the right driver – perhaps a new career could change your life as well.

As the economy slowly starts to gather pace, consumers start to relax and spend money. The more that is spent, the faster that economy recovers and the better off everyone is. Transport is one sector that really gets a huge lift when the economy improves. It’s a simple equation: more spending requires more goods which then requires more trucks and more truck drivers. If you want to take advantage of this increase in demand for truck drivers, your first step is to acquire a commercial drivers license.

The easiest path to a commercial drivers license is through an accredited and well-reputed truck driver training school. A good truck driver training school will train students in a variety of areas. More importantly, that training will involve plenty of behind-the-wheel driving – the only way that anyone can really gain experience and confidence when driving a truck.

While the emphasis in any truck driver training school is to teach people how to drive, there must also be training in truck driver safety issues, road rules and Department of Transport rules. An individual must pass tests based on these areas before they can be granted their commercial drivers license. Learning to drive is one thing, but learning the theoretical side of truck driving is another – yet in the bigger picture, those theoretical skills are the ones that will prove to be most important to your career.

If you are considering a career as a truck driver, make sure the training you get is comprehensive and includes all of those main factors. You will find that a good truck driver training program is the easiest path to a commercial drivers license and then a good career.

For most people, their work is a daily grind. Their jobs are relatively safe but the work often boring. For others, their careers may swing in boom and bust cycles. It’s hard to accuse truck driving of being either of those.

Is a truck driver’s job boring? It can be a little monotonous if you’re out on the highway – it’s just mile after mile of black ribbon. Truck drivers get used to it and they do find ways to amuse themselves. When it comes to driving in the city, or any major town, then the job is definitely not boring. Just avoiding other drivers can be a challenge, especially with some of the crazy drivers on our roads – they really do test the skills and patience of most truck drivers.

What about boom and bust? Truck driving is like most businesses, so the boom and bust cycles do have an affect. However, we all still eat and we all still want the basics like clothing, fuel, and furniture. Trucks are the one element that is common to all of those areas -in fact, trucks are generally involved with every product either from farm-gate to home or from port to the home. Of course, these products may go through several other sets of hand first – and every movement involves a truck.

Truck driving as a career is challenging, is often on a boom cycle more than a bust cycle, and pays very well. As a career, you can choose between local, intrastate, or interstate driving, and the range of truck sizes and configurations are huge. If you fancy yourself as a truck driver, then your first step is to source truck driver training to help you get your commercial drivers license – and that’s where we can help.

If you’re a heavy equipment operator, then adding a commercial drivers license (CDL) to your list of skills could be a wise decision. If you ever hope to become an owner-operator, then you will most likely need to have one anyway. In the meantime, being in a position to haul your equipment to a work site yourself could be an added bonus to any future employees.

For many construction companies, having separate truck drivers and heavy equipment operators makes sense. The truck drivers spend their day carting heavy equipment from job to job. Heavy equipment operators spend their day operating that equipment. For smaller companies, they often cannot afford the luxury of having two operators, one for the truck and one for the heavy equipment. Having an operator that can do both saves them time and money and so makes that operator more valuable to the business.

The reverse is also true, of course. If you’re a truck driver, then adding heavy equipment operations to your list of skills should broaden your range of employment options. In either case, training can be completed in a few weeks with those undertaking truck driver training only needing to pass the CDL tests to obtain their license.

We live in an era where employers are looking for multi-skilled employees. Being able to operate a range of heavy equipment and drive the transporting truck is a good example. One of the benefits to you is that you can decide to specialize at any time, yet revert to either when times are tough and the economy struggling. Being mult-skilled opens up employment opportunities and helps to keep you in work – and multi-skilled operators are often the last to lose their job when there’s little work around.

If you are experienced as a heavy equipment operator, then consider undertaking CDL training – if you’re a truck driver, then consider undertaking heavy equipment training – in both cases, you’re suddenly going to be more employable.

A trick question to start today’s post. How long does it take to gain a commercial drivers license (CDL)? Now I know the title says you can gain one within a month, however, the real answer is even simpler – it takes as long as you need to pass the relevant commercial drivers license tests. If you have never driven a truck before, then it could take you years to gain a truck license. Of course, you can cut that back considerably by learning how to drive a truck.

ATS CDL Schools offer three week full-time training programs that cover all the essential requirements for passing your commercial drivers license tests. This includes road rules and truck driver safety, CDL regulations including topics such as log books, along with pre-trip inspections and coupling and un-coupling techniques.

In the cab is where you will learn to actually drive – and you’ll be the one driving, not an instruction with you alongside to watch. Learning to drive a truck is far different than learning to drive a car. A fully laden truck can take up to 200 yards to come to a stop, and that’s in an emergency. Reversing is different to a car, however, if you have had experience reversing with a car and trailer then you have a good start.

Truck driving is a career that has you constantly out on the roads mixing it with the general public. Truck safety is paramount for a number of reasons – obviously no one want to see any loss of life, and trucking companies don’t want to lose trucks or their important loads. This is why truck safety is such an important issue.

If you attend ATS CDL Schools, you can complete your CDL training in three weeks and be ready to pass those all important CDL tests. Pass them and you’ll be the proud owner of a truck drivers license and ready to work in the industry. Now, how quickly can you arrange to sit those CDL tests?

If you are wondering whether or not truck driving had a future – wonder no more. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, truck driving is at number thirteen in their list of the careers with the largest growth expectations. The BLS statistics put growth at 13%, which effectively equals 233,000 new truck driving jobs. Before you get too excited, these are ten year figures so the actual annual growth rate is around 23,300.

Now, consider one other fact – over 5% of the truck driving workforce is either moving on or retiring each year, so those number of new drivers each year suddenly explodes. With a workforce of 1.8 million drivers, the number of drivers required to replace those leaving the industry is approximately 90,000 – per year. Now you can get excited because that represents 100,000 new truck drivers needed each year until 2018.

Realistically, you could say that each state needs around 2,000 new truck drivers each year. That’s still a lot of drivers that need to be trained, licensed, and given experience. The one thing that ATS is renown for is providing the trucking industry with drivers that are well trained and ready for employment. We have a database with thousands of employers, many of whom are looking for new drivers on a regular basis.

If you have ever had a dream to drive trucks, either locally, intrastate, or interstate, then now could be a good time to start your truck driver training. Truck driver jobs generally peak in early summer and with training only requiring three weeks of your time, you could be trained, licensed, and ready to roll, just when employers are reaching out to take on new drivers.