Help with time management!

Hi, I recently turned 25 and got my first CDL job driving flatbed locally delivering steel all over SoCal a few weeks ago (mainly Inland Empire and San Diego area). They trained me for about a week and a half and I've been by myself for about 4 or 5 days now; my only prior class A experience is 20 hours at a small school with a 28' trailer before I took my DMV exam.

When I got back to the yard this evening my boss told me that I'm taking too long to finish my route and he said he's a bit concerned. I tried telling him that I'm still learning the routes and how certain customers like the deliveries to be made (where to pull in, dock, etc). I believe the main issue is the customers I deliver to and the vendors I pick up from are taking too long to load and unload the trailer. I try to tell them I'm on a tight schedule but most of them don't seem to care. I'm driving 55-60mph most of the time so it's not that I'm driving too slow which is what my boss assumed the issue was. I think I also get a bit overkill with strapping down the material. I probably do use too many straps but I figure it's better safe than sorry; it'd take a lot longer waiting for someone to help me pick up some steel off of the street.

Does anyone have any tips for making the customers and vendors speed up the loading/unloading process? A lot of our customers are Spanish-speaking but I only speak English. My trainer was bilingual and I noticed it was easier for him to become 'friends' with the customers and vendors that handled his material. I'm trying to do my best to be friendly with them but it isn't easy when we can barely understand each other. And I don't want to be TOO pushy because I'm worried they'll report me for being rude or something.

Thanks

 

Yeah, but my boss doesn't seem to understand that. He wasn't a driver in the past so it's no surprise, but I also don't want to get yelled at for taking too long. He tried comparing how long I took today with how long my trainer took. He has around 8-10 years experience and I have 5 days of actual experience. I don't want him to think I'm a ######## so I don't talk back to him, but how can he expect me to compete with someone that has years of experience under their belt?

Isn't there ANYTHING I can do to speed these guys up?

 

Hmm, it's worth a shot, I suppose. I do sometimes offer them something like gum, a cig, or whatever I have on me at the time.

and that's the other thing... I don't want to be 'that guy' who has crap falling off of the trailer into the street. I just don't get why he can't understand that I'm still completely new to this field. He knowingly hired me on with no prior class A experience. He keeps telling me his 'timelines' for certain routes but I don't think he's taking into account that we're not cruising in a little car going 80mph the entire way without stopping.

 

Alright, I thought about it and here's what I think I'll do...: tomorrow I'll try speed up the shippers a bit more bluntly and see if that helps. If it doesn't help and my boss says something again then I'll politely tell him that I'm just trying to be safe and to give me some more time to get comfortable with my route. If he can't understand that then I don't know what the hell to say... if he'd like to tag along in the truck with me for a day then I'd more than happy to show him just how slow these shippers are...

 

Yeah, I thought about doing 65mph but I'm worried that I'll get a ticket. I know for a fact they won't be paying it, though, so I decided against it pretty quickly..