TIME VS. SAFETY - I'M INCENSED!

Bottom line:

I didn't make it to my drop and swap point. I had to stop short by 30 mins to avoid violating HOS. Had I run all the way to 10 hrs, 55 mins, I would have landed just 5 miles from the meet place. By that time, I would have also been 3 hours past our meet time.

Also note, my meet driver made it clear, he wasn't going to "rescue" me from any point where I'd run out of hours, even if just 10 minutes away, so my violating DOT to try to "make it" wasn't worth it either.

After driving a full 10.5 hours in seriously hazardous conditions, East to West on I80, all the way across Wyoming all night, my manager said this in a text:

"Ok, but so-and-so, the other driver, [who leaves Denver 15 mins before I, who I've seen drive way too fast in hazardous conditions] made it, and HE has deliveries among the way."

In other words, "glad you're ok, but too slow."

I haven't responded to my manager and not sure if I should ... But to be clear, I'm furious.

I was safe last night. I did really well and made safe, professional choices in conditions that many drivers refuse to drive ...with good reason. It was freaking dangerous and in using my best judgement, my professional assessment, that's how long it took for me to get from point "a" to just short of point "b!"

I wasn't crawling -I was reasonable.

I refuse to compromise my integrity; and my professional assessment of the conditions is not up for debate, especially since no harm was done.

This also follows a barrage of accidents in the last 2 months, none of them involving me.

Do I say anything? Or no?

I'll tell you what I WANT to say but haven't ....

"When (so-and-so) attains my standard of safe driving, then the comparison will be equitable. My professional judgement of what reasonable speed is safe for me, is not up for debate."

That's the fantasy response.

Or another fantasy response, "Sounds like THIS guy walks on water!"

The sarcasm runs rampant in my mind ...

My manager is obviously not interested in the details of my drive, so I'm not defending them but I'm just so damned ticked off after a hard night's work well done. And I'm angry that this makes me feel my job is at risk, since he is saying clearly, "Well, HERE'S a driver who can do it better than you."

HELP!

-mountain girl

My return QUALCOMM message would have been:

I limited my speed to what I felt was safe for degraded nighttime road conditions. Now I need a repower, reschedule, or my meet driver needs to come to me. Please let me know what to expect.

The meet driver takes my trailer and another trailer and delivers all over Salt Lake with them. He decided he was not going to work my trailer till tomorrow, so he told me to take my "10" and then bring it to the yard tonight, and swap then and there. After that 1.5hr deficit, I'm to drive back to Denver.

What's upset me is the point that my manager made about me not making it to the Salt Lake yard before my hours ran out and that Mr. Butthead did it from Denver last night ... Why can't you?

-mountain girl

"Sounds like THIS guy walks on water!"

I actually like that response, along with a sincere apology.

Mountain Girl, try your best to not let your true feelings show. I think you've been here before, and the results aren't worth the satisfaction one gets from letting managers know how you feel. Being heartless is part of a manager's job! That's the truth. They need results, and they tend to not care how they get them.

You are in a difficult situation. Your job demands definite times where you have got to meet another driver for a "swap." On top of that your route is a really tough one.

Experienced drivers sometimes break the rules just to "git er done." I'm not advocating that, but the few times that I have violated my HOS to make someting happen my manager has responded with somethibg like this: "I saw what you did last night to make this happen, thanks Dale."

It's a judgement call that's all on you, and only you can determine what's best for you. Either way your violating both your conscience and the rules, not to mention perhaps your own safety.

This is part of the seriously frustrating things about this business.

What's upset me is the point that my manager made about me not making it to the Salt Lake yard before my hours ran out and that Mr. Butthead did it from Denver last night ... Why can't you?

-mountain girl

Rather than assume that he's commenting on your performance directly, it might help you to understand that this is a motivation technique used by managers in an attempt to change future behavior.

I've used it myself on direct reports, and have had it used on me. It works best on people who are both hyper competitive and who don't care what others think of them - like me. It backfires on people who care about their reputation, whether or not they're competitive.

The reason it doesn't work is that people who care about their reputation think it's some kind of permanent stain on their record that will follow them forever.

If you recognize that your dispatcher is likely to forget about this in a relatively short time, then it won't matter so much. Trust me, he's going to remember the super trucker's accident a lot longer once it happens - and it will happen if he's as careless as you say.

So, I think Old School has hinted what your dispatcher is really after, which is "next time go 30 minutes over on your clock," more than "so-and-so is better than you." I'm wondering if the other guy drove faster or went over his hours or maybe both.

Bottom line is he's just trying to motivate you to get all the way to the yard if at all possible next time. He just hasn't figured out how to do that in your case. If I were him, I'd try telling you to just go for it if you feel up to it and I'll have your back with the logs department. But I'm not him.

Being from one of the heaviest snow regions in the country I can say that there have been many times I was able to push through weather that most others were not and as my career went on I got a little better at it all the time. There were some winters later in my career that I don't think I shut down a single time. What you think is reckless may indeed be well within this guy's skillset based upon his experience up there. I really don't know.

One time I was in Kentucky and it was snowing. There was only a dusting on the ground but of course they have little in the way of snow removal equipment or salt spreaders so the roads had a little snow on them. The speed limit was 65 mph, I was relaxing and doing a very conservative 50 mph, just kicking back and taking it easy. All of a sudden blue lights come on behind me. The cop gives me a ticket for driving too fast for conditions. I told him, "You've got to be kidding me, right? It snows this much in June where I'm from (exaggerating of course) and I was going extra slow because I have all the time in the world to spare. Not to mention I was 100% in control of my vehicle at all times."

He simply said that in his opinion I shouldn't be going that fast in those conditions.

I told him, "With all due respect, and I do mean that, I could drive circles around you in my sleep in the snow. We get almost 10 feet per year. I've been sledding, playing hockey, and driving on snow and ice my entire life. Not to mention I'm a professional driver with (at the time) ten years safe driving experience. This is what I do. You're telling me I've done my job at the highest level safely for 10 years but I'm not doing it to your standards? I don't know what gives you the idea you have the experience to make that call. Just because you have the authority to do so doesn't mean you have the experience and skillset to do so."

But he wrote the ticket anyhow and I paid the fine. I continued on at 50 mph like I was before, safely and under control.

None of this is indicative of my opinion about you or the other driver. I have no idea how good you guys are or what the conditions were. What I do know is that you have one of the most dangerous routes imaginable. Personally I thought you were a little crazy wanting that route. But that's what you have so you're going to be dealing with this constantly.

In the same school of thought regarding what Old School and Bud said about management, I think management and dispatch are going to expect you to be quite exceptional if you're going to be given one of the most dangerous routes in the country. If the others are consistently and safely driving through conditions you're refusing to drive through then I wouldn't expect you to keep that route for long. So that's something you're going to have to decide for yourself. Are you willing and able to consistently push through some of the worst conditions any drivers would dare take a shot at or are you looking for a more conservative approach? There is no right or wrong answer, it's only about choosing what's right for you. I don't think you're going to be given the luxury of having it both ways though. It's going to be a "step up or step aside" type of position you're trying to take on.

The meet driver takes my trailer and another trailer and delivers all over Salt Lake with them. He decided he was not going to work my trailer till tomorrow, so he told me to take my "10" and then bring it to the yard tonight, and swap then and there. After that 1.5hr deficit, I'm to drive back to Denver.

What's upset me is the point that my manager made about me not making it to the Salt Lake yard before my hours ran out and that Mr. Butthead did it from Denver last night ... Why can't you?

-mountain girl

While dispatch may like me to violate my HOS to "get 'er done" my company can hit me with a "Critical Event". Two "Critical Events" in a year and I'm subject to termination.

Find out what management can do to you for violating your HOS and then make-up your mind on what you should do in the future.

I would say you made a wise decision to not drive over your hos clock. It's one thing to deal with a disappointed fm and another to deal with the corporate logs department.

With the other stuff, i think if you made a conscious effort and you can look yourself in the mirror and say you did your absolute best then i wouldn't really sweat it. I probably wouldn't start anything with the fm. Just walk away and let time heal the wound.

Fyi, this guy IS my boss. We have no dispatcher , as or operation is relatively small.

Ok. In response to all three of you, OS, Bud, Brett...

OS, I left out one detail. Earlier this week, I had called in sick due to bronchitis. Tuesday, the manager asked me if I could gut it out, the rest of the week, and work, to save him the extra money he'd have to pay a substitute driver in the Christmas season. I bit the bullet and pulled through for the team. I am fairly sick and at considerable risk of developing pneumonia. He'd already asked me to pull through for him. I had, in that regard, bringing a nebulizer with me and driving through hours of fever, sweat, (even in subzero temps), and some grit. I'm withholding response to him for the purpose of not showing my feelings til I get those out of the way.

Bud, I am competitive, I care about what people think, I also don't care what they think. Mr. Butthead is more experienced, but has only been with the company for about a month and probably lies better than I. Given your comments, I'll run ten minutes over the clock, no problem, since my meet driver has no sense of teamwork.

My speed was based on years and years in the snow.

What I want is the respect I deserve for having both guts and sound judgement and for him to trust that if I chose to show down, it was for good reason but not out of incompetence or whimpy-ness.

Brett, the snow, ice, wind don't scare me. I grew up in the Northeast, not far from you, and have a good intuitive sense in these conditions. I take your thinking I was crazy as a compliment.

I spent most of this drive in the 50-60 mph range with black ice and blowing snow beneath my wheels. Some drivers were faster, some slower last night. In shorter year's time, maybe even in a month or so, I'll be even faster in this crap.

There is no doubt, I am a very tough girl and when I'm not sick, I'd run circles around the guy he compared me to. In the last week of this crappy weather, I have killed a deer, a rabbit, and a wolf without swerving, crashing, slamming the brakes, or flinching. My predecessor in this position jackknifed and caused 15k damage to the tractor in ice and snow, last spring.

I'll admit my part to you last night because I had a part in this. The rest stop I took in Laramie went to 20 mins instead of 10. My bad. My 30 min break in Sinclair went to 38 minutes because I accidentally overslept. While I was off duty during those times, those were the minutes that cost me in the end.

Maybe I admit those mistakes, apologize, but also remind the manager that on the safety end I'll push but I won't compromise... ?

-mountain girl

Maybe I admit those mistakes, apologize, but also remind the manager that on the safety end I'll push but I won't compromise... ?

I wouldn't do any of that. I wouldn't say anything, really. If they asked I might just say there was no reason to push on after being told he wasn't going to work the trailer anyways. Why take the risk for absolutely nothing? That would make no sense.

That's all that matters in the end. But I wouldn't say anything to anyone if they don't bring it up.