Message to all students:

I have spoke with too many of you who have said they want to get out of their trainers truck because it (and often the trainer too) are filthy. If this is your situation, complain! Complain to your trainer, complain to your company. There is no excuse for filthiness. You have the right to train in a clean environment, especially since you are living there for 6 weeks. Also, you have the right to be able to focus on your training-that is what you are there for-instead of worrying about all that lice back there in the bunk or whether the stench coming from your trainer is going to make you puke.

The students I have spoke with who have this problem say they don't want to be a tattletale. Or they did complain, the company chewed out their trainer, then their trainer chewed them out for complaining to the company. I know this can put you in a bad situation-between a rock and a hard place, so to speak-but you still need to speak up. Ask for another trainer if possible.

These filthy nasty truckers have no place being trainers. But it is up to the students to put their foot down and say enough.

Can you imagine anyone wanting to live in a box in the subway? That's what some of these guys remind me of, when they fail to ask to be removed from these situations. "We like it so much, we're movin the whole family in"

I made a stop last Friday. It was company policy they look in my truck when exiting the gate. I was thinking...damn my truck is nasty. I really need to wash those floorboards.

The security guard told me that it was the cleanest truck she had seen in weeks. I was like, Whaaaat?

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Somebody told us Wall Street fell,
But we was so poor, we couldn't tell...

"Song Of The South" -- Alabama

Since working at a truck stop, i have seen very few driver/trainers come thru. However, i have seen plenty of regular drivers, who seem not to care about what they look like, being PRESENTABLE, or how they smell. There are a few that I wonder why they even come into the store looking the way they do. All they are telling me, is they are there just to pick up a paycheck. They dont care about representing the company, or themselves.

And how many of them are so lazy they dont speak clearly. I have to ask them several times their truck numbers, etc. because i just cannot understand them.

TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR COMPANY, YOUR PROFESSION AND MOST IMPORTANTLY....


..........YOURSELVES

The stench helps ward off vampires.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Not really...cuz I've seen some of these trucks.

I have to admit...mine was fairly clean. The floor just needed a good scrubbing. I hate having dried red clay on my floorboard. And I dislike using mats anywhere but the sleeper. I use a large bathroom mat there.

I have a "shoe/boot scrubber" on my steps. But it can't get it all.

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Somebody told us Wall Street fell,
But we was so poor, we couldn't tell...

"Song Of The South" -- Alabama

Yeah, I got one of those scrubbers too. They help, are better than nothing, but I still get mud in here.

excellent idea, me to

still working on decking my truck out...

darn thing is wall to wall carpet. Got the stock mats up front. Don't have, but WILL, small throw rugs between the seats and in back.

Dust the dash and instrument panel every day (nothing on the dash but a small figurine my wife made for me and my GPS antenna - decided I don't want to munch the cord in the window or door)

vacuum the carpet every morning when I get up. Empty the reservoir into the trash, take the trash out. Gonna have to get a carpet brush or something. vacuum not powerful enough to pick up hair- and I have a lot of it. On my head.

2 things on the floor: Q-Com, Cooler. Q-Com is only there because I can't read it when it's sitting on the passenger seat. Cooler is on the floor because I can't reach it when it's on the bunk, and I can't quite reach INTO it when it's on the passenger seat.

Cubbies are closed and shelves are cleared when I'm driving.

Paperwork and truckstop guide in the door pocket. Atlas and laptop on the passenger seat.

Fire Extinguisher, gloves, multi-tool, padlock, and tire-thumper between driver's seat and door.

I see some of these other trucks and I have to wonder how the drivers even MOVE, much less pass a DOT inspection.

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Keep the big doors at the back!