addiction to negativity

Dogtrucker,its all fine,and good that you take an interest in drivers health,and obtaining
knowledge while driving.
Its been documented,that some drivers do not wish to proceed farther in life,or learn a
foreign/local language,like Mexican.
I would be giddy,if a driver learned how to park,or go the bathroom in a designated area.
Im not gonna hold my breath,unless Im in a bathroom.
We need to crawl before we walk,and theres a lot of crawling going on from what I see.

A common Monkey will slowly go insane,if left in solitary confinement.Im not as smart
as a monkey.A monkey knows not to drive a truck

 

Your welcome.:smt096

 

I'd guess that might be more closely related to people tending to be more worried about getting screwed than they are hopeful about getting kissed... and/or the desperately qualified for even truck driving looking for work... + other factors.

I always recommend time behind the wheel be spent learning to drive a truck, finally, for Heaven's sake, but it isn't a very popular suggestion...

 

Archie Bunker, Al Bundy, Bill Parcells, Steve Spurrier.............the world needs these types to keep the Flower Children in check... ......Too much sunshine is just as annoying as too much rose petals. ....

 

I think falling into a negative mindset is an easy thing to do with this job. Thanks to the OP for starting this thread.

I'd been thinking about this issue after teaming with other drivers that would end their shift, then regale me for the next 30 minutes about how horrible their shift was. Drivers that cut them off, the truck that wouldn't let them pass, the terrible traffic... the list was endless.

It got to the point that I started to try to look for bad things during my shift, so I could match or better the badness they had during their shift. It became kind of a competition, trying to one up each other. I noticed that this impacted my mental outlook in a negative way.

Finally I made a DECISION to "drive happy". Instead of looking for bad situations I anticipated them and took them in stride. Of COURSE there's going to be traffic and inadequate drivers. That's a given. Just deal with it and let it go.

Then a curious thing happened. At the end of a shift I couldn't think of a bad thing that happened. It went smoothly. However, that created some disharmony with my teammates. I was no longer in the badness competition. They had the bad attitude playing field to themselves.

Basically I try to drive in a manner that facilitates the flow of traffic around me. If I help everyone else get home safely, then my chances to get home safely greatly improve.

The challenge is we are enclosed in a space, and it's easy to assume bad intentions of other drivers. I try to personalize other drivers as PEOPLE that would make good dinner conversation. It's just that they too are in an enclosed space and may not be as focused on facilitating traffic flow as a professional driver. Help them out. Karma comes around.

 

Look on line for a " cost of living calculator " been there done that it comes out to 102k

 

People typically don't want to believe the truth, and would rather join the "All large companies and all unions suck" bandwagon.

Truth of the matter is quite the opposite. I made large companies work, and was successful at it.

3 years at CR England. I did quite well as a company driver. Never had any problems getting miles.

4 years local P/DC. I made that work well also.

1 year at a small shop. They had some really nice trucks, but bling doesn't pay bills. I did more sitting than driving, and I hate to babysit truck stops. Rather than stay and be miserable like most drivers would, I went back to a larger company.

Im at YRC now. Large company and its union. I love it here. I'm home almost every day, and I'm projected to make $75,000 in my first year.

People are going to hate unions regardless of the facts. In my area, unions are the highest paying jobs in the industry, with the best benefits. Union membership in my area I think is the biggest deciding factor between the middle and lower classes.

I have two family members that have been drivers over 30 years. One pulls a hopper and the other is a union driver. The hopper driver makes $13/hr with no overtime and no benefits. The union driver makes 3 times that with overtime and benefits. The hopper driver is struggling whereas the lifetime union driver has a home and 3 cars that are paid off. The hopper driver hates unions. I wonder why. Jealous perhaps?

 

Maybe that's true for you, but not for me. Personally I wouldn't drive if it wasn't paying enough. No way would I drive a truck for under $40,000 a year. I'll quit and operate a forklift before that happens.

By the way, when you talk about negativity in the industry, you have to bring up unions and megas, because that is where most of the negativity is directed too.