Truckers in the News

As if we don’t get enough press already.

Utah Trucker Surrenders, Ending Three-Hour Standoff

OREM, Utah (AP) — A truck driver who had been fired earlier in the day
refused to leave the company’s truck for three hours in a standoff on
an Orem Interstate 15 onramp.

There are pictures of the truck and the SWAT Team. It’s kind of a sad story. This one line jumped out at me.

Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Kenneth B. Peay said Wilson had a history of barricading himself in California.

Which goes to show they’ll hire anyone.

Here’s an update from another article. The good news… Another bad apple out of the industry.
Driver Involved in Standoff Had a History
Jun. 15, 2005 John Hollenhorst Reporting

Gordon Lambert, VP, C.R. England, Inc.: "He had been easy to work with, very compliant, had no safety issues."

But something evidently snapped in the mind of truck-driver Bruce
Wilson. Last night in Orem he barricaded himself inside the cab of his
company truck, tying up traffic until he finally surrendered to a SWAT
team. Investigators say the trucker appeared to be high on meth. And he
had a history–a separate police standoff incident in California a few
months ago.

Come on, a few months ago??? England hauls Hazmat what happened to their background check of this guy?

It’s no secret the trucking industry has
had a lot of trouble finding qualified drivers in recent years. So it
raises the question: are they lowering their standards? But the company
that hired Bruce Wilson has one of the best safety records in the
business and gets nothing but praise from Highway Patrolmen.

I said it and the entire general population that saw this is thinking the same thing.

Gordon Lambert: "When we hired him he looked very good."

Except for that "thing" a couple of months ago and his meth problem.

Investigators say he had syringes in his
truck and was apparently high on meth. His employers never saw it
coming, but then, they have a challenge.

Now come the excuses -

Dan England, CEO, C.R. England, Inc.: "There is a constant need for
drivers and we hire over 100 drivers every week of the year."

A new study shows that the annual turnover rate for big trucking
companies is 130%. That means to keep a thousand trucks running they
have to hire 1300 drivers a year. The employment crunch has forced
England to accept drivers with much less experience. But they insist
they have not lowered their standards.

Isn’t that lowering their standards? A hundred drivers every week. That’s mind boggling to me. How can they check everyone’s records and all those drug screens they’re paying for and the time and training, Time and training?? What in the world was I thinking?? The "Driver Trainers" make money while the student is driving and then the company makes even more money by teaming their students together, running them as teams while paying them student pay. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just give the good people they have a raise so they stick around? But then, they’d lose out on all that cheap labor. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.

Now comes the spin – (hold on!)

They’ve kept accident rates level for
years by beefing up training, safety and drug testing programs.
Incidents like last night are so rare, they say, it proves they’re
doing a good job.

Dan England: "When you are hiring that many people, you’re once
in a while going to get someone whose behavior you can’t condone."

We still haven’t determined whether Wilson has a police record.
His employers say that’s part of their problem too, they can’t easily
get reliable records. In Wilson’s case he denied being a drug user or
having a police record both times they hired him.

He DENIED being a drug user or having a police record? That’s got to be my second favorite line in here. Good job England!

Now, to get a Hazmat endorsement or even renew the endorsement you already have (I know for sure in Nevada) you have to have a background check. But I guess they hire so many, a few are going to slip through the cracks. They’ll probably be saying that when the next incident happens to be a terrorist instead of a stupid drug addict.

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