Don't Rush

Yesterday I have myself a new reminder as to why you should never rush. Work fast, yes, but not rush. Rushing causes you to make mistakes, usually stupid ones.

I was dropping an empty trailer do I could pick up a loaded one and was starting to run low on my 14. Now, I drop trailers without incident on a fairly regular basis. This time, however, I was rushing because I wanted to get to my planned stop for my 10 hour before my time ran out.

As I was pulling away from the empty, I heard a sound like something had hit my truck. I got out to see what it was and found my airlines were completely straightened out and missing the glad hands. Somehow, in my rush, I completely forgot to detach my airlines from the trailer. So at this point I had to go get them replaced before I could pick up the trailer costing me more time than if I had just stopped a moment to make sure I did it right. Luckily, I had enough time on that load that picking out up in the morning is still allowing me to deliver on time.

I double and triple and even quadruple check the lines and landing gear. After I think I am all done, I do a walk around and check it all again. I've read too many stories and seen too many pics on Twisted Truckers to end up adding to them.

Thanks for the reminder!

I was in a hurry the other day and forgot to crank the landing gear up the rest of the way. Fortunately I had cranked it up enough that there was an inch or so of clearance and I was just pulling out and stopping to slide the tandems. And speaking of tandems , twice I've hooked a trailer and forgotten to check where the tandems were and drove it around with them all the way to the back. That's not fun.

Miracleofmagick, I had to learn about those hoses the hard way, too. Took three lessons!

One thing I do now, is handle the hoses first thing. Picking or dropping, get out of the truck, turn left and do the hoses. No matter what. I've also drug the landing gear on the ground. What a racket! (Makes everybody look at who's getting out of the cab!)

Miracleofmagick, I had to learn about those hoses the hard way, too. Took three lessons!

One thing I do now, is handle the hoses first thing. Picking or dropping, get out of the truck, turn left and do the hoses. No matter what. I've also drug the landing gear on the ground. What a racket! (Makes everybody look at who's getting out of the cab!)

Lol, I do the landing gear first everyone because I forgot to put it up a couple of times when I first started. So I created a set routine for myself. Unfortunately, this time I broke the routine because I was rushing and paid the price.

The thing that gets me is that I know better than to rush like that, but I still did so anyways. One of my favorites sayings that was posted on a wall at a factory I used to work at was - if you don't have time to do something right the first time, how are you going to find time to do it again? If I lad just taken the moment to double check everything like I usually do, I would have saved myself a lot of time and trouble.

The funny thing was the lady at the shop I was sent to, commented that at least I asked to doing it. Apparently most drivers claim they don't know how something happened instead of admitting a mistake.

Mirakleofmagik observes:

Apparently most drivers claim they don't know how something happened instead of admitting a mistake.

They "claim" they don't know, but it's often more that they are ashamed to admit it.

If you forget the landing gear, either they grind on the ground or you have a fifteen minute workout coming. If you forget the hoses, you're out of commission till you get them replaced. A little grinding is no big deal.

Oh, I agree that they actually know and don't want to admit it. Personally, I have always been of the school of thought that you should own up to your mistakes. It makes learning from them a bit easier and if you don't learn from your mistakes you doom yourself to repeat them. Making mistakes is part of being human, we all do it. It's making the same mistake over and over that becomes a problem.

Miracleofmagick goes to the head of the class:

If you don't learn from your mistakes you doom yourself to repeat them.

People who are serious about their work and life practice this. Every driver who backs into something that goes crunch (and you know who you are!) has analyzed that mistake six ways from Thursday and will never do that again!

Remember this military saying

"Slow is smooth and smooth is fast."

Do everything by the numbers and your will be fine.