I was waiting on some repairs to my truck in our Olive Branch, MS terminal recently when I heard a very distressed driver raising his voice with his dispatcher on the phone. He was based out of another terminal, but was picking up an MT trailer in Olive Branch. This was his problem...
He had a hard deadline to be at the shipper in Memphis, TN. He was literally twenty minutes away from the shipper and he had to be there in one hour. He found an MT, but it had a flat tire that he wanted to get repaired before going to get loaded. He took it to the shop and they informed him it would be about two hours before they could get to it. They were busy, and that is understandable. They had tried to be kind and gentle with the driver, but he wasn't having it. He insisted that he needed priority over whatever it was they were doing - he had a hard appointment to meet. The first lesson here is...
As drivers, we cannot let our ego make us think we are more important than everyone else out here trying to get things accomplished on the road. We are all doing the same job with the same stress. We have to chill and figure out how to manage our careers without putting ourselves into cardiac arrest every time something seems to be hindering us. We have to be adaptive, flexible, and creative. In a nutshell, we have to be adults who can deal with our own problems while working within the parameters of this sometimes challenging career.
He was quite animated and loud on the phone. Occasionally he gave me an almost pleading look, as if he wanted me to help him convince his DM to make a phone call on his behalf. He was convinced it would only help his cause if the DM would call the shop manager and explain how his driver was under a tremendous amount of pressure, and needed them to drop everything and fix his tire. I swear, he would get off the phone with the DM, let out a deep sigh, and then call him right back again. (Three times in a row) All he was doing was repeating himself with heavy moans and groans. He sounded like a spoiled child demanding his way. He wasn't even trying to come up with a solution. He was just making ridiculous demands.
I hate to say this, but I was not sympathetic. I have never called my DM about a flat tire. What can he do about it? Nothing. Besides, he has a lot of drivers like this one, keeping him on the phone unnecessarily. Okay, he finally got me into a conversation, and here is what I found out. His tire wasn't even flat. It just had a nail in it. He didn't like that and wanted it changed before he went over to get loaded twenty minutes away. The second lesson here is...
Learn to evaluate risk and reward. We have a ton of grey areas in trucking. We have to make our own choices and decisions everyday. Many of those decisions affect our results. Those results affect our pay. We get paid for what we accomplish. Therefore, we need to make decisions that help us be efficient.
This driver was insistent that everyone drop what they are doing to serve his needs. That is very inefficient. First off, each of them is trying to do his job efficiently. Constant interruptions by a demanding driver breaks up their efficiency. The driver trying to force everyone to change to his plan is very inefficient for the driver too. If he doesn't realize by now that this approach doesn't work, he still has a lot to learn about how to succeed in this career.
I tried to explain to him what I would do in this situation. I would take the trailer and go get loaded. I've driven fully loaded trailers with nails in the tires before. I've done it a lot of times. I have pulled a lot of nails out of tires only to find they weren't even causing any air to leak out. I still remember finding a screw in a tire that I decided to back out with a nut driver. As I backed the screw out, I began to hear the familiar hiss of air leaking. I just screwed it back in, made my delivery, and then contacted "break down." They told me where to go to get the tire fixed. It was all very efficient, and I was not stranded somewhere stressing myself out.
His tire was holding pressure. He admitted that to me. Still, he seemed to have a need for the drama he was creating with the shop people and his DM. It is all so silly, but it made him feel important. I see a lot of us truck drivers behaving this way. It is so counter productive, but many of us will even brag about this type of behavior. Why are we like that?
We need to be problem solvers. This situation could have been easily resolved. Go get loaded and bring the trailer back to the terminal. The customer was twenty minutes away. I was bewildered as I returned to my truck. I couldn't help this driver see a simple solution. I get so frustrated witnessing cringe worthy episodes like this. Unfortunately they are all too common in this career.
Take charge of your careers my friends - prioritize safety and productivity.
