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 driver 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.
