Well Trained Driver?????

True Story:
Aren't all truck driver stories true?????
OK. Enough of the wisecracks, which leads me to a riddle.
How can you tell the difference between cowboy boots and truck driver boots.? The answer at the end.
OK, this is true.
Several months ago I was on a 2 lane road that was blocked in both directions by a 5th wheel gravel truck that was turned over. A lot of gravel haulers were on this particular road. The State Police told us in the line that it would be several hours before the road would be opened and to drive ahead about 1/4 mile, where we could back into a roadway turn around and take an alternate route. It took about 30 minutes for me to get to the turn around point, but the 5th wheel gravel truck in front of me wasn't moving into position to back into the driveway and turn around. I got out, walked up to the driver and asked if he was going to turn around. In his best Mexican English he told me he didn't know how to back up.
Three questions come to mind.
Was this driver a US Citizen?
How did he get a CDL license?
Who hired him?
Enough said.
OH, answer to riddle. On cowboy boots the BS is on the outside.
Enjoy the day
Flat Tire

Notice Caption at right

That was the truck I used to drive. Now this is what I drive.


Tis true, I parked the 18 wheels for 4 on the office chair.
I am now a DISPATCHER.
Well that isn't exactly what I expected, but I did win an award.

Alright, that's enough with the wise cracks.

Actually this was something I had been working on for a while.
I was having a bit of trouble with night vision, and rather than become a liability and a statistic I thought it best to park the Pete.
I'm still with the same company, Heritage Management, the company that owns Indian River Transport and North American Tank Lines. We are an all food grade tanker company with 400 trucks. I work solo 4 nights a week, from 6pm to 7am, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Most of the trips are done by our regional dispatchers during the day but I do get to make some drivers happy when I play travel agent. Most of my work centers around break downs, flat tires, getting lights fixed and in the case of a major problem, getting loads re-powered and on their way. Food Grade is a little different than general freight as most product has a shelf life and is not accepted if delivered beyond a certain time.
That's the latest. I'll still be around with my comments and opinions, hopefully a new one every week, but being busy and learning the AS400 software program has been quite a change.
Enjoy the day
Flat Tire

Truck Driving Story Number 2

It’s been requested that I tell more on the road experiences. First, a hard fast rule. I will not preface any story with, “have you heard about..”. Any story I tell will be something that involved me.
About 25 years ago I was called into the operation managers office and informed that with my experience, safety record and time with the company I was being promoted to Driver Trainer. WOW! My ego was massaged. Then I was told that I would get all of the mileage pay whether I was driving or not, plus the full unload pay at each stop. DOUBLE WOW! Next I was informed I’d get the top run, the number one account, 5600 miles per week. I did the arithmetic in my head and at that time I would be top dog in earnings for sure. The truck driver gods were smiling on me. What I wasn’t told though was my trainee would be someone fresh out of school with no real time experience, but that was OK, I was somewhere above cloud 10, surely nothing could go wrong. Saturday Morning I met my first co-driver. He even called me ‘sir’. I spent some time with the entire route, directions, where our switch points would be, what hours who would be in the bunk and so on. I took the first leg out of the yard to I-95, South Carolina, exit 8, (the old Joker Joe’s before it blew up). We both went inside, grabbed some eats and waited for new driver to show up. I waited for a few minutes and then figured newbie had gone to the truck. When I went outside, there was the truck heading down the ramp onto I-95 North. I immediately went to the first truck asked to use the CB and hollered at co-driver to stop. The CB wasn’t on in my truck. Our next scheduled stop was in Charlotte, NC. I called dispatch and was told to head for Savannah airport and catch a plane for Charlotte. Evidently somewhere around Columbia my trainee discovered he was solo, called dispatch and was told to continue to the drop and wait for me. The next day was pretty quiet, we each did our turn driving and made our drops. Once at our final stop, it was dead head to our Northern Terminal, drop and hook for the straight shot back to Florida.
On the way home we stopped at the old 76 Truck Stop in Columbia SC and time for newbie to take the wheel. As I-77 wasn’t opened through Ft. Jackson yet, it was West on I-20, East on I-26 and then I-95 South. I made sure my driver understood it was a 270 degree turn onto I-26 to go East. I climbed in the bunk and started to doze when I felt a rather shallow turn to the right. OOPS, wrong way, I came out, got driver turned around and pointed East, then ahead of us was a split where 126 went into town. Sure enough he started to the left rather than to I-26. I got him stopped again, straightened out and reminded him to take I-95 South and I went asleep. Surely he wouldn’t screw up again.
Wrong. About 3 hours later I’m awakened and asked for directions. We had gone through Charleston SC and he was on Highway 17 North, almost to the North Carolina line.
I wasn’t too polite and told him to get in the bunk and I would take it home from there.

When we got to the Florida terminal, he was still asleep in the bunk. I tried to wake him but he was snoring as loud as a jake brake on a straight pipe. I dropped the trailer, wrote out the report for the shop, stuck it in the window and got my things and left. Sleeping beauty was still doing his thing.

I guess I got the last laugh when the mechanic tilted the cab forward, we had a cab-over, and heard a loud noise inside the cab. Yep it was trainee rolling out of the bunk.
Forget the pay, forget the prestige, forget ego, that was my first and last experience as a driver trainer.

Truck Driving Story

When I first started this blog I vowed I wouldn’t tell any truck driving stories, but I have to get one out of my system. Before I start I have a question. What’s the difference between a fairy tale and a truck driving story? If you don’t know the answer you’ll have to scroll to the bottom to find out. OK, I swear to you, this is a true story and I’ve kept the tickets to prove it.

In the late 80’s and 90’s I worked for a company that delivered new Volvo Trucks from the plant in Dublin Va, to dealers and fleets all over North America. It was good duty until the driveaway company was sold and everything went downhill from there. By the way, I retired the first time shortly after the acquisition. My delivery was going to a dealer outside Toronto and I was on the New York State Thruway, (I-90) between Erie Pa and Buffalo NY. Most of the trucks were governed at 69mph at the factory. Speed limit on the road was 65. No worry, set the cruise control and enjoy the ride. By the way have you ever noticed that even number interstates go from low to high numbers going West to East? Not New York State. On with the tale. One of New York State’s finest decided I was going too fast, and turned on his red lights and pulled me over. (Red flashing lights are for fire trucks and ambulances, but I guess no one has informed this group of grey suited wonders yet). I put both hands on the steering wheel, so they could be seen by this fine gentleman and after being asked for the usual documents, informed me that I was traveling 77mph. My plea that the truck was governed at 69 was of no avail of course and after a few minutes the officer returned with not one but two tickets, my lucky day.
He told me that as I had a clean record he wasn’t going to give me a fast driving award and then asked me if I had a radar detector? I said no, and then he informed me that I did now and here was a ticket for running a bird dog and the second one was for littering. He wished me a good day and was off. And I thought all the ‘honorable’ highway patrol officers were in Ohio.

Before I give you the answer to my quiz here’s how to have fun when you’re bored in a truck stop. Turn on your CB and in between the conversations of the radio rambos and other similar intellects, break it and ask if anyone knows why they have no parking zones in truck stops. When someone asks why, say the following. No parking zones are for those large Petercar drivers with all the chrome and lights and the big over modulated radios with so much echo no one can understand them, that don’t know how to back up have a place to park. If you want to stay around for the fun that’s up to you, but I usually shut the radio off and go to bed.

Answer….difference between a fairy tale and a truck driving story. A fairy tale starts off with….Once upon a time…..a truck driver story starts off with…..you ain’t going to believe this sh**..

Enjoy the day

Flat Tire

The Care and Feeding of Dispatchers

I know the old saying, “You can always tell if a dispatcher is lying if his lips are moving”. But contrary to popular belief, dispatchers are human. They do eat, sleep, have families and have a job to do too, other than give drivers a hard time.

Years ago I used to do some orientation and my last bit of advice was to walk our new hires to the office where the dispatchers were located and said, “these people are dispatchers, their nickname is ‘god’, they will make you or break you”. “If you make your pickups and deliveries on time, cause no claims or damage, they will start moving your name up the list to where the good trips are”. “If on the other hand you give them a rough time, they will put your name at the bottom of their list, give you the worst trips they can find and hope you quit”.

It’s a simple concept, but that’s the way it works in real life. The driver and dispatcher work as a team. Once a dispatcher feels comfortable with a driver and knows he can depend on you, you’ll be pre-planned on trips and your life will be a whole lot easier. Instead of you having to wait after delivery for the next load to come open, which will result in wasted time for you and the company, you’ll be on your way and putting money in your pocket as the miles click away.

Don’t forget, if you think your dispatcher(s) are giving you a hard time, do you give your dispatchers a hard way to go too? Refusing a load or making pickups and deliveries between partying or playing video games in the truck stops doesn’t make life easier for dispatchers either. They also get misinformation and grief from shippers and receivers too.Many of your loads are handled through brokers, and they’ve been known to stretch the truth a little too. Brokers have been known to double book a load with two different trucking companies, and the first one there gets the load. The brokers butt is covered but both the driver and the trucking company are left out in the cold. A shipper will call the trucking company and say he has 10 loads on the dock ready to go. When you get there you have to wait. You’re on you way with a “just on time” delivery and you have a flat tire and miss your appointment. The receiver is on the phone screaming at the dispatcher for his shipment and even though the delay is legitimate the dispatcher has to put up with the SOB on the other end of the line.

Are all dispatchers great to work with? Of course not, I’ve worked with some that have caused me to wait and lose income and I’ve worked with others who have made me a lot of money. You try to minimize the turkeys and built a relationship with the good ones. I can hear the cynics in the crowd saying that means kissing butt, call it what you will, but in reality it’s building a trust that means a lot easier time for you in the long run. Let’s try this analogy. You’ve heard race car drivers praise the relationship between a crew chief and a driver for a winning combination, and you know the teams who do poorly when that chemistry isn’t there.

Here’s another point to consider, if you think you and your dispatcher(s) don’t get along, the problem might be found if you look in a mirror.

Who Represents Truck Drivers Part 2

I'm creating this as a new blog post rather than just a reply to the comment below to a previous post on the same subject.

Anonymous said...

I have read your article which I find very interesting but the thing about who represents truck drivers is the same the world over,

Only the truck drivers can represent themselves, and I'm not talking unions here, to me unions are a wast of time and money,

Drivers need to organize themselves into a CDL Drivers co-operative and have their own representation nothing more nothing less.

That is the only way your voice will be heard.

My previous blog post does not endorse the Teamsters or any other Union or their policies. It's merely that this is an organization that has the capabilities and resources to create a voice that has some teeth behind it. So many times in the past well meaning individuals and small groups have tried to create an effective voice to represent CDL Drivers, but have failed as they don't have the ability, resources, organization or funding to recruit membership to form a strong lobby.
I think you'll agree that an idea is worth nothing unless acted upon.

Sure you or I could put out a strong appeal for some sort of collective voice, but remember in this country we have the best political and judicial system that money can buy. The ATA representing the companies has a strong voice and political clout as they have the resources and connections to be heard. OOIDA has a good membership but sadly lack the resources to effect political change. So we're back to square one. We all know what needs to change, but being a very individualistic group of people, not willing to give up that freedom we cling to, it makes it hard to cede any control to a single authority to represent us.

Now having said that, I feel there are only three possible solutions.

1. Teamsters need to get back to their core purpose and represent the truck drivers. It seems anymore they are more interested in hamburger flippers and cleaning ladies. But there are negatives, because of their past reputation and image.

2. OOIDA needs to put on a massive recruiting campaign to bring others into their organization other than owners and operators. They've created an image that they are only interested in OO's. I don't think that's true, but remember perception is reality if uncorrected.

3. We create an organization where every CDL driver pays, say a membership of $10.00 per year which would build a war chest of about $30 million dollars a year to hire lobbyists and contribute to the campaigns of effective politicians at the State and Federal level to understand our concerns. Sounds good, but who's going to get it off the ground?

Of the 3, the only one that I think could have any impact would be a concerted effort by OOIDA to build it's base, become more political and stop the runaway infringements on the people who actually make the transportation industry thrive, the drivers who do the work.

OOIDA probably could care less about my suggestions but here they are anyway.

1.Create a database of every CDL license in the US.

2.Do a massive mailing to all on the list outlining their membership and political goals that benefit truck drivers.

3.Set up recruiting booths at every truck stop in the country.

4.Contests for membership to bring in new members. Top prize a new truck, cruises, trips, etc...

5.Ads in every trucking magazine.

6.Engage the services of the most powerful lobbying groups at the Federal and State level.

7.TV ads telling the story that without trucks America wold come to a complete standstill. I have some great storyboard ideas on this.

8.This goes along with number 7. More face time on TV and talk shows. This is where impressions are made and opinions are formed. Truck drivers have a bad image and anytime there is a negative about the trucking industry it's all over the news. Where are the stories about the good drivers, the ones who make a positive difference in peoples lives?

I'll step off the soap box and let some others have a go at it.

Enjoy the day

Flat Tire

Interesting Web Site

A new website, similar to myspace has developed strictly for truckers.
Take a look and share.
www.myehandle.com