Getting away with Murder

To be fair, trucking for the most part, has always been like this, perhaps this is a bit more critical but I've always felt I can walk out without issues.

 

True, but I was thinking of it from the standpoint that I wouldn't be losing money by going to another company and may even make a bit extra with all the sign on bonuses being dangled.

 

Yeah there are a few places offering those. Not bad I guess. I've never had one.

 

Median pay for CPA certified accountants is $73,500. Not great, but hardly public school teacher level. They don’t make squat. I’ve got a friend from high school who is the chief of police for a city with 26 officers. He earns $78,000/year. OK money, but considerably less than you can earn in a truck with experience.

The dirty little secret is that trucking “management” doesn’t make anything either. Someone put up the pay for Crete managers on a board here somewhere and it ranged from $40 K to $55 K/year. I know of two occasions where there were mass firings of Crete managers at a hub because they were stealing truck parts from the company and reselling them.

I think most of the outright hostile attitudes we face from local managers are nothing more than envy.

 

I have been treated outstanding by the people I work for so I wouldn't play games with them but I know of others that do .
When the tables turn again I think they will remember those that didn't take advantage of this situation.

 

I do cryogenics these days, lots of stops and small tanks can add up to a very long day.

last week, I was on my fifth and final stop, backed into an alley off a main road (after waiting the better part of ten minutes for north Chicago traffic to break open so I could actually get back there) and pull down to the tank.

I’m hot, sweaty, in a windless alley and soaked to the bone from a passing downpour. This is my last stop, easy fill, low psi tank and only about 500 gallons (total delivery should be maybe 20 mins.)
I’m standing there, filling out all the forms and cooling my pump when out walks a white dress shirt, khaki pants scowling man with perfectly clean safety glasses and brand new ear plugs in. “What the #### are you doing?!” He shouts at me.

“Delivering.”

“that truck doesn’t say airgas, you’re not airgas. What are you doing?”

I tried to explain to him, repeatedly, call and demand cryogenics doesn’t work that way.

“I don’t give a ####, you don’t do a god ###### thing until I call airgas.”

so I called my airgas contact “hey, I’m not delivering to this customer. Their staff is being super rude.”

“oh okay, well just head back and load on top of what you have.”


So I buttoned everything up, got in my…MY truck, and drove away from a dangerously low tank with a white shirt waving his arms at me.

They ran out a few hours later and tried to get me to go back and fill it.
“Nah, I’m good, thanks.”


I’m not putting up with this ######## anymore. I treat everyone I meet with respect and dignity, and expect nothing short of the same.

 

I can remember when truck driving was considered a profession. And a respectable one at that.

 

Good on you @cabwrecker. Nobody is above anyone. His attitude got his results. Too bad. Some day it might be worse and he may lose some teeth.

 

A lot of places are use to dealing with large carriers and think that they can get a driver in trouble if they don't kiss butt. Last year I was picking up a load of Coke from a bottling plant and the gal at the receiving desk was giving me some attitude. I told her to cancel the load because I wasn't going to take it. She said that she had the number for my dispatcher and she would get me fired. I told her to go ahead and dial, I'll wait. Then my cell phone rang and I held it up and showed her as I waved bye bye. I told their logistics manager what happened and told her I wouldn't haul for Coke any more, and last I heard the gal didn't work there any longer.

 

The fun part has already started. Come drive around Colorado some, especially the I-25 corridor. One in six adults in Colorado say they occasionally smoke marijuana every single day.

Some say, I don't care as long as they're not high now. They may not be high right now, but they were a few hours ago, and long-term chronic use is known to literally take some IQ points and generally make people slow. I'm ok with pot being legal, and I'm also ok with it being a reason to take someone's CDL.

What's the difference between a drunk and a pothead?
The drunk blasts through the stop sign -- doesn't even see it. The pothead stops at the stop sign and waits for it to turn green.