Working For A Quality Carrier

As the new year gets underway we (drivers) are faced with a host of issues to cope with. The list gets longer with each passing year. Hours of service, CSA (compliance, safety, accountability), electronic on board recorders, speed limiters, driver shortages, distracted driving, the economy, engine emissions, and so on. It is only recently that quality of life issues are being raised and recognized as having merit. Why is it that a drivers mental & physical well being is not the number one priority in an industry where a company's success hinges on the performance of each individual driver?

I believe there are a large number of organizations in our industry that only pay lip service to the health & safety of the driver. I continue to be shocked by the lack of concern that is shown for the mental and emotional health of individual drivers. You don't need to spend your life on the road to be aware of this. Spend some time surfing the internet and you can read any number of trucking blogs written by drivers detailing their experiences. There are a number of bottom feeders out there that prey primarily on the new and the inexperienced by making grandiose promises of training, compensation, and home time.

I'd like to believe that the majority of drivers share a positive and productive relationship with their carrier as I do with mine. A relationship that is win/win. Here is an example of the treatment I receive from my carrier.

By the time this column is published my father's 89^th birthday will be just around the corner. Sadly, his health is failing and it became very important that I pay a visit over the Christmas and New Year break. Until recently I did open board work and was in Vancouver quite frequently which enabled me to visit my Dad. This past fall I started to do a weekly run between southwestern Ontario and Winnipeg which provides me with more home time but keeps me away from the west coast and my Dad. As soon as I told the good folks in dispatch about my situation a trip was arranged for me to Vancouver and I was told to “take whatever time you need with your Dad”.

Now many of you reading this may think that's nothing special but in fact for me, and for the majority of drivers, this level of empathy and understanding has a huge positive impact on your morale and state of mind. I believe the way in which we are treated and the way we treat others is the path to our long term happiness, peace of mind, ease of mind, and success. The carriers (employers) we work for are one of the primary gateways to that path.

The freedom and independence we experience as truck drivers does not come without costs. Most of us have traveled down the road in isolation thinking about a loved one sick at home, a missed birthday, a family reunion your not sure you will make it to, an event you planned and now will miss due to a breakdown, poor weather, canceled load, or dock delay. Truck driving separates you from your support network of family and friends while at the same time providing you with countless hours to think about that separation Many truck drivers deal with incredibly strong feelings of angst as a result. It's a job hazard we all must cope with but it can be eased by the actions of the carrier we choose to work for.

As I finish off this column I am sitting in Golden, BC. I arrived at three o'clock this morning in the snow. It's now almost one in the afternoon, it's still snowing and the ride today will be challenging, that's just fine with me. There are new hours of service rules pending south of the border and that's just fine with me. There is a speed limiter on my truck and I'm still learning how to manage my electronic on board recorder and that's fine with me too. There are a host of issues to clutter my life throwing up roadblocks at every turn and that's fine too.

I was able to spend the last five days with the man that has shaped me, inspired me, trusted me, taught me, and loved me over the course of my whole life. I know that I may not see my Dad again in this world but he will live in my heart and mind for the rest of my life. I'm happy, content, and at ease.

The bottom line is I can count on my carrier, I trust them, and they feel the same way about me. That leaves the rest of those big trucking issues just fluff to deal with in the course of a normal day.

The Little Things

When a little thing goes wrong or just a little wonky on you it's most often not that big of a deal, you just take it in stride.  But when those little things come at you in bunches it can make you feel like tearing your hair out.

So I got away late last Saturday because I had to throw the battery charger on my truck and that made me just late enough to screw up my daily hours of service and would prevent me from the necessary number of hours of rest on Sunday night to keep me in compliance with the US hours of service rules.  No big deal, until I hit the crappy weather just north of Thunder Bay late on Saturday.  So I went into damage control mode and rather than waste time I stopped in Dryden to take my 8 hour break, reset my Canadian hours, allowing me to leave in the middle of the night so I would not have to deal with the traffic even if the weather was still bad.

That was a great plan until I stepped out of the truck at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning to do my PTI (pretrip inspection for those of you not up on trucking acronym's) and discovered the light show taking place around the top of my trailer.  All the upper clearance lights were flickering on and off along with a couple of lower tail lamps.  Probably just a bad connection I thought.  So I pulled the power cord from the trailer, cleaned & spread the connector pins, re-attached the cord and....no change....the light show continued.  I went back to the connector and gave it a good wiggle and that did it.  The lights went out altogether.  I still had lower lamps, signals, brake lights, and reflector tape (under the snow) all around so I filled out the appropriate paperwork and had no option but to deal with it later.  I had freight to deliver in 4 1/2 hours.

Okay, now I had six easy drops in Winnipeg then switch with a driver at the Husky truck stop in Headingley.  Not so fast Al.  Everything was rolling along until the 5th drop which was 6 4x4 skids of freight to a warehouse.  Easy right?  Nope, wrong address, 3rd party warehouse facility.  Had to wait for the guy to show up after I phoned him.  The guy receiving the freight was also as dumb as a stump and could not provide me with concise directions to the dock door.  3 hours folks.  I routinely lump off floor loads faster than that.  Okay, Okay, I took a deep breath got the last drop off did my switch and then I spent an hour dealing with the wiring issue.  I thought it was the plug on my light cord that was corroded and I was right.   So I spent an hour screwing around replacing that.

It was now four in the afternoon and I needed to book 10 hours off duty before I could cross the border.  Good, after 14 hours I needed food.  Oh, I forgot to mention, I had to be in Breckenridge, Minnesota at eight the next morning to pick up a full load.  I wanted to be a truck driver because......?

It's the little things that can get to you.

Snow Drifts & Dead Batteries

Another winter weekend.  It's getting blurry out here.  The week's are blending together, time is getting muddled again......I just realized the days are actually getting longer but I couldn't see the sun for all the blowing snow.

Delay yesterday because I had to throw a charger on the truck when I got to the yard....yes....the block heater was plugged in and there was power to it....no....the fridge was not left on & all the lights were off.  Must be gremlins, winter gremlins, invisible & sneaky winter gremlins.

So that delay made for a late arrival last night (early, early this morning actually) in White River and a later start this morning and that all means that when I arrived here in Dryden - which is still at least 4 hours from Winnipeg - in the early evening I'M TIRED!!  It's also snowing, the roads are crap, and there are a serious number of nervous Nellie type drivers out there right now.  My patience is gone.

So I had a meal and now I'm hitting the sack hoping that when I leave in the middle of the night the snow has stopped, the roads have been plowed, and all the ijits are at home in their beds.

I won't hold my breath.

Winter Sucks......Kinda

I woke to the drone of the engine at five o'clock this morning.  It has been my constant companion on the road over the past few weeks.  A reminder of the bitter cold.  I laid in my sleeper berth just listening, hoping I would slip back into sleep.  No go.  Winter wears me down in its own subtle way.

Over the past decade I have discovered exercise as a positive force in my daily life.  I'm not overzealous about it or subscribe to it as my new religion or anything like that.  I find that it clears my head of the cobwebs, relaxes me, and allows me to attain a quality of rest I don't get when I'm not on the exercise bandwagon.  I fall of that wagon every winter, a victim of the reality of our Canadian winters.  It's another way that winter wears on me.  I should have bought a health club membership for the winter but then I'd probably be stressed out because I could never get to the club to work out on a regular basis.

I've posted about the winter blues in the past and here I am again, like a broken record stuck in the same groove.  At least I'm no longer laying in bed stewing in my own juices of discontent.  Now I'm writing about them, spreading the misery around.  Ha ha ha.

Spring is around the corner along with a healthier outlook.......maybe I should have bought those snowshoes.  Hmmmmm.