Got chewed out yesterday at a customer.

Hi Clyde, the ol' reverse psychology thing. Caution, I've had that backfire on me, when I actually needed a nap, told them so, and woke up 2 hours later, and nothing happened yet.
Homer Simpson's brain: Why don't you try reverse psychology
Homer: Oh, that sounds complicated
Homer's brain: Ok, don't try reverse psychology
Homer: ALL RIGHT, I WILL.

 

Me either. My job is to put the trailer into the dock. How they set a plate or hook is on them.

As for wheel chocks, I've only been to one shipper that required that and the dock was sloped down so it seemed pointless to me...but I played along and didn't make waves about it.

 

At grocery warehouses sometimes when they would try to anger me by telling me, "it's going to be awhile",I would get a big smile on my face and say, "That's great, $25.00 bucks an hour until I leave the property. I'll stay here all week." Then they think they're sticking it to you by getting you out of there ASAP. Had one guy ask how the trucking company can afford to do that; I said, they can't, your company is the one paying it; your company pays my company and my company gives me the money. Your company has to document why the truck was delayed. Your company and mine have agreed to this. Of course, everything I told them was a lie, but they don't know that.

 

That only flies with the folks that speak English as a second language on the west coast. Throw that line on the docks in Long Island or Boston and you're likely to hear, "Ok driver...park it over there and we'll get to you next Tuesday." Because they know better.

 

I'm green as green can be and i only ran into 1 ### hole shipper at a meat packing facility in memphis, tennessee. The guy was mumbling something and was not moving his lips enough so God himself didnt know what the hell he was saying. So when i asked him to clarify himself he got pissed and yelled it at me and gave me a dirty look.

I just chocked it up to a more inferior and uncivilized type of human compared to myself, but I'd be lying if i said it didnt get to me for a moment.

When i told my trainer what happened he just laughed and said people are especially useless and lazy in that city.

 

Of course it doesn't work everywhere, but it does work. I'm lucky and managed to avoid grocery warehouses on Long Island or Boston. Did sometimes deliver to one in the Bronx, but they were pretty nice people and never had a problem there.

 

Get used to it...you'll see/deal with a lot of jerk wads in this business. On the other hand...there will be times that you deal with some really cool people. I haul a lot of produce and I pull into some pretty remote places owned by farmers and ranchers. There's been a lot of times that the shipper has given me some of their product to eat/enjoy. I've also had a couple of occasions where I was delayed at some farm in the middle of bubble frick Egypt and the people felt so bad that they actually invited me into their home, fed me and treated me like I was one of their own kids. It doesn't happen often...but it does happen. I love hauling produce from "mom/dad" farms...they are truly some of the nicest people you will ever meet.

 

In your experience what is their deal(shippers/receivers with nasty attitudes)?

Are they simply miserable and too cowardly to off themselves? Scraping by near minimum wage and jealous of truckers? Dealt with alot of scum truckers (i know i have, shoot)? I mean what do you think are the main sources of their hostility?

I think that understanding these people will assist me in dealing with them.

 

Seems to me the people you must deal with at grocery warehouses are generally just miserable uneducated people. They slid through high school texting, being cool at the mall, and watching cartoons. They feed off each others misery. The only time they've ever had any power is their job at the warehouse; finally in their miserable life, they can verbally bully people without getting their teeth knocked out. They can get away with this at the warehouse because they have poor supervision and their supervisors are people they probably know in their community, went to school and church with. I've known several of those people and they're the most boring people on the planet; talking to them, you catch yourself dozing off. The highlight of their life is buying some pot on payday & finding a great sale on beer at the grocery store then taking a family vacation to Redneck Riviera (Panama City, FL) then telling everyone how if the fat wife hadn't been with them they could have scored with 100's of hot chicks in bikinis.

 

Well they sound peachy. Cant wait to deal with these "people". The one bad experience in memphis was a black guy. But he was definitely uneducated, and i am leaning towards pothead and heavy drinker.

Seems to be a pattern here.