Why am I a owner operator..........it's simple

I generally agree with what you say but respect goes both ways. The issue is that in my experience, places that treat drivers like this also have long waits to load and unload and pay garbage rates. It's funny how some of the best shippers and receivers also pay great too.

I'm generally pretty easy going and if a customers employee gets crossways with me I'm inclined to chaulk it up to maybe the person just having a bad day BUT there is a line. I've only drove off from a shipper twice in my life and I hope I never have to again but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

One shipper after they had loaded me started giving grief and just looked back and said well dont like it you can take your product off did not say anything more. I called company told the situation and what not they said no biggy we back your decision.

 

Back when I was a company driver, I had a very similar incident with a customer. Pretty much a rehearsed response:
Me: "I'm sorry you feel the necessity to utilize derogatory and inflammatory remarks to get your point across. You may wish to reconsider how you talk to people, as in this case. I hold a purple belt in Jui Jitsu, a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and spent four years in the 7th Special Forces Group of the US Army. I do believe that more than qualifies me to be able to effortlessly stomp your ##### into a mudhole. Luckily for you, I am feeling a bit less confrontational today and choose to forgo the violence. But I think you need to get your supervisor out here before I change my mind."
Everyone has a boss, even us independent O/O that we are accountable to. I may choose whether or not I want to deliver to that individual company, but the freight broker is another story altogether. I may have an overwhelming desire to remove a dudes chiclets from his gumline, but am held to a higher standard of self control by the justice system due to my extensive fighting training. Funny thing was, in my instance, the butt faced dudes boss actually thanked me for not whooping his ##### and making him file a workers comp claim.

 

stop it. no one should be treated like that

 

"Now Im leased on now, so i have to respect my carriers customers. "

If you are gonna stand there and take #### for your "carrier" you have no backbone or self respect.

At least some us have Pride !!

 

I'm lucky I work for a good guy and he would back me up if I have an issue.

I hauled a load to St Paul last winter. Talked to the receiver and they said only one truck is allowed in their lot at a time and I have to take my tarps off out on the road. I've done that when it was the only option but it was a busy road and their was plenty of room in their lot so I ignored their silly rule and backed in and started untarping. Guy runs over and reads me the riot act and threatens to call my boss. I got my phone out and dialed my boss up for him. It was funny to see how fast his tough guy attitude ended when I called his bluff and offered to help him call the boss.

 

I get into confrontations like this on a weekly basis at my current job(2 more days) driving a ready mix truck in Chicago... Usually it is because of people wanting me to do something stupid or totally unpractical. I just say no, they get mad and huff and puff and tell me I'm an idiot and then I start my yelling and it shuts them up every time. I always give the boss a heads up after the Irate customer of the week argues with me and he laughs and says I hope they call so I can say something to them.... Usually its over something that one would think is common sense like when a customer wants you to back over a curb, some grass, a sidewalk and more grass to get to the basement window when they are pouring a basement floor. Problem is that there is a clear yellow paint line and little yellow flag that says NICOR or Peoples gas on it right where they want you to back up..... That stuff is not buried as far down as one would think... That's only the beginning of what people try to yell at me for!

 

you gotta stand up for yourself in construction I watched a cement truck driver arguing with the basement guy that it was too unstable to back up any further .yet he did it and ended up going into the hole and knocking the half filled forms down when the bank collapsed .. I'm pretty happy having a couple of dispatchers and a boss who know I don't cry wolf so if I leave a customer they bill him for the extra delivery charges if I drop it elsewhere . With LtL you better be a big customer if you want other peoples product to be late due to whatever issue you are going through

 

Pride and self respect? Pride and self respect is remaining calm, maintaining self control and a professional attitude at all times. Does a business owner let himself get goaded by a yard monkey?

The yard ape is so far beneath the professional he may as well be a 6 year old. What would be the point in lowering yourself to that? So he can inform his boss that the truck driver with the bad attitude yelled at him.

 

If the shipper / receiver is respectable then show them some respect. If not, never go back. But you as the driver or owner op, must be respectable. It works both ways, I have many places I will never go to for a variety of reasons. I wont lower myself so far as to get in a pissin match with an ###. That being said, sometimes a person has to be reminded that they are indeed an ###.