CDL Instructor Exposes Driver Training Failures

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: There should be quality training at all trucking companies. You heard the phrase, “A CDL school does not teach you how to drive a tractor trailer”. It only teaches you how to pass the test, and most schools that is true because the standards are so bad and everyone’s finding loopholes in the system.

David Craig – Host: I’m Attorney David Craig, managing partner and one of the founders of Craig, Kelley & Faultless. For over 35 years, I’ve dedicated my career to helping individuals and families who have been seriously injured or lost loved ones in devastating semi-truck, large truck and other commercial motor vehicle accidents. When tragedy strikes, life can feel chaotic, overwhelming and uncertain. Many people don’t even know where to begin or what questions to ask. That’s why I created After the Crash, a podcast designed to empower you with the knowledge and resources you need to navigate these challenging times. In each episode, I sit down with experts, professionals, victims and others involved in truck wreck cases to give you inside guidance and practical advice. Together, we’ll help you understand your rights, protect your family and move forward. This is After the Crash. Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of After the Crash. This is Attorney Dave Craig with the law firm of Craig, Kelley & Faultless. And today I’m excited to have, well, a guest that has trucking experience. We talk about trucking and truck wrecks and things, how to avoid truck wrecks and how to get better truckers on the road, and all those type of things. And everybody should care about the quality of the truck drivers on the road, everybody should. We all want good truckers on the road. And so today I’m happy to say that we’ve got Steven Snyder as a guest. And he goes by Trucker Steve, right?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: That’s correct, Trucker Steve, CDL instructor.

David Craig – Host: All right. All right, Trucker Steve. So let’s start off, just tell us a little bit of a background. Do you have a CDL, did you have a CDL? Did you drive?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Okay. I started out about around 1974. Lived in Maryland, went all the way up to New Jersey to get a chauffeur’s license. Well, I got my training in New Jersey, went back to Maryland and took my test, passed on the first time, got my chauffeur’s license. At that time, it was chauffeur’s. I started at UPS. Which I tell CDL students, a backdoor in instead of going over the road, go to box drop. There’s nothing wrong with that. Because my plan was to get in with the United Parcel Service. So I drove box, package cars for a while, and then I went back to driving doubles, tractor trailers. And I stayed there for close to, I worked for UPS close to 30 years. And then I felt like I was a retiring person, retired a few times and always went back to school buses. I went back to tractor trailer. Went back to a little bit of transit buses, tractor trailers. So I’ve been all over the place, and went and became an instructor once I retired. And then I came out of retirement to become an instructor, back into trucks. I started a YouTube channel and that was basically, my CDL students were encouraging me to say, “Look, you need to put this on video,” because the class size was very large. And that way when they wasn’t doing anything, they could still get instruction from me on their phones. So they got me into doing YouTube videos. So the first video on the YouTube channel was Trucker Steve, CDL Instructor. I’m getting close to 30,000 subscribers over the years, but they come and go. Once they get out of school, another group comes in. Then I did a Facebook, two Facebook sites. One, CDL Student Training Tips, which I have about three others helping me and they are very well versed in the trucking industry. Now, I have another channel called The Broken CDL Trucking System, which you may have seen, which I started because talking about negative stuff about the trucking industry I felt was not in the students’ best interest. If they looked at that, what I had to say, what other people were saying about the trucking industry, they’ll say, “Why did I spend $5,000 to get a CDL license?” So that’s why the purpose of it was to start a channel, keep some of that material away from the students, not putting a bad taste in their mouth saying, like I said, “What happened?” I do share other people’s videos on that channel. I also will on CDL Truck on Facebook. I shared their stuff. It’s important to share. Unfortunately, YouTube and all that, other people do not share other people’s material. So I guess we’ll get into it later on, but there’s a big disconnect between all the YouTubers, truckers and all that; we all complain, but we don’t seem to work really close together as a unit because there’s some issues.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: And maybe we’ll talk about some of these issues today.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. So Steve, how long were you an instructor, a CDL instructor?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: I think, I don’t know if I did it seven or eight years, I don’t know.

David Craig – Host: Okay.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: I did it, I left, and then I got called back from the school, “We need you to help. We’re starting a new program. We need you to run that.” I did it for a little while and went back to … I had a real dandy job near my house in retirement. It was just an eight-hour day, shuttling trailers 12 miles one way, 12 miles another way. I was the oldest because when I left there, I was 74-years-old, when I left. And all the other guys were 62, sitting in their trucks, bad shape, terrible shape. And they used to see me out there doing jumping jacks and exercising, and doing all this crazy stuff. And they’d say, “You’re embarrassing us.” But I said, “You got to get out of that seat, you got to exercise.” Because you go out, these students, you drive. These drivers are out there on the road today, a lot of them are not in good shape and they are an accident or a health issue from a major accident and maybe taking their lives or someone else lives. They could kill somebody. So I encourage students, I encourage drivers out there — you got to get out and move. You got to exercise. Stay away from the fast foods and start eating right. Now is the time. Change your habits.

David Craig – Host: Well, it’s tough. The lifestyle of a trucker is tough. And you go around and you stop at a lot of these places and they’ve got the roller dogs, and all those kind of things that aren’t healthy for you. Now, they do have, I think over the years, they’ve gotten better, haven’t they? You got some vegetables, you got some fruit, you got some things, but it is a tough, tough lifestyle to eat healthy. You’re tempted to not eat healthy.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: It is a very tough lifestyle, but there’s no reason why someone can’t get out and walk, and exercise and move. That’s on them. I see truckers barely can get in and out of their tractors. They can change that if they want to and sometimes it’s their own choice. I see some with legs that are so swelled up from sitting. Now, I was a guy that did that, too. Sometimes I sat too long. From an injury, I had a blood clot getting off the truck. I was in a box truck, I missed a step and I jammed my leg and had a blood clot. And then later on, had another one in the other leg. But that’s too much sitting and that’s on me. And some people say, “You’re never going to drive again,” and I did. I said, “Well, I will work harder on taking care of myself.” So a trucker can. I see them out there lifting weights and doing exercises. I see them put the mat out. I see it.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: And truckers can.

David Craig – Host: Unfortunately, I see the other end where truckers are not healthy.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: They’re not.

David Craig – Host: They still pass. Some of these places that pass these truckers, get them their CDL and their medical exams, unfortunately. People, you’ll look at them and you’ll think, “Okay, this is a sleep apnea person. This person has to have sleep apnea.” Their neck size is big, they’re overweight, high blood pressure. They have all the signs and yet, I see trucking companies that ignore it. I see them not look at the long form, the medical form, I see them. And the drivers, they may or may not know that you can have sleep apnea and still drive as long as it’s just treated. But yet, they are afraid they’re going to lose their CDL, so they don’t get treatment, and the company turns their head, and the medical examiner turns their head the other way.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yeah.

David Craig – Host: It’s sad.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. You can go in there, a lot of truckers look for the easiest, someone who’s just going to get you through on the medical certificate. “Well, this guy’s easy, let’s go to him.” Now, a lot of trucking companies will say you have to go to their medical person, and half of them are not really doctors, some of them are practitioners and whatever. And most of them, which are going to get you in and out real fast to get the next driver into the seat in the office, it’s an in and out, too. It’s almost like CDL schools, get the students in, get them out. Get the patient in, get him out.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: And then an accident’s waiting to happen.

David Craig – Host: Well, and some people don’t realize that you don’t even have to be a medical doctor. You can be a chiropractor.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yes.

David Craig – Host: In some states, an acupuncturist.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: The last one I went to was a chiropractor.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. And some of them may know, but some of them may not. And so it’s kind of risky, I think. To fly an airplane, it’s pretty tough. It’s tough and they make sure you’re medically, physically qualified to drive that. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations require you to be physically fit to drive a truck. You’re pulling 40,000 pounds. It’s just crazy that we don’t take more time to make sure people are physically fit, as well as qualified to drive these big rigs.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Right. Now, on LinkedIn, there’s people who are health wellness coaches. A lot of companies, insurance, if you get insurance through a trucking company, a good insurance company will come and say, “We’re going to give you, if you follow our advice, our wellness program, we’re going to give you this rate. If you don’t want to follow our program, you’re going to get the higher rate. And all we’re asking you is to monitor. Are you checking your blood sugar if you’re diabetic? Are you doing this and that?” If you’re following their guidelines, you get the better rate because you seem to be a healthy driver. I’m assuming a lot, not all, insurance companies do this, or trucking companies do this. But I was with one who did it. And actually, I had my own health insurance, so I didn’t need their insurance, but it was interesting to see it, what the other drivers had to pick from. Some of them were complaining. They would say, “Oh, my goodness. My insurance rate is going to go up, I’ve got to pay more out of pocket. Why? Because I’m overweight, I have health issues and I’m not doing what it takes to stay healthy, to be well.”

David Craig – Host: Yeah. Well, there’s great trucking companies out there who have that. They have wellness programs, who care about the quality of their health, their drivers’ health, because they understand that one of the best ways to ensure safety is to have somebody who’s physically fit, who’s not fatigued-

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Right.

David Craig – Host: … who doesn’t have sleep apnea behind the wheel of that 40 ton vehicle. So there are definitely companies out there that are doing it right, but unfortunately, there are also some out there doing it wrong. Well, let’s talk about CDL schools. So I know you have a lot of experience in the CDL schools. With Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, here recently just cracked down and supposedly in 2025, 2026, there has been this major crackdown on these CDL mills. Supposedly CDL mills. So what’s your experience? Are there CDL mills out there? What’s the difference between a good CDL school and a bad CDL school?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Okay. First of all, if someone watches my videos, you may have heard me say the biggest CDL school mill is the FMCSA. They don’t enforce what they put on their regulations. It is not enforced. They talk about Sean Duffy, they have talked about the self-certification of CDL schools. Okay, that’s to get on to train and provide a registry to become a CDL school. All you had to do is self-certify. “I would do everything that you want me to do. I’ll follow all the rules,” and they don’t. Good CDL schools out there, the ones who are state licensed and credited, they can be a bad CDL school. It doesn’t make any different. A good CDL school is one who usually will follow the entry level driver training, teach the students how to back up and proficient. Now, let’s talk about another self-certification. That’s the one they talk about. The one they’re not talking about, the one I’m complaining about is when CDL schools set students up for their state test. It’s the FMCSA certification form. The school, they have maybe a three-week course, some schools only have a five-day course. Some have eight or 10-day course. Most of them are around four to five weeks. So at the end of the class, they set all the students up for their test. Some of them cannot even backup. They got into FMCSA website and all it is asking for is simple information. I don’t know if you can see that. Simple information. They don’t ask you, “Did you teach them how to alley dock? Did you teach them how to do this skill?” Or dropping hooks. They don’t ask you nothing. They don’t ask you, “Is this student ready, proficient in all skills so he can take his test?” They don’t ask. It’s a self-certification that’s no one’s talking about. So you click on he’s ready to take a test, it goes to the state. The state sees nothing. All they see is, “Yeah, FMCSA, this student’s ready to be tested.” They assume that the school followed all the instructions. I’m also a third-party tester, so I test in the state of Maryland. I don’t do it any longer; I’m pretty much retired. I’m a full-time caretaker now for my wife. Otherwise, I’d probably still be driving until I’m 80. But the state gets this form and here’s the disconnect. The state knows, they can see as you test, or when I test a student, I say, “This person can’t even back up. This person has no business …” Then I’ll take them on the road, barely can shift. And sometimes I had to fail the students because I said, “No, you can’t even shift.” Or they can’t back up; they’re running over cones. The new testing, so the new testing is called Modernization Testing, that 95% of the states in the United United States is under the Modernization Testing. It was so confusing because the FMCSA, when I believe the entry level driver training came in around 2022, they started the process around 2016. So when the entry level driver training came in, six months later, here comes the Modernization Program. And I would be saying, “FMCSA just clearly watered down the training system and the testing system for CDL students.” The modernization, when you test, you can run over a cone and not fail. You can run out of boundaries. The whistle will blow, you get back in and then you try to complete your test. I felt it was a way to get students in and out of school because mainly someone was probably pushing the driver shortage. We have an issue, the entry level driver training, that program alone was restrictive. It was a lot of red tape. Students wasn’t getting in and out of school fast enough. Can we make the testing a little bit easier? And unfortunately, because the FMCSA, all they had to do was clarify when this Modernization Program came in is explain and put a memo out, “All schools must teach alley docking. All schools must teach fully the entry level driving training program.” And a lot are not. Because I believe it was about, on an audit, 44% of the schools was not following the curriculum. So I hear, like you said, Sean Duffy talking, he says they’re not following the curriculum. I said, “Why don’t you just tell everybody what the curriculum is? Why don’t you explain to everybody that every school must follow the mandated entry level driving training program? And make it easier, why not put the alley docking back on the test? And then they’ll have to do it, then they’ll have to start training these students. These students are going to go on the road unprepared. We can talk about some more loopholes, whatever. But there’s a lot more to it because I can talk for an hour about the watering down of the CDL training system.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: To me, it is a crime. It’s not good, and I’m a fighter. I’ve been fighting for a long time.

David Craig – Host: Well, we want safe drivers on the roadway. That’s one thing everybody should agree on.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yes.

David Craig – Host: And also, by having the better the quality the driver is, then theoretically the more we pay them. It all starts with the quality of the drivers and not letting these unqualified drivers who are willing to work for less money into our system. I’ve heard cases where they were trained on automatic trucks, tractors. And so they’re trained on automatic tractors and they get their CDL, and then they go work for somebody that has manual transmission and they don’t know how to shift gears.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Well, they’ll have to go back to school and get that off their license. If they go to automatic, they have that restriction so they cannot drive a manual, they cannot shift. They cannot drive it. Which I don’t really mind too much because the industry is mostly automatic anyway. So any CDL student [who] might listen to this clip, you need to get that manual on your license. Why? Because you need every opportunity to get a job out there. If you say, “Well, I’ll just get the automatic because most companies have it,” you’re not helping yourself. So you can be in a farm area, they would have manual tractors. You can work for a small trucking company, delivering water, whatever. Most likely, they would have a manual tractor, so don’t cut yourself short. And maybe in 15, 20 years, everything will be automatic, but not right now.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: You’re cutting yourself short if you do not get that manual.

David Craig – Host: Well, having been in the industry as long as you have and having taught other truckers how to drive, what do you think? What should we want in a CDL school to make sure that we’re getting safe drivers?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: CDL schools, we look for a ratio between instructors and students. If it’s one instructor for 10 students, that’s bad and we have that. I don’t care if it’s state licensed, accredited, or whatever. If that’s the case, that we can call a CDL mill. They’re just putting students in. We don’t want that. We want at least one instructor, four students. Four students, one-to-four. It’s workable. CDL schools should be teaching students how to back up. If they’re not doing it, that’s not good. So where I work at Random House, you might have heard of that, I think it’s in Chicago. I think it’s home base might be, I’m not too sure. But I see new drivers come in where the warehouse where I’ve been working, can’t even back in. Then an instructor, a driver trainer, he gets in, he cannot back in and there’s another problem. The trucking companies putting inexperienced driver trainers out there, that’s illegal, that’s not right. And you saw the major accident with Werner several years ago when a driver crossed the lane. Yes, it might not have been … A pickup truck crossed the lane and hit Werner head on, but I believe the trainer was sleeping in the bunk and it was icy out there. The new driver didn’t do much wrong, he was basically not doing anything wrong, but the trainer, he should have been in the driver’s seat or the passenger seat, somewhere, and monitoring the situation. It was a dangerous situation. I want to see standardized equipment at CDL schools. I go around there and I see little, small pups. I know what a pup is, a 28-foot trailer and the day cab, trying to just make it easier to pass the modernization testing. Students need to be trained in the equipment that they’re going to go out in. If they have the wrong equipment and then they go to a company and the company doesn’t train them properly, when they make turns, they could hit another car, another vehicle. Because why? They’re in the wrong type of equipment. They need to train in the equipment that they will most likely be driving with a trucking company. So most CDL students are going to go to a major company or are going to go over the road. They need to be in sleepers, or at least have a sleeper at the school. They don’t have to test in a sleeper, but you should have the equipment, the standard equipment that they’re going to be in. And not go to a trucking company and be in shock. And say, “Oh, my goodness, I’m not used to this, this big tractor and this 53-foot trailer.” No, that’s no good, that’s no good. So I would want standardized equipment. I want the federal government to change how students are being tested. Little adjustments, wording. Basically, I want to see CDL instructors get paid properly. When you look at them and they get paid poorly, they don’t care. They don’t care. They’re going to tell students to train students. And this has to be looked into. I think the whole system is broken, that’s why I call it the Broken CDL Trucking System. I refer to CDL school as the Broken CDL School System.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: It is worse than what it was even when I started or maybe seven, eight years ago. As soon as the entry level driving training came out, I thought that was a very well done program except the biggest problem is no minimum number of hours training on a public road. There’s where I jump in at the FMCSA. No minimum hours of training on the range. A good CDL school would give them proper road time. But this is an excuse for CDL schools to cut corners, get them in, get them out as fast as possible. And yes, I’ll keep on blaming the FMCSA. I like Derek Barrs, I like Sean Duffy, I think they’re doing a good job. But in my opinion, I don’t think they really understand what’s really going on. They’re not talking to the proper people. You bring a Steve Gold in, who has about over 100 CDL schools throughout the country, and some of his schools are not good. Most of them are good, but not all of them. I worked for 160 driving a cabin for a short period of time, but then I went back for lesser pay back to the school that I was working for. It wasn’t because the school was not particularly good. And it was using equipment that should not be on the road, but that’s a 160 Driving Academy. And 160 Driving, I give them credit because when you file a complaint and I say, “This and this needs to be fixed,” they were pretty good at fixing issues or trying to fix it. But there was one in Chicago, I believe it was stationed out of Chicago, but they covered the whole United States with all these schools. But overall, I really liked their program, I liked their outline and all of that stuff. A good CDL school has to have a good curriculum and a good program. It has to be well run.

David Craig – Host: One of the other controversial things now we’re seeing a lot of is a lot of talk about the non-domiciled drivers. Indiana just cracked down, I think they just pulled, in March they sent out letters revoking CDLs for almost 2,000 non-domiciled drivers in Indiana. Obviously every state has their own rules and regulations on getting a CDL. You see that in a lot of other states in the country now are cracking down on that. Not all of them, but certainly a lot of the states are cracking down. And so you’re seeing all of a sudden, in Indiana, just Indiana alone, almost 2,000 drivers are off the market. They’re not able to drive. Any opinions you have on non-domiciled drivers? Are we moving in the right direction or are we focused on the wrong things? What do you think?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Here’s where the mistake is. If you cannot speak English, you don’t belong on the road. If you come to the United States and you cross the border illegally, you don’t belong on the road. No one should hire you. Where I see it, you’ve got the DACA drivers, CDL drivers. Came here, some of them came here at two-years-old, five-years-old, they got a job. One was an owner-operator, owned a few trucks and his license is on the line. He’s still driving, but he probably can’t renew it because he’s not an American citizen. At the truck show, he talked to Sean Duffy and he says, “I’m one of the DACA drivers, CDL drivers. I can speak perfect English.” Sean Duffy says, “You shouldn’t have no trouble. This is not about you. You can speak good English, you okay.” He said, “You don’t understand.” He was basically saying, he made a video and said, “Sean Duffy didn’t understand. He thought I was okay, there should be no issues.” But whoever, these states, everyone’s jumping on the bandwagon to get rid of all the non-domiciled. Now, these non-domicileds are legal, have visas, are legal to drive. Some of them, the DACA in particular, fell into the blanket. That’s wrong. There’s some who came in, let’s say during the war in the Middle East, whatever, they came in and they cannot go back to their home country. And they gave them visas to work. They can speak perfect English, they lived here for a while now. They’re very good drivers. But they’re foreign, non-domiciled, put them out. What’s going to happen, what I believe is going to happen, I think right now they had one state and I think they’re going to get another state in the court in Washington. What I think is going to happen, especially after that Sean Duffy interview which he told the DACA driver, “Oh, you should be okay.” He’s the one who filed the lawsuit, George, whatever. He filed the lawsuit. And he’s going to probably take that video and he says, “Look, here’s Sean Duffy says I’m okay to drive. I’m not a part of this.” Which he is. And the court’s going to look at it. If you hurt innocent people who don’t fall into the category of illegal citizens or people who can’t speak English, I believe in my opinion that the court’s going to throw this out and we’re going to have to start all over. You just can’t just make everyone happy and take everyone’s license, and those who fall in the blanket. When innocent people get hurt, I think the court’s going to step in and say, “Hey, you got to do it right.”

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Just follow the rules at FMCSA. That’s all, follow it.

David Craig – Host: Well, maybe you can explain to the audience because not everybody understands, why is English proficiency important? Because you made a comment that if you can’t speak English or read English, which is what the rules require-

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Right.

David Craig – Host: … that you can’t drive. But some people don’t understand that and they’re trying to figure out, well, why do they need to be able to read or speak English? They can recognize the signs, the shape of the signs. If it’s red, it’s a stop sign. I don’t have to read it. So explain to us why, in your opinion, why is it important that they speak and read English?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: They have to understand if they get stopped by a police officer, they got to be able to communicate. They have to be able to communicate with law enforcements, with a citizen. If they actually have an accident and all of a sudden, they can’t communicate with someone. After the crash, they cannot communicate with that person or the police officer. That’s a problem. Now, where I work, most of the truckers who came in were from Amazon and a lot of them could not speak pretty good … We can fight and try to get through it with the language. A lot of times I would ask them, “Just bring your phone out and let’s use the translator on the phone.” And we’ll get through it. If they understand … Look, if someone is legal to drive and can understand and read signs, and all that stuff, I might be okay with that. But if they absolutely cannot understand what I’m saying, cannot understand what you’re saying or the police officer, we got an issue. We got to be able to communicate.

David Craig – Host: I’ve also had guys that are mechanics who tell me that it’s a challenge when they’re trying to explain maintenance issues.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yeah.

David Craig – Host: They’re having problems with the truck and they don’t understand what they’re telling them. That can also be an issue.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yeah. Oh, a mechanic thought the driver, let’s say a leak somewhere. Let’s say it was a brake leak. And he thought the person was saying something else because he couldn’t understand him, he couldn’t have a communication. And all of a sudden, he goes and fixes something else and didn’t see the leak that the driver might have been talking about because he couldn’t communicate with the mechanic. I had one student, he was I believe from China. He can talk pretty good English, but he couldn’t understand my verbal instructions to him. I would say, “Please, when it’s safe to do so, move one lane to the right.” This is during training. He didn’t do nothing. “When it’s safe to do so, I want you to move one lane to the right.” Didn’t do nothing. And I’m thinking, “Oh, my goodness, he doesn’t understand what I’m saying.” And then he puts out his phone, “Translate it.” When he’s driving, he throws his phone out at me. I say, “You and I are going to have English lessons after the class.” He was a good driver, a very good driver. But I said, “We will work on it and we will make sure you know road signs, make sure you understand English, and what the examiner is telling you to do.” He passed on his first try, but he was very, very intelligent, very smart. But yeah.

David Craig – Host: So maybe you can explain something to me. This is something I never understood. So a lot of truck drivers get paid by the load or the mile and they’re not paid by the hour. Most of us, most people in the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act applies and you have to work 40 hours and anything over 40 hours, you gotta pay somebody overtime on it. And in the trucking, they don’t have to do that.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: No.

David Craig – Host: It’s not mandatory, it’s not obvious. I always wondered, would it be safer if we were paying truckers by the hour and paying them overtime, versus by the mile, by the load? What’s your thoughts?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Okay. So if you’re a local driver, you’re going to get paid by the hour.

David Craig – Host: Right.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: If you have a little bit of long distance and local, usually the company will pay you whatever pays the highest. So there were times I worked for a company, mostly it was by the hour. But if I had to go a longer distance than my drive time through the day for a particular day, paid by the miles paid more. There might have been a stop that also paid me for unloading or loading, et cetera. Over the road drivers are mostly paid by the mile. You’re not going to get paid by the hour. And yeah, some drivers will milk the clock and it gets them more motivated to move on when you’re paid by the miles. Some companies will short the drivers by paying by the way the crow flies. They might do, let’s say, we’ll just use the example, do 100 miles, but they’ll pay in 50 miles. The drivers, one reason why drivers quit is because of pay. New drivers, they come out of CDL schools, they usually only last about one year and then they quit. Usually it’s because of pay. The local drivers who drive local, insurance companies will not let companies hire anyone usually with no less than two years experience, maybe one, but usually two years experience. They get paid very well. Now, I was always a union driver for most of my time I drove. With UPS, it was always union. There’s not too many union companies out there. A lot of companies broke the union or got them out. They found ways to disband the unions, get them out. That created lower pay, too. A lot of drivers, they wouldn’t have nothing with the unions. There’s a lot of dishonest union workers or executives within the union. There’s been a lot of fraud. But unions, if you have several union trucking companies, other companies will have to pay more because they’re afraid if they don’t treat their drivers right, that company may unionize. So it does serve a purpose to having a union in there. Now, I was with UPS so we had a very good local. UPS, every state had their own local. I was very fortunate. I had a fantastic local union who looked after the drivers’ well-being. We got paid well, but our local president was making sure that we could retire at an early age. So in Baltimore, we had 50 and out. No longer, that went up, the age went up. But we had 50 and out, full benefits for our wives and ourself. I’ll be 75 in just weeks; my wife will get full benefits if anything happens to me. I still get my full prescription plans, et cetera, from the union. Everything else is Medicare, Social Security, and all that stuff. So the union’s still active in our home, so we’re still active with the union. So miles, paid by the miles will always be there. It wouldn’t work for over the road and on local driving, usually a good company will pay you whatever pays the highest.

David Craig – Host: Okay.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: And some companies will just take advantage of you.

David Craig – Host: So let me ask you, let me switch it to how about hours of service? So now, we have electronic logs. When you first started, you had paper logs.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Right.

David Craig – Host: Now, the drivers have to deal with electronic logs. Tell me what your thoughts are about the … I’m always amazed, I can get truckers who are very upset about electronic, they don’t like them. And I think to myself, “Well, wait a minute, the rules are the rules, the hours of service haven’t changed.” And so it’s just whether or not you can fudge that piece of paper versus that computer. And so it really is the same, it’s just now you can’t get away with fudging the piece of paper.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Right. So when I started, naturally everything was paper logs. Did I fudge it here and there? Well, at times, but I had to be careful. Because you, David, if I would have an accident after I crossed into New York or New York City, from New Jersey into New York, if I had an accident, I’m sure you’re going to go back and look at the tollbooth. We want to get a picture and see if the camera, when I went through, matches up to where I am now.

David Craig – Host: Absolutely.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: You’d also might want to get my cellphone. Now, we’ve got cellphones.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: You might want to get my cellphone records.

David Craig – Host: Your fuel records.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Anything.

David Craig – Host: You used to track your fuel records, and all that.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Does it all add up? So a lot of the old truckers, especially over the road truckers, aw, man, they didn’t want to have nothing to do with electronic logs. But now … I liked it. I thought it was okay because it benefited me. It benefited me because the company couldn’t force me to work more hours than what I should because my computer was telling me, “You’re out of time. You’re running out of hours. Look for a place to get off the road.” These electronic devices, a lot of them got pulled off the market or pulled off by the FMCSA for whatever reason. I don’t know what they were, why, whatever. I guess everyone can … There’s fraud everywhere. But do I like electronic logging? Yeah, I like it because it keeps me … I was pretty well, when it came to my finances and all that stuff, I didn’t want to work any more hours than I had to work. And also, some of these computers will also tell the company how you are operating the vehicle. Hard stopping, fast starts, idling too long. So also, it showed more than just your daily activity. Now, I’m all in favor of electronic logging. I understand why the older drivers didn’t want it because, like I said, I kind of knew where to fudge it, but I knew where not to fudge it. And I had supervisors telling me, “How come you’re not in New Jersey? All the other drivers are in New Jersey.” Even though we had paper logs I said, “No.” I usually would mostly follow the rules. I’d say, “No, I’m not in New Jersey. How can I get through Connecticut, get through New York and be down there?” I said, “Those guys …” I couldn’t say it, but I said, “I would have to fudge logs real big time.”

David Craig – Host: Right.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it.

David Craig – Host: We used to see it. It was a lot harder, back in the old days. You had to do a lot more legwork as a lawyer to track all that stuff down. But you know what, here’s something I’ve seen which I never saw before, I’ve seen more of, is what they call ghost drivers. And a ghost driver is somebody … I just had one where somebody is picking up a load in Indiana and they’re running it to California. And so they obviously can only drive so many hours and they have to be off. Well, they have a co-driver and they have a sleeper berth. And so while one driver’s driving, the other one’s sleeping and then they switch off, and then they keep going. It turns out there isn’t two drivers. They’re just saying they have two drivers. So that way, it’s cheaper, they’re making more money and nobody knows the difference really, especially these ones that are driving for themselves. No one notices the difference unless there’s a wreck.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yes.

David Craig – Host: And then there’s an accident and there’s a wreck, and there’s only one driver in that truck. And it’s amazing, they always get out at the last truck stop. They got sick or something happened to them and they got out. Have you ever seen that or heard of the ghost drivers?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: I might have heard, I just don’t recall. But yeah. People, unfortunately, look for loopholes, they look for ways they could beat the system. Even with electronic logs, look for ways to break the computer. “Oh, I just broke it, I got to go to paper logs.”

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: They find ways to do it.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: And they should be in jail.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: They have an accident and they kill someone, they should be in jail. Years ago, when I first started driving, you never heard anything on the TV about the, “If you got hit by a big truck, call us.” Nowadays, “If you got hit by a big truck, call us because we are the lawyers who can fight for your rights. We know entry level driver training laws, we know the little loopholes and we know how to get you damages because of poorly trained drivers, CDL schools who didn’t do their job,” et cetera. So now, you see it on TV all the time.

David Craig – Host: Yeah, sure.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: That’s you in the business now.

David Craig – Host: Yeah, yeah. Well, and there’s a difference between, just like there are good lawyers and bad lawyers, there’s good truckers and there’s bad truckers. There’s lawyers who really know the federal motor carrier safety regulations, know the CDL manuals, know the ins-and-outs of the industry. They know the equipment. They have the resources, and the knowledge and the experience. And then there’s some out there who just say they know how to do trucking and they don’t. And it’s the same way with truck drivers. You got some out there who really know how to do it, who care about what they’re doing, they care about safety. They’re trying to make a living and they want to get home to their families just like everybody else. And then you got some who just don’t care, who are just out there to make the money. And that’s true with both, whether you’re a trucker or whether you’re a lawyer. Let me ask you about driver facing cameras. So back when you started, they didn’t have driver facing cameras. Now, they got cameras facing outwards and they got facing drivers, and they can tell whether you’re nodding. Some of the software now can tell whether you’re distracted, whether you’re driving, whether they like it. I’ve talked to some truckers and they tell me, “Well, they don’t like it.” I had one guy tell me that he pisses in a bottle and he goes, “The camera’s on me.” And I go, “Well, what in the world are you doing driving while you’re taking a leak anyway?”

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Right.

David Craig – Host: Can’t you pull off to do that? But anyway, what’s your thoughts about the driver facing cameras and the technology that we have in these new tractors?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: So here’s my opinion on that. Cameras facing outward, I like it. I tell all my CDL students, “When you’re starting out on the road, I want you to get a camera, a camera that faces out.” But the truck has one. “No,” I said, “You get one, too. If the truck doesn’t have one, I want you to have one because if you have an accident, that camera may save your job. If it’s your fault, you take the camera, put it in your bag and then say, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”” The inward facing cameras are getting better and better. If you are a new, inexperienced driver, most likely you will have a camera facing you. The only issue would be, in my opinion, is companies who misuse the camera. Someone who’s looking at you, if the camera’s situated like that, if they can look at you and see that you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing and then accidentally touch your phone by accident, “Oh, God, I got him. I’m going to fire that person.” That’s not right. Use the camera to control behavior out of a driver. The cameras sometimes now, the good cameras will do it. Your eye is moving left and you’re losing focus, and it picks it up and it’ll come on. Usually, the camera’s not operating unless the camera sees you touch a cellphone because now it’s AI generated, good cameras. So the old cameras were abusive. But the new cameras nowadays that they’re using, if you’re wandering or dozing, the camera will say, “Wake up.” It’ll talk to you. Every time I would go through into my warehouse, “You just went through a stop sign,” and I’ll yell back at the camera and say, “It’s not a stop sign. You’re looking at the triangle, it’s facing the other way.” It felt like, I said, “My goodness, I’m having a conversation with the camera.” But yeah, if you are an inexperienced driver, companies will put the camera in there to save your rear end. It can also save the driver. Because you had a camera, you might be going after someone after the crash and the camera, you look at the camera yourself and you say, “Oh, my goodness, he’s right. The driver didn’t do nothing wrong. The camera, the forward facing camera, proved the driver was not in the wrong.” If you’re doing your job, you should have no issue. Nowadays, even if … They have warning signs on the left and right of the trailer so if you go over the line, weave over the line, “Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.” Little signs come up, “Stay in your lane,” so lane monitoring. They have a lot of technology nowadays. It might get frustrating at times, but nuclear verdicts, I don’t see where the trucking companies have any choice. And I got used to it, it didn’t take me too long to get used to an inward facing camera. Like you said, if you don’t do anything wrong. Now, some companies, I believe, I’m trying to think, Swift. When you’re off duty, you can put a piece of tape over the lens if you’re concerned. The camera should not be operating unless it sees something because it’s AI generated. It should only come on when it sees something wrong. So if you feel uncomfortable, you’re stopped, you can put the tape and just don’t forget to take the tape off when you’re on the road, you’re driving. It’s here, it’s here.

David Craig – Host: The technology has changed the game. And you and I would disagree on what nuclear verdicts are, but I would look at fair compensation for horrific cases.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Right, right.

David Craig – Host: And these companies, usually the ones that are the large verdicts, are really bad fact situations that cause these wrecks. They have crash avoidance software now. They’ve got speed limiters they can put on a truck. They’ve got a variety of things. We know that the faster you’re going, the more likely the wreck is catastrophic. There’s crash avoidance. I know truckers, a lot of times, don’t like it. Some people who drive cars don’t like it. They’ve got more cars now that have it. But the reality is that a lot of the wrecks, a lot of the folks that I represent, the victims, all too often are in construction zones or on highways or interstates where traffic is backed up for whatever reason and then the trucker just is going down. They’re fatigued, they got their truck on cruise and they don’t have crash avoidance software or speed limiters and they just plow into the back end of the stopped or slowed traffic.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yeah.

David Craig – Host: And I see that same case over and over, year, after year, after year. And now you’re starting to see some where you’ve got this crash avoidance software or the cameras facing the driver where if they start to doze off, it alerts them.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Right.

David Craig – Host: But I think as technology … In my cars, my car has my seat rumbles or vibrates if I go over the yellow line. I got yellow lights in my blind spots so I know if there’s somebody sitting next to me. Which again, truck drivers, they have somebody on their right side is always harder to see than on the left side. Why not have something that lights up, something that warns drivers? I don’t understand I guess. Technology is going to continue to advance and we might as well all join it.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yeah, especially you got the driverless tractor trailers going down the road.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yeah, technology’s here. It’s here. When it comes to speed limiters, I don’t mind them, but they also, if they set too low, they can also create an accident. Here you’re passing, you’re within the speed limit and someone has the limiter set and you’re dead in the water passing the truck because the hill went a little upgrade a little bit and you can’t overtake them. Now, you’re in a jam. You got to back to the right side if possible. So most of the companies that I worked for who had it too low realized and said, “You know, this is a safety issue. Yes, we don’t want the truck going too fast, but we also want to give the driver a little space above a normal speed limit.” So if he’s going to spot the highest speed on the roadway that he might be going, well, it might be 65, we would let it go to 70 or something like that, to give him that extra five miles or something to get out of a bad situation. So it has to be used wisely. And also, it saves fuel and whatever. When we’re getting gas prices where they are now, a lot of truckers are starting to slow down anyway and start to try to conserve fuel, especially if they are owner-operators. They’re saying, “Hey, you better slow it down a little bit.”

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: That’s what happened when the last time we had high fuel costs. Everyone was slowing it down.

David Craig – Host: Well, so you’ve been in this business now for decades. You’ve seen a lot of changes. Anything else that you want to chat about that you think is either good about what we’re doing now, or bad? Anything else you want to talk about that we haven’t chatted about?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: I’m a safety person and I know you had someone here about underride crashes and all of that, so I’ll just touch on that. So these are the vehicles. So do I believe there should be underride protection? Yes, there should be. And now, naturally when I worked for UPS, all the trucks had storage. No longer, most of them are gone, because once again it’s about saving money. So I drove for I guess 52 years, 53, whatever, quite a while. I have never had an accident on the road. Never. Sorry, let me go word that. I’m sorry. I never had a chargeable accident on the road. I had one accident. I was only involved in one accident. Luckily, a police officer, an off-duty police officer was also about two lanes back from me. I didn’t know that. All I know is I’m driving up in Connecticut, I was in Connecticut at the time. And all I felt, it was a big shaking. And I’m cresting a hill, I’m going back down the mountain and I’m fighting. I thought I got rear-ended, that’s what I thought happened. I thought I got rear-ended. I’m trying, trying to avoid going into the woods. I got it under the control, pulled on the side of the road. Look in my mirror up the hill and I was like, “What happened?” And I look way up top of the mountain, it wasn’t that far but it was up there and I saw that was a mess. I looked at my truck when I got out of the truck. Traffic was coming down so I had to be careful. I didn’t see nothing on the truck, the trailer, nothing. I didn’t see anything. I get up on top and this young lady was crying and everyone was around her, a lot of people were around and said, “Who are you?” And I said, “Well, I’m the truck driver who’s down at the bottom of the hill. I think she hit my trailer or hit me in the rear, or something.” And she says, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” And I look at her car. She went under the trailer, she went under almost halfway and then was able to spin back out. Turn the wheel back to the left, went out, flipped a couple times, hit the guardrail, tore the vehicle up. If she had a passenger in that car — she was just a driver. If a passenger was in that car, that person would have been dead instantly, would have been dead. But there was nothing there. That was gone. So if that trailer had protection, that person, let’s say a person was in there, that person would have been alive. So I know there’s a CDL Shorty that’s on all kinds of social media, you’ve probably heard of him, you’ve probably seen him. And he is always talking about underride crashes, how trailers need and companies need to get protection. Now, I know if you have a fuel truck or one of those top loaders that hold tankers or whatever they hold, those might not be suited for underride protection. But these trailers, when I’m putting up the green trailer, there’s no excuse. Something has to be done. I just saw the one recently, I think in Florida, when the driver made a U-turn. That person may still be alive today if there was protection. There should be no trailers being built today without underride protection to keep cars from going under these trailers.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: It’s all about money.

David Craig – Host: That’s something we agree on. I can remember back, my very first underride guard case on the back of a trailer. So there used to not even be, until Jane Mansfield got decapitated.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Right, ICC bar in the back.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. So they put that in and now we need to tighten those restrictions. But yeah, there’s no question they make a difference. They can stop you from going underneath a vehicle and being decapitated or severely injured or killed.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yeah.

David Craig – Host: Anything else you want to chat about, Trucker Steve?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: No. My goal is, I was just on YouTube and Facebook. I’m trying to connect the dots to get the word out to the FMCSA about the standards of training in CDL schools. And not only that, the training when a student gets out and goes to a trucking company. You heard the phrase a CDL school does not teach you how to drive a tractor trailer. It only teaches you how to past the test. And in most schools, that is true. So no matter what you do about the non-domiciles and all that stuff, because the standards are so bad and everyone’s finding loopholes in the system; and I talked about the two types of self-certification. The one that we’re trying to get CDL providers who just get on and promise to do everything, but the FMCSA has a self-certification how students get through the system, get their test. How states are ignoring. If they see it, if they see a student being tested two or three times, even if it’s a third party testing school, they see that the student failed one, two, three, four times, they see it. It’s a red flag. Nothing’s being done. It’s all keep quiet, don’t do nothing. Using the driver shortage as a reasoning, “Well, we got to get them out.” But when they go to a trucking company, I’m saying there should be quality training at all trucking companies. Now, you go to Schneider and some of the mega-companies, they have programs which is called — or Schneider, we’ll go with them — Training the Inexperience Tractor Trailer Driver Out of School. That’s a program. So you can use their program. FMCSA can say, “Hey, guess what, we’re going to go to the mega-companies who have good programs to train inexperienced drivers. We want this across the board for every trucking company.” That student, when he comes out of school, yes, he got his license. Maybe they need another step. You complete one year or whatever, hopefully they don’t cut his pay down. But you complete one year and doing this, this and this, and then you’ll get a full CDL license. Maybe something like that needs to be done. But there’s too many trucking companies out there who are not properly training the new, inexperienced drivers. They get them in and they just throw them in the truck in days, they have a CDL driver trainer who doesn’t know how to train because the experienced drivers, they don’t want to have nothing to do with that new driver. They don’t want to be in that truck because they know the bad standards at CDL schools. Why do I want to get in, driving down the road with an inexperienced driver? Or can I sleep in the back knowing that this student just doesn’t even belong on the road? So they put someone who wants extra money.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: They say, “Well, you might only have two years, so we’ll let you be a driver trainer.” He’ll do it because he’s going to make extra money. He wasn’t making enough money because he’s probably with the company for less than a year or two years, so this is a way to make extra money, but the person might not be qualified. So you have a major accident, then you’re going to be looking at him and says, “Wait a minute, the driver trainer. Was he qualified to teach? And what was he doing?” Maybe he was sleeping in the back in a situation where he should not have been sleeping.

David Craig – Host: Absolutely. Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: This goes on and on and the system needs to be fixed. I’m trying to connect the dots and hopefully, someone from Landline Magazine, FreightWave Magazine, Trucker Magazine, whatever, or someone who has connections who speaks to Sean Duffy and to Derek Barrs, maybe they’re going to say … They don’t have to use my videos or anything. They need to say, “Hey, this is something, he’s bringing up some things that we are not talking about and it needs to be talked about.” I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak. I was a little surprised. I figured maybe a trucking magazine might call me. I don’t go around here and plead with anyone to do a podcast. I think at my age, sometimes I worry that I’ll just forget about everything, so I don’t know how I did, but I’m trying to get the word out.

David Craig – Host: You did great, Steve. I respect, I like to talk to people who have experience. I like to talk to people whose opinion’s not always the same as mine. I think respectful disagreement is fine. It’s the way I was raised. You don’t have to … People think that just because I sue negligent truck drivers that I don’t like truckers and that’s absolutely not true.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: No.

David Craig – Host: I represent a lot of great truck drivers who tell me that it’s scary on the road today versus how it was 20, 30 years ago. And so I represent … I don’t care, if someone causes a wreck and they can’t drive, then I should hold them accountable. On the other hand, if somebody does drive well and drives good and then they’re hit by somebody else that can’t drive, then I’ll represent them. I appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yeah.

David Craig – Host: How do people find … Well, go ahead, Steve. I won’t cut you off.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: If I could say one more thing?

David Craig – Host: Sure.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Years ago, I don’t want to date myself, but years ago, when accidents happened with truckers and cars, most of the time it turned out the fault was with the four-wheeler. Not today. It’s all changed.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: It has changed. Even this non-dom, “Oh, we want to clean it up.” No, it’s not the same.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: It’s not.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. Well, I think they flooded the market with … Unfortunately, I think there wasn’t a driver shortage. This is my personal opinion. They flooded the market because they wanted lower paid truck drivers to drive trucks and so they started flooding the market with people who were not as qualified. Some people just got out of it because then all of sudden, it drove down the amount of money you had to pay people.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Right.

David Craig – Host: You got brokerage companies coming in and taking their cuts. So we could have a whole different episode on-

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Right, yeah. There will always be the term “a driver shortage”. CDL schools have to use that term. They will always use that term. How can they not?

David Craig – Host: It’s how they fill their seats.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: The mega-carriers will always use that term. Also, because they get money from the government to train, they might have their own CDL schools, whatever. And also, to get benefits from that term. So there will always be that term “a driver shortage”, whoever it benefits the most. The average trucker out there will say there is not a driver shortage. It’s just a retention issue because of low pay, unfair treatment and just treating you like a number instead of like a person. So yeah, the term will always be there.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: So how you can get a hold of me.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. How do people find you, Steve?

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Okay. On YouTube, Trucker Steve, CDL Instructor on YouTube. I’m on LinkedIn now, just started on there so I can try to connect with David and other people. Especially when I do the connection, who I click on, I try to connect with people from the FMCSA and whoever does talk shows, or trucking shows and podcasts, et cetera. So those are the ones I try to connect with. I have the Broken CDL Trucking System. Not that I get a lot of views on that channel, I just wanted to separate it from my CDL students, not to discourage them. But I want people in government, I want people throughout magazines or whatever just to look at it. Some of the stuff I have on there, I might have to make corrections because the lack of clarity from the FMCSA about how students should be trained. I thought it was like two separate programs, if you adopted the modernization program, you no longer had to do alley dock and things like that. That looks like I was wrong on, so I might have to do some corrections there. But in Maryland, we never had to alley dock, even with the entry level driver training. They dropped that. But when I was an instructor, I always taught my students all kinds of backing skills. I would take them to my place of work and have them back into docks. So I did my job.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: So that’s what that channel is. So it needs people to look at it and all I want someone, maybe not myself, but people in Landline Magazine or somebody to look at it and say, “Wait a minute, he’s talking about another self-certification issue that we haven’t been talking about.” And why there’s loopholes created to get students to pass the test easier, things like that. So that’s what that channel is for. On Facebook, once again, CDL Student Training Tips, CDL Student Training Tips. You got to join that. No money, I never take a dime from anybody. Don’t take, say give me likes, or pay. I don’t need the money and I don’t want a dime. And the people who help me on that channel, all we want to do is just give you advice. If you have an issue or have a problem, we there, that’s what that channel is for is to talk to you. RollOn CDL Trucker, another Facebook site that I have. RollOn CDL Truckers. I do share some of my videos from the Broken CDL Trucking System. And I also share a lot of videos from other YouTubers and Facebook, whoever. If I see something that I think is valuable, I want to share it and I wish other YouTubers would share maybe some of my stuff. But it doesn’t happen, it’s always about the person. But I like sharing other people’s videos on these channels if I think it’s in line what I’m talking about. I just don’t need my opinion out there. I feel I’m just the old man who’s yapping and banging the drums, and I say we have a big issue here. Trucking is really good. I love trucking. I love being on the road. I love listening to my books on tapes going down, I couldn’t wait to get into that truck. I did over the road, over the road partly was team driving, two of us driving and whatever, that was two of us. And then I did over the road with another company. But when they start trying to get me to break the rules and falsify logs and everything else I said, “No, I’m going back local,” which I did. That’s how you get a hold of me. Most of the time, if you put a question on any of those channels, 95% of the time, there’s sometimes I might miss it, I will answer the question. My time, as I spoke earlier and I’ll end what I have to say. I spoke earlier, I am a full-time caregiver so my time … I don’t need no one to feel sorry for me because these are the best times of my life right now, to spend time with my wife who put up with me being away from home long hours. Even when I worked local, long hours, it mostly was night driving, the night shift, whatever. I’m a full-time caregiver. So my wife has, which a lot of people have when you start forgetting. This is dementia. It’s whatever. When we get older, she’s a little older than me. And maybe I’m getting it, too. That’s why sometimes I’m afraid to go do a podcast. But it happens. But I am so honored to have this time to work with her. The trucker’s wife. The trucker’s wife. Truckers have to remember, you have a wife and you got a family out there.

David Craig – Host: Yeah.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: And I have no qualm right now doing what I’m doing. And thank goodness for YouTube that I can educate myself on how to care for her. But right now, she’s doing pretty good and mainly because I’m listening to some other YouTube channels on how to do it, usually three channels. But I know my time is going to run short, maybe next year, whatever, that maybe I’m not going to be doing a podcast or doing anything with my YouTube channel, adding more videos on because that time I know is coming. And also, I’m looking at my age. Anything can happen. Like I say, I’ll be 75-years-old in a few weeks. I still can probably run, I still do everything I did at 65 and my 50s, I still can do it. And they’ll say, “Steve, get off the roof of the house, you’re too old to be doing that stuff.” But I’m thankful and fortunate that I took care of myself, eat right and I practice the Smith system of driving. I did what I had to do to be safe and not to have an accident on the road. So that’s it, that’s how you can get a hold of me.

David Craig – Host: All right. Well, Steve, thank you so much for taking the time and sharing it with us. I think I found you just because you’d made a comment on one of my videos.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Oh, I did. I did that.

David Craig – Host: So I love the fact. I’m like you, I don’t have sponsors on my podcasts, I don’t accept money. I try to put information out there to the public so people can learn and be educated. So God bless hopefully, prayers for you and your wife.

Steven “Trucker Steve” Snyder: Yeah.

David Craig – Host: And thank you for taking the time to spend with us. This is David Craig and you’ve been listening to After the Crash. If you’d like more information about me or my law firm, please go to our website ckflaw.com. Or if you’d like to talk to me, you can call 1-800-ASK-DAVID. If you would like a guide on what to do after a truck wreck, then pick up my book Semitruck Wreck: A Guide for Victims and Their Families, which is available on Amazon or you can download it for free on our website ckflaw.com.