Safety Meeting

Yea how about parking your butt in the left lane whining about somebody else on their phone. Maybe his headset was dead and the wife was calling? I don't know about you but I've had mine die on me and you don't just hang up and not call dispatch back because your headset is dead.

 

Umm.. Yes, yes you do. At least untill you can find a safe place to pull over. As for family, same thing. There are zero things that cannot wait even an hour to call back if needed...

 

I remember one outfit that insisted on meetings. It's like a bad night with the social party because everyone has to be there. One company was able to essentially halt all 400 trucks for a half day to hold a annual over a lunch of some kind on a friday where it impacted business the least.

I think the leader reeled off statistics, oldest driver, youngest driver, accident free etc etc etc. And maybe talked about a few crumbs from the ivory tower for the coming year. The one I referred to were making a transition from Pete 379's to the then new International Eagles which were a wider cab, roomier etc and somewhat more of a liability getting into places we were getting into with macks and petes. The macks went to the new hires because if they got wrecked not a loss while the 379's were carefully doled out to favorites. I remember at least that much.

Then delivery figures for the previous year into the DC area, related to cement for the I-270 construction which was at that time a simple 6 lane each way highway with big plans to mutate into the monster it is now. So those records would be destroyed by further annual delivery figures of even more cement.

It is always good to get clear of the meeting and get out of there. It's something to be endured like a dentist visit that cannot be avoided. So you show up sit quiet and eat the crappy food and get out as soon the suits quit talking about what they came to talk about.

I hate to be difficult. But meetings do not pay the bills sitting in a room with the trucks sitting still outside. There is no way around it.

Fast forward decades. One company had a annual meeting and they announced a third plant to be built etc. Essentially three people in positions of ownership, management etc gets to talk without being interrupted with any questions as everyone knows to stay quiet and get out when everything is said, the sooner that is over and done with the easier it is to get on with the work day.

Finally one of the local companies did not do annuals, they did every monday for 30 minutes in the morning before work started. You stayed quiet and the sooner they finish talking the sooner everyone got to work.

Follow me so far? Have a few tidbits, records and commend those who deserve it and just feed and give drinks to the people. The sooner everyone gets this annual over with and done the faster everyone will get back to work or home for the weekend.

Annual meetings generally did nothing overall except allow the top management, some of which to actually drone. Those are the worst ones. That is why no one has questions. Especially the new hires. They are hunted and told by other drivers to keep quiet so that the meeting will be over and done with with the least loss to income for everyone. And it will not affect the work already in progress anymore than it has already.

I hate to be difficult about this. I had a annual where one dispatcher pointed at me personally and said I might have something to say about a particular customer. I told everyone in about two sentances that particular customer is not one to be loaded out at all if at all you can avoid losing time there (Americold, Arlington Texas. You can easily lose a day and part of a night there sitting.) It is far better to find another load, any load that kept the wheels rolling than to accept that Americold assignment.

There was silence in heaven about 30 minutes to paraphrase.

It was also the last time anyone points me out specifically to say something. I hate it when people do that. I'll find the stake and get it over with so we all can get out of here and get back to work.

Now... a annual meeting is more useful if you had actual news to provide such as hard wage increases, equipment improvements or policy changes that dispose of friction between bosses and drivers.

In FFE the annuals were handled at the Board of Directors level, no driver was part of it unless they were due to be inducted into the so called million mile or whatever multiple hall of fame or something showboat.

With Mckesson, we had no annuals. There is literally not the time to be stopping the trucks to have a sit and talk. You just don't all it does is make everyone late and disrupt the deliveries that need to be on their way.

In short with the age of the internet and so on. There should be no reason to continue the old fashioned meeting that gathers everyone in one place big enough to hold em all.

 

Right have you ever been in an accident before? One where You end up in the hospital? You don't answer your phone or suddenly hang up and don't call back for an hour and you will have a #### show when you do call back been there done that

 

It is my contention that if drivers continue to blatantly break the federal regulations, the government will find an involuntary solution. The NTSB has already published a "Wish List" of safety items they want to see on all trucks in the U. S. Driver facing camers, unintentional lane change alarms and front bumper following distance radar to be mandated by law.

Now that all the trucks have ELD, it would not be that difficult to mandate and implement cell phone signal blocking software that would turn on as soon as the unit goes into Drive mode. All this will result from us "minding our own business" rather than taking action and policing ourselves into compliance to keep the government at bay.

 

I'll take your post to heart.

We had meetings a very long ago when VCR was new at the time period for the room to view. Instead of bosses droning, we had video tape of a actor known as Trucker Earl.

Now I cannot tell you who published that series, if they still exist at all and so on. But back in them days a few minutes with the way Trucker Earl seriously broke the ice in that room with everyone clearly learning lessons that impacts them in a funny way directly related to the work we did.

Those were the best. Once you had the ice broken, then the drivers would tell you what for. Some good and others bad. But all would tell you.

Moral of this post, find a way to break the ice. And wherever it goes from there hopefully everyone will come out of that room motivated.