How I Poisoned A Terminal Rat

This is yet another true story of my encounters with Terminal Rats. It is entertaining, so I share it with you all.

Not too many weeks ago I found myself stuck for a day at our terminal in Olive Branch, MS. After entering the drivers lounge area it became obvious that we had a Terminal Rat in the room, and she had several new drivers sitting enraptured with her incredible advice. The kind of advice that tells these fresh young drivers who have just barely figured out how many wheels are on an eighteen wheeler, "if you expect to get anywhere with this company you have got to keep your driver manager on his toes by treating him like this:"

"Always refuse to take any loads that are less than 1,000 miles."

"Every time they ask you to help them out, tell them it's your job to help me out."

"Keep them thinking that you are going to fire them and get yourself moved onto somebody else's driver board."

"Do not ask politely for anything. Always demand that they send you on the best loads."

"These dispatchers view kindness as weakness. They only respect strong drivers who demand it."

"This is probably about the twelfth company I've been with, and with each move I have been able to put myself in a better position."

The only thing bigger and bolder than this girls mouth was her ego and personality, and maybe her... Well, never mind, I am trying to be nice. She was a piece of work, and she even demonstrated for all of us to see how you handle your dispatcher because he called her during her discourse to these young drivers soaking in her wisdom like water into their sponge-like minds. She basically told him that he'd better get her a decent load in the next few minutes or she was going to park that #@*! piece of junk truck he assigned her and take one of these great offers she had from several different companies who "know how you are supposed to treat your drivers."

I was just remaining quiet, but taking it all in. I didn't really want to Start A Fight like I almost did once before. I was looking over a menu from a Chinese carry out place and I made a call to them so that I could get a meal delivered to the terminal. During my phone conversation with the restaurant, the Rat over heard me ordering and shouted, "Hey order me about four egg rolls, and I will give you the money for them." I acknowledged her request (more like a demand) with a head nod, and proceeded to order her four egg rolls. I waited both patiently and anxiously for the food to arrive, because I thought there might be some relief from her constant comments if she was required to be chewing and swallowing her food. Finally a muscular looking oriental man, who appeared more like a mafia boss than a delivery driver, showed up with our food. He handed me the bag and then drove off with my generous tip without so much as a smile of gratitude.

I went back inside and handed the rat her egg rolls. I started eating my food, and after a few minutes the rat starts choking and gagging. I looked at her and she was all red in the face, gasping for air, and looking down at the half eaten egg roll in her hand. She then started into a tirade about how she couldn't believe I ordered her "Shrimp egg rolls, when she clearly stated that she wanted Plain egg rolls." I simply ordered egg rolls, which is of course what she told me to do. It turns out that the rat was allergic to shell fish, and we had to get an ambulance over there to get her to the hospital. I mean it got serious really quick. I began to get concerned that she was going to die - it got that scary!

I am just not good with rats. Even when I try to be kind and helpful to them it seems to turn out badly. Fortunately the woman was okay. I stayed around until the next morning just to make sure she was okay, and to make sure she didn't know any of my personal information. I could just see myself getting sued by a rat. Imagine that, a rat suing you for poisoning them. I would have never lived that one down.

Oh well, I am still learning out here. One of the lessons I have learned is to stay away from the terminal rats if you possibly can!

Wow, that's really unfortunate that lady had to go through that. Thankfully it sounds like she recovered okay.

There seems to be two groups of people out there that leave me absolutely lost... The people who would tell newbies things like this and the people who would fall for it. The people who would tell newbies to talk to a DM (or to pretty much anyone else) like that must really hate their lives. And the people that heed (much less even listen to) such advice - well, it's pretty frightening to think people like that were even given a license to operate vehicles at this level.

I know the rats exist because I've personally seen their videos or posts on other websites. But I just can't wrap my head around why they would stick to something they clearly seem to be so miserable with. I'm trying to immerse myself in this career field because of another one that eventually made me miserable. And I'm so glad I found a source of quality and integrity (TT) to begin learning from!

Proof that you made an excellent second career choice! Had you chosen Pest Control as your next career, I don't believe you would have been nearly as successful as you are now. I can't imagine for one second Truly Nolen calling an ambulance to help any 'rats' that they had dealt with!! 😜

Can you honestly say, hand on heart, that you didn't consider, even if only for a microsecond, feeding her a couple more egg rolls? 😜lol

There seems to be two groups of people out there that leave me absolutely lost... The people who would tell newbies things like this and the people who would fall for it.

Jeremy, you're eventually going to realize that truckers are a really diverse group of people. But one of the things about this career that attracts some unusually strong personalities is the independence it both allows and requires. Type A personalities fit into the lifestyle well, but they don't always do themselves a lot of favors when they leave their egos unchecked. Brett tells some tales of how he had to learn to talk with dispatch early on so that he could advance his career. He discovered that the usual way he had grown up talking with a bunch of hard core blue collar steel workers wasn't serving him well with the personalities who were accustomed to the environment of a trucking company office. Had he just allowed his ego to be in control, he very well could have become a terminal rat himself! Instead he used his intellect and figured out how to be very successful at this.

You'll also discover some of the frustrations of the career which cause those who are dominated by their ego to become soured and disillusioned with their trucking career. The crazy part is that if they would just use their head instead of their emotions they could enhance their career and probably be Top Tier Drivers. It takes all kinds to make the world such an intriguing place, and as truckers we get to see it all - the good, the bad, and the stuff that just makes you scratch your head in wonder.

Karma is a *****.

I have witnessed the DM side of TermRat's actions. I was talking to my own DM who had just sent a message to another driver about a problem (I don't remember what the problem was).

The driver sent back the timeless message, "FIX IT". My DM did not jump to fix the drivers problem, but she simply rolled her eyes and kept on doing more important things, like dispatching the drivers who wanted to keep working.

First, If I ever had the opportunity to meet you, Old School, I wouldn't be taking any food you offered. Haha.

Second, she was stated to the new guys that she had "worked at 12 different companies"? No matter the profession, that would immediately set off an alarm in my mind, that her way advice wouldn't be the best to follow.

So what you're telling us Old School, is that we should start calling you D-CON. You know, kills rats dead...

Wow OS you always seem to fall into it.... Glad to hear the driver is ok though. She should learn something from the experience, but I don’t have very high hopes on it. She sounds like a very miserable person. Too bad, life is too short. We are never guaranteed tomorrow.

"Shrimp" is the new "crow".