My Moms Dementia & Death versus CRST

What could be the worst than losing my mother at the beginning of this year, Jan 14Th 2011, She will be missed. Mom always said don't cry to long over things you cannot change. So after her service i started my trucking career over with crst. Due to my time away from trucking i had to go to a truck school for the first time in my life. Mom had left me with some coin so i decided that extra money would help out on the road during the first few month, and it helped out Big Time!!. After three weeks of BS, i get on a truck march 18TH with a trainer and find out I'm his first trainee, and he has had eight other co drivers. (red flag) The man is a black man and i am a white man, no big deal at all till later. He was trained by a dirt hauler so the floorboard and bunk was grity at times, he said that's how its supposed be. (OK?) The man was a good family man at home and had turned his life over to god, great!, but on the truck he was control freak, long story short, i jumped off the truck in OH. He came looking for me to ask if i would reconsider getting back on the truck and I said no but IL buy breakfast.(OK) He asked me why i wanted off his truck, so i told him that your just a narcissist self admonishing x cab driver with a CDL. He just smirked at me. Dispatch asked me to stay on truck till we get to fontana CA. Then i would get a new trainer at that point. Later on I-5 south of Bakersfield CA. I've been driving all night and the sun is coming up, he comes out of the sleeper and says IL take over now. (OK) Along the way he ask me one more time why i want off his truck, and he says is it because I'm black ?, I didn't say anything, right after that the CHP pulls him over and writes him up for speeding. I felt bad but i saw it coming from day one, they put me with a woman trainer after that. Stay tuned in for part two, a lot more to come, PEACE TO ALL !

 

Replying and continuing to my own thread. First thing first, always give full respect to anyone that is willing to start training. I left out a lot of things my first trainer did like hitting the guardrail in NJ. He doesn't know to this day that he hit anything, but that's not the point, someone else is at the wheel, no one hurt and no real damage, so move on. Back in CA. Part two, i meet my next (female) trainer, she been waiting some time for me, about three or more days. She gives me some ground rules and then we Wait for a load. We due a lot of talking, and she tells me she has eight boyfriends and does not mess around with student trainees. I tell her I due not want to become a statistic !. (i have a girlfriend) We get a load an away we go. She was good at the wheel so i was able to get some rest on her truck. She lets me know that she has only been home not more than four times in the past 12 months and that she is having issues with her DM. This is ongoing throughout are travels. She manages to get some time off in OH. San Diego CA is my home, but i stayed in a hotel for a few days while she is off. She was fair to me so i offered to due so. My extra money helped out, so i didn't ask for any advances ever !. She picks me up after her time off (she took truck home) and away to PA we go. While in PA. she gets fired (4 over idle) just B/4 Easter, Great, now i am stuck at a petro for three day till Monday. (spending more $ at truck stop to eat) I clean up the truck B/4 turning it in on Monday, its the right thing to do. Come Monday i take tractor a short distance to crst terminal and a long the way the truck starts shutting down, about five times, I did get into the yard safe. Now from day one their are two drivers working at crst that want me on their truck for the 20/10 program. CRST has a team truck pick me up in PA to take me west to meet up with my 20/10 team. The first team that picked me up had the trucking business in their blood, and I hope both are doing well, Thanks For The Ride!!. Went from PA to TN with them B/4 transferring to another team truck going west, part three still to come, out for now. PEACE

 

Now I meet up with the 2ND truck in west Memphis TN. We make the transfer during a storm with emanate tornado warnings in the area, this was a lot of fun?. The driver of the truck has a trainee with him and two small dogs. (cool- dogs) The young man being trained was having a rough time on the road and back at home, not uncommon but it adds to every one's stress level. We had to wait over night during the storms, so the lead driver went out of his way to see that me and his student got some food and some showers that night. Now the only place for me to sleep is in the front seat, and with the storm happening at the time the small dogs did not get walked. So when we all got up at 4 AM I smelt something bad!. One of the dogs had done some business on the floorboard of the truck, and I was steeping in it all night with my socked left foot, the lead is apologetic and pays for my coffee that morning, and I toss my new socks. Understand that no one is to blame for this and the dog had done no wrong, but its part of the trip and should emphasize the title. You lose a lot of sleep even when your not driving, it took about two 1/2 days to get me to flagstaff AZ. I made no money along the way, but finally met up with my team truck. Now my new lead and co-driver asks if I can knock off 500 miles to night going east on I-40. I said maybe 300, but I did not tell him that I did not feel like driving at all, I was beat, but to save face I did a little over 300 that night and fought it all the way. After that I got some rest and we have been getting along real well, even to this day. More to come, Part four coming up latter, getting on down the road.
PEACE TO ALL FOR NOW

 

Now replying to the last part of my own story. I must say this first and hope that all drivers and employees of any business do not go out of their way to degrade and bad mouth any one that you have worked for. This is my situation working at CRST only. Many drivers do fit in and things work out well for them, so to all of you still at CRST I wish all of you safe travels.

Part Four. Now my new co driver and myself started rolling all over the place, (48 us states) This was a good thing, But it did not last, the truck broke down in Atlanta GA. We spent about three days in a hotel while the truck is being worked on. The truck had 500,000 miles on it so they did a lot of work on it, and our biggest concern was the A/C and optimizer did not work well going into the summer months. It never did get fixed, this means that it could cost more money washing clothing and hanging out in the truck stop while waiting on a load. Comfort is a big key part when cohabiting with another human-being in a small space. Now the next two big concerns were to get me home in time for my sons wedding on may/22 and get the other co-driver on the truck, but it did not turn out to be that easy. On the way back to CA. I hit some A-frame barricades where the lane tapered off into one on I-40 West of Halbrook AZ. My co-driver did not have on the safety net while in the sleeper, so I did not lock up the brakes and toss him out or jackknife the truck. My co-driver has two years of clean driving under his belt, even though he had told the highway patrol that he was wearing it. I'm not going to mess with someones career when they are not driving, anyway the oil-pan and radiator had been damaged, so we get towed to Flagstaff AZ. We made all the right calls after the incident to everyone that needed to know, put ourselves in a hotel again and waited from the 16Th of may to the 20Th of may calling each and every day to check on the progress of the truck being fixed. CRST did not authorize any work at all during those five days, so on the 20Th I called every department at CRST to get authorization to go home and they said OK, but I had to take the bus (102 dollars greyhound) The bus ride was no fun but I did meet another truck driver (O/O) on the bus and his girlfriend I guess, he drops her off in the park someplace in Los Angeles CA. and picks her up when he goes out again, I guess she has no home to go to? Anyway they both let me know that greyhound will not get me close to the CRST yard to get my pick up truck, so they offer to give me a ride in his car, but we must take a local bus from Riverside CA. to Fontana CA. to get to his car and then a short ride to the CRST yard and my vehicle. Finally I made it back to my truck and gave my new friend some money for gas and then took myself home.

In conclusion. As I drove home back to San Diego CA. My thoughts are about how long my mother had known me from a child and into my adulthood. Towards the end she had no clue as to who I am or anyone else. The dementia had seized my mothers mind and we watched her slowly slip away forever, God Bless! We miss you! Trucking is not the same as mom and never will be, and for twenty plus years I have been behind the wheel with many different companies doing many different things . I left the industry of trucking in 2003 and came back in Feb/2011 it would be a nice career if you can handle the fact that no one knows who any of us are anymore, mostly working for big companies like CRST,SWIFT and others. Over the years I have found that the smaller places do not lose sight of you overnight and do not develop a similar case of dementia a long the way like the big companies do. All I can say is work for a midsize or small company if you want to feel good about your job in this type of industry ,Good Luck To All That Give Trucking A Shot.