Millis OTR journal

Yeah, it didn't take too long for me to realize I needed to think about how I'd leave in the morning as well as how to get into the spot at night.

 

1 month ago I had the best trainee a trainer could ask for. The guy was a true professional in every sense of the word. Asked question, listened, learned and was just amazingly good at the job. I really was just a passenger along for the ride. Unfortunately family reasons made him leave.

Tonight I’m with his exact opposite. I am his second trainer, no idea how his first trainer got him to 12000 miles. The guy won’t listen, knows everything about everything. Thinks blinkers, and stop lines are optional. For some reason has an issue with the engine brake and just won’t use it. If I’m not telling him what exit to use to get off highway he will just blow by it. Has happened 4 times on 2 trips!

Arrived at a shipper tonight. He goes in checks in, comes back out and asks me what empty are we supposed to get. We always get the empty that’s already jn one of the doors. Don’t think anything of it, so I get him backing the loaded trailer into an open door I’m standing by the door when shipping guy comes out and asks me if this is the loaded millis trailer we were supposed to grab out of drop yard. I’m like no this is the trailer we brought from CT. He starts screaming at me, I have no fricking idea what he is talking about. Apparently there was a loaded millis trailer in drop yard they needed at door and asked trainee to drop our trailer grab it and bring it to door. Yes I get it it sucks, but it’s not like they were asking us to bring some other companies trailer to door.

So I stop trainee backing trailer and tell him we have to go find this other millis trailer bring it to door and then will grab the empty and leave. Friggin guy has a meltdown. Became a belligerent ahole. Starts going on how our job is just to drop our trailer and grab an empty. Just won’t stop repeating it.

First of all I know it’s not our job or what we are supposed to be doing and no one will ever know we did it. But making a customer happy even if it’s just the dock worker goes a long way. We deliver multiple trailers there a week.
So we drive around lol can’t find the trailer because it doesn’t exist. Go back to dock and some woman comes out to help straighten out the problem. Trainee starts repeating over and over we are dropping our loaded trailer in the door and grabbing the empty, I’m trying to tell her we drove around didn’t find trailer and that I messaged dispatch to find out where trailer is, and this idiot just keeps repeating to her “we are dropping out trailer and grabbing the empty”. Thankfully she ignored him. Anyway after dispatch told me trailer didn’t exist she was happy and said we could drop it in door. She did wish me good luck on training.

 

And this illustrates in a nutshell why I could never be a trainer. I simply do not have the patience to deal with people like that diplomatically.

 

His attitude sucks..i bet he don’t last long.. it’s inevitable that a customer at some point will call In on this guy and hopefully Millis will throw him to the curb rightfully so… what a moron.

 

Ha, I got a message the other day asking if I ever consider being a trainer. No thanks. I can barely keep myself together. I did teach English in China for 7 years but those were cute little kids and my awesome wife was helping. I'll only share this tiny space with my wife or kid. I mean have you seen the guys out here?

As for the load planners, they are basically between customer service and the dispatchers now, so dispatch has a lot less flexibility giving you loads that make sense for your clock or situation.

Well, I'm sitting out in Shelby, IA for the weekend. Got a load out of Menards...get there Saturday noon and the Shelby stuff hadn't been unloaded yet. Might be unloaded this afternoon but the week is already wrecked.

Once my baby is born, I'm getting serious about finding at least a good local job.

 

I keep hearing about these massive driver shortages but here I am sitting in Shelby, IA doing nothing instead of sitting at home with my pregnant wife. Hey, been ready for dispatch for a day and a half!

 

I've been sitting and waiting more lately too, and know I'm not the only one. It's nice when you've almost ready to park for the night, not nice when you've just started your day.

 

Happy 10/4 good buddies.

 

In tonight’s looney tunes episode. We were coming into Cville. I told him not to take the first right but go down a 1000 feet and take the second right. He gets all defensive and starts spouting off he knows what he is doing and doesn’t need to be told what to do. Explain to him for umpteenth time that one of my goals is not to let anyone get into a pickle or damage the truck so they can get into their truck with no safety violations. Plus I don’t know where he has been and hasn’t been. Anyway we turn onto Carson loop and he blows by the entrance. That made me chuckle when he had to back up.

 

I don't get the appeal some find in idling in this weather. Between the extra noise and vibration leading to even more time at Pilot (or struggling with the card reader at a terminal) the only benefit I see is the extra rewards points at Pilot, and those extra points aren't worth the hassle of waiting in line to see if the pumps are working on both sides etc...