It's your fault.

Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by FoolsErrand, Aug 17, 2019.

  1. FoolsErrand

    FoolsErrand Road Train Member

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    Now that ive got your attention...

    I have an overactive brain that doesnt let me sleep much. When a nagging problem invades my brain, especially now that im a driver with uninteruppted hours by the dozen, it just ponders and ponders until i feel i gain clarity on the root of a problem and determine if i have any capacity to change it. Do i contribute to the problem? Maybe i am the problem?

    Its no secret truckers today are overworked, underpaid, overstressed and generally abused by the outrageous rules that govern us. So we all conjugate to piss and moan and vent and point fingers. Im guilty of it all the time.

    ....The problem is always the other guy.

    The noobs, the steering wheel holders, the trained monkeys, trainees and supertruckers, youtube mega drivers, hotheads, slowpokes, foreigners. The net thats been cast is big enough that any incident will almost always catch one of them in it when the damage is being assessed.

    So they are ignorant, incompetent, unaware. Fine. They dont know what you know. And when you and your salty veteran buddies are gone, trucking sure is gonna go downhill because everyone else is a shmuck, right?

    Well.. Thats where im finding the root of the problem.

    Who have you trained? Who have you taken under your wing? Are you a mentor back at base to the young ones, or just a tormentor when they give you the chance to talk about them?

    Who taught you old timers to drive right? And who taught them? Before CDL existed, it was probably dad or grandpa showing boy how to do the job. When i was a kid middle school shop class was where mechanical aptitudes were identified. Big manufacturers looked through their floor sweepers and loaders to see which one should go to the apprenticeship. An 18 yr old was paired with a toolmaker nearing retirement, and taught exactly how to do everything for best results. A year later he is a machinist. Decade later a toolmaker or pattern man. Then one day he is a mentor with his own apprentice. The diesel shops started with the entry level teardown kid over at the jetwash.. Who moved up as he was ready. One day he is cutting heads on the rottler. Now we rely on wyotech to turn out large children who can accurately diagnose and repair our $100k piece of equipment before our load needs repowered. Big surprise that it isnt working so well right?

    So, how many kids or grandkids or nephews or neighborhood kids have you said "cmon, lets go on a short run" and shown them anything at all? How many russians or indians have you taught to calculate their operating costs and negotiate so they'll stop taking low offer freight? How many people have you helped get their CDL? If the answer is none, what right do you have to blame the current state of affairs on everyone else?

    MartinfromBC is the only guy i hear saying he has no trouble keeping great workers [women doing specialty hauling in hard terrain at that!] and its clear that a meticulous appreticeship is his secret. He invests in these kids.

    We all know a CDL mill cannot replicate a years long apprenticeship. If you havent been doling out lessons, maybe the brain drain of trucking is partly on you.

    Find a kid eager to learn, and pass down what you know.
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2019
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  3. LDLWells

    LDLWells Heavy Load Member

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  4. MACK E-6

    MACK E-6 Moderator Staff Member

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    I taught myself for the most part, because I wanted to get better.
     
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  5. buddyd157

    buddyd157 Road Train Member

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    i had to look that up...but yeah
     
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  6. FlaSwampRat

    FlaSwampRat Road Train Member

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    I had on the job training at UPS that I think gave me a huge leg up compared to CDL mills and everyone in that company wants everyone else to succeed so help and tips were always there. It's the same way where I'm at now. Good forklift drivers get offered a chance to learn to drive a truck on the job and we for the most part are one big team and there for each other. OTR seems to be the problem. ####ing supertruckers galore that are old, get paid poverty wages yet they all made 150k/yr in the 70's&80's (why are you still driving and crying about wages then...), grumpy life hating idiots. They won't even help themselves so they sure as hell aren't gonna help anyone else. When you tell them there is money to be made in trucking doing local work you always get the same story. "I ain't afraid of work but I sure as hell ain't doing that".....okay...quit #####ing about it then. This is a broad generalizing post but from what I see it's fairly accurate. I have never worked in a yard that smelled like piss and had #2 bags laying around and everyone I work with isn't crying about hos, elogs, pay, benefits, etc.....just sayin
     
  7. MACK E-6

    MACK E-6 Moderator Staff Member

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    We have guys here crying the pallet jack blues now. They all want electric ones.

    I don’t, because they’re heavy which affects liftgate capacity, and we see too many oddball pallets than an electric jack won’t fit in. If I can’t move it with a manual jack and my trusty oak 2x4, it doesn’t get delivered.
     
  8. FlaSwampRat

    FlaSwampRat Road Train Member

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    We have electric ones and they suck when they die. They are about as heavy as the truck and impossible to move lol. We have solar panels in the trailer roof and a charger built in but it is still not a fool proof system since we are in the rainy season so there's not much sun and you can't expect the warehouse guys to make sure it's charged before they put it on the truck. I like a manual jack better too. Less to go wrong, weighs less, and takes up a lot less room if you are pulling a trailer that is blown out.
     
  9. buddyd157

    buddyd157 Road Train Member

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    at the job i retired from, we all had electric pallet jacks, rated at 4,000 pounds. we did not have liftgates.

    however, when ever i had a 10 foot long pallet of black pipes, and the weight was about that 4,000 pounds, that darned thing would fight me all the way.

    god help me, if the trailer floor or loading dock floor was wet, cuz that thang wasn't going no where, till i laid down speedi dri...and even then, it would not always budge.
     
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  10. MACK E-6

    MACK E-6 Moderator Staff Member

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    Park facing uphill next time. ;) :biggrin_25523:
     
  11. FlaSwampRat

    FlaSwampRat Road Train Member

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    I totally forgot about that lol. If the loaders leave the vent on the front of the trailer open (which they always do) and the floor gets wet the electric jack just sits there and does burnouts on the wet wood floor lol.
     
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