Dealing With Anger

Been about 4 months with a local company. Inward facing camera s with AI. My Boss see s Im a great worker however my following too closely events are testing him to when to give me a written warning. Had 7 events the past 2 weeks.

Anyone have suggestions to deal with anger? I'm good 99% of the time and it s when some ******* cuts me off or they're going super slow.

I have always had this problem, got away with it with Schneider since they don't have the AI system.

Hello Larry,

First, angry truck drivers make BAD truck drivers. Your emotions betray you in this field and will end your career pretty quick.

Secondly, your boss is on you because you are demonstrating a very high risk behavior. Now matter how good a driver you are, if you are prone to following vehicles less than 3 1/2 to 4 seconds you will eventually rear end someone. If you are in the habit of following under 3 seconds its a matter of time before you rear end someone AND either kill them or severely injure them and get your carrier a multi-million dollar lawsuit and you a permanent end to your career and possibly prison time.

Four wheelers are @zzholes so are 30-50% of 18 wheelers. You need to find a way to handle that or at least cope with it in way other than tailgating people to "express your frustration" as that will eventually end your career and possibly someone's life. Just my 2 cents.

To answer your biggest question...HOW to deal with it? May not work for everyone, but I had to reason with the idea logically. Humans are creatures of habit and are inherently rude and dangerous drivers. This is not a personal attack to give me a bad day, it's simply human nature and I'm not going to internalize other people's rude behaviors.

In summary, truckers and proctologists have a similar job description..working with @zzholes all day!

Meditation, prayer, and exercise all help. Just don't take the actions of others personally dude.

Take Care!

Been about 4 months with a local company. Inward facing camera s with AI. My Boss see s Im a great worker however my following too closely events are testing him to when to give me a written warning. Had 7 events the past 2 weeks.

Anyone have suggestions to deal with anger? I'm good 99% of the time and it s when some ******* cuts me off or they're going super slow.

I have always had this problem, got away with it with Schneider since they don't have the AI system.

You have built a habit of thinking, conscious or not, that a few mph faster will make your goal attainable. It shows in that you get angry that they slow down in front of you.

The anger is displaced fear that you're not going to deliver or pick up on time.

If you trip plan accurately, have realistic expectations of how slow Metropolitan areas travel at and examine your days projected performance analytically, you'll see that, short of being at a dead stop for 15 minutes or more, an average retarded driver cutting you off has absolutely zero effect on your performance. None.

You need to unlearn the concept that you can make up time on a load or day by traveling faster in traffic. Next you need to replace that concept with a more realistic idea of how long it's going to take you.

Also, you drive a governed slow ass truck. There's absolutely no expectation of speed in what we drive.

Lower your expectations, you'll be much happier.

Z. Joker points out the safety of following distance. Safe driving is a huge part of your job.

Psychologist Davy talks about the anger you develop in yourself from the frustration of going only a few MPH less than you want to..

Let me describe the situation with some numbers. Suppose you have 200 miles of interstate between you and your destination. At 65 MPH that takes 3 hours, 4 minutes.

Make believe you are "stuck" behind a 4-wheeler going 2 MPH slower - 63 MPH - the entire trip. That means it's 3 hours 10 minutes. seven entire minutes out of your life!

In this extreme example, you just spent over three hours being PO'd, building a stomach ulcer and driving in an unsafe matter to save seven whole minutes.

In reality you would get around that "slow a$$" car in a few minutes at most, meaning you are actually risking your career and your safe driving record to save just a few seconds out of your day. Is it really with it?

Larry first you need to identify why you let these actions get to you to the point you are angry. That is intrinsic within you and only you can answer that question.

Holdup’s are common occurences on the roadway in many forms. Sure it is irrating but far beyond our control. You need to figure out a way to let those things go that you can’t control. Rather foscus on the things you can control.

My guess is you have been getting away with this behavior only by the grace of god up to this point. You have been lucky something much worse has not happened. Your luck will eventually run out and you will find yourself in a much worse place than a writeup by the boss.

Your actions as you have described are the exact reason companies are using these camera’s. Liability in this industry is at an all time high. Mostly from wrecks. I read articles on truck wrecks every single week. Many are multiple vehicles and/or trucks involved.

Another point to consider. Approx. 14,400 trucking company’s have gone out of business in the past 2 years. They have closed up and declared bankruptcy. Approx. 60 percent at the time were/are facing civil trials over wrecks. You can research this through freightwaves.

Your boss already knows this information and doesn’t want to become part of that statistic. No matter how great any employee is there will be a point the risk of keeping you will out weigh the benfit and you will be fired. It’s not personnel toward you it is just good business. If your let go for safety violations your career is done with any reputable company.

A friend of mine owns a small mom/pop company with 8 trucks. Last friday he called me in tears. His employee’s are running it into the ground. He has struggled for 3 years. After a lengthy conversation the only thing he can do at this point is close the doors. His insurance has changed 3 times in that amount of time because of safety violations from his drivers. Getting insurance cancelled puts a company out of business. FMCSA will also revoke an authority to operate faster these days.,

Try to ask yourself when you get in the truck “is anything on this trip worth me not getting home to my loved ones”. If the answer is “no” then think of them as you make your trip and take control over your actions so you make it home safe.

This hopefully will lower your and your boss’s stress level. I am not trying to be harsh on you, only hoping to get you to think about the whole situation instead of what’s out the windshield.

Wishing you the best and safe travels.

"Serenity Now, Serenity Now!" lol As pointed out the time lost because of slower, dumber drivers is a fact of life, especially with the amount of vehicles out on ANY road in the US.

I always found it funny, especially driving my 4 wheelers. Ya always get some jerk who wants to, speed, weave 'n' bob in traffic, to get ahead of everyone else. Yet you DO end of catching up to them @ the light etc hahaha So all that idiotic driving didn't really get them further ahead than you! And when you end up either right next to em or behind em at the stop light, whatever lol soooo they got nothing!

When they cut me off, I slow down and back off. The I shoot them with my disintegrating gun or missile launcher. Those buttons on your dash that don't do anything, just think of what they do with your imagination.

By the way, backing off also gives you room if they wreck.

One of the things I’m grateful for working for Schneider. No inward facing cameras. And no plans to add them, either. Not that I do anything wrong but it’s nice not having that thing spying on you.

One of the things I’m grateful for working for Schneider. No inward facing cameras. And no plans to add them, either. Not that I do anything wrong but it’s nice not having that thing spying on you.

I don't quite understand people's concern with inward facing cameras. Are we banging lot lizards going down the Chicago tollway, driving naked, reading? What's the concern??

The camera's are there to vindicate you from incidents where others are lying in order to sue your carrier and ruin your career. Driver facing cameras show how you responded prior to an incident (watching out, checking mirrors, etc). If they say you waived them forward and then slammed into them OR the driver's head was down and he/she hit me, that gets thrown out immediately with the driver footage. In fact, a buddy of mine was vindicated with driver facing cameras and the cop could see the footage and he wrote the other driver a major fine and my buddy was vindicated after the other driver claimed it was his fault. I was vindicated too in November as the camera showed me blasting my airhorn when a car carrier at a West Virginia Turnpike toll booth decided to back up, scrape my hood and nearly deliver a 2025 Dodge Ram right through my windshield. He TOO lied and told the cop I ran into him.

If your concerns are more along the lines of general personal privacy, your safety department watching EVERY driver, at regular intervals, that is simply not a realistic concern as no carrier is staffed for that. If your concern is being under periodic, random surveillance, then you best throw away your smart phone and all of your electronics, never travel, never use a credit/debit card, and give strong consideration to moving to an Amish community because you are being tracked, watched, and listened to virtually anywhere there are electronics nowadays.

It boils down to this......if you are doing the right things, cameras can only help you. The driver facing camera is off when the truck's engine is turned off so not sure where the concern is if you are a safe and professional driver?

Just food for thought. Be safe.

Zen joker i couldn’t agree more with your comments.

I run one, not because I have to but because I choose too.

Last year the only crash I have been involved in with a cmv the inward camera showed the driver clearly crossing into my lane and sideswipping me on a 4 lane divided hwy. The driver claimed I crossed the center line and hit him. After LE reviewed my video they cited him for failure to maintain lane. He was driving a rental vehicle and was not on the contract. They tried going after me until they saw the video. I never heard from any of them afterward.

A picture is worth a thousand words!!!