What would you have done?

I agree with you, in hindsight the best deal was to calm down then talk. In the case of the 800 mile DH he had other options before going home.

 

Of course at this point I'm sure you don't need this pointed out to you, and I am most certainly not blasting you, but his lack of experience with your type of equipment pulling your type of freight and his handling of it comes back on you. You knowingly hired an 'inexperienced' driver and the responsibility for that decision is yours or whom ever in your company is directly responsible for the drivers.

Using your example with the tomatoes, if the guy never hauled produce then it's a pretty safe bet that his knowledge of what to do is based on practical, real life experience. Go to the grocery store and walk through the produce section. The tomatoes are not in the cooler, they are displayed out in the open air.

It could be argued very well that he should have had the common sense to understand that at the very least he should have known that air needed to be circulating in the trailer or that it would be warmer in the trailer than in a grocery store. But just as you expect the driver to call if he has an issue or question, shouldn't you or your dispatch team explain the proper procedure for hauling the product, especially knowing that the driver was inexperienced? Again, I'm not trying to bust your ##### here, but help you cover it.

The large fleet that I worked for in the 80's & 90's was a refrigerated carrier that hauled produce off the west coast. Being a team operation with 125 power units we not only got inexperienced drivers and produce guys we recruited them. That being the case we had to think ahead and plan for this. For many years I was the only one handling produce loads, dealing with both with the customers and drivers. Knowing what the situation was I felt it was my responsibility to ask the buyers/shippers any pertinent questions and then relay them to the drivers. while I can't say that always knew all of the drivers all the time, I of course knew who I had loaded before and roughly how often, which gave me a feel for at least their experience with me. Also, I can't even begin to tell you how the relationship between the dispatcher and driver can effect the whole process. Personally, I always considered our drivers to be internal customers and treated them as such. 90% of the time that was returned in kind.

A good rule of thumb is to assume that your drivers don't have any of the information that they need and then give it to them, obviously including temp settings. After a while a report will build between you (or whoever) and them and you'll know who is a "hand" and who is learning to be one.

Anyway, I'm sure you know all of this and all I'm trying to do is let you hear it from someone else. To change the subject a bit, with the 800 miles deadhead deal, of course it depends upon where the truck was in Florida, but that could put you in the Carolina's or Virginia. I'm north of Charlotte, are we neighbors?

 

I'll bet you that 95% or more of trucking companies of ALL sizes have never considered this. And I'd be willing to bet that if they tried it, they would get the same results you did.

From what you have posted here, I may actually have worked for you at one time. You say your outfit hauled produce off the coast, and the number of tractors really sort of dovetails. You weren't out of Southern Utah were you?

 

This guy really is costing you money: for the fuel on the unauthorized deadhead, and costing you income with the lost revenue...you can't afford to have too many drivers like that around, or you will be broke in a month or two....no choice but to let the guy go.

When the AC went out again, he should have called you....

 

The entire time I worked in operations I always considered myself a 'displaced' driver. Having had experience as an owner-operator/driver gave me perspective that helped me communicate with the drivers I worked with. For the most part I always found that communication was key. Talk to someone in a courteous, professional manor, let them know exactly what is going on and exactly what is expected of them and you'd be surprised at how much easier everyone's job is. Most drivers understood, or quickly figured out, that hauling produce is a highly fluid situation. Things change and successful carriers have to adapt quickly.

Tell you something that I just thought about too... Gawd, it's been so long ago... When ever a driver got a bit of a 'tude toward dispatch I'd offer to bring them into the office for a week and pay them their wages for a turn as well as put them up in a room or even in my spare bedroom if needed. The idea was to let them see first hand what was really happening. In roughly ten years I only hand two takers (although I did let too many to count spend a day shadowing me) and in every case the driver came out with a better understanding of "the big picture" and to be honest during the course of it all my dispatch team learned some things too. That's something that every company should do too, but most won't.

No, central North Carolina.

 

It amazes me as well...It also makes me wonder of the defenders are the type that would do the same thing.

Lazy, Greedy people?

Oh...You mean the owner of the company that busts his ### every day to keep the company running in spite of the morons like this guy that think it's perfectly acceptable to deadhead a truck 800 miles because he's upset over some very simple problems that HE didn't have the patience to deal with?

Yeah, they are...And it's too bad!

We now live in a puzzified world where the weak and inept are allowed to do as they please without fear of reprisal and you see the results of that every day at truckstops and shippers and recievers with morons backing into trucks, parking in the middle of driveways to sleep and thinking it's OK to deadhead a mans truck 800 miles because you're having a rough day or two!

These are all things that an asswhuppin' every now and then would cure!!!

Exactly!

I've dealt with idiots like this before...Little repairs like that can add up fast and drivers that don't tell you when repairs are needed when they are on the yard are a liability, Not an asset!

The problems with the drivers inability to run the reefer and know when and how to use it fall squarely on YOU...The owner!

YOU knew that he had no experience when YOU hired him and YOU obviously didn't train him to do the job correctly with regard to the reefer.

I believe that you were totally justified in firing the guy but...You probably ought to either not hire drivers without reefer experience or train them properly in the future.

 

I mean the Lazy Greedy people who despite totally screwing up will still take their former employers to court because they somehow feel entitled to it.