OMG, but did I meet a sad driver today!

So I'm fueling up at the Loves in Deer Park on 225 this morning. First day out of the house, in a hurry, you all know the feeling. There is this old truck beside me on the island. I can tell the driver wants to talk to me but like I said I am in a hurry and not in the best mood having just come out of the house.

Well anyway he eventually comes over to my lane and asked me if I could help him out. He isn't timid but respectful, well dressed wearing nice jeans, a callored shirt and had good bearing. He asks if I can help him with his GPS and he has a smart phone in his hand. Says he doesn't know how to work smartphones, his boss gave him this phone and told him to use it as a GPS. Guys, he literally had no idea how to do anything on this phone. So I give him a crash course, probably confused him more than anything.

Well, we get to talking and I ask him how long he has been driving, he tells me it's his first day. He is heading up to the middle of Pennsylvania. I know he isn't going to figure out this phone so I ask him if he has an atlas. He literally has no idea what I'm talking about! At this point I said, "look, pull your truck up and come inside with me". As I'm walking in with him I am trying to explain to him how route planning works and all that but it's an impossible task given the time I have. I show him the Atlas and how it works. I tell him Pennsylvania is going to be a lot different than Houston and how narrow those state highways are. He is confused, lost and in trouble. In short he is unprepared.

No atlas, no knowledge of GPS, no on the job training. No experience with trucking and little hope. That load won't get there on time, it might not get there at all. A trucker not knowing what an atlas is, is like a fireman who doesn't know what water is for.

So let's recap, someone, some "manager", put this guy in a truck that is 15 years old if it's a day, no training, no atlas and no experience with a smartphone for directions. He is going into some difficult terrain for a rookie, he has to cross Virginia scales and he has to negotiate Pennsylvania state highways which most of you know can challenge the best of us.

Now I realize it's a free country and he doesn't have to do this but set that aside for a moment. How can anyone hand him the keys? At what point is management responsible? He isn't trained, he can't trip plan, he can't read an atlas, he can't use a smartphone. He is going to fail. I was enraged by all this and I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed because I should have given him my number and helped him more, I should have told him to call a training company, an actual one and get on with them. I shouldn't have been in such a rush and forgotten my common sense. I should have had the foresight to write the company down and call them, and call DOT. I should have written it down to report them here but I was stupid and in a hurry. I simply can't believe these things happen and that I didn't do more.

I wish I could remember the company but it was one of those fly by night gigs. He was pulling a J.B trailer but he definitely wasn't a Hunt driver. In 10 years I have never met a driver who didn't know what an atlas was, I've met ones who couldn't read it but to not realize it exist is a new one. Very sad state of affairs.

I also realize that some of you old timers started this way. But times aren't what they were and those old ways don't work today. Chances are he doesn't even know the laws, logging or weight limits.

 

Early 30's I'd say.