Local Driver Discussion

Hello all, as most of you know I am in the military, and I have been interested in trucking for a few years. Well 2 years ago, a friend who served with me, he is older and retired about 2 years ago mentioned he was going OTR. I was surprised when like 6 months later, he quit.

I would like to point out a couple of things from a conversation today with him. He came in to get a retiree I'd card.

First, he started with one mega carrier, then for whatever reason, moved the second mega carrier all in the same 4 to 6 months from graduating.

Well his last day of work, he got 2 preventable in NJ. First was hitting a park bench, causing 2 tires to pop. The second, was he didnt call the police first. He called dispatch. The store owner he was trying to turn around in called. He got written up for that. He shared with me, he was lost because the GPS routed him wrong. Then he got RA to fix the truck, and then went down a road, and lol and behold, low bridge..he calls the police to help him get turned around.

This gentleman got fired and is working locally delivering heating oil.

Here are is lesson learned 1 and 2 from him, 3rd my thoughts.

1. He is married and couldn't be away. 2. He didnt stop when lost by his GPS, he "thought" he could find his way out 3. And this one I will assume he never did, but he should have looked at his route while waiting for his repairs which would have saved the police 911 assist.

He was a knowledgable worker, just not cut out for OTR driving.

Ohh, he was teaming with the first company and made mention that you can make crazy money teaming. I laughed and said you can make good money solo, then he says "the real money is owner/operator" I just laughed and thought....he should have been on here to get some good info.

Safe travels

I think the title of this thread should be Loco Driver Discussion. Lol

I have a couple of thoughts about this.

I just laughed and thought....he should have been on here to get some good info

That was obviously the first problem. He went into this like most people do - with bad information and the wrong approach. It breaks my heart to see how often this happens. People ruin their career or lose interest in trucking before they ever get any good at it.

The second thing is about his horrendous day in Jersey. First of all, the best part of going to Jersey is the sign on I-80 West that says, "Welcome To Pennsylvania." Jersey is a super tough place to drive. But what happened to your friend happens to a lot of people. When things start to go wrong they tend to get flustered and they wind up making more bad decisions or they make mistakes because they're distracted by the events earlier in the day. He was also a new driver so he hadn't learned the best way to handle some of this stuff yet.

It's super important to be able to keep your cool when things aren't going your way. If you can stay calm, keep a clear head, and continue to think things through you'll get through it. It's great that he didn't hit the bridge but was able to call the police to get turned around. That was a good move, actually. I thought for sure you were going to say he hit the bridge. Thank God that wasn't the case.

But so often a series of small things will distract you or frustrate you, which leads to distracted driving and poor decision making, which leads to bigger catastrophes. When you're having one of those days, and I'm afraid you're going to have them from time to time, just keep in mind that the only thing you can do is live now and move forward. Try not to let yourself get frustrated or distracted or flustered by the past. That's when the day spirals downward into a total mess. Stay focused on the present and plan on the future. You'll have the rest of your life to think over what happened that day. The key is to get through the rest of that day unscathed.

Brett

Yeah could have been worse. But most everything he mentioned is covered here, thanks to the site and mods. He is happy driving local for 19 a hr so be it.

Thanks