tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42516047667724395062024-03-13T22:14:12.352-07:00Life as a Road WarriorLife As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.comBlogger226125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-47038032585795694442023-11-16T19:08:00.000-08:002023-11-16T19:13:19.020-08:00RISK VERSUS REWARD - THE ART OF PRIORITIZING<span style="font-size: medium;">I </span>was <span style="font-size: medium;">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...<br /><br />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...<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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...<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Take charge of your careers my friends - prioritize safety and productivity.</span>Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-78971798274486003222021-10-05T10:04:00.001-07:002021-10-05T10:06:24.942-07:00CAN I MAKE MORE MONEY BY LEASING A TRUCK?<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">This question finds its way into most new truck driver’s minds at one point or another. It's no wonder why it does. We work hard at this job. We make considerable sacrifices unheard of in most careers. When it comes to rookies just getting started, many of us seem a little disappointed with our pay. This lifestyle of being alone most of the time tends to limit our conversation to that of other truck drivers. We may end up parked at a terminal for a few days and hear our fellow road warriors complaining about their situation, or in some cases telling us how they have figured out some super secret way to beat the odds at trucking. That is typically when we hear these outlandish claims of making big money. I have actually heard guys claiming to make as much as eight thousand dollars per week!</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-463a6bae-7fff-4091-cf54-f81a67b512d3"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now that will get your attention! You just got a paycheck for $1,200.00. Here’s a guy, not particularly appearing as anything special, yet he just got a paycheck for $8,000.00. There’s something wrong with this picture! Yes there certainly is, so let’s talk a little about what is actually wrong. Hopefully I can help you out.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lease operators don’t actually get a paycheck.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> That’s right. They are not even on the payroll of the company. Anybody leasing a truck who tells you how much his paycheck came to is “looney tunes.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The company never cuts him a paycheck.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> That is a very important fact for you to realize. A lease operator is a contractor. They get paid a contract price on each load. They do not receive a paycheck.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, what are these big fat checks we hear about? You have to realize the propensity of these </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">new lease operators</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to be unrealistically enamored with their new found way of making money. At first everything seems all shiny and new, much like a freshly minted penny. They have yet to get into the real give and take of the business. The checks they get are revenue checks. Their lease lays out all the parameters of how they get paid. It spells out their responsibilities and how they will be compensated. They are responsible for the expenses of running and maintaining the truck. It usually takes less than a year before those expenses take the shine off that new penny.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All that big money they brag about is to cover their expenses. They are now running a one truck operation. The dollars coming in to a lease operator are simply their share of the revenues they produce with the truck. It’s not even closely related to a paycheck. That’s how I knew the guy who foolishly thought I would believe he was making eight thousand dollars a week had no clue about what he was doing. Any driver claiming he is making that kind of money is not only lying to you, but sadly they are also lying to themselves.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The whole reason trucking companies lease their trucks is because it is profitable. In fact it is often more profitable than a company truck with a paid employee in the driver’s seat. So think about that for a minute. How does the driver make more money when it is likely the company is turning a better profit by leasing the truck to the driver? Can you conceive of any reason a business would encourage its employees to become private contractors just so they could pay them a lot more money? That goes against every common sense business principle there is. The whole ploy of leasing trucks to unsuspecting drivers is a gimmick. It's a way to lure people into a trap that seems to offer some really great bait. Those big numbers on those checks are the bait.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Businesses make decisions and choices to produce outcomes that are more profitable for them. Forcing the wildly unpredictable expense of running and maintaining their trucks onto private contractors gives them control over their costs. If they can control their expenses, they can accurately forecast their profits. The lease operator sees some big checks coming his way, but he also has to maintain those big expenses he agreed to in his lease. Otherwise he won’t have a truck to run loads with. Those big checks are countered and consumed by big expenses. What’s left over becomes the driver’s pay. He has no predictable paycheck and no employee benefits. Look at the things he gives up for this long shot chance of making a little extra money.</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No health insurance.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No social security account being built up.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No access to a company retirement account.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No income tax payments withheld.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No paid vacation.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No seniority with load planners or dispatchers.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No help with layover or breakdown pay.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No bonus money that company drivers get.</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Typically those things the driver gives up for this hope of getting ahead in the game far outweigh any difference he could possibly make by leasing the truck. I did a little calculation based on my last twelve months of driving as a company driver. Here’s some real numbers that I would give up so I could lease a truck.</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">$3,500 - that’s what the company contributed to my 401K</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">$6,800 - that was the total of my bonus money</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">$2,875 - that was my total extra pay for various things like layover</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">$5,478 - that is my three weeks paid time off</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s see… that totals $18,653.00 and that doesn’t even take into account the lack of deposits in my social security account, or the funds they contributed toward my family’s health insurance. That’s how much I am going to throw into the trash just so I can risk taking a long shot at making maybe about 3% more by leasing a truck. You can’t make that math work in your favor. Numbers don’t lie.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most trucking companies operate near a 97% operating ratio. That means their profits are somewhere in the 3% - 5% range. That’s not impressive, but it sure tells us something. It tells us by leasing the truck you only have a small percentage range you could increase your actual take home money. If there is only a 3% - 5% profit, then where do you think you are going to find all this extra money? I just did the math on my last twelve months pay. If I could make another five percent by leasing a truck I would increase my total pay by $4,750.00. Why in the world would I give up almost $20,000.00 so that I could get $4,750.00? That makes no sense. That is what I call Owner/Operator math. It has never made sense to me.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my situation as a competent company driver, I honestly think I would be cutting my pay by around $16,000.00 were I leasing a truck. I could be proud of the fact that I am “my own boss,” and I could run around bragging about the big checks I am getting. I have heard and seen these lease/operators strutting around like peacocks among common barnyard animals while mingling with the lowly company drivers. I just have to laugh inside. I know the truth.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think the challenges of being a trucker really push people to try figuring out a better way to increase their income from this job. I empathize with each of you who thinks he is putting in more effort than expected. We’d all like to see more income when we consider the sacrifices we make. The problem with this is the way we fall prey to these foolish gimmicks. Leasing really is a gimmick.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You aren’t going to make more money by leasing a truck. It may feel good when you see several thousand dollars on a check, but you have to realize it’s not a paycheck. It’s basically a way to keep you pushing and trying to figure out how to make those big dollars actually end up in your wallet. There is that bait hanging right there in front of your face each week. Life would be really grand if you could just figure out how to keep the bait and not get caught in the trap!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Truckers are experts at keeping myths alive. This decades old myth that claims some trucking companies are out to squeeze every little drop of blood out of their company drivers, and then throw them under the bus, is still alive and well. It’s dead wrong, and goes against every business principle of success. Unfortunately every new driver entering the business is convinced of it from his internet research. This myth claiming we can make a lot more money by leasing a truck from one of these big trucking companies is just as bogus as it is ridiculous. The whole concept of leasing trucks to drivers was a profit driven incentive for the corporations who started this practice. Don't be bamboozled by such nonsense!</span></p></span>Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-23986892295971257442021-09-01T10:01:00.002-07:002021-09-18T10:35:01.764-07:00Will Autonomous Trucks Be Taking Our Jobs Away?<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am seeing a lot of people concerned about starting a trucking career lately because they think driver-less trucks will soon be taking over our interstates and consequently killing the job market. I’ve been hearing these same reports for twenty years now. I guess we will still be hearing them for the next 40 years. We are nowhere nearer today than we were 20 years ago.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a3baf137-7fff-171c-93d6-a8ad7b799d93"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">About five years ago there were television programs declaring that driver-less trucks would be taking over truck driving jobs within two years. There is a big scam going on within the tech industries that is driven by greed. If you can convince people you are on the cusp of something really big, then you can get them to open their bank accounts and invest lots of money with you. That’s the scam. Everything about the autonomous truck craze is designed to raise money now for something nobody has a clue how to accomplish.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We actually have driver-less trucks already. They can work fairly well within a confined environment where we control the elements and factors they will be dealing with. That is the problem. We can’t control their environment nationwide. We could accomplish this task if we could afford an entirely new nationwide infrastructure designed solely for big trucks. It seems we can’t even come up with enough money to properly maintain the infamous pothole riddled George Washington Bridge. Everyone is focused on creating self driving trucks to work within our existing infrastructure. That approach will never work. It will always yield a vehicle that still needs a driver on board.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We currently have all kinds of crash mitigation technology in the trucks we are driving. Most of it is total garbage. It is so unreliable that it causes more problems than it does solutions. I’ve had my truck slam on the brakes because I passed under an overpass. Just a shadow in the road will sometimes trigger the forward crash mitigation system to activate the brakes as if there were an emergency. Sensors are only sensing possible dangers, they do not process thoughts and make judgments. Those are uniquely human qualities. Sensors covered in ice and snow basically shut down and stop working. I wish you could see some of the incredibly risky road conditions I have successfully navigated. We sometimes face nightmarish conditions. Humans can handle it, and actually do it safely. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-2hWv8vB7fL0VunC_tM6Vm8KWTgk4Xv62b4jsAEdtwg1kp0Kmd6IBonEKBIu7eJilTwGEQg5WWNH9UWikXoxSwWUFq89ewxpC63cITzqq13twqmGJer7IQbGSau3FHjNxqD19yH5S1o/s1440/20191203_052021_zpstajyghvb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1440" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-2hWv8vB7fL0VunC_tM6Vm8KWTgk4Xv62b4jsAEdtwg1kp0Kmd6IBonEKBIu7eJilTwGEQg5WWNH9UWikXoxSwWUFq89ewxpC63cITzqq13twqmGJer7IQbGSau3FHjNxqD19yH5S1o/w640-h480/20191203_052021_zpstajyghvb.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p>We have had self flying planes for years now. Even under the power of auto-pilot we still have two pilots on board our commercial airliners. We have trains that run on tracks and could not possibly get off course, yet they still have engineers on board. We can put a rover on far away planets like Mars, and have it operating a mission there without a human being present. The reason that’s possible is because it is a far easier task than what we are attempting with autonomous trucks.</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The transportation industry is not confined to its own separate environment. We are side by side with minivans full of small children. We are facing ever changing conditions moment by moment. It is much easier to fly an aircraft on auto-pilot than it is to drive an 80,000 pound vehicle under similar technology. There are so many difficulties when on the ground surrounded by other vehicles and variables. It becomes exponentially more complicated.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been brief here, but I wanted to address this. Do not concern yourself over self-driving trucks taking your career away from you. It is not happening now, and will not be happening in any near future I can see. The complexities of the trucking world are proving to be a great challenge to technology. Even the autonomous trucks going through various levels of beta testing generally have two drivers on board, and a convoy of other vehicles escorting them. Ease your mind of this concern. You are still needed out here. That demand will continue on into days of incredible technology advances.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-69808568792443025302021-07-31T12:45:00.000-07:002021-07-31T12:45:18.256-07:00NEVER GIVE UP!<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">With those three immortal words, Winston Churchill rallied his nation to a wartime victory during a time when their crushing demise seemed alarmingly imminent. What is it that causes one man to face his fears with bravery and ferocity while another caves into submission? Fear causes some of us to retreat to a fetal position of defeat before we’ve even entered the fray. Others seem to rise to conquer a challenge solely motivated by fear itself. Some people are amazingly resilient in the face of overwhelming odds and difficulty. Those folks who have this amazing resilience go on to do great things. They are our heroes. They aren’t necessarily known to the masses as national heroes, but somebody knows them as a hero.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-bbbabc2a-7fff-7dd7-4a30-0de17a0de419"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had a friend when I was growing up who considered his own mom to be a hero. Their family was very poor and his mom had to figure out how to make do with what she had. He would tell me his mom was the greatest cook in the world. He’d say, “My mom can make the most delicious soup using only a gallon of water and a single bean,” My point is she rose to the challenges before her. My young friend viewed her as his hero because of her resilience. Her bravery in adversity made her shine in his estimation. She could have collapsed in despair and said, “I just can’t handle this - we are going to starve.” Her resilience kept her in the game, and she accomplished things that kept her moving forward.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a character trait, resilience is a person’s ability to recover quickly from unfortunate circumstances. It’s an admiral characteristic, and worthy of our aspirations. So, what does all this have to do with trucking? I think it has a lot to do with our career. Especially those of us who are just getting started. I was sorely disappointed once when I saw a discussion online where a new driver was claiming, “My career in trucking is over before it even started!” This poor fellow had been sent home from orientation, and was already retreating in defeat. Here’s one of his statements I pulled from his post.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“For now I'm done. There is no point in applying for other jobs and wasting time and money to just run into the same issues.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m dumbfounded at this response. I’m wanting to encourage and motivate this fellow and say, “Come on man! Are you giving up this easily?” The phrase that really got me was when he stated, “There is no point in applying for other jobs.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting started in a trucking career is challenging. I know that well. Trucking is not an ordinary job. It is an extraordinary career that requires extraordinary people. It is as much a lifestyle change as it is a career change. The training is hurried, and requires a person to process a lot of information in a short time. It requires learning new skills quickly and efficiently. It’s no walk in the park. It’s a big challenge. How we respond to those challenges helps formulate our future in this career. Truckers bear a lot of responsibility. Some people consider them heroes.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the biggest challenges facing new truckers is the disturbing reality that truck driving school’s don’t magically transform us into real truckers. They allow us to obtain a CDL, but getting that CDL in our pocket is really just a single step in the process of becoming a trucker. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The process requires resilience.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There are seemingly insurmountable challenges that upset many a newbie’s efforts. Those tenacious spirited folks who conquer the various challenges go on to become some of the most critical players in our nation's economic machine.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The gentleman who inspired these thoughts failed his backing test and got sent home from his very first orientation. That’s no reason to declare, “There is no point in applying for other jobs.” Plenty of new truckers get sent home from orientation. I got sent home from three different orientations. I never gave up. When you start this process of becoming a trucker you need to want it badly. You need to persevere.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My dad used to tell me, “Quitters never win.” Some may think that’s a trite little saying, but it’s something that stuck with me all my life. I don’t quit. In high school I was a competitive tennis player. There were times when I’d find myself in a match with someone who was sure to beat me. That didn’t change my game or my approach. I’d hang in there and give it one hundred twenty percent no matter how badly they were humiliating me. I did the same thing as an adult in competitive skeet shooting. Anybody competing with me knew I was going to bring my “A” game. I wasn’t going to cave in to despair if I missed a target. The next 100 targets were sure to be crushed to dust - I’d make sure of it. In sport’s you have to be resilient. You aren’t going to win every game every season. It’s a contest. It’s a competition. Victory ebbs and flows, but resilience remains firm no matter the outcome.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many folks don’t realize trucking is a competition. We compete against each other for loads and miles. As rookies we have the odds against us. We have to prove ourselves daily. We are going to have problems. We are going to struggle at times. Some of us are going to fall short and get sent home. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s not the end of the world. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are going to feel very challenged. Resilience will be required.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I attended four orientations when trying to land my first trucking job. On that fourth attempt I finally made it to becoming an employee. I never looked back from that point. I always looked forward during those difficult times of being sent home. Determined to have my photo put in the dictionary, right there next to that word “resilience,” I never gave up.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting invited to an orientation does not guarantee rookie drivers a job. These orientations are basically like a job interview. If we get sent home it’s not the end of our careers. We failed an interview - that’s what it amounts to. We move on. We show our resilience. Never give up! That’s a trucker’s mantra. We face challenges daily. We rise to those challenges and conquer them.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-54942647865975610732020-12-01T12:11:00.000-08:002020-12-01T12:11:54.534-08:00A SIMPLE SOLUTION TO MAKING A GOOD START AS A TRUCKER<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trucking is one of the most misunderstood careers I know of. It’s our own fault. For the most part, we truckers are to blame. We continually post very misleading information all over the internet. How is it that so many of us don’t really understand the vital dynamics of our own industry?</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-d33bba9a-7fff-8f83-90b0-0c9685f43985"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I really enjoy helping people understand the path to success as a trucker. I find it really disturbing when I see people, genuinely interested in a trucking career, only confusing themselves further when trying to research making a start in our career. It’s part of my nature to want to help others succeed. I find that natural tendency of mine to be in high demand almost daily.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me give you an example…</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recently while doing some shopping at a Wal-Mart, I noticed the young couple, with two small children, waiting in line behind me as I was checking out. They had this look on their faces as though they wanted to speak to me. I was wearing one of the many shirts I’ve been given by my employer, Knight Transportation. Of course, it was emblazoned with their logo, and apparently it had caught their attention. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This young wife was curious enough to ask me if I drove for Knight. Once I had confirmed their suspicions, she confided in me their concerns about her husband’s recent entrance into trucking. He was struggling, and they were convinced it was because of the company that he started with. They were feeling like they were being taken advantage of, being treated unfairly, and not getting paid enough. Does that sound familiar? I can’t escape this stuff. It searches me out, even at my local Wal-Mart!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I gladly spoke with them for a few minutes, but I could tell I hadn’t convinced them they could do better right where they were. They had started with Schneider, a well established company with many successful drivers. They were focused on the fact that they weren’t getting enough miles. For them that was the company’s fault. They mostly wanted to know, “How many miles is Knight giving you?” It’s just a complete misunderstanding about this career. It’s not that one company can or will give you the miles you need while the others can’t or simply just refuse to.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trucking is a performance based business. That is a long and well established fact, yet very few people seem to understand the ramifications of that. When discussing the problems with this career the current trend is to lay the blame at “big trucking companies” and their evil plans to take advantage of young ignorant rookies. The predominant theory is that they do this with low wages and restricting their ability to turn the big miles. Any serious minded person contemplating these issues would have to see the error of this idea. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It makes no sense.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The whole idea is based on the false notion that these companies don’t want to pay out a lot of wages to their employees.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The truth is that they want their drivers making good money. What better way is there to keep great employees on board? They understand that completely. Trust me, they need to keep great people moving freight in those trucks. Of course no business can afford to pay its employees more than they produce. That brings us right back to this whole idea of the trucking business being “performance based.” Drivers get paid based on how much they produce. That’s why we get “paid by the mile.” Trucking companies make money by how much freight they can move - the more the better! This all flies in the face of these claims saying these trucking companies are keeping their driver’s miles low so they can keep their wages low. Actually they want us turning all the miles we legally can. That’s how they make money.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Almost daily I see people struggling with decisions on how and where to make their start in a new trucking career. Some of them have been doing research for months. They organize spreadsheets and lists of priorities that they keep changing and adjusting based on whatever </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">random complaints or unique compliments</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> they just happened to read online that week. They don’t have a clue whether any of these people actually know what they are talking about, but they take their words with authority and make vain adjustments to their spreadsheets accordingly.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I recently watched a person show us his latest list of companies that he wanted to apply to. He had them categorized as his “top choices” and then two other subcategories that indicated the less desirable choices that he might have to consider if the “best ones” didn’t work out for some reason. It wasn’t long into the conversation before he decided to reshuffle his list because he heard how well someone in our forum was doing at one of his less desirable choices. One simple comment gave him reason to analyze things again and make needful adjustments to his list of prioritized considerations. That is tiring, wearisome, and confusing. That’s no way to make a good start at this.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Would you allow me to offer you a better way to make a great start at your new trucking career? I have actual experience at this struggle, and you might be able to consider me an expert when I tell you how I know this incredibly positive way to achieve success as a rookie truck driver. I made all the same mistakes when I wanted to get into trucking. I covered all the trucking forums and read all the nonsense. I took in and digested all the trucking commentary as best I could.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I took all that worthless information and formulated my top choices of companies. I was confident they could set me up for success. Lo and behold, none of them would have me. They all “had better applicants to choose from.” What? That’s right. Me, an ideal candidate in my own mind, rejected by all the top companies I had researched for months. What was wrong with these corporate nut jobs? I was sure I was destined to be the perfect trucker.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I ended up starting my very successful trucking career at Western Express. Everywhere I looked on the internet said, “Don’t just walk away from this company - you need to run!” That just goes to show you how much bogus information we truckers put out. It’s like a non-stop river that can’t be dammed up. It is out of control. I fight an information war almost daily. That’s why you can just wear yourself out trying to gather helpful information on this career. Most of it just doesn’t make sense. Truckers succeed based on their own performance. There’s that nagging word again - “performance.” It will dog you for your entire trucking career. You might as well embrace it. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I determined that I would be the most productive driver Western Express had ever seen. I did that by being committed to the actions that would serve their needs for revenues, and making sure I was proactive in giving my support staff in the office the communication they needed to keep me consistently planned with loads. How do you do those things? </span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make sure you are willing to run whatever loads they give you.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make sure you are easy to work with.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don’t argue and complain with your dispatcher.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Figure out how to always be on time, or better yet be early.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don’t hit anything.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Master the H.O.S rules and manage your clock efficiently.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Provide accurate ETA’s (estimated time of arrival) and PTA’s (projected time of availability) to your dispatcher so they have plenty of time to get your next load scheduled.</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There you have it. That was my strategy, and it works at every trucking company out there. It won’t matter what name is on the doors of your truck. Any rookie driver who can master that list will come out on top, There’s no ambiguity and no confusion when you attack the challenges in this career with that approach. Throw your spreadsheet in the trash. You don’t have to re-prioritize any lists again. This is a master list that will see you through the conflict. Each item on that list is on the driver. There’s no reason to try and make sure you are at the “right company” to set yourself up for success. It’s all “performance based.” There’s that phrase again, you might as well get used to it!</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-33656610825044769752020-11-14T12:31:00.000-08:002020-11-14T12:31:36.832-08:00Mediocrity Reaps No Rewards<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have observed a lot of truck drivers during my trucking career. With both empathy and agony, I have listened to their tales of woe at the truck stops, lunch counters, and driver lounges all across this great country. Can I speak plainly with you? Most truck drivers are unhappy. They feel maligned, mistreated, and just plain dis-respected. For most of them, the rewards received are simply not worth the sacrifices and risks required to execute the job. I have never fallen into that camp, and I am convinced there’s a reason why.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-63b44422-7fff-3bb9-f46a-dd3e81bb8381"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me also make it clear that when I was a rookie driver I listened to other drivers complaints and would often feel myself being lured into their unfortunate outlook on this career. It seemed everything they said resonated with me in some form or fashion. After all, who really wants to be away from their families for weeks at a time? Is it really a nomadic dream life to sleep in a truck each night? I knew the frustrations of just trying to find some place to park at ten o’clock at night, and yes, I found those things very frustrating myself.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I still remember this time I was tarping a load of steel at about midnight. I noticed the driver next to me who had just picked up his load before me. As he was tarping, he was dragging his feet and his shoulders hung low as though he were completely dejected. I still remember him raising his voice to speak to me. “This job sucks the life out of you,” he declared. He said it with authority, as if I should certainly know and agree with his assessment. The absurdity of his statement struck me hard. I was quite happy to be there at midnight. The coolness of the evening was refreshing to me while laboring at my chosen profession. As I was stretching my tarps tight, I was excitedly running calculations in my head as to how I was going to use the split sleeper berth provision to enable me to get my load delivered early. That way I would be available for a really nice load early on Friday. I knew once all that came together I was going to put an additional 400 dollars on my paycheck that week.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your outlook has a profound effect on your outcome.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The driver who is convinced “this job sucks the life out of you” will be plagued with poor results. His paychecks will always seem insufficient, his efforts will invariably be extremely laborious, and his satisfaction with his job will be nonexistent. I have always felt it very important that people should find satisfaction and fulfillment in their occupation. It doesn’t matter to me if you are a simple laborer pushing a wheelbarrow through a muddy construction site. If you are determined to be the best at commandeering a wheelbarrow, you will find yourself quite happy with your results. There is simply no way to have a fulfilling career when you are miserable at it. Your miserableness blinds you to the possibilities that lie waiting for you to capitalize on them.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Goals have a way of encouraging you to reach higher levels of performance and satisfaction.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I am very much a goal oriented person. The truck driving career appealed to me because it followed a model that I had repeatedly taught to my employees during the years that I was a business operator. That model is sometimes referred to as “performance based pay.” Basically the employee gets to determine how much money he makes by producing effective results. As a person reaches the initial goals they have set for themselves, they begin to see how much more potential they actually have. I remember when I started to earn around a thousand dollars a week as a truck driver. That seemed like pretty decent money for what I was doing. Then it also opened my eyes to how much money I was leaving on the table through my own inefficiencies.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had reached my goals, but there was still more that was almost begging to be accomplished. I could see it now. There was no reason it had to stay beyond my reach. It took me a few years, but soon enough I had almost doubled that income that I was content with before. By reaching my goals, I could see the potential that was still out there. I wasn’t bound by my own self declared delusions of how miserable this career was. I was free to pursue excellence and prove I was capable of obtaining it. There’s nothing so liberating as freeing yourself from “group think.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Truckers really limit their own satisfaction and income potential by commiserating with each other all the time. When is the last time you heard a fellow driver tell you how he’s set a goal to increase his income this year by ten thousand dollars? More than likely you heard something like, “I am looking for another company. This one just doesn’t have the miles I need to make a living. They treat me like I’m just a number, and they could care less whether I’m making it or not.” Most truck drivers hamstring themselves with their own low aspirations. They are mediocre performers who don’t recognize their own potential. I can assure you that their employer has ample opportunity for them to succeed. Very seldom is it actually the company’s fault when a driver is a low performer. Does that bother you when I say that? I am convinced that is a hard truth we all need to learn. Mediocrity reaps no rewards. Almost every truck driver I know has switched companies multiple times, only to switch again when they find they are still disillusioned.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You won’t catch me telling you how bad my company is. They gave me opportunity and I gave them results. This is the formula for success at trucking. The driver has to produce. The burden is upon the driver, and it is a great opportunity for him to prove his mettle. Drivers who settle for less get less. Never settle on mediocrity. Motivate yourself to excel. I promise you, success at trucking is within your grasp. Courage reaches out and takes hold of success.</span></p></span>Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-16836376093478775992020-05-03T14:06:00.000-07:002020-05-03T14:06:22.216-07:00What I Have Learned From This Pandemic You don't need an army or even a weapon to bring a nation to it's knees.<br />
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People can be controlled by fear.<br />
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Fear is as serious a debilitating contagion as any virus.<br />
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You can be esteemed an expert, yet change your ideas on your expertise almost daily. No one will notice. You'll still be considered an expert.<br />
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During a disaster you can declare someone an "expert," parade them on national media, and fear will drive people to follow their suggestions in a cult like fashion.<br />
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When being questioned on live T.V. before an anxious nation, it's quite acceptable for an "expert" to answer most of the questions with something like, "We just don't know."<br />
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Vanity and fear do strange things to people. A surgical face mask is neither a fashion statement or a reliable means of preventing a viral infection. And when you wear it riding low so it's merely covering your chin, it's even less effective at either one of those objectives.<br />
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The millions of Chinese people you see on television wearing masks is not proof that masks help stop the transmission of the Corona virus. They've been wearing masks in China for a couple of decades now. The air pollution is so bad over there that they do that to protect their lungs.<br />
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I've discovered that every day I touch my face an average of 10,387 times. It's miraculous that I'm still alive.<br />
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It's strange that "non essential workers" were forced to stay at home. Among the groups of people who have still not returned to work are our members of the House of Representatives. We've known for years how non essential they are to our well being, but somehow that awareness has finally caught up with them.<br />
<br />Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-41097659105482844322020-04-11T06:08:00.000-07:002020-04-11T06:08:55.876-07:00Trucking Will Survive This Pandemic<div>
I know some of you are wondering if you should try to get into trucking at this point in time. Others may be concerned about their jobs. What's taking place in the country is crazy in my opinion. But, I want you to know that trucking will survive this madness.</div>
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The wrecking ball that has been unleashed on our economic system is destroying lives, families, legacies, and businesses. It's very sad to witness the incalculable destruction. Trucking will take some hits. We're going to see some smaller companies close up. We will also probably be surprised by a couple of the big companies suffering, and reducing their operations, or being absorbed into another large company. Cash reserves are going to prove that old adage about "cash being king."</div>
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Those things are normal adjustments during trying times. We will see them happen in the next few months. That does not indicate that trucking is a poor career choice at this juncture. Trucking jobs are available now, and still will be as the dust settles and things fall into realignment.</div>
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We are already witnessing supply chains being busted up, and that just compounds the negative effects on various suppliers. Closing restaurants is a great example of this. Food delivery is suffering and so are the vendors in that supply chain. They were specifically geared to supply restaurants, and their packaging is having to be completely re-tooled for grocery store distribution. What a mess!</div>
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There's a lot of volatility in the supply chains now. Prices are going to fluctuate wildly. If things stay on lockdown there will be too much truck capacity in comparison to demand and that's going to put tremendous downward pressure on freight rates. That always results in people selling trucks, and that results in the valuations of trucking assets decreasing. None of that is good for the industry.</div>
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The truth is that we are in a violent storm. We are also a necessity in times like these. This is not a time to be fearful. It's a time to show your resolve. It's a time to be a <a href="https://www.truckingtruth.com/trucking_blogs/Article-3852/what-it-takes-to-be-a-top-tier-driver">Top Tier Driver.</a></div>
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If you need or want a trucking job, I encourage you to be brave and jump into the fray. You will be rewarded.</div>
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If you're already employed as a driver I encourage you to be a top performer. Lead by example. Don't cower at what others fear. Lean into your profession with vigor and determination. Be effective. Be proficient. Be productive. Those are the drivers who stand the test of time. They also will survive this unforeseen test of our system of capitalism. Free markets demand efficiencies, and there's no better time to prove you're worth keeping on the payroll.</div>
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Keep trucking my brothers and sisters. Your time to shine has come upon you. Face it with determination and boldness. You will slay this dragon!</div>
Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-18812301935107271042020-03-26T08:08:00.001-07:002020-03-26T11:50:58.474-07:00The Boogey Man Virus<br />
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Being on a dedicated account, I oftentimes go to repeat customers. Some of them I go to enough that they know me by name. Everybody has new procedures and protocols in place now to accommodate this whole "social distancing" experiment.<br />
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One of my customers had a sign up telling us to un-tarp and un-strap after driving into the building, and then lay our paperwork on the bed of the trailer. They would then unload it, sign the bills, and leave it on the trailer. It said, "Do not get out of your cab until the fork lift driver signals you with three short beeps on his horn." Then we were allowed to get out and grab our paperwork!<br />
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At the Hydro plant in Cressona, PA I headed for the guard shack just like I've done for the past five and a half years, and I find the door is locked. The guard comes to the glass door and shouts through the glass for me to stand back eight feet and he will bring my bills out and set them on the table just outside the door. Then I have to wait until I hear him lock the door back before I can advance to the table and sign my bills! He then waits for me to leave before gathering them up.<br />
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I'm about sick of this "Boogey Man" altering our everyday behavior. Before the guard closed the door behind him, as he returned to his protective lair, he looked back at me saying, "Geesh Dale, whoever thought it would get to this? I feel like I'm playing a part in a science fiction movie." He is right - that's kind of how it feels. I feel like I'm re-living an episode of "The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers."<br />
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I seriously question this whole approach to battling a virus. It seems most healthy people can deal with it successfully. If more of us could be exposed, then more of us would develop anti-bodies. That seems to me the fastest way to eliminate the threat. Why can't we concentrate on protecting our senior citizens and other highly vulnerable people while the vast numbers of healthy people develop a natural resistance to this? Avoiding a virus doesn't eliminate it. Developing an active defense mechanism kills it.<br />
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What do I know about fighting the "Boogey Man?" Nothing! I'm just a dumb truck driver who still has some modicum of common sense.<br />
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Once we have a significant part of our population with effective anti-bodies we could harvest their blood plasma and give it to the vulnerable folks. OMG, that's just too simple isn't it!<br />
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I'm not scared of the "Boogey Man," but these nut jobs in D.C. are literally frightening.Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-13722074928353217502020-03-22T10:10:00.001-07:002020-03-22T10:10:34.755-07:00I'm Hearing Voices!<br /><br />I ran through the night last night and around 0400 I parked my rig at the Harrisonburg Travel Center in Harrisonburg, VA. After sleeping for about six hours I got out of the truck to check my load and take a walk. As I was putting my foot down to the bottom step on my tractor I clearly heard a nearby and cheerful female voice say, "Good morning!"<br /><br />I looked to my right - nobody in sight. My truck's open door is blocking my view in the other direction. I climb on down and close the door expecting to see the source of this voice, and there's nobody. I'm puzzling over this now and not sure I want to move out into the open. Where did this voice come from, and why haven't they revealed themselves to me? I know I heard someone greet me - where are they?<br /><br />I pause for a moment, tuck my shirt into my pants, and turn around facing the side of the reefer trailer attached to the truck that parked "nose in" next to me. I'm still bewildered as to where this voice is coming from, when I hear it again saying, "Don't let me startle you." At this point I just blurt out with, "You might as well give up on that. I'm always startled when invisible people start a conversation with me." I figured that would bring them out of hiding!<br /><br />Then the phantom lady says, "I'm down here. I didn't want you to be surprised if you spotted me." So, I look down, and there she is. She's laying on the ground underneath the reefer! She's an owner/operator laying underneath her trailer repairing a leaking air line! I gave her a hand and was relieved to know that I wasn't "hearing voices."<br /><br />It was funny to me. Just last week one of my son in laws asked me when I was going to retire. I told him, "When I start talking nonsense and soiling my pants, I believe I will go home and be as much trouble as I can to my kids!" Then all of a sudden I'm hearing voices in the truck stop parking lot. I thought, okay my time may be getting near. I'm happy and relieved to know I may have a few more years left in me to keep chasing that white line.<br /><br />Keep trucking my friends, and just ignore those voices if you're hearing them.Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-6612182893863848992019-08-04T09:47:00.001-07:002019-08-04T09:52:10.526-07:00How To Make More Money In TruckingThis is a favorite topic of mine. I have done very well in this career, and I like to help others see their way to success. One thing that stands out to me as I observe new drivers is their unwillingness to commit themselves to making themselves into a driver who is worth more money. They always seem to think the path to more money is switching companies or becoming a lease/operator or owner/operator.<br />
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Very seldom (more like never) do I see people trying to figure out how to be more effective in their job, or how to maximize the use of their time. It's always this idea that says I have to be looking elsewhere, and therefore they seldom ever obtain their goal which keeps them very disgruntled in their career. They are always considering their options, but never seem to see the one option that is helpful.<br />
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To make more money in trucking you simply focus on producing better results.<br />
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You can do that at any company. It takes time, commitment, and resolve. All of that is difficult to face head on because it makes us focus on the real issue. It's not nearly as easy as switching companies, and it requires us to accept the blame for our own shortcomings. Most of us prefer the path of least resistance, and the easiness of laying blame outside of our own responsibilities. Thus trucking has it's own culture of complaining malcontents - it's a non stop whine-fest of people who can't seem to make enough money.<br />
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For some strange reason people get their CDL and their head explodes with the idea that they are suddenly valuable. There is no such thing as instant value in trucking. Nobody becomes a valuable asset overnight or even during their first year or two. Experience breeds expertise, and value is built on the foundation of consistent execution of that expertise.<br />
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I'm pulling a quote from a conversation in the Trucking Truth forum to illustrate this. Listen as a relatively new driver says...<br />
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<b>"The only reason I’d even consider owner operator is because I’m locked into a low mileage rate. I’d love to get .67 a mile. I’m not sure if the hassle is worth it though. I may have to switch companies though if I want a raise. I’m considering my options right now."</b><br />
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I have no idea what "low mileage rate" this driver thinks they are locked into. But, I started my career at 27 CPM, and managed to turn that into almost $50,000 my rookie year. I never once focused on my CPM rate. I never once "considered my options." I committed myself to executing my duties in a way that nobody else was even attempting. I focused on being the most productive driver that company had ever seen. All my thoughts and efforts were to improve my results - that is key to success at trucking. Everybody focuses on changing their circumstances and it's completely ineffective. <b>The only way you become valuable in this business is to be valuable.</b><br />
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You can be a job hopper. You can be an owner/operator. You can be anything that you aren't right now, but it will never result in increasing your value like honestly and consistently evaluating and improving your results. Set goals for yourself and don't stop until you've reached them. Then set higher goals. Be realistic, be honest with yourself, examine each week's results and see if you can see what it is that would help you be more productive. That's the key to profit in trucking. You've got to fine tune your own strategies for productivity. We get paid based on our productivity. That's the key takeaway here.<br />
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Be hyper productive. Be successful. Be happy and content. Quit looking outside yourself for more money. You can measure out your own pay in this career. I made a killing starting at 27 CPM, while my companions complained and quit the company or even gave up on trucking altogether. Value is something we build ourselves. It doesn't come from the name on our truck doors, nor does it come from who actually owns the truck. Value in trucking comes from what the driver can actually accomplish with the truck.Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-45855790987608840822019-03-04T20:08:00.000-08:002019-03-07T05:19:47.549-08:00TrustI 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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!Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-81211742419821377312018-08-30T12:10:00.000-07:002018-09-01T18:34:30.307-07:00Going HomeI often write about the enjoyment I get from this trucking career. I really do enjoy my time on the road. I hope that those of you who read these things can tell how much I thrive on the challenges that this career offers. It is one solid adventure day after day. It has a new set of challenges that open up before you literally on a daily basis. It is not an easy career, which is evidenced by the many who try it and fail, and by the current yammering by the media about the ever increasing driver shortage. It really takes a special person to do this job. It has demanding schedules where we constantly flip flop our nights and days, and it has demanding hours where we generally work the equivalent of two full time jobs just to get it all accomplished. Then on top of all that we are having to work within a set of rules and regulations that are sometimes very awkward and cumbersome. They are designed for "public safety," but they often fall short of their goals and intentions. I love a good challenge, and trucking certainly provides that.<br />
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I have been running all over the place here lately, but this week I got assigned back to one of my favorite runs. I ran a load up to Connecticut, and I am now being dispatched back to Louisiana on a deadhead run just so they can get me back in time to grab the next load back up to Connecticut. I am covering a lot of ground this week. It feels good, and it makes good money.<br />
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My dispatcher called me a few weeks ago to congratulate me on being the top producer last month. I asked him about another driver in our fleet who is a lease/operator because I knew he had been burning up the roads also. He told me that the lease/operators are not on this list because they are independent contractors, and this list just included the company drivers. He then said, "Let me look up his mileage though, and I'll tell you how you guys compare." Here's what he had to say in response to his search, "Oh, I can't believe this. He beat you by six miles! But here's the kicker. His logs have red marks all over the place, and yours are perfectly clean! You are killing it!" What that means is that my friend is having to run illegally to keep up with me. It is very important that we understand how to manage our time and work our logs so that we are not breaking the law. I enjoy this job too much to risk it by damaging my reputation for safety and reliability.<br />
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On my mind today is one of my favorite things about this job, and that is going home to be with my wife. I have discovered that absence truly does make the heart grow fonder. It is a great sacrifice to be separated from one another, but it is also a great joy to be reunited for a brief few days each month. I actually took a whole week off this month and it was thoroughly refreshing. My dispatcher never disturbs me when I am at home, and he always tells me, "You take as much time as you need. Just let me know when you are ready to get back to work."<br />
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I always tell my wife to not schedule things around me. When I come home I want her to keep up with whatever things she has already scheduled. The timing of my comings and goings are never completely accurate, and I don't expect her to jump through hoops just because of my presence. It just so happened while I was at home she and our daughter Sarah had something planned where they were going to be gone all day, and I encouraged them to keep their commitment. I don't think I hardly got up off of our very comfortable couch that whole day. It sounds lazy, but it was actually pure pleasure just being home resting and taking in the sensory rewards that the familiar and secure surroundings of home provide.<br />
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I got to see my friends from church, I took care of several medical appointments I had set for that week while I was at home, and we even got to have a very nice dinner at our house to celebrate Sarah's birthday. I love to cook, and I got to spend some time in our kitchen. There are few things more rewarding to me than preparing a nice meal for my family and/or friends.<br />
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Here I am in the kitchen laboring over a new recipe I had found to be interesting. It was shrimp boiled in butter, broth, and beer with a custom blend of Cajun seasonings.<br />
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We all enjoyed being together. We had some fresh bread with garlic, butter, and Parmesan cheese.<br />
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My lovely wife prepared us a wonderful Caesar Salad.<br />
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It just doesn't get any better than this! Fresh Salad, Fresh Bread, a Steaming Hot Pot of Shrimp, a beautiful woman, and your children to share it all with! I had a great time at home with my family.</div>
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We ate the shrimp right from the pot and dipped our bread into the spicy broth. It was all good. I think I prefer my traditional boiled shrimp which we cool before eating, but it is always fun to try some new culinary adventure. We finished it all off with the one thing that Sarah requested for her Birthday - a Cherry Pie!</div>
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Oh man, I have got to stop posting this information. I'm wanting to go home again, and I am starting to get really hungry!</div>
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This life on the road is very rewarding, but there is nothing that compares to the love and fellowship I enjoy with my wife and children. Going home is probably my favorite thing about this job. I love to provide for my family's needs, but even more enjoyable is being there with them and sharing the fond affection we all have for one another.</div>
Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-84355826446488527592018-05-20T07:46:00.000-07:002018-05-20T07:46:05.157-07:00An Unexpected KindnessA little more than a month ago my first grandchild came into the world screaming and crying for something to eat. During a brief conversation with my dispatcher I happened to mention it. He asked me where my oldest daughter, the mother of this little grandson, lived. I told him Dayton, Ohio, and never thought about that conversation again.<br />
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Just a few weeks ago I was in Miami, Florida and my dispatcher called to see when I would be finished with my current load. I was at my final stop and told him when I'd be back to our dedicated customer's plant in Louisiana. He said he had a loaded trailer sitting there waiting on me. What? It will be two days before I'm back. We never have loads sitting around like that. When they load a trailer, they want it on the road. I asked him, "What are they going to say about that load sitting there for two days before we move it out?"<br />
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His response was, "That's my problem, not yours. I told them this load has your name all over it, and they are just going to have to wait until you can get here to get it on the road." I didn't even think to ask about the load, I just assumed it went up to the Northeast since I seem to be the only driver here who is willing to do those loads. To my surprise it was a load to Dayton, Ohio. My dispatcher told me to take a few days off up there and introduce myself to this new little guy. So... I emptied out in Dayton, and spent a three day weekend with my oldest daughter, her husband Andrew, and their new little baby boy, Timothy James. Oh, and there's a bonus - my wife was there too - she was there helping out the new Mom.<br />
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That's how you make this career rewarding and enjoyable. You keep the team that's dispatching you happy, and they'll keep you happy. At times they even surprise you with an unexpected kindness.<br />
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Here I am with my new little buddy...</div>
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Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-28074854846795269332018-03-24T07:44:00.001-07:002021-06-25T06:16:26.818-07:00Mr. Levelheaded Goes To Truck Driving SchoolI apologize concerning my absence in here. I'm certainly not gone, I've just been concentrating on some other things lately. I've been really busy driving this truck across the country, but I've also been doing some writing. I am just popping in to say thanks to those of you who are still reading in here and checking in on me. I'll get back to this project in time, but for now I am going to leave you with a little short story I recently wrote which is an attempt to introduce you to the many different characters you will come across as you pursue the trucking career. Yes, I met all of these and more when I was attempting to get started in trucking...<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Mr. Levelheaded Goes To Truck Driving School</span></b><br />
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Mr. Levelheaded had grown weary of his dead-end job and dreamed of making his way into the rewarding career of a Professional Truck Driver. While he had some vague ideas of what the truck driving career might be like, his main motivation was his desire to be rewarded for his own personal results and accomplishments. You see, he was a hard working responsible individual, but had never been compensated any better than his fellow employees who only produced maybe half of what they were capable of. He found his current work environment to be so demoralizing that he saw no real reason to continue being productive and efficient. Slowly, yet progressively, he began conducting himself just like everyone else on the job. This action left him feeling more disillusioned and disappointed in himself, and those feelings weighed heavily on him.<br />
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After some lengthy discussions with his wife and family concerning the idea of quitting his current job and going to truck driving school, they decided to give a one year commitment to testing the waters of this new career. Knowing how he struggled at work with feelings of guilt and disappointment over his willful lack of productivity, they felt he might find more satisfaction in a career that recognizes and rewards it's more productive members. So, with their blessing, he began making plans to set himself in a new career direction. <br />
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Once he made his plans known to his parents and siblings, they each began to discourage him with comments based on their misconceptions of the career. They crushed his enthusiasm with remarks like these:<br />
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“Truck drivers have no room for advancement.”<br />
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“It's a dead beat's job - people go into truck driving because they are too dumb to do anything else.”<br />
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“Truckers are smelly unkempt vagrants of society whom no one wants to be around.”<br />
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Their hostility to his new career choice definitely took the wind out of his sails, but the chance of commandeering one of those big shiny rigs across the country still held enough appeal that he resolved to continue his pursuit of it. Little did he know, this would only be the first of many obstacles he would encounter on this new journey.<br />
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Before he turned in his two weeks notice at his current job, he began to do some research about the truck driving career. The discouragement he felt from his parents was only multiplied as he searched online for information on truck driving. While looking into the career, he found websites that seemed completely devoted to making it clear just how bad trucking was, and that it should be avoided if at all possible. It really struck him as odd that these websites were all frequented by truck drivers, and the most discouraging and inflammatory remarks seemed to come from the truck drivers themselves. He thought about posing a few questions of his own in a couple of the forums that he came across, but was afraid he might be fiercely attacked and scorned for his stupidity and ignorance in asking such dumb questions. It was unsettling how the experienced truck drivers participating in the discussions had such disdain for their profession. They seemed to find a sort of twisted pleasure in letting the newbies know just how stupid they were for becoming “steering wheel holders” with nothing but a training certificate, and a shiny new license in their wallet. By carefully posing a question, then dodging for cover with a few snide remarks about “starter companies,” he managed to get a few questions answered without feeling he had completely blown his cover of being a total greenhorn. <br />
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He felt discouraged when he learned the only companies who were willing to give the inexperienced drivers a shot were known as “bottom feeders” and “starter companies” among experienced drivers. From what his research kept turning up, most of these “starter companies” had no respect for their drivers. He saw repeatedly where these same companies were often accused of treating their drivers like slaves. His original impressions of the industry's demand for drivers had him thinking that recruiters would be knocking his door down with generously competitive offers for employment, but that scenario now seemed completely unrealistic.<br />
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Despite the discouraging things he learned in his research, he determined that he was going to give this his best effort and see it through. The lure of the open road, and being able to make his own decisions and choices about how he conducted himself in the workplace only served to bolster his resolve. Against most of the advice he could find online, he decided to do his schooling through one of the Company Sponsored Training Programs he had read about. Not having the extra funds to pay for school, this appeared to him as his best option.<br />
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He had endured many years at his present job while not really enjoying it, so he reasoned with himself that surely he could endure one short year as a truck driver. If it didn't work out, at least he would not be out any money for school, and he would have kept his commitment with the company who sponsored him, all while earning a paycheck to support his family during that time. Convincing himself that he had now overcome all the obstacles he could possibly encounter while getting this new career started, he spoke with a recruiter, and put the whole thing into motion. As soon as his final two weeks at his job had passed, his recruiter quickly provided a free ticket for a dismally long bus ride to the training facility. Shortly after finishing his bus ride, he discovered a whole new set of difficulties that he would ultimately need to conquer in this new quest.<br />
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In an effort to minimize their expenses, this particular Company Sponsored Training Program housed their students, four to a room, in a local hotel. While this was a little uncomfortable at first, Mr. Levelheaded understood the economics of it, and did his best to fit in well with his roommates. After all, it was a very temporary situation, and it would just be a short week or two until each of them were off in a truck with his own trainer. At this point, he was really excited about the idea of getting out there on the road with a trainer and learning the finer things of truck driving.<br />
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It was here in the hotel room that he realized the many difficulties he had not even considered yet. As he was introduced to his three roommates, he discovered he was rooming with Mr. Naysayer, Mr. Overconfidence, and Mr. Misinformed. As they fell into conversation, it became apparent that Mr. Naysayer had little confidence any of them could land a trucking job. Let's listen in on their conversation as they became acquainted with each other:<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Naysayer:</i></b> I'm convinced they're purposely setting us up for failure by making it very difficult to pass the written tests. They do this just to get rid of the kind of people they don't really want in their organization. I've heard reports of them sending people home after just a few days. I also heard they keep us in class for ten or twelve hours and then expect us to study at night in our room. Some students from the previous class told me there were questions on the tests they never even covered in the classroom. I'm telling you, it's all rigged just to weed us out and keep us from getting a job. I've even heard reports saying three fourths of us will be dismissed without getting the job they promised us when they put us on that bus.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> I can't see why they would go to all the trouble of sending us here on the bus, and putting us up in this hotel if their only plan and purpose was to kick us out and send us back home.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Naysayer:</i></b> Send you back home! What are you talking about? They just kick you to the curb, and you've got to figure out your own way to get back home. I'm telling you man, these corporations are ruthless. If you don't fit the mold of who they want working for them, then it's hopeless. They will figure out how to can you and never give it a second thought. Did you notice all those homeless people hanging out around the bus station when you got off the bus? I can guarantee you that at least half of those people came here in hopes of landing a trucking job. Look at them now – they can't even afford a bus ticket home. Their cell phones got cut off while they were here going to school because they couldn't pay their bill, and now they have no way of contacting their families to let them know they need some help. They're out here begging for loose change now, just to try and get a little something to eat.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> Come on now, that makes no sense. Why in the world would... (at this point Mr. Misinformed speaks up boldly and butts into the conversation, eager to share his knowledge of all things trucking with his ill-informed companions...)<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Misinformed:</i></b> I can tell you why they do that, and if you guys had bothered to do a little research before you came here you would already know the answer to this. It's all over the internet – these huge corporations get a check from the government for each student they bring to their training facility. That's right, you can look it up yourselves, they talk about it on a bunch of different web-sites. It's a super secret government program where they get ten thousand dollars for each student they can bus to their facility. Didn't you notice how eager that recruiter was to get you on the bus? It's all a big scam just to make money off of us. That's right – just off of our room alone they are getting forty thousand big ones from Uncle Sam. If they can figure out how to boot us out tomorrow they will do it. It's kind of like that song says, “Go on, take the money and run!”<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Overconfidence:</i></b> They aren't getting rid of me that quickly. I came here to get a job, and I guarantee I can pass any test they put to me. As long as they show us what to study, I can make sure that I pass that thing. I've been driving cars for a good many years, and it can't be all that different to drive a big truck – I mean the only difference is that it's bigger – right? I've driven all kinds of machinery over the years, including a combine in the wheat fields, and a back-hoe on construction projects. I've got this.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> Now, wait just a minute. I've got my laptop here. Mr. Misinformed, could you show me some of those websites where you saw this information? I'm not trying to be skeptical, but I've been doing some research myself, and I haven't seen anything like what you're talking about.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Misinformed:</i></b> Well sure, I mean I could if I had my list of websites where I was doing my research, but I left it at home. I had them all written down on a piece of paper, but that was several months ago. I'm sorry, I just can't remember them anymore.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Naysayer:</i></b> Well, what you've said is enough for me to believe it. I mean if it's all over the internet like that, then it's got to be true. I knew it was kind of odd the way that recruiter got me signed up so quickly. I've never had anybody tripping all over themselves like that just to offer me a job. Now I know it's just because they're making a profit off of me. It's all coming clear to me now. It's not like me to be so gullible. I can't believe I signed up for this. I should have known it wouldn't work.<br />
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Just at this point their conversation was interrupted abruptly by loud knocking on the door. When they opened it, they met one of their instructors, Mr. Sounds Like a Drill Sergeant, who quickly let them know they were expected in the lobby of the hotel at 5:30 a.m. He stressed the importance of being punctual, (with a heavy emphasis on the “p” sound) as there would be a bus waiting to shuttle them to the training facilities. With that, he turned on his heels and went to knock on the next door down the hall.</div>
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After closing the door, the first to speak was Mr. Naysayer.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Naysayer:</i></b> Do any of you guys know what it means to be Punctual? Is that some way that we are supposed to dress or something?<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> No man, that just means that we need to be on time, and from the way he put it, I'm thinking it would be best for us to be just a few minutes early. Seeing it's already getting late, I'm thinking we should probably all hit the rack and get ourselves a decent night's rest.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Overconfidence:</i></b> Well, I've never had any problems getting up early. I'm going to turn on the television and watch the game. I've got a little money riding on this game, and I need to keep an eye on my team. I'll bed down after the game.<br />
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Once the television was cranked up and the game was playing, Mr. Levelheaded and Mr. Naysayer got in their beds and made futile attempts at sleep while Mr. Overconfidence and Mr. Misinformed shouted and cheered at the game. At some point nearing one in the morning, everyone had settled into their beds and the room fell silent except for the rhythmic snoring coming from two of the room's sleeping occupants. That snoring was really the only sound heard until close to five in the morning when Mr. Levelheaded's alarm sounded long and loud.<br />
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Somehow three of them managed to get downstairs in time to catch the shuttle bus, and to say that Mr. Sounds Like a Drill Sergeant was happy that he had to go drag Mr. Overconfidence out of bed would be very much an overstatement. In fact it would be more like a sick joke. He appeared to enjoy having one slacker give him the chance to show that he was serious about the way they were expected to do things. He shamed Mr. Overconfidence in front of the others, making it abundantly clear that he fully expected everyone to be on the same page by tomorrow morning.<br />
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During that first day of class, they mostly filled out a bunch of paperwork and provided urine specimens for their drug tests. But at one point in the day they had a short lecture from Mr. Sounds Like a Drill Sergeant which was designed to brief them on the various things they would be doing that week. That is when they became acquainted with Mr. Know it All. He spoke up and interrupted Mr. Sounds Like a Drill Sergeant several times, challenging him on the veracity of some of the things he was telling them. Mr. Know It All seemed quite unaffected when the instructor asked him, “Son, would you like to get up here and give this lecture? It certainly appears you know way more about this than I do.”<br />
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Later in the day, while taking a little break, they met a fellow student known as Mr. Never Do Well. He told them he was a little nervous about the drug testing. It seemed he had smoked a joint on the trip to the training facility during a layover at one of the bus stations. Feeling a little stressed about his parents forcing him to actually report to truck driving school and get a job, he thought smoking just one innocent joint might help him relax and enjoy the bus ride. He had no idea they would do the drug testing so quickly after he got there. Mistakenly he had been under the impression it would be a few months before they got around to the drug tests.<br />
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At the end of that eleven hour day, Mr. Levelheaded returned to the hotel room, got out the materials they were supposed to study that night, and got right down to work. About the time he felt prepared and ready to retire for the evening, his roommates showed up and made a raucous group effort at half-way reviewing the materials, and quickly covered what they could before the movie they were wanting to watch got started. They were feeling quite confident and were convinced this was looking like it was going to be a lot easier than they had heard. They stayed up later than they should have in front of the television, while Mr. Levelheaded tried in vain to sleep with his head buried underneath his pillow. The alarm went off at close to five in the morning, and once again only three of them made it to the lobby in time to catch the shuttle. When Mr. Sounds Like a Drill Sergeant counted heads and realized who was missing, he allowed a sly little grin to appear on his face, but made no effort at rousing the offender this time.<br />
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When the group returned to their hotel room after that second day, they had plenty to work on. They had been assigned several chapters of material which they would be tested on the very next morning, and Mr. Naysayer was going to need to cover that plus the material from the test that he had failed earlier that same day. They noticed Mr. Overconfidence was nowhere to be seen, and neither were his bags. They never saw him again. Mr. Levelheaded made a joke about him possibly joining the community of homeless persons hanging about at the bus station, but Mr. Naysayer said it wasn't funny. After failing that first test Mr. Naysayer's demeanor had turned more serious, and he seemed a little concerned that he might be hanging out at the bus station himself.<br />
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That evening after a fairly successful night of studying and reviewing all the materials together, the following conversation took place among the three truck driver wannabes:<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> You know guys, I think we can do this. If we stick together and help each other like we did tonight, I think we can get past all these written tests and move on to getting our permits. At that point we can start driving those trucks. Then it will just be a few short weeks until we test out for our CDL.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Misinformed:</i></b> I don't know man, I noticed there were more people than just Mr. Overconfidence missing from class today. I'm not sure how many, but I am sure there were a few extra empty seats in there today. It seems that people are dropping like flies, and nobody's saying anything about where they are or why they are missing.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> I guess I really didn't think about it, but now that you mention it there did seem to be a few more empty chairs in there today. I guess I was just kind of focused on the materials they were going over and taking some notes.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Naysayer:</i></b> Yeah, I'm with Mr. Misinformed, it seems like they're just setting us up for failure so they can get all that government money for bringing us to their school. Think about it, they get a big check from the government, and then they just figure out a way to keep from having to put us on the payroll. It's a big scam, and we're just pawns in their little game. They're going to get rid of us slowly and make it look like we just couldn't cut the mustard. I mean if they sent us all home on the first day of the week, the government would get suspicious about this whole thing, but if they keep sending home just a few people each day, it makes it look like they're serious about trying to help us get a job.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> Come on guys, we don't even know if that business about the government paying them to train us is true. I've never heard of such a program except from you guys, and you still can't provide me any evidence to support your claims.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Misinformed:</i></b> Oh, it's true alright. It's all over the internet.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> Look man, I've seen reports of three headed babies being born in Indonesia on the internet, but that doesn't mean it's true.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Misinformed:</i></b> What? Wait a minute, can you show me where you saw that? I love looking at stuff like that.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> That's my point man, you will believe anything you see on a computer. You need to learn how to use your own head. Think about it. This company has been spending money on us just because they need some good drivers. They provided transportation to get here, they've been putting us up in this hotel, and they've handed out all kinds of study materials to us. They've even been feeding us pretty well while we're here on their dime. That doesn't look like a scam to me. I think they're doing this so they can find some good drivers. They're throwing out a large net in hopes they might catch a few decent guys and gals who will eventually develop into professional drivers. I'm going to stick with it until I see something that tells me differently. I think being a truck driver is going to be a pretty cool way to make a living, and If I can figure out how to be good at this it seems to have the potential to yield a pretty decent payday also.<br />
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After only about three weeks, each of them had obtained their Commercial Driver's License and were waiting to have a trainer assigned to them. They had witnessed many of their new acquaintances disappear from class during that time, including Mr. Never Do Well. It was true that people disappeared all the time, and they would never hear about what happened to them or why they had to leave. It was all done in private, and Mr Misinformed was still convinced that there was something sinister behind the disappearances. He came up with all sorts of conspiracy theories attempting to satisfy his insatiable appetite for misinformation, but the other two understood it. Those people who kept disappearing had almost always provided good reasons for their removal from the program. There were quite a few folks who started the program thinking the company would just take their word when they told them they had no background issues that should concern the company. But when those background checks and drug tests started coming back, you might just say “the chickens came home to roost.”<br />
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The three of them had one more noteworthy conversation together before they parted and went out on the road with their trainers. After that they just sort of lost contact with each other, and Mr. Levelheaded never really knew what became of his truck driving school companions. He hoped he had been helpful to them while together at school, but after their last conversation he just wasn't sure how they were going to fare. He knew what he wanted out of his new career and he was committed to making it happen. Listen in on their last conversation, and I think you'll understand why he wasn't real confident about their futures.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Misinformed:</i></b> Hey guys, I'm not too sure about this company we've been training with. I've discovered a bunch of YouTube videos that make it pretty clear that this is not the kind of place we want to be working.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> Here you go again! You just can't make career decisions based on videos and comments posted online by random people that you have no way of validating or confirming as legitimate.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Naysayer:</i></b> I don't know why we need to confirm anything. You know what they say, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” When you've got the kind of evidence that Mr. Misinformed is digging up on the internet it makes it overwhelmingly obvious that this company does not care about their drivers. I mean he showed me one video where a guy claims our company refuses to let him take home time. They also refused to pay him detention pay on a load where he had to sit for twelve hours. What more evidence do we need? It seems these guys are only willing to help us get our licenses so they can then start taking advantage of us. Why else would they make us commit to staying here for one year?<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> Look guys, none of that really gives you any type of valuable information that is worth basing a career decision on. We don't know the particulars on that driver who is complaining. As far as we know he may be a total greenhorn rookie who forgot to send the proper macro in so that his detention pay gets processed correctly. Do you guys really think the company is not going to allow you to take your home time? Do you think they would even have any employees left if that were true? There is just way too much useless information online for you to even think you can base your career decisions on it. Most of it seems to be from people who are trying to make YouTube and Facebook a platform for their own personal grudges and grievances. When we have 100 posts telling us that company X is great, and 100 posts declaring that the same company is so worthless we shouldn't just walk, but run away from it, then what have we learned? I say absolutely nothing! If you can explain to me how you decipher all that information and come up with an accurate assessment I'll begin to hear what you have to say. The information you're trying to base your decisions on is so contradictory it's useless.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Misinformed:</i></b> Well, what do you have to say about all these videos that show our company's trucks hitting low bridges and not even being able to back into a simple parking spot at a truck stop? Doesn't that show how poorly they're training new drivers?<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> How can you come to that conclusion? Just a few weeks ago you couldn't shift a big rig, or even come close to backing into a parking spot. Today you can do both of those things pretty well, and you are just a beginner. Don't you feel that your training has gone pretty well so far? They're still going to continue training you and will make sure that you're somewhat proficient before they turn you loose in your own truck. The reason you see so many videos on a company like this one is simple math. This is a very large company. They train more drivers in one month than many companies train all year. There's going to be a lot more opportunities to shoot a video catching one of their brand new rookie drivers making a mistake. Potentially they could even have a much smaller percentage of accidents in their fleet compared to the smaller companies, yet still have considerably more exposure on YouTube. It provides no realistic evidence of any fault on the company's part. It merely shows us they have a lot of drivers, and therefore a lot of exposure to the many liabilities that are common among all trucking companies.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Naysayer:</i></b> I wish you well Mr. Levelheaded. I'm glad we ended up rooming together. Because of your help, I honestly think I did better in truck driving school than I would have without you. But I simply cannot deny all the evidence online that you are so willing to ignore. I think I'm going to start looking for a new company right away.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> What about the contract you signed with these guys? Aren't you going to honor that agreement? They provided you with a start to your new career, and now you're just going to bale on them?<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Misinformed:</i></b> I found a guy online who says he quit during his first month and they never came after him. I mean this is a really large corporation with much bigger fish to fry than chasing me down for a few thousand bucks. They write off these types of things all the time, it's just another tax write-off for them.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Naysayer:</i></b> I'm with you man, I think now that we have our CDL we are in big demand. We should be able to have our choice of any trucking company we want to work for. There's a lot of companies out there that pay much better than these guys do. It seems to me that everything they do around here is calculated to make money off of us.<br />
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<b><i>Mr. Levelheaded:</i></b> I can't believe the stuff I'm hearing from you guys! Here's a company that gave you a chance to start a new career, and once you got that silly license in your hip pocket, you all of a sudden became so important in your own eyes that you're not only going to turn your backs on them, but you're going to throw them under the bus as well. You can't be serious with me! I'm going to give my best efforts at learning this trade, and from what I've seen I'll still be learning how to be proficient at this even after my one year contract is fulfilled. There are no shortcuts to success at this stuff. It takes commitment, resolve, and a willingness to see things through. You guys are letting a bunch of internet knuckleheads that you don't know, and can't even confirm as legitimate, influence your career decisions simply because they're on the internet. There is no additional authority gained by a person just because they have posted a video or a comment online. They may be entertaining, they may even be amusing, but that doesn't give them any authority or influence that should have any effect on your decisions. You need to listen to people who have verifiable history and experience at trucking when trying to make important career decisions. I'm going to try and learn as much as I can from my trainer, then I'll learn from my experiences, my dispatcher, and my fellow drivers. I'm not going to allow the flood of questionable materials that I find online to easily influence me when I have access to people who I know are here to help me advance my new career. This company will provide me with additional training as I need or request it. From what I have seen, they seem committed to doing whatever is needed to keep good drivers on their team. Farewell my friends, I enjoyed going through school with you and also enjoyed our time together talking to each other in our hotel room. I wish you the best, but I hope you'll realize the value of sticking it out for your first year right here where you got your start. I'm convinced that you're going to be sorely disappointed if you follow your current ideas on how to get your trucking careers started.<br />
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<b>Nine Months Later..</b><br />
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Mr. Misinformed can be found on his YouTube channel ranting about why he quit trucking after his first three months. It seems that one of his videos about refusing to allow his dispatcher to force him to drive while sleepy has gone viral. Even the ten hour break he admits to in the video didn't satisfy his need for sleep. His work on YouTube is now providing him with a small amount of money each month that will basically afford him a few groceries each week. It's a good thing he's got that minuscule income, because no trucking company wants to touch him these days. It's also nice and convenient that his Mom had some spare room in her basement where he could live rent free.<br />
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Mr. Naysayer fell for his trainer's hype about leasing a truck and started right in as a Lease/Operator when he upgraded to solo. After seeing those huge paychecks his trainer was receiving, it seemed like only a fool would be a company driver. Reality slapped him almost into bankruptcy, and he quickly baled out of trucking altogether. He began attending a trade school to obtain his HVAC license about three months ago. He once thought if he had a Commercial Driver's License he could parlay that into a good income. After going broke as a truck driver, he is now convinced the real money is in Heating and Air Conditioning repair. Once again he is foolishly thinking it is the license itself that produces the income.<br />
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Mr. Levelheaded is still going strong. He continues enjoying his new-found passion of driving big rigs. He's making good solid money and continuing to learn and develop ways of being more efficient at truck driving. He loves his new career and is discovering that he can make more money than the average driver just by hustling and getting more accomplished than his fellow employees. He's often been approached by his dispatcher about special things he can do which earn him extra money, and receives offers of special accounts that he can work on if he wants to. For now he's sticking with what he's doing and working on honing both his truck driving skills and his time management practices. He keeps his options open and hopes to one day find a special niche that will really work well for him here at the company that gave him his first shot at success.</div>
Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-19645859949950660722017-09-21T03:09:00.000-07:002017-09-24T10:53:06.006-07:00The Importance Of Being On TimeAre you familiar with Oscar Wilde's play, <u>The Importance of Being Earnest</u>? It was often referred to as "A Trivial Comedy For Serious People." I've considered it a very funny story for a long time now. I have for you a sort of funny story today, concerning the importance of being on time.<br />
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Of course I think it is fairly obvious when you are in Trucking that you would want to be on time with your deliveries, but something that happened to me last week gives a great illustration into how it not only serves your customer's needs, but also helps to keep you moving along so that you are consistently making the most of your time out here. A Truck Driver gets paid for how much he gets done - he gets paid by the mile, not by the hour. So it isn't really important how much time you are on the job, but how efficient you are at moving your product along. Less efficiency in our case means less money at the end of the month. Sitting and waiting has a negative effect on your bottom line. You want to always make a practice of keeping yourself moving.</div>
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It is up to you to learn the basics of how this works, and to put the practices into play that will enable you to keep things moving along. It is an all too common fallacy where the driver blames the company, or more specifically the dispatcher, for sitting around and waiting all the time. Sure, there are some bad dispatchers, but for the most part, if a driver understands the principles of success out here, his dispatcher will be able to keep him moving well, and making good money. Every trucking company wants their drivers busy and making money. That is the way the company makes money. If you are sitting around not getting much done, it is having a negative effect on the company's bottom line.<br />
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Trucking is an asset based business. That simply means that they use their assets (their trucks) to produce revenue. The more assets they have, the more potential they have to produce revenue. If those assets are sitting idle, they are not being utilized to their best potential. One of the principles that a professional driver wants to always practice is being consistently on time. It is the driver's responsibility to keep that asset being productive.</div>
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Okay, last week on a back haul load from Connecticut I was bound for Unicoi, Tennessee, a nice little town in the Smoky Mountains. If you follow along in here much, you may remember that I go to one of our customers there fairly often. They don't have a lot of room in their yard, and therefore do not allow any overnight parking. (at one time they did allow it, but have since stopped it) They set delivery appointments with you, and the way this works is that once you pick up a load for them, you are responsible to call them and set an appointment. They have a lot of deliveries coming both in and out of that place, and they pretty much set one appointment per hour for trucks that are coming to their facility. They ask that you not come early so that you are not sitting in their yard taking up space, and they certainly don't want you to come late, for the obvious reasons. You are expected to get there on time, or maybe only ten minutes ahead of schedule.</div>
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I picked up a pre-loaded trailer of what they call "Aluminum Rods" at the SAPA Plant in Cressona, Pennsylvania. These are similar to what we call "Aluminum Logs," but they aren't as long. Here's a look at what the load looked like...</div>
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Recently over at <a href="http://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Category-General/Page-1/">Trucking Truth</a> we had someone ask an intriguing question about becoming a flat-bed driver. It seemed they thought that if they drove a flat-bed truck that they would not be required to do any difficult backing maneuvers. They thought that might make it easier on them as a rookie driver. That is a long time myth that has been kept alive by the dry van drivers who are always having to back their trucks up into difficult loading docks. They see that flat-beds don't unload at docks, and therefore they wrongly assume we never get into any difficult backing situations. The problem is that they never see us inside these great manufacturing facilities like the SAPA plant in Cressona where we have got to back our loaded trailer into these tarping stations designed to keep us from falling off of our trailers while getting our loads tarped. Here is a look at the kinds of places we have to back into fairly often...<br />
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You can see my loaded trailer there in the center of the photo, and along side of it are the safety rails that I can walk on as I'm tarping my load. Up at the top center of the photo is the rear of my grey Volvo tractor. It may not be real obvious to you, but there is literally about two inches clearance on each side of my trailer to get in and out of this situation. It is definitely a challenge when backing a 53 foot long trailer into one of these things, but once you've been at it for a while it just becomes a regular part of your day.<br />
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So, I spoke with the folks at IMC in Unicoi and we agreed on an appointment at 0900 (nine a.m.) on a Friday morning. They warned me "if you are going to be late, you need to call us and give us a heads up." Everything went well for me and after making the 525 mile trip, I arrived at their driveway exactly at 0900. Their driveway goes down hill and makes a turn down into basically a big hole where their factory sits, and the yard is full of piled up aluminum product waiting to be dealt with in some form or another. As I was descending the drive, another flat-bed driver from TMC is pulling in behind me. I can see the door that we back into is open and there is no truck inside, so I am quickly assuming the driver behind me is either early or late, and I make a wide swing around in the yard so that I'm blocking the fellow behind me from muscling his way into position ahead of me at the door. <i>This was a crucial move on my part, and part of why I wanted to share this bizarre story with you.</i><br />
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By doing what I did, I had effectively blocked the other driver from the door, and it also allowed me to start backing up to the door. He had to wait in the driveway until I was backed up to the door, then he could proceed on down into the yard. I got out of my truck, and immediately started getting my bungees off of my tarps so that I could get un-tarped and ready to back in and get unloaded. Remember, I am here exactly at my appointment time.<br />
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The other driver parks and jumps out of his truck with paper work in hand, and goes right into the building to get checked in ahead of me. This apparently was his first time here, and he wrongly assumed that they would let him in first if he checked in first. I am right outside the door folding my tarps, and I can hear the frustrated receiving clerk arguing with the driver who is trying to make his case that he should be allowed to get unloaded before me. His appointment was at 0800 - he is one hour late! I can hear the clerk telling him, "We told you to call us if you are running late. This conversation is the first thing we have heard from you today. I am sorry, but this guy here has beat you to the door, and I am not going to put him off - he is on time."<br />
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I'll spare you the details of the cussing and swearing from the "late" driver that was coming from inside the doorway of the building, but needless to say he was not helping his case at all. I was busily working away just outside, knowing all along that he was going to have to walk right past me as he exited the building to "sit and wait" in his truck.<br />
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I'll tell you that I am a very easy going person, who has learned a great deal through the years about human nature. I have observed it in people, and more pointedly in myself, so that I consider myself to be very well versed in our faults as humans. I try and not let people bother me too much, because I am usually already prepared for how they may react in certain situations. This driver caught me just a little off guard though when he walked out the door. As he was passing by me, down on my knees, busily rolling up my first section of tarp, he asked me this pointed question, "Do those people over at SAPA pay you extra for acting like such an (expletive inserted here) out here?" Well at first the hair kind of started standing up on my neck, but I quickly put that feeling down, and slowly looked up at him with a disarming grin, and said, "Yes sir they do, and TMC will do the same thing for you when you start making your appointments on time." You see, he was trying to dump his frustrations over his own shortcomings onto me and make me feel guilty - that is human nature. People do this type of thing all the time to relieve their own conscience of guilt. I just put it right back on him where it belonged in the first place - he was the one who was late after all!<br />
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I kept myself moving that day by being on time - it is important to be on time. Now, here's the kicker to the story... As I was leaving at just about ten o'clock, the next truck driver who had an appointment at ten was pulling into the drive. Guess who got unloaded next? If you guessed the driver who had the ten o'clock appointment, then you get a gold star! The driver who had the first appointment of the day was still sitting in his truck getting madder and madder as I left and went on my way to earning more money that day.</div>
Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-77536749174569608642017-08-27T10:15:00.000-07:002017-08-27T10:21:22.767-07:00"Be As Shrewd As Snakes And As Innocent As Doves"The title for this post is the New International Version's rendering of Jesus's words in Matthew 10:16. Forgive me for taking that masterfully crafted phrase from scripture and applying it to truck driving, but a series of events took place on a recent load which somehow brought them to my mind. More on that in a few minutes, first let me apologize to those few people who are following along in here. I have been really busy, and I have neglected this poor blog. I have much to share with you, but I'm hoping I don't overload you.<br />
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First off we had an eclipse last week, and you would have thought the world had nothing else going on at all with the way it was talked about everywhere and all the time! I mean for a two minute event, it was covered 24/7 for about a week straight. I was in Virginia headed North on I-81 during the event, but I came into a sudden thunderstorm just about the time the Sun and Moon aligned with each other, and so even though it got a little dark for a little while, it really only seemed to me as though the darkness came about from the heavy cloud cover that was associated with the sudden rain storm I was going through. It all took place very anticlimactically for me. Just to give you an idea of the hype that was going on over this event, I ate breakfast the morning of the fateful day at a Denny's restaurant down in Wytheville, Virginia and here is an advertisement I found displayed on my table...<br />
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I was asked to rescue a load that had been abandoned by another driver during the week of the eclipse. It seems the other driver fell out of his truck, and was now sitting at home on workman's comp. I think I have shared this in here before, but falling out of the truck is one of the most common injurious accidents that happens to truck drivers. This driver has been a "problem child" according to my dispatcher, and even though he came over to our fleet as an experienced driver, my dispatcher told me that he has yet to deliver a load on time during the first three weeks of his tenure with us. Just prior to this accident, my dispatcher had requested permission to fire the driver, but the terminal manager said to give the guy some more time to prove himself. So now he is recovering at home, and getting paid for it while I am out here trying to straighten out the mess that he left me to deal with.<br />
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When you rescue a load, especially a flat-bed load, you need to check the cargo and make sure it is safe for travel. This one was definitely not secured properly, and it had already shifted to the point where I couldn't even get the Conestoga cover open because the freight was pushing against the side of it so tightly that it wouldn't slide open. I had to spend several hours prying the curtain open with my breaker bar that we use to tighten the winches with. Once I got it open I found out why it had shifted. The front section of freight bundles were 24 foot lengths, and there was two straps on them right out in the middle of the bundles. That means that the driver had roughly about 10,000 pounds working load limit in the securement devices he was using on about two times that amount of weight! He really should have had about five straps on that section of the load. Here is what happened to his load - take a look at this bundle on the very bottom of the stack. It has collapsed, and therefore shifted the whole load above it into a dangerous situation...<br />
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Here is another look at it from a slightly different angle which gives you an idea of how far out it has shifted. If you look at the bundles behind that section, it should be lined up with those. When it was first loaded they lined up properly, but as you can see it has shifted a good six to eight inches to the left...<br />
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I added three more straps to that section, and three more to the rest of the load just to get it safe, but I still have the problem in that front section of the bundle at the bottom that has already failed. When I take the straps off of that front section it is likely to fall right off the truck, and possibly onto me! One of the issues with these multi-stop flat-bed loads is that you have got to remove and replace the straps at the various stops along the way so that folks can unload their freight from the top, and then you re-secure what is underneath it. This load really should have also had what we call some belly straps on it, but that should have been done while it was being loaded. There is no way to do it now, and to be honest with you, the load is not technically legal the way it is done. A "belly strap" is just a strap that you would put across the load once you have stacked it three pieces high. That way the driver can take off the straps over the whole load, and the lower section will remain secure while the material off of the top is being removed. I was able to sort of winch the load over a little bit with my straps and winches just enough so that I was able to open and close the Conestoga cover with only a small amount of pry bar work.<br />
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One more look at the opposite side of the load here and I think it will be obvious to you how it is leaning to the other side...<br />
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Here is what happened when I removed the straps at my first stop in Connecticut, a machine shop called "Reed and Stefanow." I've always thought that name sounded more like a Law Firm than a machine shop, but I digress. As you can see I had to make a run for my life when I loosened the final strap from that section of freight. It immediately came crashing down! Thankfully the fork lift operator helped me to get it re-stacked and I was able to keep it moving onto it's final destination where they didn't seem to be too concerned after I told them it had already fallen off the truck, but I put it back on so I could deliver it to them. They didn't even put anything down on my paper work about it possibly being damaged!<br />
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Okay, before I move onto the next adventure which gave me reason to title this post as I did, let me share just a couple of other things with you. Life on the road is a visual menagerie of many things, and I try to document some of it for the folks who read this silly stuff I write down. While I was on this trip, I stopped at "Uncle Pete's" truck stop cafe, a place that I've only visited once before, many years ago. It is near Lebanon, Tennessee and it has a collection of coffee cups lining the walls. I asked the waitress if she knew how many coffee cups there were on the wall, and she declared emphatically that there were 6,500 of them, as if she once had to dust them all off one time! Take a look at what I could see from my table...<br />
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Here at "Uncle Pete's" truck stop they also sell some Barbecue sauce that I have been a little afraid to try. If they hadn't given it such an incriminating name, I might have been tempted to make a purchase. I do love barbecuing, and I have been known to experiment with sauces I find along my journeys, but the name on this one was just a little too daunting for me to part with my money and give it a try...<br />
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Okay, I have seriously squandered your time in here, so let's get down to the meat and potatoes of this post...<br />
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The back haul load I had after running this wonky jonked load up into Connecticut was interesting and educational for the folks who want to learn the secrets of success out here on the road.<br />
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The back haul loads for this dedicated account are not set up by my regular dispatcher. There is a group of folks (planners) in the corporate office in Phoenix that are dedicated to finding us back haul loads. These planners don't really take into consideration some of the many things that can go wrong out here, and they have typically already set my appointments long before I even have gotten the load info. That can be a good thing, because they don't really allow you much wiggle room, and that way you are constantly turning the big miles. You really don't want to let them down, or else you start sitting longer and waiting for loads. That is not their fault, they only have your track record to go by when assigning loads to drivers.<br />
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So here's how this one played out. My first stop is in Cressona, PA, where I am supposed to have a pre-loaded trailer waiting on me. Surprise! It wasn't ready. I got a ten hour break in while waiting here at this stop, and by the time they did get my load ready to go I needed to run the five hundred and twenty five miles to my fuel stop location and then take my next ten hour break there before proceeding to the customer for unloading. This fuel stop location is 30 to 40 minutes away from my next stop, which is a customer that I have visited before, so I know that they don't allow over night parking on the premises. It is 2200 (10:00 p.m.) when I am able to put my logs onto the sleeper berth line at my fuel stop. My appointment in the morning is at 0900. After running the 525 miles and stopping at my fuel stop for my break I am 45 minutes away from the customer, so I am going to sleep here and then roll out in the morning. There are several real problems with all this. My second stop for the day is 115 miles away and my appointment there is at 1100 and they stop receiving at noon. That is a problem. I can just barely make the 0900 appointment if I spend ten hours in the sleeper, and even though I can do that, there will be a minimum of an hour before they are done unloading me with those slow overhead cranes they use at this particular location. It is going to be impossible to make the second appointment! So... what are you to do?<br />
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The beauty of running these dedicated accounts is that I am familiar with these customers, and often times they are familiar with me. One thing often times misunderstood by professional drivers is the importance of being friendly and helpful, all while putting the icing on the cake with a perfect service record. Remember, your record of performance is critical to your success out here. You can be the friendliest nicest person in the world, but if you don't couple that with a competitive performance record you still don't have any advantages. I have often had customers do things for me that would be very much out of the ordinary, just because they not only know me, but because they appreciate they way that I sometimes go out of my way to serve their needs. I have that track record established not only with my dispatcher , but also with my customers. I know that sometimes this customer will receive you at 0700 if you are there at the gate and ready to go. They start setting their appointments at 0800, but if you are the type who is a "go getter" and you are set up and ready when they show up, they will get you in the gate and get started on you. That is my plan as I start this day, but wait... if I spend ten hours in the sleeper that means that I can't even get started until 0800! This is why you want to...<br />
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<a href="http://www.truckingtruth.com/cdl-training-program/page92">Learn The Log Book Rules</a></div>
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I have got to get unloaded early at that first stop for the day if I even have a prayer of making it to the second stop in time to get unloaded on the same day. I have been three years on this account without one service failure, and I am not about to get one now just because one of my stops was late in having my pre-loaded trailer ready to go.<br />
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Here is where my knowledge of the Log Book Rules saved my bacon on this load. I can finesse a split sleeper berth maneuver into this scenario and make everything look like it was a piece of cake! Here's how it worked. I logged myself on duty after eight hours in the sleeper and I had almost two hours on my eleven hour clock and just a little more on my 14 hour clock. Bingo, I can roll over to my customer after logging my fifteen minute pre-trip inspection and I get there at 0645. Hey, wait just a minute! There are two other flat-bed trucks ahead of me. There's a Montgomery driver sitting at the gate, and a Melton driver right behind him. I am third in line - Oh Boy, not what I was planning on.<br />
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Seven o'clock gets here and they open the gate. The Montgomery driver rolls in, and I go ahead and get out of my truck to walk in and check in with them. The fellow inside tells me I will have to wait for the other two guys ahead of me, and I say, "I understand that, but is it okay for me to go ahead and pull in the gate and start getting my straps loose and my Conestoga ready?" "Yes sir, by all means," is his reply. As I'm walking back to my truck I can see that the Melton driver hasn't budged yet, so I go over to his door to let him know that he can go ahead and roll on in. The truth is that I am trying to move every thing along so that I can get myself unloaded quicker. What I find upon getting to his door is that he has his curtains drawn shut and he is oblivious to what is going on out here. This business is very competitive, but you don't have to wake up your competition, fix them a nice breakfast and tell them it's time to pull on your boots and get to work. No sir, out here if you snooze you lose! I rolled right on around that guy and got myself inside the gate, and parked behind the Montgomery driver.<br />
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I had my Conestoga cover loosened up and ready to open, and all my straps loose before the Montgomery driver had even finished getting the bungees off his tarps. So, in order to keep things moving along, I went right over and started helping him get his tarps off and folded. Once we had his tarps folded, I headed back to my truck as he profusely thanked me for my help and I sat down to wait my turn. About ten minutes later the Montgomery driver comes over to my door, dragging a strap that he is rolling up, and asks me, "Sir are you waiting on me to get inside the building?" "Yes sir, I am," I reply. To which he says, "Well you go on ahead of me, I sure do appreciate you helping me, and I still have forty five minutes worth of work to do before I will be ready to go inside. It looks like you and that fancy roller system of yours are ready to go." It is at this point that I start thinking about that phrase in the Bible that I titled this with. I shrewdly used the rules to get in here early, then I had to be a little shrewd to get past old "Sleepyhead" at the gate, and I was innocently helpful with the Montgomery driver, who kindly allowed me to go on in and get started on the unloading process. After I got inside the building and they were almost finished unloading me, the Melton driver came to consciousness and looked bewildered that I, the third driver in line, was the first one out of that place!<br />
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When they got done with me and I had everything put away and ready to roll, I had been on the sleeper berth (Waiting to be unloaded) for one hour and fifty nine minutes! One more minute and my two hours was up, and Bingo - I now have 10.5 hours on my clock. I made it to my next appointment ten minutes ahead of schedule, and then had plenty of drive time to keep running after they finished me up.<br />
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I share these stories of success with you in the hopes that for those of you who are aspiring truck drivers, a light bulb will go off as you read them. I was recently both humbled and happy to see where one of the Moderators at <a href="http://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Category-General/Page-1/">TruckingTruth.com</a>, Rainy D, gave me the credit for much of her success, and attributed her ability to manage her time efficiently by reading and learning from the things that I share.</div>
Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-61301541374946211062017-08-11T08:43:00.000-07:002017-08-12T14:59:17.478-07:00Communicating Effectively With DispatchersI spend a lot of time in the forum at <a href="http://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Category-General/Page-1/">TruckingTruth.com</a> trying to help newcomers to the industry cleanse their brains of the garbage they have learned from their online research into the trucking career. Unfortunately there is a voluminous cache of seemingly irrefutable misinformation out there on how to succeed at trucking, and it is disheartening how much of it comes from truckers themselves. Seemingly everyday we have some new person in the forum talking about how they want to start with "such and such" a company because they have got lots of miles, or they would never recommend "such and such" a company because they just don't have the miles. Here's an example... Just yesterday we had a person who was in training at C.R. England talking about how the company just doesn't care about their drivers, are using them as cheap labor, and then starving them out once they become solo drivers so that they can just keep on extorting productivity from the next gullible batch of students coming in on the next bus, or some such familiar line of garbage that you could hear on any given day in any driver's lounge. I mean, these are truck drivers themselves who say such nonsense, and vocally agree with it each time they hear this junk vomited out again and again. Then you have the reality of this whole career, willfully ignored by the truck driving masses, where the guys who understand how this all works are out there reaching <a href="http://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Topic-13450/Page-1/an-observation-on-reaching-one-million-miles">Million Mile Status</a> at the same companies who are slandered all over the internet from the very misguided, non-productive, willfully ignorant truck driving crowd.<br />
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Here's a small example from my current week that makes a great example of how the top tier guys and gals take the high road to make all this stuff come together, while others are willingly content to sit and complain. I started the week with a tough assignment. Without boring you with all the details, I had a load that really had about two extra days worth of time on it. Basically it was a 1,500 mile run with five days to get it done. The reasons for the extra days were because it had six stops on it and they were spread apart at just the right distances to make it real tricky due to the unusual receiving hours at the different customers. By making contact with each customer, and successfully getting two of them to receive me considerably past their normal receiving hours, I got it done in three days! Hoo-Ray, sounds great doesn't it? Not so fast. My effective communications helped me get that one done early, but they also created a new problem for me. My next load which was pre-planned already as a pre-loaded trailer at the SAPA plant in Cressona, Pennsylvania, was not scheduled to be loaded for almost 30 hours after I arrived there. I don't want or need a 34 hour re-set, I want to keep up this good momentum.<br />
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I have sat and listened to drivers just giving their dispatchers grief over this type of stuff repeatedly. I still remember my trainer just yelling and screaming at our dispatcher about delays like this and threatening him that he (the driver) was going to fire him (the dispatcher), as if he (the driver) were the boss in this working relationship! That is not the way to success out here. A great driver will get things accomplished by quietly getting things done because he understands the subtleties of the problems that dispatchers and planners deal with. Logistics is not a clear cut science. Load planners and dispatchers are trying to keep a lot of plates in the air all at the same time. Sometimes the driver feels the effect of that juggling act in the way he is dispatched. So, here's is what I did as soon as I got to Cressona, PA. I sent in my arrival call, and then I sent in my "detention is likely" call. That way I will get paid detention for my time of waiting - even if I am off duty for 34 hours. That is good effective communication, but it is not the way to make the top money out here. I do not like to settle for detention pay. Productivity is the way to success out here.<br />
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So, my next step is to send the following "free form" message to my dispatcher on the Quallcomm: "Hey, I am here at Cressona, but my load isn't scheduled to be ready for another 30 hours. I am not in need of a re-set, and I am willing to do something else during the wait here. Could you please check with the planners and see if maybe there is a little short haul out of here that we could do while we are waiting, or maybe some shuttle work of some sort? I'd much rather be getting something accomplished over taking a long nap!" His immediate response is, "10-4, I'm shooting them an e-mail right now - I'll let you know something as soon as they respond." Here is the magical part of this whole scenario: <i>I'm not stressed, or upset about anything. I know how to get things done, and I have taken all the right steps here. I am in total control here. It is either going to work out or not, but I have effectively covered my bases for success.</i><br />
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I promise you it wasn't ten minutes that went by when I get a message that says, "Hey, how do you feel about shuttling a damaged trailer from that customer over to a repair facility in Ohio? It is an 850 mile round trip, and you can bob-tail back to the customer after dropping the trailer." Bingo! I just effectively turned what was going to be about 125 bucks of detention pay into 425 dollars of real truck driving pay! It is going to be another great week after all. It was easy, it was stress free, it was extremely effective.<br />
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Here is a look at the damaged trailer that I hauled over to Perrysburg, Ohio (Just outside of Toledo) Some of this equipment gets pretty beat up out here. Rookie drivers are famous for making mistakes and tearing stuff up, but this was actually done by the "Yard Dog" at the SAPA plant in Cressona, PA. "Yard Dog" is a term that is commonly used for the small tractor used at a plant where trailers need to be moved around for loading purposes. The name is also used for the person who drives such a tractor. He apparently got tangled up with something and tore the fabric on this Conestoga cover. It definitely needed to be repaired...<br />
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Always keep your dispatcher informed of your ETA's (estimated time of arrival) and your PTA's (projected time of availability). These are really effective tools at your disposal - they help your dispatcher keep you busy. All these major carriers have what it takes to keep you busy, their is no lack of freight. What their does seem to be is a disparity of communication when you compare the steps taken by successful drivers and average knuckle-heads out here who are constantly griping about how they are treated by this industry.</div>
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Be respectful to your dispatcher, he really does want to keep you busy. Communicate effectively with him so that he has the tools to work with for your benefit. Most of them get paid production bonuses, and that is why they love the types of drivers who do the things I just laid out for you in this scenario. He was thrilled that I not only wanted to do more, but was capable of taking the steps that enable him to give me more to do. Drivers and dispatchers are a working team, we are not "Us against Them."<br />
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Here's an additional and amusing bit of information on this same subject. The guy who was complaining about C.R. England got some responses from someone who used to be a driver for Knight Transportation. That driver kept on referring to how he couldn't get the needed miles at Knight, so now he was with a "much better" company. It is a typical example of what I am trying to illustrate here. We need to focus on ourselves, and how we manage the maze of what it takes to succeed out here. I am with Knight, and if I could possibly run more than my average of about 3,200 - 3,400 miles per week they would be doing what they could to help me get there!</div>
Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-82268005597306782772017-08-05T23:30:00.000-07:002017-08-05T23:30:43.041-07:00She's Gone"The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes - it is in the every day things around us that the beauty of life lies."<br />
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-Laura Ingalls Wilder<br />
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Let me apologize to those of you who were looking for an update on my travels with my wife and our dog "Trixie." They got off my truck today, and I am already missing them both. It was very different having passengers along with me, but very enjoyable. I was saddened when they left. I am back to my regular old routine of being alone, but that is just part of the job of being an over the road truck driver. The separation from your family only makes you appreciate them that much more. A fine time was had by us all.<br />
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We had originally planned for her to stay with me for one week, but we ended up doing two, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves through it all. Having my family with me has always been a treat. All three of my girls have ridden with me, and now I can add that my wife has ridden with me too. I must admit that I was preoccupied with having her along, and I just never took the time to write anything about it here. Let me first share with you where we went together. Our first trip started at the SAPA plant in Delhi, Louisiana and we went to Connecticut, a fairly typical load for me. Here are the customers, and their locations, that we made deliveries to on that first leg of our journey together...<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">✔</span> Yarde Metals in Southington, Connecticut<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">✔</span> Porcelen in Hamden, Connecticut<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">✔</span> Stanley Access Technologies in Farmington, Connecticut<br />
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Kim was happy to get to go up into the New England area and enjoyed the scenery along the way.<br />
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We had one little mishap where she fell out of the tractor while trying to climb out at a truck stop. She got a few bruises but was not hurt badly. By the way, did you know that falling from the tractor is the most common injury that happens to over the road truck drivers? That is a true fact, and an interesting little piece of trucking trivia for those of you who may be interested. I felt bad because I had neglected to go over with her about how important it is to maintain three points of contact at all times when climbing down from the tractor. After that I probably got on her nerves reminding her, each time we stopped, to use three points of contact.<br />
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Our back haul load picked up from the SAPA plant in Cressona, Pennsylvania and had two stops on it. I took her to breakfast at Jean's place while we were in Cressona, and she got to meet my friend Jean. I've posted in here a couple of times about this very small little restaurant, and we had a typical visit there with Jean spending some time with us at our table conversing about my life and travels as an over the road truck driver. It was a pleasant experience for us all.<br />
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We made both our deliveries in Tennessee to the following customers...<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">✔</span> Great Dane Trailer Manufacturing in Huntsville, Tennessee<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">✔</span> IMC Aluminum Fabrication in Unicoi, Tennessee<br />
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Then we ran empty back to Delhi thinking that my wife would go home from there. On our way back I got a message from my dispatcher informing us that our next load would take us on a good long trip with multiple stops that would final up in Fairfax, Vermont. Well, that was just too much for her to bear, since she had already told me that she would really like to see Vermont some time. Just as she made up her mind to stay with me another week, I got a call from my dispatcher letting me know that our much anticipated trip into Vermont was getting cancelled!<br />
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He went over a list of available loads that we could choose from, and one particular one caught my attention. It had it's final stop up in Farmington, Minnesota, but it also had two things about it that I knew would interest my wife, so I told him to put me on that one. Allow me to insert a tip here for any future truck drivers following along in here. This is how you can be treated when you have proven yourself to your company as the type of driver who always gets things done. I get preferential treatment all the time. Getting to pick and choose my loads is a common occurrence for me. I'm not trying to boast or sound proud here, I just want to show the pleasant realities of a career that is much maligned by the naysayers who slander their employers and talk badly about being "force dispatched" by Nazi dispatchers. The drivers who are recognized as movers and shakers in this business are highly respected and often times treated like royalty.<br />
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Okay, as I am sure you are wondering by now, I will share with you what the two things were about this load that I knew would interest my dear wife. First off, it had two stops in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the delivery appointments would allow us to spend a little down time there. Secondly, it had a stop in De Smet, South Dakota.<br />
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Well, that would allow us to spend some time with our long time close friends in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jim and Virginia Rogers. We've known them both since before we were married, and we've been married 35 years! They both turn 88 years old this year, and I try to see them as often as I get the chance. This was a special treat for Kim. Jim outdid himself by cooking us a delicious meal of smoked chicken with baked potatoes and homemade strawberry shortcake for dessert. Here's a shot of Kim and Virginia enjoying seeing each other on the couch in their living room...<br />
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For you to understand our connection with De Smet I need to give you just a little family history, or background. During the years that we were raising our three little girls we spent a lot of time reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books to them. We have always had a wonderful family life together, but one thing that was always special for us was reading together in the evenings. We purposely never owned a television, and that one unusual action alone made our family life very different from most folks. Each of us has fond memories of snuggling up in the bed together, or maybe sitting around a nice fire in the fire-place on a chilly winter night, cozily reading together of those adventurous pioneer experiences of the Ingall's family. So, while in De Smet, I took a little extra time and we looked around at some of the things that the Laura Ingalls Wilder Society there has to offer to the tourist who happen to travel through the area.<br />
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We toured the home that "Pa" built in town, and even learned some things that we didn't know about the Ingalls family from our many readings of the books. The tour started at this lovely little home where the Laura Ingalls Wilder Society spearheads their tours...<br />
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The tour included the original Surveyors cabin, and a replicated building like the one room school house along with a restored covered wagon from the time period. Here is a shot of Kim and Trixie standing on the small porch of the house that Pa built in town. The house was originally much smaller, but they added on to it as time and money allowed. It stands today with much of the original materials still preserved for the many fascinated onlookers who show up to see it...<br />
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I got a kick out of the restrooms that we came across at a De Smet city park while we were out walking our dog. The whole town here has embraced the legacy of having such a famous author spend some of their lifetime here. Instead of having a sign that indicates which restroom is for the men or the women, they just used those familiar and affectionate words of Laura's for her parents, to indicate which gender belonged in which side of the building.<br />
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We did have one slight problem on this little trip, and that was the struggle for who was supposed to get to ride in the passenger seat. It seems that Trixie thought we had made this trip just for her, and therefore she thought the passenger seat was her right and privilege. On the other hand Kim seemed to think we had taken this adventure for her pleasure, and so the struggle for dominance ensued and endured throughout the trip. Sometimes I would look over there in the passenger seat and see something like this...<br />
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Other times I might look over there and see a negotiated compromise going on which usually looked something like this..<br />
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While Trixie seemed to prefer that seat all to herself, she was willing to share it, as long as she could come and go as she pleased. That dog took her duties seriously on this trip, and she was determined that we had brought her along for extra security. She was fierce when anyone got too close to our truck! Who knows what goes on in a dog's head? I only know that she was determined that we had brought her along for a reason, and she was intent on taking care of her important business.<br />
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We made our way back to Delhi with some return materials that we had picked up while in Tulsa, which made for a nice leisurely back haul trip for us.<br />
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We had a great time together. Both of us enjoyed this trip very much. I am hoping we get to do it again sometime soon. We got to see some of the country together, and we took the time to see some old friends along the way, and enjoy our little connection with De Smet while there. Overall, I'd say that was a great trip together! This is a demanding career, but you don't have to be a slave to it, nor tyrannized by it's demands. You can enjoy yourself out here, and it is important that you do. I certainly do, and it makes it all worth while when you can enjoy what you do, and make a great living at it too.<br />
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She's gone, but not forgotten. I think of her constantly, and speak with her daily. She's as much a part of me as I am of her. Our separation is momentary, but our love and affection is forever ongoing. It is a difficulty that the Over The Road driver endures, but he bears up under it knowing that he is doing a job that helps to keep our economy humming along. I love my wife, and I love my job. Keeping those two things in balance is a rewarding challenge that many fail to do. I hope I can look back at the end of my days and know that I did just that.Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-1737535682527573432017-07-19T15:32:00.000-07:002017-07-19T15:32:12.078-07:00Me And You, And A Dog Named Boo"Me and you and a dog named boo,<br />
Travellin' and livin' off the land.<br />
Me and you and a dog named boo,<br />
How I love being a free man."<br />
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Those are the lyrics to one of a few hits that the band "Lobo" came up with a good many years ago.</div>
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They came to mind this week as I set off to do something for the first time ever. After spending an entire week of home time with my dear wife, she has decided she wants to ride with me for a little while. This is something I have looked forward to for a good while. We are also taking our little Rat Terrier "Trixie" with us.</div>
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So, we are going to see how these two girls like life on the road, an experiment that will probably determine how many of us end up riding in this truck in the future. I have a feeling the dog is going to love it, and the wife is going to say, "That was fun, but I'll see you when you come home next time." She will probably prove me wrong, she has a way of doing that at times when I least expect it.<br />
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My wife is free from some of her responsibilities around here, since she recently quit working. I am glad to have her along. It will be fun being together, and it will be fun for her to see what I do out here on the road. I always had a great time with my girls when they rode with me, and I see no reason for this to be any different. The problem lies in the fact that living on the road is not always easy. Oh it is interesting and fun at times, but it isn't always easy. There will be adjustments that I'll probably make to accommodate her, but she insists that she doesn't want me to cut into the way I perform my job. She wants me to keep making that top money!<br />
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She is a great gal, always willing to sacrifice for my success. That's one of the many reasons I love her like I do.<br />
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Today is Wednesday. I came home Friday for some doctor appointments this week. My dispatcher told me to take as much time as I needed. It looks like we will pull out of here on Friday. I will probably pick up a load in Delhi, Louisiana on Saturday and get this journey started. I'll update this in a few days and we will try to keep you posted on how it is going with the three of us on board. </div>
Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-16085633776970873722017-07-12T05:29:00.000-07:002017-07-12T06:29:31.884-07:00Putting Your Career into OverdriveI spend a lot of time trying to help people understand how to succeed at Trucking. Goodness, just a brief little bit of research online into this career will make you realize that a lot of people are not doing very well as truck drivers. It is a much misunderstood career. People hear about how you can make some big money at this, then they see a few of those misleading ads on the back of semi-trailers and they go jumping in completely unprepared for what they are about to get into. From what I can gather there is approximately 5% of the new entrants into this career who go on to be successful at it. That's pretty bad statistics.<br />
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Many of the larger trucking companies have instituted their own training programs to help people obtain a CDL and get started in the career simply because they need drivers. It seems they have a slightly little better chance at keeping a driver whom they've trained from the very beginning, but it is a costly endeavor.<br />
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The big problem with truck driving is that it is so demanding. There are long hours. There is the separation from your family. There is the sometimes surprising reality of being all alone out here. A new truck driver seldom is accustomed to having a job with so little supervision. New truck drivers learn very quickly the results of their own decisions, and they usually regret their own choices when something goes south for them. It is a whole lot easier to have a job where you have a foreman who tells you to take that stack of materials over there and re-stack it over in that other building on the south end of the property. Anybody can handle that. It is specific, and it is easy. Having clear cut directions and objectives makes a job easy to do. But... what if your foreman allowed you to make more money by taking your own initiative and getting more things accomplished by using your own head?<br />
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I was once on a construction site when I was in the sign business, and I heard a foreman telling a common laborer on the job some things he wanted him to do. The young fellow was kind of complaining and wanting to know why didn't the foreman just have some of those other guys do that particular task. The foreman kind of squared off with the recalcitrant helper and looked him in the eyes as he made this statement, "Young man they hired me from the neck up, I'm supposed to be using my head out here to get something done. You were hired from the neck down, and I need you to start using the strength of your young body to accomplish the things that I need to get done - Is that clear enough?"<br />
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Just the other day I was having a discussion over at <a href="http://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Category-General/Page-1/">Trucking Truth</a> with a person who just doesn't seem to get this whole adventurous lifestyle thing that we call "Trucking." He seemed to think that trucking is going to be so easy. You just have your directions from the dispatcher, you follow them and show up so they can unload you, then you rinse and repeat. He was so worried about what he was going to occupy himself with during all those long hours of just cruising peacefully down the road. He foolishly assumes that he is going to be bored. I tried to break it down for him just a little, and one of the things I mentioned was you will be needing to spend some time communicating with your customers so that you can move your appointment times up. He scoffed at my suggestion stating he was pretty sure the dispatcher will have all his appointments set and he will just follow the directions in the paperwork they give him.<br />
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Well, yes you can do that if you like, and you may end up being one of those people who were just hired from "the neck down." One of the keys to making money in the trucking business is efficiency. That is as true for the larger corporate picture as it is for the individual driver. I make a practice of moving my appointments - it is a big part of why I am considered one of the top drivers in my fleet. If one wants to turn some big miles consistently, and have dispatch trusting them fully to be able to handle what ever they have to dish out, then they have got to establish a track record of "gittin er done."<br />
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Here's an example of what I did on this last load to give you a picture of how this works to your advantage. I picked this load up late on Friday night in Cressona, Pennsylvania. It had three stops in Florida. Here's how they lined up in consecutive order according to the paper work...<br />
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✔ Thomas & Betts in Ormond, Beach Florida (appointment at 0800 Monday)<br />
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✔ TW Metals in Orlando, Florida (appointment at 1100 Monday)<br />
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✔ Alro Metals in Orlando, Florida (appointment at 0800 Tuesday)<br />
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Well, my first impression with my appointments is, "That doesn't look very efficient. I should be able to get all three of those stops done in a single day if I am ready to go at that first stop and have hours available to me to work a full day."<br />
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Here is where the problem lies. My third and final stop at Alro Metals has a cut off time for the receiving department of twelve o'clock - noon! Actually the latest appointment they will give you is eleven a.m. If you have an eleven o'clock appointment and you are running late, they will not take you past twelve o'clock. Well, I don't like this whole scenario, and I am convinced I can remedy it. But wait... the paper work also states that at Alro Metals you have got to make an appointment 48 hours in advance! So, the average person who was hired from the neck down says, "Well, I will just take my time on this one, there is no way to get around it."<br />
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People, we make money by moving freight. Sitting and waiting is one of the biggest complaints I see when people are posting on line about their frustrations with this career. I do everything I can to keep myself moving. I got everything delivered on this load by Monday afternoon at 1400 - that is two p.m., and then I was able to knock off another 200 miles toward my getting back to Delhi a day earlier than my dispatcher was expecting me. When I sent in my MT (empty) call my phone started ringing. It was my dispatcher of course, and the following conversation ensued...<br />
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Dispatcher, "Are you serious? You are already empty?"<br />
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Driver, "Yes sir, I will be back a day early."<br />
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Dispatcher, "That is so awesome dude, how did you pull this one off?<br />
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Driver, "Well, I just took a chance and first thing Monday morning I called Alro to see if they could move my appointment to ten o'clock on Monday. After looking at their schedule they said that would work. Then I called TW Metals and told them I was running just a little bit late, and I needed to see if they could receive me at about 1300 (1:00 p.m.) They said no problem. With the way my truck was loaded I could get Alro's material off without affecting TW's materials so I just flipflopped my schedule and did Alro second and TW third."<br />
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Dispatcher, "Thanks for letting me know, this is really great. Now I can get you updated in our system and get you planned for you next load a full day ahead of what we had planned."<br />
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That is how you put your career into Overdrive. You take some initiative out here, and you always do what you say. You try to be that guy who was hired from the neck up. We actually have customers up in the Northeast who request me to be the driver on their loads. They have come to know that I will be there at the time agreed upon, and they appreciate that. My dispatcher knows that he can count on me, in fact he ended that little conversation with this statement, "Dale, I wouldn't have expected anything less from you, but it still is a surprise. I don't know of another driver in our fleet that would have thought to do what you just pulled off."Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-44850938887821259862017-07-09T19:11:00.000-07:002017-07-09T19:31:32.652-07:00OverloadI've said this before in here, but working as an Over The Road Truck Driver is like living two or three lifetimes. You just get exposed to so many things. It is like sensory overload at times. It is just a lot to take in when you are moving across this great country sometimes at an average clip of about three thousand miles per week.<br />
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It is not necessarily a bad thing. Any truck driver can probably regale you with "Tales From The Road" if you dare to get him started. Some of these guys can really talk and tell a tall tale. I sometimes will avoid sitting with other truck drivers while in a Truck Stop Cafe. Sometimes I'm feeling "strung out from the road," as Bob Seeger would say, and I may be in a somewhat pensive mood. During times like that I try to avoid the "counter." You are going to end up in a conversation when you sit there. It's not that I don't enjoy a lively conversation every now and then. Sometimes I would just rather sit and ruminate on my own thoughts, and it's hard to do that when you have guys on either side of you who are lonely, desperate for conversation, and full up to the brim with their own self importance.<br />
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I've been thinking today about the many things I get to see and do out here. I talk sometimes about how you have to make something of this career, and how you need to take it for what it's worth and do your best to make it enjoyable. So many truck drivers seem to be miserable, and they seriously are missing out on some incredible opportunities to enjoy themselves. When I get to a truck stop it is almost always my practice to take a walk. This is not only for the exercise, but also just to get out and discover the things that are all around me, things that 98% of the drivers at any particular truck stop are missing out on. Usually within just a couple of miles of any given truck stop there is a whole world of adventure going on unnoticed by the average truck driver who is too lazy to get out of his truck and do something for his own physical and mental well being.<br />
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Earlier this week I was parked at a customer's property waiting for my legally mandated ten hour break to pass so that I could get back on the road the next morning. I could hear shouting going on just on the other side of a small wooded area. It was the shouting of fans cheering at some sort of a sporting event. I took a short walk over to the area and discovered a rousing "Little League" baseball game going on, and quite enjoyed myself sitting there and watching some young boys and their eager coaches try to best the other guys in the opposite dug-out. It was sort of an Americana scene with families and friends all gathered together for a "rite of passage" that gets repeated all over this country on any given summer afternoon. I thoroughly enjoyed myself as an unknown spectator in the crowd.<br />
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Today I am sitting in Ormond Beach Florida. I got here about noon today, and I have a delivery appointment in the morning at Thomas & Betts. I had time to kill so I started looking around. Well, this weekend at the Daytona Harley Davidson store just down the road they are having one of these biker "get togethers," and though I didn't arrive here on a bike, I just went ahead and mingled right in with the crowd. I admired their bikes...<br />
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And I enjoyed listening to the bands that were featured there playing live music...<br />
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A truck driver gets ample opportunity to do and see way more things than the average member of the human race. He should take these opportunities and try to enjoy them when he is able.<br />
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I ate my lunch today at the Pig Stand Bar-B-Que restaurant. I've been here before and posted a picture of their tanker truck that has been converted into a super huge Bar-B-Que pit. Here it is again if you didn't catch it last time around...<br />
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Today I had their "Burnt Ends" sandwich with a side of Barbecued beans. They have this interesting thing they do here with the bun - they burn their logo into the top of your bun. It's a unique feature that I don't believe I have seen anywhere else. How about this? Have you ever seen another restaurant do such a thing?<br />
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They also had this crazy looking modified golf cart parked out on the patio dining area. It reminded me of the time I was in the little town of Ben Wheeler, Texas where they hold some golf cart drag racing events. People show up with these super modified golf carts that will burn rubber and race quite rapidly down a miniature drag strip at an incredible pace, but all very quietly!<br />
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Last night I slept at the Pilot truck stop in Florence, South Carolina where I spotted this warning sign in the back corner of the parking lot. Whenever I stay at a place like this, you can bet I think twice about stepping down out of my truck in the middle of the night to go inside the truck stop to use the restroom!<br />
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Speaking of signs that I have seen on the road. Check out this one that is hanging right in front of the entrance to a hardware store in the little town of Eudora, Arkansas. I'm not sure if "Hippies" are welcome here or not. The sign looks friendly enough, but not being allowed to use the front doors seems a little discriminatory. I'll let you be the judge...<br />
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I think you are getting the idea of what I mean by sensory overload. I stop and take pictures when I can, mostly just so I can share these things with those of you who take the time to read in here. But, as you can see, there is no lack of content to share with you on many a subject. You get to see and do it all when you are out here constantly on the road. It's not for everybody, but it is a big job that needs to be done by someone, and I happen to enjoy myself out here while "taking care of business."</div>
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I started this load up in Farmington, Connecticut. I went from there to the SAPA plant in Cressona, Pennsylvania, where I picked up this load of aluminum extrusions...</div>
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I have three stops on this load. One here in Ormond Beach, two in Orlando, and then I am deadheading back to Delhi, Louisiana. That is a 2,000 mile trip for this load! They are keeping me busy, and I am soaking in all the sights along the way. I hope you enjoyed getting to see a few of the things that I do and see along my way. I tried to limit myself in what I shared with you, so as not to "Overload" you.</div>
Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-53517422511906864682017-07-07T09:53:00.000-07:002017-07-24T15:12:15.848-07:00What Is This Thing We Call "Trucking?"Is it Pain, or is it Pleasure? Is it Work, or is it just Weariness? Is it a Living, or something more akin to a Lifestyle? Or perhaps it is a mix of all the things I've mentioned here, and more besides.<br />
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Trucking is not a career for the casual observer, seeking a job, to just jump into without much consideration. It takes considerable <a href="http://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Topic-9225/Page-1/commitment">Commitment</a> to make it in this industry. The statistics show that approximately 95% of the new entrants to this career never make it past the one year mark. That is an astounding number of failures at Trucking!<br />
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Have you ever tried to research Trucking as a career on the internet? Goodness gracious, you would think this is the absolute worst thing one could ever choose to do for a living! Many a truck driver talks as if they have thrown their life away in this pursuit. Not too long ago the New York Times wrote an article about Truck Drivers entitled "Throw Away People." Then even more recently USA Today published a tediously lengthy two part article about Trucking entitled "Rigged." Their basic premise, and they came to this after interviewing a bunch of truck drivers, was that today's truck drivers are "Forced into debt. Worked past exhaustion. Left with nothing."<br />
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What is wrong with this career, or perhaps more suitably phrased, "'what is wrong with the people who choose this career?" Has the American Worker become so soft and fragile that we can no longer appreciate hard work and the rewards that come from that exercise? I recently drove my big rig past the Hoover Dam. What a colossal piece of engineering that was and a great accomplishment by American workers. My mind drifted back to those days when there were great men doing great things here. Men like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._G._LeTourneau">R.G. LeTourneau</a>, who had both the Brains and the Brawn to get great things done. My how the mighty have fallen!<br />
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Most of us spend our days at a keyboard pecking away our existence at menial tasks that do little in terms of actually producing something useful. I always enjoyed being involved in manufacturing. There was a certain thrill for me to take raw products and turn them into something useful that people wanted to part with their money for. I find that now days when I am driving my truck I am delivering those raw products to many of the same suppliers that I would purchase materials from back in the days when I was in the custom sign manufacturing business. I still remember the day when I pulled my rig into the Eastern Metal Supply warehouse in Houston, TX to make a delivery and the plant manager "John" saw me and recognized me as one of his customers from years ago. We used to attend the industry's conventions together in various parts of the country, and always enjoyed each others company. He came over to me, shook my hand, and then took me into his office and we had a nice chat. Then he gave me a tour of their facility just because he knows I love the manufacturing business. When I finally got back to my truck the fork lift operator asked me, "Man, who are you? That guy never talks to the truck drivers who come in here, and he certainly doesn't invite them into his office!"<br />
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To be a successful Truck Driver, I am convinced one has got to embrace the whole lifestyle of it. This is not a job that you work at for eight hours a day and then forget about it. You don't go home each day, in fact if you are an over the road driver you may very well work fourteen to sixteen hours a day and only go home once a month or so. Sure, that can be tough, I'll not deny it. But to keep on doing this all the while, and being miserable at it is silly. If you don't like it, go find a different job. You may say, "I can't flip burgers and make this kind of money." Well, money isn't everything, but if you choose to go for the money then why not figure out a way to enjoy yourself out here?<br />
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I get very wearied from all the vicious slander that truck drivers post online about their employers and their poor miserable lives. Hello! We are not slaves, we do have the power of choice. That means you can choose another career if you like. It also means, and <i>this is important in this discussion, </i>we can choose to enjoy ourselves out here while doing this job!<br />
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Who in the world do you know who gets to do the things you do and see the sights you see while you are working? This may be one of the last of the jobs where you are totally unencumbered by other people who are watching and supervising you. I wouldn't even know what to tell you if you asked me who my boss was. How many jobs is that true of? Pretty much I decide how much I am going to get done, and I am therefore rewarded based on my choices and decisions. If I were to complain about my paycheck, I have no one to point the finger at other than myself. For me, one of the greatest things about this adventurous career is that it is totally like being self employed, only it comes without all the burden of being responsible for other employees and paying the colossal bills involved. There is a freedom and liberty to this career that is unparalleled in my estimation.<br />
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I take the steps to enjoy myself while I am on the road. I always take walks in whatever area I am parked. I familiarize myself with the many areas I go to. I learn of their fascinating histories. Some of the towns I go to are quite old and have an interesting past. I was recently in Waynesboro, Virginia. Do you know anything about that town? Look at what I found on my little walk through their town.<br />
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I often stay the night in Fort Payne, Alabama. It happens to be a good stopping point on my many trips up into the Northeast parts of the country. I had been there several times before I discovered their history. It may not be the kind of thing they are excessively proud of, but it is their history none the less. And I enjoyed getting to know more about the area. Check out this story on these historical markers there on HWY 35.<br />
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I find simple pleasure in this lifestyle that most truck drivers never even notice. I see the beauty of the landscape as the seasons change, I enjoy the complicated challenge of managing one's time so that you can be productive and profitable at this. I enjoy the people I meet along the way. I have made so many friends out here on the road. Some of them are always glad to see me when I periodically appear into their lives unannounced. There's a quaint little restaurant in Cressona, Pennsylvania with only a handful of tables in it called Jean's Place. She genuinely seems to enjoy seeing me when I do show up. She will sit at my table with me and visit. She always wants to know where I've been, and where I am going.<br />
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I enjoy sometimes meeting up with my truck driving friends, people like Paul Anderson, who I recently met up with in Lexington, Virginia for a brief visit and a meal as our paths momentarily crossed each other's...<br />
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I enjoy the simplicity of this lifestyle. Am I a bit quirky? Maybe so, but man, I think people ought to enjoy the way they make a living. After all, that is how we spend much of our time. Look at what I did with this meal the other day - I was preparing myself a meal, and I realized that I had prepared it just as if I was having my best friends over for dinner. I tried to place it on the plate so that it had a sense of appeal to it! Silly? Maybe so, but it was an unconscious effort on my part. It was some simple fare of summer sausage with cheese and crackers, yet I turned it into a feast for the eyes and the body...<br />
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I enjoy the many things I get to see and witness out here, the sunrises and the sunsets, the unexpected surprises that happen at times, like this rainbow that appeared at the truck stop where I was taking my rest. After I had driven in a hard rain for most of the day, it was a welcome sight for this weary truck driver to take in before I closed my eyes for the days repose...<br />
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Oh, there are a lot of things I miss by being a truck driver. I miss my dear wife at home...<br />
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I missed getting to see my daughter Sarah, and her husband Austin win a hamburger cook-off contest...<br />
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I miss my daughter Esther, and her husband Andrew, and their goofy Rottweiler "Lucy"who thinks She's a lap dog...<br />
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I miss my daughter Abigail, who I caught "horsing around" with this Sinclair Dinosaur while we were at a truck stop together once...<br />
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Yes, there are problems with pursuing this career, but goodness, who doesn't have some sort of problems in their lives. I certainly don't consider myself to be miserable, or a "throw away person." I'm actually quite proud to be an American Truck Driver. I find the career suits me. I think anyone who spends a little time in this blog will realize that I don't see the world through rose colored glasses. I don't sugar coat this career and try to fool myself into enjoying it. I genuinely am quite happy out here making things happen for the benefit of my family. I have enjoyed much success at this, and realize it all the time when I hear from the many folks who are just out here suffering their way through the muck. It takes a special person to succeed at this. I have been blessed in this pursuit, and I try to do my best to help others realize the way to success at this. I spend a lot of time over at <a href="http://www.truckingtruth.com/truckers-forum/Category-General/Page-1/">Trucking Truth.com</a> helping folks manage the maze of getting started in this career. Some of them survive, some of them go by the wayside, but it is the ones who thrive at it that make me the most proud.<br />
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What is this thing we call "Trucking?" For me it is pleasure, satisfaction, and financial rewards that my family is benefiting from. Don't interview me if you want to hear about how terrible this job is!Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-80426609585471394832017-07-02T08:53:00.000-07:002017-07-02T09:45:28.467-07:00And Now You Know... The Rest of The StoryIf you are old enough to remember Paul Harvey's radio program, and him putting just the proper pause in that phrase to grab your attention, then you are "old" like me. I keep thinking of that phrase when it comes to this crazy perishable load of onions that I took on last week. So, here's the rest of the story...<br />
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Part of the plan on this load was to empty out there in Dallas first thing Saturday morning and then go to our terminal in Dallas and have my "A" service done on my truck. These services are critical if you are trying to make your bonus money, and must be performed by certain mileage limitations. If you go past that mileage mark, then you just lost your bonus money for that quarter. I have found that a lot of our drivers don't even make an effort at making their bonus money. It seems rather an easy thing to do to me, and it means usually an extra $6,000 dollars or more on my pay by the end of the year. I've actually shown several of the other SAPA drivers how to accomplish this, and since then we have been consistently having more of our SAPA drivers on the "Three Star Driver" list at the end of each quarter than there are of any of the other drivers in our terminal's various fleets. What's amazing about that is that there is only fifteen of us, and there are probably 350 or more drivers that are dispatched out of our terminal. That "Three Star Driver" list is considered the "cream of the cream" at Knight, and we have been consistently having our drivers appear on that list. The list is usually small, maybe up to twenty drivers at the most will be found there. There are several measurements involved in achieving the bonus. These measurements include fuel mileage, productivity, safety training, and having your truck serviced in a timely manner. Here's a look at one of those lists from a while back, just to give you an idea of how few make it onto that list...<br />
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Of the sixteen drivers on that list, seven of them are on the SAPA account. Lately, we have been having as many as eight or nine of our drivers on that list. If you are wondering why you don't see my name "Dale" on the list, it is because my first name is "Garland." I actually had one driver tell me that he didn't believe what I was telling him about the steps you need to take to get the bonus money. He said he had been there for about a year and never gotten any bonus money. He considered it to be sort of a lottery type thing where the computer just selects certain drivers at random! Truck drivers! Some of us will believe anything!<br />
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Okay, my intractable prose is getting away with me, and I am veering off course. The point I started to make was "the plan" to get emptied out on Saturday morning and get my service done at the terminal in Dallas. I had set an appointment with them so that they could make sure and make time for me, but with all the delays at OM Produce, and then the entire load getting rejected, I didn't get back to the terminal until it was about five minutes to closing time for the shop. They looked at me and said "Where have you been? We've been looking for you! We are sorry, but you missed your appointment - you will have to wait until Monday morning." Meanwhile the heat is cooking these onions back there in that Conestoga, and I'm afraid they are going to be caramelized by the time I get them up to Michigan where they are now destined. I can't sit in the parking lot during record heat for the whole weekend. I need to keep these onions on the move, driving with my rear door open so they get some ventilation and relief from the heat. We send an email to the terminal in Kansas City and request an "A" service from them for first thing Monday morning. There is no way we are getting a response because they are closed at this time, but I decide to take off after my ten hour break in Dallas and get myself up to the Kansas City terminal since it is on the way to Michigan from here. If they can get me in and do that service for me I will still be on schedule for the bonus pay, but anything further than that and I am out of luck. With this load I have been sliding the Conestoga open while taking my breaks just to give the onions a break from the heat being generated inside that cover, but I've got to tell you this load sure does smell good - I love the smell of onions cooking!<br />
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Everything worked like clock-work when I got to Kansas City, thankfully they accommodated me and sent me on my way, helping to set me up for success not only on this load, but also for an extra fifteen hundred bucks or more this quarter. When I got to Hearty Fresh in Michigan they were glad to see the onions, and unloaded me promptly. They didn't even balk at the load! This was the strangest experience I've had yet in trucking. One customer thinks I have brought them rotten onions, and the next one thinks they are lovely! I don't get it, but I did tell my driver manager that he can count me out on the next load of onions they come up with. I'm sticking to the non-perishable things like metals. Here's a look in my drivers side mirror of the fork lift driver scurrying about taking my load of onions off and putting them right into a refrigerated warehouse full of all kinds of produce...<br />
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This load really got crazy for me. There must have been at least three different brokers involved in this thing, and they were blowing up my phone! One of them even called me wanting to know if he was going to get paid for the miles to Michigan! I laughed at him and said, "Sir, I am the driver. I don't know why you think I would have any say in whether you are getting paid or not. You gave this load to someone at Knight, and I suggest you contact that person if you are worried about your paycheck. As for me, I am doing everything I can to protect these onions from the heat, and make sure they make it safely to Michigan." His response was, "Those are my onions, and I expect to be paid fully for the miles they travel. Who authorized you to take them to Michigan?" At that point I was throwing up my hands. I gave him the person's name in claims who told me to take them to Hearty Fresh, and told him he needed to contact the claims department at Knight and talk to them. Not five minutes later I got a call from another guy who claimed the onions were his, and he wanted me to take them to some place in Virginia!<br />
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Here's another strange twist in the whole scenario. One of the brokers (the one who wanted me to take the onions to Virginia) sent a nasty email to my driver manager complaining about me. He said he had called the receiver in Michigan and they said that I had not contacted them to set an appointment. He also claimed I had lied and told him I'd be there on Monday, when the truth was that I spoke to him on Monday and told him I would deliver on Tuesday, and that I had already set my appointment with the customer. There was actually about five lies he told my dispatcher. So my dispatcher calls me and says he's got to call the guy when there are complaints like that, but he wants me to tell him exactly what has taken place first.<br />
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My response was, "Do you mind if I call him and straighten this out, because you know nothing in that email is correct." He says, "Go right ahead Dale, I hate dealing with these snakes."<br />
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The Broker is perturbed that I'm the one responding to his email with a phone call, and wants to know how I know what is in his private emails to another person. I tell him it's called "communication," and that's what we do to make sure his product is delivered properly. I remind him of the exact times of our conversations, and the content of each one. I also remind him that I'm on a cell phone, all my calls to his number are logged with dates and times. I calmly and professionally let him know that if he had some legitimate complaints about me he had better have them substantiated, if not then he needs to let my driver manager know he was mistaken.<br />
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Five minutes later my dispatcher calls again saying he got a new email from the broker apologizing and saying he got this load confused with another one! What a piece of work these brokers can be!<br />
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As a musician, I've written a fair amount of songs over the years. I'm thinking of working up something about "The Onion Blues" right now. Who knows, it might be a big hit among the truck driving crowd!</div>
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I'm back in Delhi Louisiana today. It feels good to have a full load of aluminum behind me. I'm heading out tonight on a 1,500 mile run that has it's first stop at Sigora Solar in Waynesboro, Virginia. Then I will go to a regular customer, Camfil, in Riverdale, New Jersey. From there I have a stop in Storrs, Connecticut, one in Bristol, Connecticut, and two in Farmington, Connecticut. Some degree of normalcy has returned, if you can call the life of an over the road truck driver normal!</div>
Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251604766772439506.post-85336324395521628442017-06-25T09:35:00.000-07:002017-06-26T20:17:52.346-07:00The Road Goes On Forever, And The Highway Never EndsI am in the middle of a load that keeps making those words come to mind.<br />
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Before I get into that let me show you something. I was thinking recently about how I am being dispatched. I've really been getting some nice loads. This post was going to be one where I tell you about some of the problems I'm facing on a particular load. It is not meant to be a diatribe on the problems in this career, or to sound like a typical whining, complaining truck driver. Just a reminder that there can be issues out here that you will have to face. Stress and problems are going to happen out here, the key to success is how you handle the stress.<br />
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I have literally been running basically coast to coast lately. I've been on the West Coast twice, and back over on the East Coast twice in just the last few weeks. It's really some unusually consistent long runs for a solo driver. Here's a look at how I've been dispatched lately...<br />
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✔ Delhi, Louisiana direct to Hermiston, Oregon = 2,127 miles<br />
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✔ Hermiston, Oregon with six stops back to Delhi, Louisiana = 2,848 miles<br />
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✔ Delhi, Louisiana direct to Farmington, Connecticut = 1,406 miles<br />
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✔ Farmington, Connecticut with two stops back to Delhi, Louisiana = 1,615 miles<br />
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✔ Delhi, Louisiana with two stops to Farmington, Connecticut = 1,442 miles<br />
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✔ Farmington, Connecticut with five stops back to Delhi, Louisiana = 2,411 miles<br />
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✔ Delhi, Louisiana direct to Alexandria, Louisiana = 133 miles<br />
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✔ Alexandria, Louisiana back to Delhi, Louisiana = 133 miles<br />
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✔ Delhi, Louisiana direct to Hermiston, Oregon = 2,127 miles<br />
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✔ Hermiston, Oregon with nine stops back to Delhi, Louisiana = 2,829 miles<br />
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That amounts to basically a little more than 17,000 miles in a six week span! Those are some great miles when you consider that I went home twice during that time period.<br />
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If you'll notice, you will see one of the beautiful things about being on a dedicated account. Every time they send you out somewhere, they have got to get you back as quick as possible so that you can get onto another load for your dedicated customer. There is very little sitting and waiting for a load when you are a dedicated driver for someone.<br />
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Okay along on that same subject, they find us back haul loads so that we can get back to the SAPA plant in Delhi as quickly as possible. Most of our back haul loads are actually SAPA loads due to the fact that they have about 25 plants all across the country. We are usually close enough to one of them to get a load out of that plant. Just the other day, I delivered in Phoenix, Arizona, and although there is a SAPA plant in Phoenix, they couldn't get me a load that was headed toward Delhi. So, they settled for a third party load (a load that comes from a freight broker) that picked up in Santa Teresa, New Mexico and delivered to Dallas, Texas. It really seemed like a perfect back haul for me because I had requested to go home this weekend. The load delivered on Saturday morning in Dallas, and my home is right on the way to Delhi from there. Sounds like it should be so simple, just deliver the load, go home for a few days, and then show back up in Delhi when I am ready to get back to work. But wait...<br />
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This is the load that had those words I titled this post with on my mind. This load was a first for me...<br />
It is an edible load. I am a flat-bed driver, I've never hauled food. While I have seen other flat bed drivers hauling these loads, I have never had the privilege of hauling a load of onions...<br />
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What you are looking at is 45,000 pounds of purple onions. They haul onions on flat beds because they will go bad if they are not ventilated properly. They put off a gas that will cause them to spoil if they are not ventilated properly. It is the same gas that causes your eyes to water when cutting onions. They are normally tarped to protect from the rain, but the tarp is just laid on the top with the sides being open for ventilation. I had a Conestoga cover, so I just drove it down the road with the back flap open for some ventilation...<br />
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I also had to "bump a dock" on this load, another thing that a flat bedder seldom does. It wasn't a problem, it's no different than backing into a tight spot at a truck stop for the night. Normally our flat bed trailers are loaded from the side with the fork lift driver being at ground level. But here at National Onion, they drove their fork lifts right up on the flat bed.<br />
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The destination for these onions was in Downtown Dallas, Texas. I figured it would be challenging, as I had already looked at a satellite view of the location on Google Earth. It was dark when I pulled in there at about five thirty in the morning, but I knew I was there when I saw this scene...<br />
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I feel for some of you guys who drive a reefer unit. I know you guys see places like this all the time, tight spots where you have got to back into a dock, and block off all four lanes of traffic just to get in where you need to be. It can really be nerve racking for the uninitiated, or the rookie driver, but it is just another day in paradise for those guys who regularly haul refer loads.<br />
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I had to wait an hour and a half just to get in a door, and as you can probably guess, there is no where to park while you wait. So, what do you do? You park right out there in the street with the other guys who are waiting. Several of us just sat there in the street waiting for our door. In this photo I am the only truck sitting there, but I sat there for a good while with other trucks ahead of me. I made a block and got myself turned around so that I wouldn't be doing a blind side back into the docks. Here I sit waiting my turn...<br />
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You can see from this view outside my windshield, that I am sitting right in Downtown Dallas. I am very near to the Deep Ellum area if you are familiar with that...<br />
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When I finally got in there and got unloaded, I went right in to get my bills and get moving. HaHa! That's how we do it in a flat-bed - Not with an edible load! They started opening up bags of onions and smelling them, squeezing them, removing the dry skin, and even tasting them! Oh my goodness, when I deliver a load of metal, they unload it, sign my bills, and I am gone - I am spoiled rotten. I waited for about an hour and a half just to get my bills signed, and then they told me they were rejecting the load! What? I don't even know what to do now. It is Saturday and my dispatcher is unavailable. I call claims and explain it to them, and they act like this is an everyday experience for them. Okay, so what are we to do? I am a dedicated driver who needs to get back to Delhi. Well, after going through what seemed like hundreds of phone calls (the broker was blowing up my phone!) they determined that they had another customer who would take the onions - the only problem is that they are up in Byron Center, Michigan! After getting my dispatcher involved we agreed to run the load up there, but I have got to get my truck serviced somewhere along the way, so that puts another delay in the mix.<br />
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I am seriously hoping this next customer will accept this load, because I don't want to have to go dump all these onions in a landfill somewhere.<br />
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Reefer drivers, you have a new found respect from me. You put up with stuff that would drive me crazy. I know some of you think I'm crazy for driving a flat bed, but I guess after all, it takes all kinds of folks to make the world go around. This job is demanding, but I guess each of us has our own limits on the things we are willing to deal with. I'd throw tarps in 125 degree heat any day over having to deal with a perishable food load. <br />
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I hope Michigan will be the end of the road for this load. I'm starting to feel like this load has been energized with that brand of batteries that advertises "it keeps going, and going, and going..."Life As A Road Warriorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01688586798690311488noreply@blogger.com6