When do you stop being a “new driver”?

i was told bu aN old hand back in my younger years, and in later years, i'd go on to say this in his honor,

"when the day comes you THINK you know it all, and stop LEARNING, is the day you turn in your CDL".

 

i'm sorry, but this crap galls me to no end.

i can not ever find it in my body, bones or blood, to excuse this type of screw up.

if the drivers of today, refuse to look at a map, and solely DEPEND on GPS, then they not only DESERVE to pay the tow bill, but to get fired as well.

 

One thing I loved about caves. I made many deliveries in those caverns in southern Missouri many times. I loved them because I was isolated. QC and cell phone was dead!

 

It's like any other job. If someone was the best auto mechanic on planet earth 30 years ago, but did not learn anything since then, where would he be now? Obsolete.

I'll be honest, when the GPS first came out, I didn't see a need for one. Yesterday, I fired up the truck and turned on the GPS and it had that 'acquiring satellite' thing going for 4 hours. I am so used to having that GPS on that I had to mentally switch it off in my mind, because otherwise I would have sat there thinking, "How do I get out of this parking lot?"
Same thing goes with that smart phone. When they first came out, I was one of those people who thought all of that stuff was unnecessary and I just needed a phone to make phone calls. Wrong.

When starting out, you may think that all you have to do is get into a truck, run as hard as you can and you will make money and do well. "Keep that door closed, eat PB&J 3x/day, and perhaps you will make money." Wrong. Get out of that truck, be sociable, be hospitable and generous, create a strong network, and watch Opportunity knock frequently.
Hmmm, I guess I should pay more attention to my dress and my manners...

 

That probably would be off Civil War Road, used to be a Kroger storage warehouse under there, something like 2 by three miles they say.

One time they sent me for Crab in a reefer container to Crisfield Maryland on the bay. The People there was musical to say the least. Happy happy happy. Crabs here crabs there crabs by the boatload.

Only it's a while to get loaded. Here I sit in the tractor checking the watch every 15 minutes. Are we loaded yet? No? etc.

Fast forward many years later I could not be bothered to see if we are ready to go in 15 minutes. It didnt matter. They will have it ready when they get to it. That makes room for other things in life that could be done while waiting sometimes.

 

I agree with that entire last paragraph. I particularly agree with that networking comment. I can count at least 25 job opportunities I had because of networking. In fact, networking got me off the road and into what would have been a fantastic well paying job as a safety critter. My health put a stop to that in short order. The last thing you as a driver want to do is become anti-social. I know it is hard not to do with some of the ignorance you have to put up with. Still, want to have options when it comes to jobs, network. You network it can save coming into these boards and asking @Chinatown about a job. It is outside the scope of these boards to advertise for a commercial product. I will just say there is a lot of GOOD books on how to network.