Welcome to my Nightmare.

I’ve typed several different things and deleted it, can’t quite get my thoughts typed out. It’s an interesting situation, the guys in this section have been called arrogant and maybe based on an anonymous internet forum we are. A friend and I were just texting about this Friday night, I read what I type and I think “man I’m an arrogant jerk” then I look around and see what goes on and I think I’m ok with myself.

In person I like to joke around and have fun, even online I would rather joke around then I would argue about load securement. But when it’s time for work I’m very serious about it, I’m the pusher at work always have been. That’s not to say I hurry and tear things up or endanger people put I want to get with it. I’m good at what I do and I’m proud of it, but I found it interesting that you question when you’ll make that mistake. I do the same thing, I wonder when I’ll screw up and make a big mistake. I hope I don’t but it’s in the back of my mind, maybe that’s what separates us from them. With a tall load I would have been watching everything. I’ve hauled plenty of loads taller, wider, longer, and heavier than that one and was aware of my surroundings to the best of my ability. Without knowing this guy and being there I would bet he was very nonchalant about it and it bit him. I’m not afraid of a load like that and it’s become fairly routine, that doesn’t mean I don’t respect it or that I’m not aware of the potential for disaster. There are people that can “pull” that load and those that can “handle” all aspects of that load and they are very different people.

I hate the idea of reducing the industry to lowest common denominator, but that’s been happening for years. The reason for the original HOS overhaul in 03 was in large part because drivers didn’t have the balls to tell their dispatcher they were tired and I’ll talk to you later. I’ve never understood how a person in an office a thousand miles away could “force” someone to keep running. Scared for their job I guess, something I’ve never felt. I suppose we should just ride it out, the fact is there will always be a market for niche drivers.

I’ve said it before and I’ll stick to it, the people that felt “drawn” to trucking (or any profession) are the best at it. That’s not to say there aren’t good drivers that took the job because the needed a job and turned out they were good at it. But instead of paying a decent wage to retain good drivers we pay as little as possible and keep chewing them up and spitting them out.

 

Someday, I wanna be like you guys. I wish to heck I didn't start this profession so late in life but I'm diggin' it big time

Keep up the good work and thank you for all you do.

 

Very well put.

I'll stick with my long (very easy once you relax and figure out your turns carefully) - and my wide (much more attention to rapidly approaching danger) loads, until I progress to a different trailer and height.

Sadly there will be many jumping the gun and destroying bridges in Nashville and other locations in the mean time.

I never felt drawn to the industry, but now I'm here, I'll strive to maintain a zero problem record, until I feel comfortable enough to tell 'stories' about what I've done, which so far, I shy away from doing.

 

Kinda depends on how hot she is......

 

One thing id like to add to this. And applies to anything a man does in life. No matter how bad you might feel, no matter how much time you got on the load, no matter if it's your day off. When that alarm clock goes off you get up. Do not hit the snooze button. what's that saying? Showing up is half the battle. Sounds goofy but its absolutely one hundred percent accurate.

 

As I'm moving forward in the open deck work, I'm always looking to up my game. I've always been a believer in "if you aren't going to do something right (and well), don't do it at all."

My employer isn't a "for hire" trucking company. All of my loads have the same origination point. The trailer is loaded by myself (as much as possible), or by co workers. Several times now I've had to re-work loads that I didn't put on the trailer or have had to change securement that I didn't do. Thing is, my co workers were both the "driver" before me. One would think they would know better than to do some of the silly bovine scatology I've seen, but then we must revisit the fact that not all drivers take the job seriously. It's an "easy" means to an end. Just hold the steering wheel and go.

I'm doing a lot of learning on the fly. Every day I go in with the intent of doing things better than I did the day before. If something seems fishy, I do some research or ask some questions to get to the bottom of things. When I had a load shift on me the other week when I was making one of the final turns to get to the unload point, before I unstrapped I took a few minutes to figure out WHY. Then when the why was found, make sure I didn't make the same mistake again.

Been reading a lot of threads here on TTR (including browsing #### near every page of the flatbed load picture thread) to see what the old hands here have to say. Finding this place more helpful than my employer, because the mentality there seems to be to just get the load on the trailer and delivered ASAP without a hell of a lot of regard for actual planning. In fact, tomorrow I'm going to be walking into the shop with a section of the FMCSA handbook printed out because I'll be ###### if I ever pull a load of concrete pipe the way I was "taught" to the other day. I knew something was out of whack, but couldn't quite put my finger on it until I got home and researched it. (Hint: My truck has exactly one chain and one snap binder on it).

Anyway, I appreciate threads like this. Always good to know there's hands out there who take this crap seriously who I can turn to when I know my employer is full of it.