Grow a pair

blah blah

in your "reply" you left out the most important part of my sentence and also the focus of my rant and that's kind of dishonest, i bold-faced the point of my post quoted above

and so your reply post was completely off topic, you don't appear to know the first thing about operating a commercial vehicle and don't know who you are addressing even though you pretend you do, so no reply here for you, and incidentally i respectfully disagree with everything you wrote

logistics is teamwork and everyone has an important role, but that has nothing to do with my rant

it is really simple:

if the customer's stuff is not delivered then the customer will not stay with the carrier

without the drivers there is no revenue coming to the carrier

even if the carrier has a fat client list it is worthless without drivers

 

I expected something completely different from the title

 

Nearly a decade operating my own truck, and almost as many years before that operating trucks for others. Been driving professionally since my 18th birthday, but what do I know? I've only been doing this for most of my life.

Want to try again? I'd run circles around you any day of the week.

Fact is, without the office staff lining up the contracts, you wouldn't have any freight to haul. Without the office staff keeping up with the paperwork, you wouldn't be legal to drive. Without the office staff keeping up with the billing and collections, you wouldn't be paid to drive. Without the shop maintaining the truck, you wouldn't have a truck to drive. All of that is more work and requires more knowledge and attention to detail than your job holding the steering wheel and keeping it between the ditches. Without ANY link in that chain, you don't have a job. As a company driver, all of that is taken care of for you. If you're running your own truck and authority, you either do all of those jobs yourself or delegate them to others.

Do you think the sales guys pounding the pavement working on customer relations enjoys putting out the fires after you damage freight, dig ruts in their lawn when you can't keep the truck and trailer on the pavement, "bump" into gates, fences, guard rails, parked cars, or anything else that happens to get in the way, etc.? All of these "minor incidents" people come on here crying about being fired over cause big headaches for those trying to hang onto those accounts. Being "on time" isn't everything. Can the customer smell you before you walk through their door? Were you rude or act in an unprofessional manner? Did you cause any damage on your way in or out? His phone rings when you screw up with his customer, and it is his job to make things right.

And if you're working for a company where your welfare is the least of their concerns, WHO'S FAULT IS THAT? I have never found myself in such a situation, because I have never allowed that sort of situation to develop. If they don't treat you with respect, it is because you have allowed them to do so. That doesn't just apply to trucking companies, but in life in general. If you want respect, you must be respectable. If you want to act like a slob, you will be treated like a slob. If you allow people to walk all over you, they will. In other words, what you deem as "the point" of your post is mostly irrelevant because it is a situation of your own creation.

 

Maybe in your world, sucks to be you...

Anyone with even a tiny part of a brain could do the office work from their truck.

 

Sure, making sure the permits in your truck are current is part of your job as the driver...but securing those permits typically is not. Knowing what permits need to be secured generally isn't, either. You just have to, from time to time, flip through the book and make sure nothing is expired...and if it is, walk into the office and get a copy of the current permit.

And yes, it is your job as a driver to bring defects to the attention of the shop, because you are the one driving the truck. The shop doesn't have time to take each and every truck for a test drive every night just to make sure everything is working properly...so you write it up, and they fix it. And it's great that you're somewhere large enough that has more than one shift. The small company I'm contracted with only has shop hours from 7am to 7pm...but after that, someone from the shop will still answer the phone to handle issues that arise.

 

You don't own a truck do you

 

I do. Why? Do you own yours?

 

Ok champ. I do too and I'm telling you ALL paperwork cannot be do from the cab.

You mean to say you figure and file IFTA from the cab?

Maintain your office files from the cab?

I can go on but we all know there is no need. Kinda like the insults your slinging

 

I see, just becuase you can't do it, no one else can. Gotcha Chief!
Have a nice life.