Attitude

I train student drivers. Coincidentally I am a cancer survivor so nothing scares me anymore! I work on students attitudes as much as I work on their technique. I explain that delivering early is usually a function of approach. Hey, I am here, when can you unload me doesn't work. Hi, I know I am early, if it helps you great, if not, I will find a corner out of the way. (gets me unloaded early 99% of the time)

When I follow a grouchy trucker at a window, which happens quite often, the first thing I do is get that clerk to smile. I apologize for the previous guy, saying he spends too much time in the truck and not enough socializing, bad diet, bad upbringing. Or anything to get a little laugh.

I see students get very antsy and sometimes downright angry waiting for loads or sitting in traffic. I counsel them that if you can't control it you can't get upset or you will be miserable and should think about other work. I also tell them that I really can't think of less stressful work. If they try to name another career, I can always name stresses in those careers that they hadn't thought about.

The bottom line guys and girls is, when you get cranked about something...and are sitting there stewing...ask yourself, "If this is the worst thing that happened to me today, did I have a great day?" If this is the worst thing, smile because you had a good day. If this isn't the worst thing, then why get so cranked up about it?

Be safe, keep smiling, even at grouchy clerks. They will be relieved not to have another grouch at their window.

 

Attitude determines Altitude. I read that somewhere. It is true. My experience is that when you have a positive attitude your day goes much better and people are much more willing to help you. Who wants to be around someone with a bad attitude? Thinks happen in life and in business. It isn't about what happens, but how you deal with those events. A positive attitude attracts positive energy and a negative attitude attracts negative energy.

 

It's funny how a person with an attitude doesn't even understand they have one. Same thing as an addict that can't or won't admit to a problem. No matter what falls into my lap I'm always certain that somewhere out there somebody is dealing with a problem a 100x worse. That's making lemonade out of lemons. Was reading a thread last night some drivers complaining about other drivers at their company cherry picking or getting gravy runs. As if those drivers never had a crap load before... ...and how quickly the whiners forget after they finish one, probably never thanked anyone either. Every driver out here deals with the exact same issues. You either take things in stride and life is less complicated or you let every little irritating thing eat you alive. The latter path makes for a miserable existence and a person has no one to blame but themselves.

 

An old friend of mine used to say that the secret to a happy life is low expectations! But seriously I always found that not anticipating perfection makes your day go easier and when you get perfection you are happy. Our business still contains a lot of human intervention and things will go wrong. Being able to roll with the punches takes a lot of stress out of it.

 

Remember the old saying- I was sad because I had no shoes then I saw a man with no feet. Realizing your not the only guy dealing with a challenge makes the pill a little less bitter

 

ROFLMAO...Now that was good Bill...and I thought I was the only one having my feet burned over a caldron with hot wax....How are ya guys doing

 

But I do have to say that if I didn't have the right attitude I would never have made it as long as I did in this industry.

 

Yes. That was pretty much dumb luck. On the word the load was a "no-go" until the am I was ticked, but there was nothing I could do to change that. There was a truck stop a mile or so away and so I figured I'd call it a day anyways. This was my A#1 broker I called and let them know. Profuse apologies were offered up, I was asked if I'd be ok to cover it in the A.M. or would I rather go do my own thing and take TONU? I told them I'd just grab a break and pick it in the AM, so that was that. At this point, most of the time, I would have just drove off without another word to the customer. For whatever reason I walked back in to let them know what was up.

And they tell me about a round trip load they had, right now, gotta go..... It was 150ish miles one way, take a few pallets to customer, offload reloadcome right back with a few pallets. Was a straight truck load but they needed to move it and there I was. I told them I'd be more than glad to do it and had them contact the agent I'd just hung up with to work it out. Then 5 minutes later get a call from that agent, offers a rate, I take it and off I go. Get back that night, take my break, pick again in the morning on the original load that fell thru the day before... Made some bonus money... Had I stormed off the scene in protest I would have missed an opportunity..

Now, when the load originally fell through, I was ticked. Anybody would have been, it kinda messed up the day. But I never let it show to anyone or took it out on innocent people who had no control over the situation. No-one wants to hear some whiney baby truck driver crying how this ruined his day, didn't make revenue goal, yada, yada.... .....nobody cares, save it for the truck stop counter or TTR hahaha!!.. Really, what's the point in that? It does not help anything. Always have to keep your poker face on.... I thanked the people and went back to my truck calling the agent and dealing with it... Those lemons actually turned into green money that day. I've had loads fall through many times over the years but I never let it bother me like it was the end of the world. Most times nothing good ever came of it like in this situation. But again, that's trucking deal with it or cry like a little baby, right??

 

Where you been hiding out?