If there’s one thing I’ve noticed, every location is different. I spent 10 months on vacation cover before I landed a crappy late night run gaining my seniority. It was hell for me. Some guys have to deal with being in limbo longer in different hubs.
Now I look back and ask myself how these guys deal with being on call or taking midnight runs because I can’t handle that anymore. The answer is because they have to as well as I did before them. This is why the best advice I can give to a junior driver is to ask a senior driver. Because they’ve been there and they won’t judge you.
Try to give our junior brothers and sisters the same respect. Stay humble and remember the fear you experienced when you were new.
of course you're right.
just using tough love here.
I went thru heck for years! I started a several years before the strike in 97. It was touch and go even before the strike working 2-3 days a week if i was lucky. After the strike it was miserable for a couple more years.
I was on call all that time. Was like a fireman. I could be dressed and in the car in less than 5 minutes and race the 40 plus miles to the hub since the dispatcher would call me at very last minute. Sometimes they would bypass my seniority for a driver that lived only 10 min from the hub.
It was very stressful. This was before cell phones. I had a pager and would look at it all day wondering if it was broke. Called dispatch every morning. If no work I would take a nap in afternoon in case they called for evening runs. Most times that never happened.
Went to work tired all the time because sometimes i would work days and sometimes would work graveyard in feeder. Did this off and on for almost 5 YEARS!. Finally got a 2300 crap feeder run that was only 8 hours and i thought I was in HEAVEN.
So I paid my dues. Many of us did during the lean times. Then things picked up. I NEVER turned down OT because I was worried lean times would come again. Socking away money for a rainy day. Did that for 22 years at UPS . Worked every chance.
So ya, I'm tough on the new guys. Work has been fat now for years. I don't like the whining and they don't like to hear my stories about "the old days"
Face to face I will give new drivers the best advice I can. Work honest, work hard , and listen to the old timers. You will learn 10 times more from an old timer than an on road supe who had a couple weeks training in Chicago.
I was the first "Driver Mentor" in my hub around 2014. Not sure if that program is still around. I would be asked to take the new feeder drivers with me on my run if they had an accident in the first 90 days and teach them as much as I could. To a driver each was so thankful and told me they learned more in that one day than they did in 2 weeks of training. I was very proud about this.
When I gave my center manager my notice he tried to talk me out of retirement due to this mentor program being so successful but I politely declined. I was ready to go in 2015 when I got the Peer 80.
Sorry for the long post but I always respected you , and your opinion.
here. It sucks. Never know when to sleep.
