What do drivers really want from their companies?

getting paid for MY time wasted, yeah that's one of them. one particular farm had a really bad habit of not being done milking on any sort of schedule, and he knew i showed up between 1-1:30 PM every-time. there were times i waited 3 hours. when i asked for detention pay i was told forget it, "i dont pay detention for waiting at a farm". this went on for months, i almost quit over it. finally my boss pushed for the co-op to have a meeting with the farmer about allowing the milk truck to sit in his driveway for hours on end..... it has finally improved and in the last month the longest i have waited was 45 minutes.

i make OK money $1k per week gross, but work 6 days per week nonstop. this is ny and there are allot of people making allot less then i make.

i was never compensated for anytime spent waiting at this farm. extremely frustrating.

in case you dont know i am a local milk truck driver.

 

Just be honest and upfront about what you pay, what benefits you may offer, and what's expected. That alone should set you a mile ahead of your competition. And hire drivers that can think for themselves (there's a few out there, probably already employed). Youll pay more in wages to get them, but you'll save in not having to fix a truck Everytime they get behind the wheel.

And don't run junk equipment..

 

Air conditioning.

Benefits

Equipment reliability

Money

Treated like an adult.

 

There was a motel that my company used to use. It looked like a truck stop. Lots of us were there every weekend and the rate was really good. Indoor swimming pool, and a bar/pool hall with good food across the street. The new guys would come in and mingle with the veterans. The veterans would invite the new guys to the pool hall since no one was leaving until Monday.

Well, a couple new guys showed up to orientation drunk and some office jock decided to put the new guys into another motel so they couldn't be corrupted by the vets. Thing is, lots of the new guys learned proper securement, tarp folding, etc in the parkinglot of the motel on Saturday morning/afternoon from the vets. The vets mentored the new guys and when the new guys were no longer mentored and no longer had someone to call when they had problems, the safety score plummeted.

So, then the office jocks started putting cattleprods in the trucks. That made it worse. The high end customers went elsewhere, the money dropped and the veteran drivers jumped ship. So now you have a fleet full of guys who need their hands held.

But see, all of this could have easily been avoided. If you have drivers in the motel for the weekend and they're not driving, let em drink! If there is a guy coming to orientation who doesn't know when he needs to quit drinking before showing up for work, wouldn't you want to know BEFORE you put him in a truck? Stopping them from drinking the weekend before orientation doesn't mean JACK...but it sure did seem like a good idea to the office jocks.

The amazing thing about the office types is, they always come up asking questions, saying that they want feedback, but in actuality, they just want to engage us in a conversation so that they can talk down to us...after all, they're the experts at safety.

 

Otter pegged it plus what the other drivers said about correct and complete information about shippers and receivers. If you trust a driver to do right everybody has less headaches. You will know quickly if you got a dud who won't do right..show that one the door and don't let it sour your relationship with your good guys.

 

Sadly, all too true in almost every case.

 

I let this go for a while. I have been spending the evening installing the Android OS in one of my laptops and listening to a bit of Wagner. There are really 2 things that I would care about. First I hope my checks always clear the bank and 2nd they might own the truck and the terminals but it is I and my fellow drivers that bring in the bacon. To me everything else is but commentary.

 

I just want to be treated decent. Like I'm an intelligent human being. Run into too many businessmen who think they are supposed to get all they can from me in anyway they can. The only thing they succeed in, is motivating me to leave.

 

This describes my current boss. He's not a bad person but he's a cheapskate. It does get old.

 

$ money $