Trust

I had a conversation recently with my dispatcher where he kept repeatedly using the word “trust.” It was a clear reference to the relationship we have with each other. The conversation started out with him apologizing to me for not getting in touch with me that morning concerning my back haul load. I told him it was no big deal to me, I already knew where I was supposed to pick up the load, so I just started driving that way, and since I was still about 300 miles away, I figured he would get with me whenever he had the time. I know he gets swamped on most days with problems his drivers are having, and I never concern myself if I can't get him on the phone. I just leave him a message and go on about taking care of my business. I know he will get back to me when he can. We have worked together enough to trust each other to be taking care of his share of the responsibilities we are working on. When a dispatcher has a driver that he can trust completely, it makes his job much less stressful. When a driver has a dispatcher that he trusts fully, it makes his job so much more productive.

Trust is an integral part of the trucking business. Think about it. There are investors who are trusting these publicly traded trucking companies to take care of their business by keeping their operating ratios at a reasonable level, and producing an acceptable level of profit in a very challenging business environment. There are literally millions of consumers who are trusting those same companies to make sure that what they want to purchase at the supermarkets or in the shopping malls across the country are readily available on the shelves.

It's funny, but most people never really think about how their favorite can of baked beans ever makes it to the grocery store shelf. Some farmer planted those beans, harvested them in his fields, and then loaded them onto an eighteen wheeler to sell them (in bulk) in the market place. Someone else purchased them, had them put into another eighteen wheeler and shipped to a food manufacturer such as “Van Camps.” There they cooked them, processed them, and packed them into the cans that were delivered by an eighteen wheeler. Oh yeah, and some flat-bed driver delivered some nice shiny coils of metal to that can manufacturing plant so that they could produce those food grade storage cans. I haven't even mentioned the distribution warehouse where the beans sat for a while after arriving there on an eighteen wheeler! Of course they left that warehouse on a big truck also. All of this takes place so that you can go to the store and purchase your favorite can of beans! There was a lot of trust taking place between many parties of people just to make sure that you and your kids could enjoy that seemingly insignificant little can of beans.

The whole trucking business gets all clogged up when people can't seem to get done what they are simply expected to do. There are drivers who cause problems for their dispatchers. My dispatcher refers to them as “needy” drivers. They can't seem to get anything done without him having to give them advice or encouragement several times per day. Successful drivers create a bond of trust with their support team.

A successful driver has his own motivation and drive. He gives it his all each and every day out here.We are people of action. Truck drivers are decisive, they are focused, they thrive on getting things accomplished. If we have three and a half days to get from Denver, CO over to Portland, Oregon, and then down to Los Angeles, CA in the dead of winter, the last thing on our mind is how much time we are going to have to enjoy ourselves doing something leisurely. We are going to bust our tail just to "git 'er done." We are not going to be wishing we could unionize ourselves and demand less stringent job requirements.

We love getting things accomplished, and if that requires sacrifices such as driving all night for three nights in the snow, we gladly take that bull by the horns and conquer it. We don't give excuses. We don't back down. "I can't," or "this is too hard" is not part of our conversation. We are doers. We leave the dreamers far behind us with each new sunrise. We don't back down, we don't give up, we are our own driving force, full of motivation and willingness. We are never satisfied until we've gotten the present task before us accomplished. At that point we are already eager for the next challenge. If we've worked seventy hours, we're wishing we could just get in another 15 to cap off a really nice week. We push all the limits, we are eager to get more done this week than we did the last. We are goal oriented. We create trust with our support staff by consistently getting things accomplished. That's how we roll!