Back to trucking for me
 

After nightmarish hell that was my last job (and to be honest the other management job) its back to trucking. Nothing as strenuous as OTR, its a local-ish job hauling some higher end horse feeds. Out and back.. some overnights. Very small fleet for the feedmill and their name is on the truck. I go out with someone tomorrow and the rest of the week with some of the bulk trucks. I know that some will think that I'm going backward... and to some degree, I feel like I failed. But I got damned sick of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Companies that refuse to work on root causes of their accident issues will never stop or even ebb the flow of accidents. Its a colossal waste of time and effort and if you care or dare to remind the 20 somethings that are in charge of these things. It will make you unpopular and dangerous to those who are in charge of things.. It doesn't mean that the safety people don't care.. it means that the system is broken.

Ahh, what does it matter if it's a step forward or back? Who even decides that? Are you happy? I made a LOT more money years ago doing bodywork but hated the job the employer and most of the other workers I really hated dealing with the stress hurry hurry hurry, that's good enough , it's gotta be perfect but we only have a couple hours ectra. I haven't had a migraine in a few years and even my acid reflux problem is much better I also no longer come home pissed off at the world and take it out on my wife. Friends and family thought I was moving backwards when I said I was getting my CDL , I didn't care and am so much happier now. Hope the same for you!

I wish I could say I was happy. honestly, I just have no idea at this moment. Right now I have to gear back up and get back in the mindset. The good thing right now is that I have found a feedmill with some trucks.. not some company with trucks who is contracted to a feed mill. These people seem really laid back in some good ways, I just don't know how well I will adapt to this. The trucks are older, but seem well taken care of mechanically but the trucks that i have looked at have not been taken care of by the drivers. They are dirty, and most of them really need to be organized.. but that is my OCD flaring up. My truck will NOT be one of the rolling dumpsters that I have seen here. The trucks are turned up to 75, but I have no need of that whatsoever and frankly, neither do they. They run a paperless logging system (Geotab) that is accessed with cellphones or tablets. Loads are out and back except some occasional back hauls of product from the company itself. Today I went out on a bulk feed load of horse feed (high dollar stuff).. it offloads into silos using a boom off of the truck. Going out on a semi-truck load of pallets again tomorrow and then again on Thursday. I'll be on my own next week.

Good luck with it Fozzy. You gotta be happier not dealing with the know it all 20 somethings! You can just deal with yourself while driving!

I got fed up and left my place last year, I jumped into the unknown. I'm much happier overall, my body is happier. Yeah I'm not home every night, granted I drive overnight, but that's OK for me. That jump into the unknown sucks!

I think the last 6 words are the key! It's scary when you climb out of the rut you've dug for yourself and called home for a few years, it's even worse when some one drags you out and your forced to make that jump. Years back I hardly gave it much thought but as you get older the rut seems to get more n more comfortable.
I've been giving it some thought lately myself, I'd love to get something in the 40 hr aweek range instead of 60 but then again I am kinda comfy.

Had a pretty decent week. I think that I'm going to have to just get out there on my own with this and start making my way on stuff. The information I get is kind of iffy. Its not really hard stuff. We got back from a short load of bagged feeds (two stops) the stops that the drivers are calling "tight".. really are not bad from the places I have dreaded in the past and there was a driver's meeting. Before I got the trailer dropped in the dock, the Mill Manager came up and asked if he could speak to me privately (uh oh). He asked if I would be willing to accept a position as a driver safety manager / leader. I was OK with it. sooooo heeeeere we go! LOL! I am working with the Mill Manager as he knows little to nothing about the trucking end of this business. I am looking at all the facts and figures and there really is an easy way to get all their problems under control. I explained first that they need an SOP. The drivers all know what to do, but there is no organization, nothing on paper that the manager can point to and get on the drivers a** who isn't. SOP I'm working on now. Then they (ALL OF THEM) need knowledge. They need to now about the CSA, PSP and other trucking things that have come up in the last couple of decades. I have been assigned their only Volvo.. its the truck I wanted. It needs work, but its quiet, solid and will turn rings around the Pete and KW.. Looking forward to helping these folks. By helping them, I help myself.

Good luck, I hope things work out for you

There ya go! Sounds like a good gig and kinda exciting sitting up a new program. Be prepared for some push back from some of the old timers, I can see some resentment there.

I get more and more depressed when I meet what passes for drivers. Yes, I have already angered the two hot dogs here. Why? I have no real idea other than being a threat to their idiotic and shoddy behavior. The one dude who was the lead driver seems to me to be running a game on the Mill Boss.. The other driver is self taught and can for the moment use that as an excuse. The two other drivers are from schools and have apparently had no training from lead driver super dude. I am not including ex-driver #5 who is no longer a driver for some pretty bad reasons. He was not prepared and was allowed to go out and destroy his career before it began. I have run a few loads on my own over the last week. The loads are pretty heavy, but not super heavy. 40k-44k. The scale pretty easy.. but no one seems to be doing it. I have scaled, all of my loads and all of them required sliding the axles waaaaaay back. 36k is a no no. We have had one of the newer drivers catch an over weight for 36k+ along with 9 CSA violations. These guys are apparently ignorant of the scale of their problems.. drivers just cannot do that these days. As usual, I have take the "worst" truck in the fleet and made it mine.. it was VERY dirty so for the first couple of days it was spic and span and several other cleaners and elbow grease. She cleaned up inside really nicely. Its an automatic transmission that I really like (low gear and reverse seem "slippy", but I may just have to get used to it. They have the trucks set for 75MPH.. Pay by the hour is nice.. so why in the hell do I want to do 75MPH? Anyway.. stay tuned for the continuing saga!

I'm not sure how old you are Fozz but I feel we are just be a dying breed of trucker, I hear where you are coming from because more and more I feel like a dinosaur in this profession and frankly look to the day I can retire.
It's changed a lot from the early 80's and it's more then I want to put up with these days, but hey I'm a cranky old man nowadays.

It's not that these people don't know anything.. It's that they don't care that they don't know anything. Had an overall good day. Resprained my sprained ankle though.

Holy moly............and during my 3 weeks of training with Schneider we had these new kids all whining and complaining about why the instructors were being hard a$$ed on everything from safety to inspections and scaling. The kiddies didn't get it. I got it only because I hung around here and actually have dealt with DOT on a local level. Companies who aren't serious about driver training or safety.......this is the end result. DOT is probably just waiting for an excuse to come in there! Watch your 6 Fozzy, hope your not being setup as the fall guy.

I look at the people coming into the workforce (not just trucking) and cringe. So many are totally unprepared for life! What have their parents been doing? I don't really like the idea of conscription but sometimes I think it would be good for many younger ones as it would force them to grow up and take responsibility for their actions. Way to many just go thru life waiting for someone else to bail them out and blaming others when they fail.

Well, I survived the first real week out and about. There are some goods and some bads, Most of the bad is the fact that I am beat to hell and feeling old as hell. All of my injuries from my past badass days are really coming home to roost. Broken back, arthritis, old knees.. its all there. The issue is also a lot of my fault. Working safety and management jobs tax the brain but really has nothing physical other than lots of standing around watching drivers. This job? Not SUPER physical but a lot more than I am used to.. The truck that I drive is also beating the living heck out of me. Between the bad seat and the general poor ride.. im worn out. The trailers are all are beat up and the landing gear are mostly horrible. The loads are averaging around 20 - 22 tons. All loads are palletized and we have power (walkies) pallet jacks for unloading. I got to a couple of docks this week and that was pretty sweet. This week I went All over the place. The other surprise is that they pay overtime after forty. I got 25.75 overtime hours this week.

Now that's SWEET!

Hope it wasn't the ankle you use to put a boot in someone's @**. lol.

I am just cruising right now and learning the job. I have been feeding the boss regulations and such and giving HIM ammunition to right his ship. There are absolutes that drivers just cannot do.. they do them, then need to get busted by the boss. We had a couple of real dumb moves from drivers the last couple of weeks.. One driver decided to try a u turn on a two lane highway.. anyone want to guess what happens next? Luckily no one died.. no accidents happened and this guy made it out without a citation .. ( I have no idea how) and another driver decided to log over an hour and a half on "personal conveyance" to get home.. AARRRRGGGHHH.. These people know better..

Haha, that's funny Fozzy! Heck we got guys who will log out of the Qualcomm then drive the truck over to the Walmart or wherever and do what they got to do then drive back and log back in! Being ELD complaint, the office can see when the ignition is turned on, so the box flips out and sends a message to the office when it moves without a driver logged in. Driver goes, wasn't me driving cuz I wasn't in the truck.............so you mean somebody borrowed it without your knowledge and you never reported it, or are you lying? Either way, your fired!

Log out and unplug unit, as long as you don't plug it back in till you're back to where you unplugged.

It has a memory and it's beatable.

SNI doesn't play games though, they suspect your messing with the tracking.......your fired. The stupid thing is, we have a company car available for drivers to run errands real quick if they don't want to use their personal vehicle or are a fly-in driver. Yet they want to use the truck......

Latest report on Fozzy's new trucking adventure.. likes, dislikes and things that still bug the living heck out of me.

Still driving the feed truck. Very easy work but.. trucking is what it is.. and really has in this old ancient driver's opinion gone down the tubes.

GOOD:
GPS - its nice if you have your head out of your butt and have some experience on how the world works. Even as worldly as I am.. I have to wonder sometimes what this thing is thinking
TOLL PASSES - Very nice, no more screwing around with comchecks etc and trying to get reimbursed for money for tolls. I run as many toll roads as I can in TX as the alternative roads are normally choked full of Texas idiots who cannot drive five feet without running into each other
EXPRESS LANES - in Texas, they are appearing all over.. they are GREAT!!!
75 MPH Trucks - Nice to have when legal.. I do NOT run the truck that fast unless its legally allowable and some idiot is sightseeing down the interstate.
ELECTRIC PALLET JACKS - Makes unloading 40k of pallets easy as pie

BAD:
TRUCK STOPS - What the heck happened? All truck stops and even almost truck stops had cafes in them were you could drag your tired arse into and plop down for some coffee and a mea and some general BSing with humans.. some worth talking to. the VAST majority of truck stops are now gas stations with fast food or some hideous hot box. No interaction, no real place to unwind or wind up for the day. I think this more than anything has led to the biggest problem in trucking today.. the death of any camaraderie and the death of the "brotherhood". It's a solitary, dreary mess out there.
ROADWORK - When did these states (TX for sure) Decide to try and not only repair but MOVE the entire interstate system at one time?? No more short little annoyances.. 200 miles of construction zone!
TRUCK DRIVERS - Bad! Worse? Just generically bad skills and selfishness on display. I was fueling and needed to take a break soon.. After fueling, three drivers were all trying their hand and maneuvering into parking spots or something (i really couldn't tell what it was that they were doing).. but it was quicker to leave the truck stop and head down the interstate 5 miles to the rest area so I could actually take a break. Drivers cutting in too close at high speed, drivers staying in the middle lane at slow speeds causing havoc as the super truckers bear down in them.. its sometimes pretty darned scary as I think I'm the only one paying attention on how close these morons are coming to disaster
PARKING - self explanatory.. Not sure when trucking became a 9 - 5 job, but parking after 7 is usually a chore. I am glad that lots of my delivery spots have large parking areas.
TRUCK CAMPING - I did it for years, I still dont really like it.

Yep.........I'm getting a camera to carry with me now. Tired of the foolish professional drivers making unprofessional moves around me. I refuse to stay in any truck stop, of course running for Wal-Mart makes it easy, allowed to park at any I find before my clock expires. But, the truck stops are a complete joke, everyone is in a hurry, it's like the Wild West at times.

How about the ELDs? I only have 2 weeks worth of paper logging experience, I prefer the electronic once I learned some tips and tricks for it. It's cleaner for my line of work of multiple stops within 10-15 minutes of one another but in different zip codes.

The drivers in general........non English speaking, can't understand No Trucks is there for a reason. No understanding of the bridge laws so they ride around with their tandems all the way back because "well I was of legal weight on drives and tandems then." Oh the sign says 12-5, I'm good.......... Can't back to save their lives or attempt a tight back with tandems all the way back then can't figure out why they are running out of room and can't make it.

More or less the same here. a lot of the feed stores have parking around them. I try to get to them.. but with dispatch being someone who's last job was working in a payday loan store.. its sometimes just not doable.

I've always liked the electronic logs, I ran them when Werner started them back in the late 90's. For no other reason that it keeps the management types from demanding miracles.

Well, I see that tandem thing around here all the time. IMHO like most other issues that bother me.. its sheer laziness on the driver's part.

Pretty much officially done with this outfit...

We (drivers) got sent a text from the boss that there was to be a driver's meeting Tuesday (today) at 0800. I got there and walked in and sat down. The manager started the meeting and discussed loads and routing, asked about truck issues.. then dropped the bomb that this was a ruse to complete a company ordered drug test. This was a hair follicle test (never did one of those before). Instantly one of the drivers fessed up with "I'm not going to pass the test". I was dumbfounded! I'm still pretty shockable even as long as I have been doing this. Within a couple of moments.. their "lead driver" fessed up that he too would not pass the test. I was even more shocked. Now I thought at this point we were undergoing a DOT random urinalysis, and I offered the only option (that was still not really proper). I told the drivers that they needed to resign and walk the hell out and go find a job. But then the boss said that this was a company test and not DOT. The boss told them that he was putting off the test for them and they could leave (go out and drive). I was shocked... I am still shocked. I am looking for work as we speak. As far as I'm concerned, this company is on borrowed time. I did talk to the boss after the meeting and told him that he was REALLY on thin ice, he agreed and told me that he was contacting his bosses.. I will wait and see.. but what the actual FARK!

Check out www.blackvue.com one of the best dash cams I have seen, I run this in my personal truck and it's pricey but worth every penny.

I went with a WheelWitnessHD. Has done just fine thus far, I've actually seen less stupid since I started using it. Had to upgrade my SD card to record more than 4 hours before it started overwriting.

Yeah, recommend this too. It would be a lot better if they drop their price a little bit.

Before I retired, I worked for several companies that seemed to send me for a drug test every other week. I think they picked me anytime they need a clean test. I know there were other drivers that were using. Things changed a lot after DOT visited the company. They were facing fines that would have shut the company down if they did not clean up their act.



Even worse for everybody, here in Florida, the second most popular commodity is "SUNSHINE". Second only to drugs. You do not know which drivers are straight and sober, which ones are on weed, who's working on their 4th can of beer, or who's on heroin or crack. But they're all out there on the road. You have to drive like every one of them is aiming for you, down here.


Last October, I was on my bike (as in motorcycle) and in a head-on collision with an on-coming car that decided to make his turn directly in front of me. I went over the handlebars, bounced off the car, and I doubt I was mistaken for Superman flying through the air. His mother's car was fully insured, but the guy had not had a valid driver's license since 2009.


In the other states where they've made weed legal, be careful. Be very careful of who else is on the road.


BTW Fozzy. Good to see you're still around.

Nice to see someone on here that isn't a sports bot. I take it that you got clobbered by a left turner? That sucks. There really is no defense for it either..... and rarely do the four wheelers suffer any real penalties for it either. Sorry to hear that. I have moved on from the feed job.. for the reasons stated. Also the fact that I am as close to broken as it comes.. Arthritis and a lifetime of grunt work has just taken its toll on me.. too many years of working while damaged... it paid the bills.. it raised all my kids.. but i'm friggen worn out. I pull an MRI wagon.. not much driving.. run either a 3 on 4 off or 4 on 3 off schedule. We stay in pretty nice hotels when out.. I get paid $25 a night to stay in the hotels, paid by the hour etc etc.. I'd still rather be a CDL instructor.

Been a long time since checking in here, Hows the job hunt going Fozzy?

I don't know where they get some of the "drivers" out here now, I've had them going up a hill in the center lane at 38 MPH in a 65 no 4 ways and never move over into the truck lane! What do you do? the left lanes full of cars doing 65+, if the truck lanes empty I'll pass them on the right(going 60mph) and even then they don't get the message.
A week or so ago I pulled into my fuel stop and the place is backed up, I jump in the only lane that doesn't have a line, just the truck at the pump, after getting fuel he got in his truck for a bit then comes back and tells me he has to set there for 30 more minutes! He's taking his break at the pump! I call um like I see um, and he decided to move but just the idea of it WTF????

The industry hit bottom a couple of decades ago.. and kept digging. Why do you think they want 18 year olds to drive OTR now? They have resorted to using the military as an excuse.. "if the military can have 18 year olds fight wars... why can they not drive OTR?"... Well, they still cannot drink, rent cars or much of anything else at 18. The reason they want 18 year olds is that they haven't had much of a chance to ruin their lives with DWI's and Criminal records yet.. its fertile soil for the blood suckers. I still pretty much hate the industry.. so I try and fing jobs where the driving is the minimal part and Its just a necessary evil. No truck stops, no shippers, none of that nonsense. I'm about to leave for work.. have to drag the MRI out to Idabel, OK then up to Stigler, OK.. its a long day.. but pay by the hour means that they can screw me around all they want.. they still have to pay me.

Yeah, he made a left turn directly in front of me on US-19. I only had a few feet to react, and that was not nearly enough. He got two citations. One for failing to yield, and one for no valid driver's license since 2009.


I've got a couple things that have come back to haunt me, too. A few years ago, I found out what "Sciatic Nerve" is all about. I was unable to walk at all for seven months. The Navy said I'd be in a wheel chair by about age 40. I was afraid that little bugger may have finally caught up with me. I did get over it, and I've been careful not to aggravate it again. Even the head-on didn't bring it back. I don't miss it.

The insurance industry has been dictating too many things. Back when I was training, I had school grads, with their CDLs, that didn't even know where reverse was on the shifter. You've got the guys that finished their training with the trainer in the sleeper. That is NOT TRAINING, but it's accepted. A few years ago (if you check my previous posts), I was kind of outspoken against that, and still am. Both the trainer and the company need to get a good, stiff fine for that.


Bet you've got more and more guys that are hitting their high beams when they're going to pass you, or after you pass them. Blind you through your own mirrors. Oh, yeah... That's training, that is.

All of this is pretty true.. I am here to tell you that the issue with trucking companies is that..... there are no truckers in it. The companies that I have worked for in the last two decades seem to love to fill the ranks of their management with people who have never seen the inside of a truck. I have watched this happen and it just boggles the mind. Why is trucking not like it used to be? Empathy and knowledge. There can be no empathy with someone who's never been on the working end of a truck. They started off as driver companies... but when the old lion gets older, he hands the company off to his kids. Most of the time these lions have purposely kept their kids out of trucks (wonder why?) and send them off to become suits... They become suits, get handed the company and end up lonely in an office full of people who HAVE worked in the trucking world.. they get rid of everyone and hire people like themselves.. then they feel better and empowered. They get rid of anyone with real knowledge and start working the numbers.. the drivers become numbers.. its horrid.

Definitely wasn't like that for me but I was on a dedicated account. 1 night dispatcher was a former driver on the account until he could no longer obtain his medical card. 2 of the 3 DMs were former drivers on the account. The safety guys were current drivers on the account. 1 of the day dispatchers grew up with a father who was a truck driver and her brother was a safety guy for us. Our office got IT. They understood we get sick or tired, just be up front with them and say hey, I'm under the weather. They would either tell you to stay shutdown until you felt better or ask what you thought you could give them, 1 run, 2 runs, 1 long run? You could walk in and ask a question, get an answer immediately.

I was on a dedicated account.. the safety representative.. I knew too much.. but mainly I knew that they had not desire or ability to work on the root cause of their accident issues. Some months we would have more accidents that days of the month. Within a year all of the management was changed above my supervisor and NONE of them had any trucking or training experience. They came up with some of the dumbest ideas I have ever seen. They cut the training time, the gutted the assessments, they refused to spec trucks for the job the drivers were doing and they flat out made drivers expendable... unless they needed them to haul freight.. then they would allow the driver to stay.. until they caught up, then found a reason to fire them. They took my safety coaches away (I had five trainers/coaches that I hand picked and trained to work with new drivers and prospective drivers) No warning. they just demoted them all and sent them back to driver status. They sent me a new safety man.. who also didn't have a CDL.. I trained him over 9 weekends to get a CDL and took him down to test out.. He got his CDL and I became someone he didn't want to associate with. Around December, my boss told me "you know at some point they're going to hold you responsible for the accident numbers?).. July I got a call from his boss... He fired me. I have never been fired in my life.. It was a bit of relief at that point.. even though it really depressed me. It was like having your limbs bound, tossed into the sea.. and then ran over by a speed boat driven by your peers..

That is some serious bull Fozzy! Then the same people complain of a good driver shortage or wonder why their authority suddenly gets revoked by the Feds! Sucks to be fired but it kills the stress you had to be feeling.

Publicly and in the press these companies say lots of stuff.. privately, they don't give two sh*ts about anything buy their salaries and stock options. They don't have any experience to know why the drivers are having the accidents and honestly, there has to be something going on with the insurance or maybe even the truck repair facilities. Worse yet, they have no empathy at all. There is absolutely no way for me to understand how these companies can stay profitable for anyone while choking on millions and millions of dollars of completely preventable accidents. I don't know what the real answer is.. and I'm really done trying. Logic sure isn't working. When I would get frustrated to the point of suggesting that I would resign.. the line was "You can only give these drivers the tools, you cannot drive the truck for them"... When I was told that eventually these accident numbers would be my fault... the whole environment changed.. They also fought unemployment.. which i was forced to go through a "tribunal" on the phone with a judge, the person who fired me and the company lawyer... needless to say, I just stated what exactly happened, The person who fired me LIED and the company lawyer tried to imply some stuff that I stuck violently into his arse... and the judge found that they had no legal reason to terminate me.. So I "won".. but the damage to me was done.. add to the fact that I'm now a "graybeard".. its impossible to work in the field anymore

I can't understand the thought process some companies have either. But it's not just trucking, when I did auto body work many of the insurance co. wouldn't hire a body man as an estimator instead they wanted a green collage grad, didn't matter what the degree was in. I can see some terminal jobs where you don't need driving experience like permits and the lawn guy but that's about it.

It's good to see Fozzy and Windwalker posting again.