The More They Need Drivers, The Harder They Make It

Mac has taught people to drive trucks for 26 years. He kept paper logs before regulators replaced them with electronic devices, he watched the pre-trip exam turn into a test you can fail on the spot, and he watched schools get held to standards nobody enforced when he started.He noticed something else along the way. The more the industry says it needs drivers, the harder it makes getting licensed.Mac spends most of this episode working through why he thinks that happens, and what it means for someone deciding whether to start.WHAT WE GET INTOWhy regulators killed the paper logbook, and what Mac watched drivers doing before they didHow the pre-trip exam changed three separate times, and what an automatic fail means nowWhat separates a trainer from someone who has a CDL and a passenger seatHow many times Mac grabbed the emergency valve in 26 years, and what the driver was doing both timesThe one thing Mac sees in students who end up loving this work ABOUT MACMac teaches CDL at Midwest Truck Driving School. He drove during the paper logbook era and started teaching around the time federal rules began reshaping how schools operate, so he has watched most of the big changes land from both seats. He says he still picks up something new in every class he teaches, which is also the advice he gives students on their way out the door.TIMESTAMPS00:00 More demand, harder test00:53 26 years in, and some changes still puzzle him01:55 What everybody wants first, and why it comes last03:10 An ELD explained by someone who kept paper logs04:09 Why the paper logbook had to go05:08 The standards used to be relaxed06:05 Checklist, then pointing, then automatic fails07:38 Not everyone is ready to be a trainer09:43 One bad apple, and the schools shutting down over it11:34 Two pulls of the emergency valve in 26 years13:02 Students are harder on themselves than he is14:05 What the ones who thrive had in common16:05 Why he tells every class about icebergs16:56 The morning you should get off the road18:08 You're about to meet law enforcement a lot more19:56 What a school up here can't teach you21:23 The window young people don't know they're in23:57 Where this work took him that he didn't expect25:19 "Never think that you cannot do it"🔗 LINKSListen wherever your get your podcasts: https://built-in-the-midwest.captivate.fm/listenMidwest Truck Driving School: midwesttruckdrivingschool.com North Country Heavy Equipment & Electrical Line School: https://ncheschool.com/Submit your Questions: https://webforms.pipedrive.com/f/6WfGT9X1zlYC6WvssJqfWxOOkvVa1AjzqgnAIIHOq70WWiNo5czEWXpBMqxVTW7UST 💬 CONNECT Email: marketing@midwesttruckdrivingschool.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CDLMidwest Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/midwesttruckdrivingschool/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@midwesttruckdrivingskool