I just wanted to quickly talk about headlight bulbs blowing out. This happens a lot because the person who installed them touched the glass with their bare fingers. The oils from you skin get on there and when they heat up the oils will burn and make it hotter than it can handle. Use a nosewipe tissue to hold them when you take them out of the package. Worried about who may have touched it at the factory? Install the light bulb with the nosewipe tissue then get a little rubbing alcohol on the tissue and wipe all oils and fingerprints off the glass light bulb. It will last as long as it was designed to last now.
I didn't notice you talking about light bulbs to me Injun. Others directed their light comments to me. Quoted my remarks. I may end up doing 2 years here. It looks better. All you see is the bad I have posted. I have encouraged newbies to come here. Great place to get your experience. Some ask in the truck stops. I tell them come on and leave CRE and come over. Trust me I have applications out. I don't want to go where there isn't bennies. I am too old to go without. I want a step up. Possibly go pull local tank again. Most want 2 years. Some take you wiith 1yr + school. If I was wanting to stay OTR I would have left at 6 months. One of my biggest gripes is the people above don't do their jobs. I gave them 24hr notice to find me a load going to a terminal to get my truck fixed. The message never got forwarded to my DM. Instead Onroad has sent me to Volvo. I tried to save the company money. In all actuality this might be cheaper as I will be rolling making the company money sooner than sitting in the shop for 4 days. I am going to make the best of my time. I'm going to the sushi buffet!
Aviation, Medical, Insurance, Law, Real Estate and a great many other professions require some form of continuing education and the vast majority are unpaid. Just like a mechanic pays for his own tools, this training is a "tool" for your job. Likewise, there are certain duties that go without saying, or should, that one does not get paid to do: Change the printer cartridge, fill the stapler, pick up a piece of trash off the floor, and yeah, change a stupid light bulb or sweep the ###### trailer and quit whining like a spoiled child about it! You tell me, where in this world can a 22 year old without any college or experience (who is not a star athlete!) go and one year later be grossing 36-40,000 dollars a year? A few posters on this forum compare wages to Home Depot, but I guarantee you they are not making anywhere close to that per year unless they are managers or asst. managers. The only thing Swift asks is you not be a drug-addled, or drunken eff up and have a little self-discipline. It is like that BS statement, "...oh, Swift just wants to make money off new drivers and not pay experienced ones...". To think that Swift (for example since this is a Swift thread) makes more money having new drivers is insane! The cost of insurance, silly mistakes, avoidable accidents, inefficiency of a newbie compared to a good experienced worker...the list goes on. Throw in the costs of the lazy bast--ds who spill coffee here, piss all over the bathrooms there, idle pointlessly, ad nauseum and you can imagine how much money the company spends in wasted non-productive time every year. I guarantee you that multiplied times 17,000+ trucks and, what, 25,000(?) drivers, stupid crap like unswept trailers, lazy drivers who will not change a light bulb and thus tie up a shop and it's people needlessly (it takes just as long, or almost, to do all the paperwork for a light bulb as it does for an engine rebuild and the paperwork touches the same number of hands!), well meaning, but untrained new drivers, etc, etc. that Swift spends money by the bucket load compared to not having to always hire and train newbies and deal with mediocre slobs. Every manager, coach, sergeant and accountant knows it costs more time, efficiency and money to train and retrain newbies than it does to keep well-trained good people. Key word is good. Too many assume that just because they have occupied space for X number of years that they deserve more money. Bull S--T! Being on time and not getting accidents or violations is not the mark of excellence. It is what you are supposed to do! Reminds me of that Chris Rock joke about guys bragging, "I take care of my kids!". Uh, yeah, that is what you are supposed to do genius! I bet you that Redd and BlackW900, for two examples, do not measure their success by how many times they avoid accidents. I bet they measure success by how well they do everything it takes to be successful. Go read some of their posts about what they have had to do to succeed and then go complain to them how "the mean old manager is making me sweep out my trailer." I would suggest doing it in the forum, though, or you may just get a slap upside the head. And I hear that Redd is a big guy! But, maybe I am full of crap and the world really does owe us all a big check just for showing up. .
When I was self employed I went to Kansas City, Louisville, Atlanta, Dalton etc. for training. Got to write it off my taxes. There is compensation, + the contacts I made for more work. My sweetie is a teacher, she is doing night classes to get her continuing education credit. She gets to take it off her taxes. We aren't going to agree on this, and don't have to. If I was really wanting to push it I could research it and see what the law is. I don't really care. I am not going to rock the boat. I'm just rowing it. Right is right. And wrong is wrong. I am silly sometimes, I expect people to live by the golden rule and do business the same way' Enjoy the Koolaid! And without any preventables, or SVC failures knock on wood!
*dances around chanting* And I know who it isssssss And I know who it isssssss And I know who it isssssss
I'm going to cut right through the bulls**t and tell you exactly how I feel without mincing words. Drive the truck, pick up and deliver your loads on time, run your logbook like you're supposed to, if a light bulb needs to be changed or a trailer needs to be swept out just go ahead and do it, use common sense behind the wheel at all times, keep the left door closed, keep the wheels turning, and if something happens and you're not gonna have enough time to make it to your pick up or delivery on time, tell your DM and get it rescheduled. Above all, don't whine, don't be a negative nancy, and don't spread negativity around to other drivers just because they're picking up from the same shipper and they're a dock or two down from you. Nobody wants to hear that crap.
If you can't do those things, or aren't willing to do those things because you're not getting paid for some of them, then quit and do something else with your life. They will find another warm body to drive the truck just as quickly as you get out of it. They have a business to run, they don't have time for cry babies who don't want to do their jobs.
