Complaint Review: TruckingTruth.com - Internet

Truck drivers and those considering a truck-driving career, beware! The website www.truckingtruth.com  is a recruiting website for the mega truckload carriers. A site where pro-Mega trucking company propaganda is disseminated and cannot be challenged. Although they call it TruckingTruth, it’s really the most dishonest trucking forum on the web. They spread disinformation, and if you call them out on something they’ve said that is obvious bullsh**, your post will be deleted. If you call them out again, you will be banned.

Why do they lie so much? Well, www.truckingtruth.com  (TT) is in the business of recruiting new drivers for the Mega trucking companies. Many of these companies have earned a bad reputation within the driver community and their poor reputations makes recruiting new drivers challenging. These companies have to spend millions of dollars every year on recruiting efforts just to keep their trucks moving. www.truckingtruth.com  is cashing in on this situation.

In the words of www.truckingtruth.com  owner, Brett Aquilla, (but probably unknown to most TT readers), he “regularly works with large corporations (trucking companies), offering them job posts, advertising, and recruiting.” TT has a job board on the site, and it is probably Aquila’s main source of income. He undoubtedly gets paid a commission every time someone applies to a company via TT. Therefore, his site has a vested interest in promoting the Mega carriers. And, that’s why he and his moderators tout all of the Megas as “great companies to work for.” And, anyone that attempts to relate a negative experience they’ve had with one of these companies will find themselves immediately under attack by the moderators and their posts may be edited or deleted. Should this person attempt to defend their position and/or answer the moderator’s unprovoked hostility in kind, they will be banned.

So, make no mistake. www.truckingtruth.com  exists to serve the big truckload carriers by helping them to maintain a steady influx of new recruits to fill the vacant seats that always exist due to nearly 100% turnover rates at these large trucking companies. At, the same time they claim to be “mentoring” drivers into having the “right attitude.” Which is to say, encourage them do lots of unpaid work for the company and never complain about it. So, not only does TT exist to bring in new recruits, but brainwash recruits into having the right attitude, that is, to be compliant dullards.

Again, the TT agenda is to help Mega truckload carriers fill company driver seats. To this end, the moderators at www.truckingtruth.com  regularly engage in all sorts of dishonestly.

For example, they are always pushing the idea that all of the big truckload carriers are great places to work. Why are they all great places to work? Well, according to Aquila and crew, because “they're the largest and most successful companies, with the newest equipment, the largest variety of opportunities, the most “perks,” and the most money behind them.”

So, a trucking company is a great place to work because it’s big? Because the owners/stockholders are making lots of money? Because they have newer trucks? Because they have freight to haul?

This is all false, of course.  What makes a company a good one to drive for is the bottom line on your weekly paycheck, good insurance, adequate paid time off, and being treated as a valuable and respected member of the team… and not the lowest peon on the totem pole (which TT tells drivers is a fact they must accept). The Megas have earned a reputation for failing to live up to these standards.

The fact is, these Mega carriers have turnover rates near 100% and about 95% of new recruits to these companies will wash out within a year, leaving the industry, most likely with a substantial amount of debt owed for their training, and which they no longer have the means to pay back. These are things that anyone considering a driving career needs to consider. But TT does their level best to sweep the implications of these inconvenient facts under the rug.

Oh, and get this… Aquilla, who now preaches on his website that all of the Megas are great places to work, once said that out of all the different trucking companies he had worked for, he:

“never once found a company that doesn't "accidentally" forget to pay you sometimes for loads you hauled. I cannot think of a single time I was paid for a load I didn't haul, but I was regularly not paid for loads I hauled. I would simply call payroll, give them the load number, and they'd say "Ok, it'll be in your next check". Hmmm....amazing - the load was in the computer, and they knew I hauled it, and I always got paid for it after calling in about it, but it was never determined exactly why I wasn't paid for it in the first place. It was apparently a "simple mistake" on their part over and over again.”

So, they tried to steal from you, “over and over,” but “they’re all great companies to work for.” Okay, Aquilla. Whatever.

Only someone getting paid by the Megas would be telling strangers on the internet that the “best companies to work for are” are the largest truckload carriers. Truckingtruth.com is making money by convincing industry newbs to sign on with a Mega.

In addition to touting all of the Mega truckload carriers as great places to work, the TT moderators do their level best to discourage anyone entering the industry from pursuing other possibilities. Their main tactic is scaremongering by spreading disinformation about other options. These other options include going with a smaller OTR company that trains new drivers or going with a local company that hires inexperienced drivers. On this subject, the moderator who calls himself “Old School” recently told the following lie. A poster had inquired about going into a local driving job right out of CDL school. Old school responded with a litany of false claims intended to scare this individual away from local driving. First, he falsely claimed that local companies are less lenient with new drivers that make mistakes than are the Mega OTR companies. This is absolutely false. The fact is, Old School has never even worked for a “local” company (only worked for Megas) and obviously doesn’t know what the heck he is talking about. I have worked for both, a Mega OTR company and a local LTL company, and I have seen no difference in policy on handling driver mishaps between the two. In fact, Old School most certainly knows that what he is saying is false because there have been several drivers on www.truckingtruth.com, that he is well aware of, that work or worked for local companies at which they’ve made multiple mistakes and where the company continued to work with them.

Another scaremongering lie that Old School and the other moderators like to tell is that “inexperienced drivers for local companies wash out at a greater rate than at the Mega OTR carriers.“ Remember, the wash out rate at the Megas is about 95%. Old School claimed that “The statistics for those going straight into local work exceeds that threshold considerably.” This is patently false. A scaremongering lie invented by Old School out of thin air. I work for a local company that hires inexperienced CDL holders and I know about others. The wash out rate for new drivers here and at other local companies I know about is nowhere near the 95% rate of the Megas. The fact is, reputable “local” companies that hire inexperienced drivers are very selective about who they hire. They hire only the drivers that are most likely to succeed, the cream of the crop. Old School’s claim is not only a scaremongering lie, but a really stupid scaremongering lie. How can you exceed a 95% threshold, “considerably?”

(Some food for thought... The annual turnover rates - the rates at which drivers leave companies and are replaced by new drivers - for the Mega truckload carriers has hovered around 100% for years, while it has stayed under 10% for local companies, like in the LTL sector.)

If you ask Old School to substantiate his claim, that is, to show us the statistics that he claimed exist, your post will be deleted. If you ask again, you will be banned from the site with the following message:

 “You have been banned for being abusive. Leave now and never come back.”

So, asking someone to back up their outrageous claims is being “abusive?” Lol. Okay.

A third falsehood that Old School and the other TT moderators like to spread is that “almost all local driving jobs require you to have OTR experience.” First of all, local companies are hiring more and more inexperienced CDL holders. This includes some of the top LTL companies… ones that offer some of the best pay and benefits in the industry. They now hire new drivers right out of CDL school and/or have “dock to driver” programs where you can start out working on the dock for a company and transition into a driving position. I have checked the website for all of the LTL companies that I know of in the city in which I live, and not one of them requires OTR experience… not a single one. Some of them hire new cdl holders with no experience, and some of them require 1 year of tractor-trailer driving experience, but not a single one requires any OTR experience!  Chalk up another self-serving lie for a Truckingtruth moderator.

I could go on and on about other hot topics at TruckingTruth.com that the moderators lie about to make the Megas look better than they are. But, before I run out of space, I want to say a word or two about each of the moderators at TruckingTruth.com and their claims to be “Top Tier” professionals.

www.truckingtruth.com  is owned by Brett Aquila, a former truck driver who, unbeknownst to his readers worked for at least 12 different companies over his 15 year career as a driver. This is interesting because Aquila and his moderators often berate drivers for engaging in “job-hopping” (changing jobs often). Looks like Aquila was quite the job-hopper himself. While this may not amount to lying, it is very hypocritical, to say the least.

Aquila also once admitted (at another site, several years ago) that he was “fired an awful lot over the years.” This is interesting because he often claims that he was a “top tier” driver and a “super friendly guy” and he often lectures people in the TT forum about the importance of “getting along well with others,” yet it seems that he himself didn’t have a lot of success at that when he was a driver. Again, very hypocritical.

Aquila stopped driving truck nearly a decade ago and any experienced driver  will recognize that he now often shows himself to be woefully out of date with the industry. Unfortunately, most of the readership at TT is people considering a trucking career and who are too inexperienced to realize how outdated he has become.

The sad thing is that many of his readers at TT believe it, when he claims that he was a “top tier” driver and therefore, someone they should listen to. They aren’t aware of how checkered his driving career really was. Aquilla and his mods lie about these types of things because they’re not only in the business of recruiting new drivers for the Megas but also trying to “mentor them” to have the “right” attitude… that is to be compliant lackeys. Therefore, it’s of vital importance to the truckingtruth mods to make their readers believe that they are or were “top tier.”

The other moderators:

Over the years there have been many people with the title of moderator at TT. They come and go. At the present time, In addition to Aquila, there are 3 other main moderators. Some of the older mods appear from time to time, but they seem to be just sort of “honorary” mods… without any of the fringe benefits. The current active mods, in order of their tenure there are Old School, Errol V, and G-Town.

“Old School”:

“Old School” is a gentleman in his fifties that took up truck driving a few years ago when a business that he had owned for a long time went belly up. Funny thing is that he has been calling himself “Old School” since he was a rookie driver (sorry bud, but that title is reserved for drivers who have actually been out there and doing it for a long time, and have seen it all… you don’t qualify). “Old school’s” trucking experience consists of pulling flatbed for a Mega for a few years. “Old school” has been a moderator since he was a rookie driver (yes, you can be an “expert” at trucking truth with as little as 6 months experience…lol). “Old School” has a history of trying to inflate his credentials for giving advice… deceptions that sometimes rise to the level of lying. For instance, any time the subject of owning or leasing a truck comes up, “Old School” almost always gets involved. And, he usually prefaces his comments on the subject with the following (actual) quote or something in the same vein:

“I've owned as many as six big rigs at one time. Being an owner operator is really tough. I make                 really great money these days as a company driver, and I don't have all those headaches and             monumental bills that come with the territory of truck ownership.”

This quote leaves the impression upon the reader that “Old School” used to own his own trucking company with 6 trucks, but now he chooses to be a company driver. This is untrue, however, because Old School never owned a trucking company. He owned a small sign company (that went bankrupt a few years ago, motivating him to become a truck driver) and while his business owned some specialized vehicles, they were not what anyone (other than “Old School”) would call “big rigs.” And, his business did not involve hauling freight for hire. It is obvious that “Old School” prefaces his remarks in such a way to give the impression that he has experience being an owner operator, and therefore, an authority on the matter.  He is not, and this is clearly an intentional deception on his part, aka, lying.

Old school also has claimed countless times that he “retired” from being a successful business owner to pursue a second career as a truck driver. He currently maintains a personal blog that he links to thru his TT profile, and on his blog he reveals his real name and hometown. A simple google search of his name/hometown reveals a number of interesting facts that seem to refute his claims of “retiring” from a “successful” business ownership. It looks more likely that his business went bankrupt, leaving him with some serious financial problems, including substantial tax delinquency, and a criminal indictment. And, he likely turned to truck driving when he was low on options. Now, I’m not trying to drag the guy thru the mud here… these are just facts. But, you’d think the guy would be a little more humble about his “credentials” instead of all the phony posturing and pretending to be some sort of trucking and business guru.

Errol V.

Errol became a truck driver a couple of years ago after an unsuccessful stint as a teacher. He has only driven for Swift. (Apparently, driving for a Mega is one of the necessary qualifications for becoming a moderator at TT… surprise, surprise!)  I don’t have much to say about Errol. He is another one that was crowned “moderator” while still a rookie driver. He is the least offensive of the cast, in my opinion. He’s kind of a pompous, pedantic, blowhard who has a tendency to talk out of his arse at times (actually, this is true of all the moderators), and he always walks in lockstep with Aquila’s opinions and agenda (as all the moderators do)… And for that, I have little respect. But, on the other hand, he is the only mod that has any semblance of a sense of humor.

G-Town:

G-Town is the newest moderator at TT and he just kind of mysteriously appeared on the scene rather suddenly. After a brief period in which he started posting, saying all the right things, aping the usual TT talking points, and getting high fives from Aquila and Old School, he became a moderator in short order. G-town claims that he became a truck driver 5 years ago after a lackluster stint in the IT industry. Now G-Town claims that he is a driver for Swift on a Walmart dedicated account. However, I have my doubts. For one thing, he seems to have a lot more time for posting than the other two driver-moderators. (He has way outpaced all other mods and Aquila himself in posting frequency. Hell, he even posts more than Rainy D!) Secondly, to my knowledge, no one at TT has ever met him in person (unlike the other mods). Even though he has been invited by other drivers at TT multiple times to meet up, even at his home terminal, he always seems to have an excuse for why he can’t meet up, or he simply ignores such invitations and doesn’t even bother to respond to the other driver that extended it. Third, unlike the other mods, G-Town does not participate in the “Tracker” app on the website that allows users to see where the different members are at any given time.  For these and other reasons, I suspect that “G-town” might actually be some type of desk jockey at Swift. He is, perhaps, a former driver on the Walmart account who is now a recruiter, or some other type of office personnel.

A note to anyone that wishes to challenge what I have said here: I can back up any specific factual claims I have made with proof in the form of links to website pages where things were said and screenshots of the very same pages (which I took in case any posts “mysteriously” disappear. Everyone at TT knows that Aquila deletes copious amounts of forum content. Pretty much everything that might work against his recruiting/moneymaking agenda there gets deleted.)