Fired for Being Early....The Ridiculousness Of The Truck Driving Business....Part II

Well, the ops manager had told me he would talk to the assistant terminal manager to see if he would let me tell my story. The assistant terminal manager agreed to hear me out. While awaiting my chance I took my notebook and made a list of all of the points I wanted to make. He invited me into his office and with the ops manager right next to me backing me up I stated my case one point at a time.

The assistant terminal manager also agreed with my case but we were still facing one problem here....the order to fire the next driver and dispatcher came from the top...the VERY top. Keep in mind this is a company with over 5000 drivers and thousands of office personnel. So I had to go to the terminal manager and beyond.

At this point I made a key decision....I decided I wanted to get a couple of important office personnel that knew me and my performance record well to stay with me in meetings and back me up. I think this was absolutely key. One on one would have been a tougher sell. But having people backing me up made a huge difference for sure.

That day I had to go through a total of six - yes, SIX - different people before I had worked my way up the chain of command to somebody with enough authority to overrule the decision and allow me to keep my job. What an ordeal. If I was such an great truck driver with several great years in at that company and no previous incidents whatsoever then why was I fired and why did I have to go to such lengths to keep my job? THAT is one of the many key lessons to be learned from this ordeal.  

Large companies, even the good ones that do genuinely care about their drivers, have a lot of middle and upper managers making everyday decisions that have a big affect on the drivers and their lives. Unfortunately, most of these managers have never spent one moment of their lives driving a truck and they don't really know any of the drivers.

How can you make decisions about something you've never done before regarding people you've never met? That is one of the biggest problems I've seen throughout my career in this industry. Not only does this happen within the individual companies but at the federal level in the DOT. They write rules based mostly on public perception and when they DO decide to get input from the industry its from these same managers at the large trucking companies who don't have any experience in a truck.

It really makes a mess of things sometimes.

Another lesson from this ordeal is one that I've mentioned previously, but I just can't stress this one enough...you really have to get to know as many people in the chain of command as you can. When you get to the terminals go into the offices and say hi to these people as often as you possibly can. Not only can it save you in times of trouble, as it did for me here, but it will give you the ability to have special requests granted sometimes, like it did for me with my NASCAR weekend in Bristol.

There are several more lessons here from this incident. Another is diplomacy. I told you I'm Italian and I'm from New York. I've had times earlier in my career where I was faced with a problem and went STORMING into the offices and told everybody EXACTLY how I felt about things in my own harsh way and believe me, that didn't work AT ALL!

Now if it were up to me I would much rather be able to handle things my natural way....loud, straight-forward, and to the point. Whenever I hear someone say, “its not what you say it's how you say it”, I wanna KILL EM! I just figure if that's how you feel then you are used to dealing with people who have very little substance and a lot of BS. And often enough that's probably true. If you have something important to say the substance should be key, not the presentation. Well with truck drivers, dock workers, and most blue-collar workers that IS how everyday conversations are handled. Here's an example:

Can you imagine going to a construction site, walking up to a big, musclebound dude carrying a concrete block with a little bit of blood trickling down his arm and saying, “Pardon me, sir, but if I could trouble you for a moment of your precious time I would like to present you with the thought that a band-aid may assist in the prevention of infection. I'm not saying you SHOULD wear a band-aid, it was just a thought and I hope that if I can be of any further assistance to you, you won't hesitate to approach me at anytime. Thank you for your time, sir. Have a nice day.”? He would slap you and tell you to quit being a bitch.

Well, as absurd as that previous example had seemed, to go into an office environment and talk to office personnel the way you would talk to another driver, dock worker, or construction worker sounds just as absurd to them. Please trust me on this one....I learned this the hard way. My thinking was that I should be able to talk to someone like an adult...say what's on your mind, put it to em straight, and forget the fluffy presentation. We're adults here, let's deal with the situation. If you're so worried about presentation then go into modeling. If I'm pissed off I'm gonna ACT pissed off....because I AM pissed off! GOT IT? Does that NOT make sense? Unfortunately for people like me who prefer to be straight forward and say it like it is, you can't do that in an office environment, they will tune you out completely.

What you have to do is deal with whoever you are dealing with on their terms and in a way that they are comfortable with. It's a shame, but that's the reality of it....and again, that's what this book is about...the reality of life as a truck driver.

Be prepared to be diplomatic if you ever want to get anywhere with the office staff. You may think, “Hey, I don't CARE about getting anywhere with the office staff.” Well, this incident probably wouldn't have worked out in my favor if it wasn't for the way I handled myself. How do I know this? They actually told me so afterwards. They don't even pretend that the presentation isn't important and that they are substantive people who are above such pettiness. They sincerely care about presentation.

Throughout the interviews I never raised my voice one single time. I never threatened anyone, I never threatened to quit, I didn't accuse anyone of being an idiot or anything like that. I talked calmly, kept my list with me, made my points clearly, and showed everybody respect. I handled it on their terms and in a way they are used to handling things...and I hated every kissy-kissy, pansy-assed, nauseating moment of it. That's how it seemed to me anyhow.

I am one of the best drivers you will find anywhere and I got fired for something that wasn't my fault by a company I had dedicated several years of my life to without incident and had to beg for my job back. Are you KIDDING ME? I wanted to go through that place with a machine gun. For all the drivers that had ever been tossed to the curb for no good reason I wanted to get our revenge. But I didn't.

Instead I got to keep my job. Well, for a few more years anyway until they fired me again because of logbook violations they had allowed me to commit for almost six years without so much as a word. No joke. One day out of the blue I got called into the office (isn't this how the last incident started?) and they told me my logs had been audited by the new “Safety Committee” that had been formed two months prior and they felt my log falsifications were serious and chronic and I should be terminated. I didn't even attempt to get my job back this time. I had put in 6 perfect years at this company and was being fired for the second time without warning for simply making them a ton of money and doing things the same exact way that they had allowed me do them from day one. I certainly could have taken the same route and gotten my job back again but this time I figured enough is enough already. I said, “ok” and went home. No biggie. That's life in the trucking industry and I've come to expect it.

One last lesson from the initial firing is to get to know the structure of your company. Don't just get to know the people, but get to know the right people. Find out who has the authority to make different types of decisions. Find out what the chain of command is. All you have to do is ask. Find out things like who assigns the freight each day? Who assigns the tractors to each driver? Who has to approve your home time requests? Who's permission do you need to change divisions? What about changing dispatchers? Who is responsible for approving which fuel stops you can use? Who has to approve repairs and towing when you need them? If you need a hotel during a repair, who approves that? What about if you want to take an extended period of time off, like a month or so...who approves that? What are the policies and procedures in that situation?

You need to be able to get in touch with the right person at the right time for each different situation you may be faced with. Know your company. It'll make a big difference for you I promise.

Part I