10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

DECEMBER 2005 TRUCKER TALK
A DRIVER’S MANY HATS
By Writers and Owner Operators Rod & Kim Grimm

If you’ve been a driver for very long, you know all of the jobs you have as a “driver.” If you are new to the industry, don’t be scared. With a little planning and a lot of learning, you’ll get along just fine. When I hear someone make the comment “just a truck driver” I wonder if that person knows just how much there is to being a truck driver. If driving the truck was all there was to do, it would be a breeze! But we know that’s not quite the case. Today’s truck drivers wear many “hats” out on the road.

Before you even get moving, you’ll have to put on your first hat. After your pre-trip inspection, it’s time to brush up on your secretarial skills. You’ll need to get all the paperwork in order, make any calls to get directions to pickups or deliveries, check out the map for routes in unfamiliar territory, get your log book current, and then, finally, you’re ready to go. When the trip is finished, you’ll have to turn in properly completed paperwork in order to get paid. Keeping your paperwork and log current is crucial – being lazy here could become costly if you’re shut down at a scale (not to mention the fines that will accompany any citations given).

Once rolling down the road, you might have to put on another hat when your truck starts making a funny noise and you suddenly have to become a truck mechanic. Along with that hat come coveralls and greasy hands. If the problem is something you can take care of yourself with the tools you carry along, it can save a costly call-out fee (especially if it’s after hours or on the weekend). Some businesses don’t realize that trucking is a 24/7 industry and that trucks don’t always breakdown between 8-5. Some companies don’t want their drivers to attempt working on their (company) truck, but most owner operators carry some basic tools and try to fix the little things themselves.

Sometimes trucker’s hats are white with a red cross on the front – whether they like it or not. It’s always a good idea to carry along at least the bare minimum of first aid supplies. Rod already knows that my nursing skills aren’t the best, and if there’s blood involved, forget it! I’ve told him many times that if he cuts himself really bad, two things are going to happen – I’m going to pass out and he’s going to bleed to death! I’m really grateful for the people who can work in the healthcare industry – give me a greasy truck any day. You never know when you might be in or come up on an accident and need to have at least a little bit of first aid knowledge. It could mean the difference between life and death – yours or someone else’s.

I don’t know of any truck that comes with a maid (a wife, maybe, but not a maid), so the next hat truckers wear is that of a housekeeper. I need to be fair here – some guys keep their trucks soooooo clean. But there are also those that think the peeper window is the garbage level indicator. Not good! Part of maid duty is the laundry. I really appreciate the truck stops that have a nice laundry room and plenty of dryers that actually work. You’ll want to be sure to buy your laundry supplies before you have to use the truck stop facilities. And be sure to keep track of everything you spend, because it’s all a tax write-off.

Now that you have a clean, mechanically-sound truck and the paperwork is done, you’ll need to make sure you’re up to date on your legal skills. If you don’t know the laws for the states you run, remember that ignorance is not a viable excuse! Lane laws vary from not only state to state, but city to city. And if you happen to look long, make sure that road you’re on is not for trucks under 65 feet. Yes, that’s experience speaking. I was following the directions a shipped gave me and I showed the nice officer this, but it didn’t mater. Not only are we 70 feet long, but we designed our graphics to make our truck look even longer! Who knew? There is another way to go to get to that particular location and we know it now. Did you know that Business 80 through Sacramento, CA is a 65-foot-or-less route unless you have a delivery along there? Drivers doing heavy haul or over-dimensional loads have even more laws to be knowledgeable of. And to make matters worse, the laws are always changing, making it even harder to wear the “legal analyst” hat.

Truck drivers that are blessed with the ability to “schmooze” often wear this hat when they arrive at a dock a little late or after hours. Over the years, I have found that being nice gets you so much farther than being nasty. I only wish that I’d been allotted more patience when I was born. After waiting forever at some of these docks, I’ve wanted to fire many of the checkers for being so slow. My personal opinion is that they are overpaid and most of them could go a little faster when checking deliveries. Hey, we got the freight there – maybe now they can help us by picking up the pace!

If a little exercise is what you’re looking for, you can slip on that lumper hat. I tell these guys, “I came here to get unloaded, not robbed!” If they want to be reasonable, we’ll hire them – if not, we’ll save the money and do it ourselves (hey, I like to shop). Some receivers like this attitude and will count our freight faster. Here again, some companies don’t want their drivers in the trailer throwing freight. There is nothing wrong with that, but that policy sometimes contributes to the unreasonably high lumper rates we often see out there.

The better your coordinating ability, the better off you’ll be. Put on your Captain’s hat and chart your course before heading down the road. Planning your trip is an essential part of trucking. Before you leave, determine where you’ll stop for food and/or fuel, and where you’ll stop to sleep, if you’re running solo. Over the years, after taking the same routes for so long, if nothing unexpected happens, I can tell you when we leave California what time (within an hour or less) that we’ll be sitting at our first drop in Chicago and visa-versa. Habits can be good when wearing your trip planning hat, especially if you already know where and when (and for how long) you’ll be stopping along the way.

Another little bit of physical exercise is “hanging iron” (for you newbies, that means putting on your tire chains). Now that winter is almost here, it’s time to start brushing up on your chain skills (a hat that I hate to wear). The drivers that go over the hills on a regular basis, hang iron frequently and think it’s no big deal impress me. For us, this is one part of the job we do if we have to, but we have no desire to get really good at it! Standing out in the cold and slop to chain up is a nasty job you’ll want to avoid whenever possible.

But the best hat that truckers get to wear is a Santa hat. In the coming weeks, we get to be Santa’s helpers. Whatever special treats that end up at your house (and all of the others across the country) will have been in some part delivered by a truck. Of course, you already know this! Too bad the general public tends to forget about us truckers and the help we provide Santa! Enjoy the bustle of the holiday season. It will soon be January and then the wait for spring really begins. So bundle up and be safe. And Happy Holidays to you and yours! Maybe you can ask Santa for a hat rack this year!!

I’d like to thank Jeff Zarling for the idea for this article about the many hats that truckers wear. He suggested it to me while we were in a construction zone down on I-40 going around some snow up on I-80. And I’d also like to make a correction on last month’s column. I inadvertently misspelled Jeff’s son name in the article. The proper spelling is Derrick. Sorry.