Running With Watkins & Shepard

Yeah...I'm sorry...LOL

But it was nice talking with ya tonight when I DID finally call....

 

Hi Royger and thanks for stopping by.

First, you aren't butting in and second, all are welcome here to express their views as long as it's not the same old "this stinks that stinks" garbage about trucking or specific companies. There are plenty of pages here to both read and post that sort of stuff. So, you haven't hijacked anything.

Now third, you bring up a valid point and one I made back over in ORG's thread. Just to be a pain, I'll repeat it here. When I was in school I found that I drove MUCH better when I didn't have an instructor in the truck barking commands at me and picking apart every little thing. For instance let's say I scraped a gear, them jumping all over it and or explaining what I did wrong simply took an already overloaded mind and added more to it. I mean, I'm focused on driving, traffic, my mirrors and that trailer, looking ahead formulating my next move and NOW I have to listen and "process" what this guy is telling me??

Heck, I KNOW I scraped the darn gear and already feel a bit embarrassed about it (which can also take your attention away from other things for a moment), and I know WHY I scraped it. My timing was a little off, the RPM's weren't just right for the gear. So I already know what I have to work on to fix it. Them telling me, busting my chops or flat out laughing isn't really helping me in that situation.

Now, these guys are PAID to teach and that's it. And they really are great drivers who did care about us. I can only imagine what it would be like to jump into "another persons truck" while they are working to make a living at driving and have probably already formulated the pre-conceived notion of "OH BOY, another wannabe newbie to deal with". I don't point this thinking at ALL trainers as I've heard first hand accounts there are some good ones out there but somehow, I just think a lot of them don't have their heart in the correct "training" mindset.

Now maybe I'm crazy but after 30 years in my own construction business, teaching MANY people to do my trade correctly and safely, I've learned you have to let them make the "little" mistakes and not harp on them so it sinks in to their heads. I'm there to keep an eye out for the BIG ones that might cause injury to themselves or others on the crew. THEN, I'll step in and show them where they went wrong.

Teaching is not an easy thing to do. It requires skill, knowledge, patience and a REAL desire to do so. Not everybody who can "drive a truck", should be training. Those who do it "for the money" are the best examples of that.

 

Sunday morning. I've decided to give myself a break from the yard work today. So I did laundry this morning, been reading and writing here and after this current Cup-O-Jo 'll get into the next two log simulations we have to do.

Admittedly at first, I thought it was rather a pain to do these but after what I've learned from the first one, I actually can't wait to see what the next lesson will be. The first one taught me how with only 12.75 HOS left for the week, you can keep going because you regain the hours form the prvious 9th day. I had already "heard" about this sometime ago but now I understand how it works. Yep, they really have put together some good lessons here at W/S.

I've been told that the 34 hour reset was mandatory. Now I know it's really just an option and unless you want to, you don't have to take it. That's good news for a guy like me who plans to be out there non stop for at least 2 or 3 months at a time. Then if I happen to be in place I really like, I can hang out there for a while, rent a Harley and go ride around and see some of it.

So today I'll focus on the logs, studying the shift ratios and now the Qualcomm macro's by number and meaning as well. The good news is I won't have to take any time to go eat as I've consumed more food (it's really great around here in NC), in the past week than I have in the previous month. At least I think that's good news. Hmmm the old 34's are feeling a bit snug....