Asked For A Raise... And Got It!

So as some of you may remember, I had a little incident at the end of June, one which I thought was going to be the end of my trucking career. Thankfully that didn't turn out to be the case.

Well it's now been over 4 months since that fateful day, and over 6 months since I started driving. When I first spoke to the president after the accident (to basically plead for my job), I mentioned that if they kept me on, I knew any future raises were pretty much out if the question, but he replied that we could address that down the line.

So I figured we're pretty far down the line now, and I finally worked up the courage to ask. I laid out the reasons why I thought I deserved a raise: always being on time (usually at least a day early), having absolutely no other incidents/claims/tickets/CSA points, turning tons of miles and never wasting time, always being polite and professional with customers and dispatchers, etc.

Well anyway, my boss agreed! And he bumped me up to where I would have been automatically were it not for the accident: $0.41 cpm.

So I guess my point is that even if things look bad and you run into problems on the job, as long as you work hard and maintain a good attitude, people will notice and things will get better!

Congrats Persian! Nice to hear it worked out for you. Now just watch out for those naked guys in truck stops! Somehow your story conjured up images of 'Fat *******' from the Austin Powers movies.

Hey that's awesome!

Wow are there some golden lessons to be taken from your experiences. First of all folks, if you haven't read the story of Persian's accident (scary pictures included!) you really must. It's an amazing story about a terrifying event:

The life, Death, and Resurrection Of My Truck Driving Career

One of the big things I'd like to stress to people is the importance of sticking with that first company for at least a year. People want to jump ship two months into their career because they can make an extra two or three cents per mile. What they don't understand is that it's common for new drivers to get into small incidents like fender benders and backing into light poles. But the big wrecks can and do happen at times also.

Either way, as a rookie you're going to make a ton of mistakes. And I mean a ton. If you stay with one company they'll be more likely to stand by you after you've made mistakes. If you jump from company to company you're never doing enough for any one company to encourage them to have any loyalty toward you.

But if you'll establish a great reputation as a true professional by building up a nice record of safe driving and on time deliveries you'll have a much better chance at getting fair treatment, special favors from time to time, and special consideration when things don't go your way.

Persian, it's awesome to hear you're doing great! You've shown a tremendous amount of courage by not only moving forward with your career but sharing your story here with us and I can't thank you enough for that.

I also think your company has proven to have quite fair and tolerant people in management and they deserve a lot of recognition and respect for that from us here. I know you've shown them that yourself.

This is an awesome story. I'm glad you got your raise and I'm glad things are moving along nicely for you.

Congrats Persian! Nice to hear it worked out for you. Now just watch out for those naked guys in truck stops! Somehow your story conjured up images of 'Fat *******' from the Austin Powers movies.

I read infidels thread before this, I wonder if his trainer was the one seen nekkid in his truck???

Thanks Brett, but it's really me who should be thanking you (or is it, "I who should be thanking you?" Uh oh, my internal grammar nazi is having a fit!).

It's all the invaluable lessons and advice I've gained from reading this forum that have molded me into the trucker I am today. Truly, it was the example set by yourself and people like Old School, Daniel, Pat, Errol and many others that gave me a tangible image of what a successful, professional trucker should be.

I have a feeling that if I had entered the industry without knowing about this site, I would have had very different expectations and consequently a very different attitude and work ethic. I would also have lost motivation quickly and probably made a bunch of wrong choices.

Sorry for being so wordy, I guess what I'm basically trying to say is that it's good to have some positive role models whenever you're trying to do something new, and your site has provided that for me in spades.

So again, thank you!

So as some of you may remember, I had a little incident at the end of June, one which I thought was going to be the end of my trucking career. Thankfully that didn't turn out to be the case.

Well it's now been over 4 months since that fateful day, and over 6 months since I started driving. When I first spoke to the president after the accident (to basically plead for my job), I mentioned that if they kept me on, I knew any future raises were pretty much out if the question, but he replied that we could address that down the line.

So I figured we're pretty far down the line now, and I finally worked up the courage to ask. I laid out the reasons why I thought I deserved a raise: always being on time (usually at least a day early), having absolutely no other incidents/claims/tickets/CSA points, turning tons of miles and never wasting time, always being polite and professional with customers and dispatchers, etc.

Well anyway, my boss agreed! And he bumped me up to where I would have been automatically were it not for the accident: $0.41 cpm.

So I guess my point is that even if things look bad and you run into problems on the job, as long as you work hard and maintain a good attitude, people will notice and things will get better!

Hey there, Lucker trucker (my play on lucky trucker), first congratulations on the positive attitude and hard work that EARNED you that raise. At first I thought, this guy must have made a little BooBoo, everyone makes BooBoos. Then I went and read the post you made of the whole ordeal. That was not a "BooBoo", not a "My Bad", not a "Ah, shucky darns".

That was a "Holy Crap, This is It, Jesus Take the Wheel, and Get Me Through This In One Piece". I was so happy to read at the end of the post that you recovered 100%, You are still a trucker (safer and smarter), and you have passed on what you experienced and learned from your event. I gotta tell you truthfully, I would never wish what happened to you to happen to any driver, but now, with you still on the road, there is one less driver I worry about. Take care of yourself and your family and best wishes through the up coming holiday season.