It pays to be nice

Yup. It does pay to be nice. On a delivery Friday afternoon...a nice old guy offered me the remainder of a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts as compensation for dropping a pallet in his garage (he technically only paid for curb side service). I think many people in my position would have been like "Ugh ...no thank you." I politely accepted the doughnuts (it was a nice gesture)...he then handed me $40.

This scene from 'Fight Club' came to mind. "Is this a test, sir?" lol.

 

^ If you want to get paranoid, Doughnuts is also the same thing as money, It's a form of """"bribery""""
Wouldn't worry about it.

However, Always decline alcohol consumption or Receiving a 6 pack ( transportation ) on the job by a similar customer above! The other reasons can have a explanation . Alcohol: dead in the water if ever have in the possession ( cab ) or smell like a brewery....

Clarify: Bubba who the heck knows if it's a test. Crap happens and deny it. Have the 3rd party try to prove it Had money on my drivers seat before. Far as I know it fell out of my pocket exiting my tractor.

 

its nice that u took the time to ask...if ur in the way.

 

Um. ...it was a hint to make you help him unload the truck ^_^

But back when I did soda pop work, I would talk to other guys asking where they are going next, so I can go around them to avoid bumping into each other

 

That's exactly what we do around here. Us LTL guys ask where next stop is. About 6 or 8 of us from various carriers usually get bunched up in a commercial/industrial complex. Communication goes a long way.

Postal Service driver really good friendly guy, Usually we try to let him go before us. Huge amount of stress on times.
Super quick and who knows if he might go postal lol

 

When I did JB hu t dedicated for stop/shop we had first priority, meaning we could tell a vendor to get the f out of the dock, but I could never do that to a fellow driver, just bad karma.

 

How exactly will that play out...(chuckle)...Owner Operator is on the dock while getting off loaded, JB Hunt pulls up then states, "you'll need to move off the dock so, i may get my truck in there."

 

That takes balls and a lot of convincing while the box is ( live ). I've run up the food chain to do it, It's not fun and makes everyone look bad including myself.

Clarify a bit: Had Several hot boxes, same receiver ( unloader ) was putting OTR IBL's in the LTL lane. Then trying to deflect blame on me about being late and several other LTL's . Ran his butt up the flag pole. Play games, win stupid prizes. unLoader wasn't seen the following week.


JBhunt has priority anywhere is funny. Not saying it's a bad / good company. Just odd.

 

Yeah...I'd be curious to hear how those "I have priority" exchanges go over. If it were me (I generally only offload a couple pallets at each stop)...Id be like "oh man...that's a pretty cool deal for you..." Blah blah blah for another couple of minutes (as im finishing up) and then roll out.

My $.02...it's not a bright move for a company to put their drivers in a position to attempt to pull a BS card like that with other drivers. There are some real hotheads out there that might not take it very well.

 

It depends on what the job is
Former employer had Scrap yard Priority account, By passed all others. Plenty of other scrap haulers didn't take it well.
Took full advantage of that situation, tried to be nice, It doesn't always work well. Just have to be firm and that's the situation. It's a mind game, you let 1 person take advantage of you, others would follow and the priority becomes useless.

Welcome to life.