Overcoming being just a number to companies

You technically are a number big company or small. That's because once you quit, you're an afterthought and it's on to the next arse to fill that seat.

 

That's not exactly true. I haven't been a number at most of the places I've worked...less than 1/5 of my career has been spent as just a number. If I needed a job, I could go back to most of the places I've worked (the ones that are still in buisiness, anyway) and be working by weeks end.

 

I get what your saying, but the point I was making is that some people have this desire to feel like their place of work views them as a franchise player. What the OP has to understand is that regardless of where he goes and how long he works somewhere, the show goes on. For any business, you may think you're valuable and you just may be. Once you quit, it's next man up, and with a quickness too

 

Mmm, if you just do your job then your number will be a memorable number to them. You will be a number, but that doesn't mean that much.

A few times I have run into major issues with a shipper and everything went to pot. The higher ups were called in, people that I never even talked to had my back because they new/remembered my number and what kind of job I did. I was a number, but not "just another number".

It isn't about bieng a number, it's about not trying/thinking to be just a another number.

 

You’ll always be a number and any opinions or ideas you feel you need to express to management will be ignored

 

The company I work for know drivers by name and not the truck. The dispatch knows me by name, owner son knows me by name, The managers at the fleet knows me by name also. Only time when they ask me what truck number I in is when I’m the dispatch office

 

Standing outside looking at all the equipment one day, old guy says, "All this will be here long after you're gone."

 

Basically drivers are numbers regardless. Great post

 

Do the right thing! Take the crap loads, without complaining. Show your dispatcher that you can be counted on, not someone who constantly is late, or non existant. Do what it takes to get the job done! Take personal responsibility.
Very few do any of the above anymore, so you will definitely stand out if you do!

 

Numbers are just easier to manage than names when the person imediately above you is managing 200 trucks. Just because you are a number doesn't mean you can't make a name for yourself.

I was lucky when I worked for a mega and didn't have someone trying to micro manage me all the time. I was left alone for months at a time without speaking directly to my "dispatcher". When I did need to call about something they knew my reutation without even needing to put in the number and look it up. They knew me. They didn't know me personally, but they knew what I did, without even looking up the number.

Only brown nosers need to worry about numbers.