What Happens When Weather Disasters Hit...

What happens when Mother Nature decides to glaze the interstate with ice so bad that officials decide close the road and you are stuck in a 10 mile back up and you have a load drop due in 3 hours? Or have your truck break down...or some other stupid disaster. Are you just screwed or what? Do you get docked for being late? You can't change the weather or get rid of a wreck with a fire that has closed the interstate until clean up is done (that happened to me before on I-40 East of Knoxville, TN...the bad part about it was the fire engine sent to the scene, caught on fire trying to put out the fire in the truck trailer loaded with chemicals)...not a good day that day.

Curtis, these are all great responses. I think a lot of times when people are researching this industry they come across on-line complaints from people saying they got fired for refusing to drive in the snow or in some other form of bad weather. If you have seen that type of thing, just keep in mind that you have only heard part of the story, and usually there is much more to it than what the ex-driver reported. Any driver that has continually proven themselves to be reliable and dependable will certainly not get himself into any kind of trouble for making an effort at being safe.

You are always considered to be the "captain" of your own ship in this business, and if there is one call that you get to make, it is the call to shut down for safety's sake. Don't be the type of driver who wants to shut down at the least little problem that arises. There are lots of times that you can make it through, and as you gain experience you will become better at gauging when you really need to shut down or when you can push on through and make it.

There is not a trucking company out there that wants you to be sliding their rolling assets off into the ditch. They do expect you though, to be a professional and get the job done in a variety of adverse conditions. When it boils down to the fact that it is no longer safe, then you have to make the call and communicate the issues with your dispatcher so that they can keep the customer informed of what's going on.

You said it yourself, you can't change the weather. At that point I would say you contact your dispatcher and inform them that you can't make your delivery safely or even legally because the state shut down the roads. They've had travel bans in the northeast a bunch this winter so this is nothing your company hasn't had to deal with plenty already. It is what it is. Trying to make it in snow is one thing but nobody should be traveling on ice. I'm sure they don't want you wrecking their equipment either. Like that Estes driver on the Jersey turnpike.

You KEEP IN TOUCH with your DM about weather conditions, accidents, road closures and the like.

UNAVOIDABLE SERVICE FAILURES are part of the game. No on expects you to grow wings and fly over closed mountain passes and the like. Many companies have the policy - if you have to CHAIN UP - PULL OVER - if road conditions are SO BAD that they require you to chain, they are too bad to drive in.

"A HOT LOAD gets COLD real fast, when it's in a ditch."

There are things you have NO CONTROL OVER - and things you do. Like TIME MANAGEMENT. If you are constantly late, without the intervention of ACTS OF GOD - then you are managing your time WRONG.

Companies know how much time is involved in getting from point-a to point-b - and with good trip planning - SO SHOULD THE DRIVER.

There's many times when the pickup/drop times are pretty tight. If a shipper screws you on your load time (10AM appointment, don't get loaded until 4PM) - and this is going to prevent you from making your drop appointment - LET YOU DM KNOW when you send your "loaded" in, and give them a "revised ETA". Similar with road closures that you can't "route around".

You are expected to use your ENTIRE 14 hours productively. If you're sitting in the drivers lounge for 2 extra hours after your 10 is up watching the NASCAR race (or decide to sleep in an extra couple of hours) - and you miss your appointment time - SERVICE FAILURE. Keep in mind - THEY SEE YOUR LOGS and they GPS YOUR TRUCK. They're worse than Santa Claus (they see you when you're sleeping, they know when you're awake - they know if you've been bad or good...).

If you were 3 hours from your drop that supposed to happen in 3 hours - and you get stuck in a road closure - then you call/QC your DM and let them know. Communication is THE KEY. If you were RUNNING LATE already, and then you let the DM know about a road closure TOO - there may be questions. You can't be 6 hours out from a 3 hour drop time - and use a road closure to justify this. You should have already let your DM know you were running late ALREADY. Remember - they can SEE you logs AND your trucks location - ALL THE TIME

Remember, in this business - EARLY IS ON TIME - ON TIME IS LATE. So plan accordingly.

Things that just aren't your fault - are ok. Things that ARE - are NOT. Many contracts call for a penalty for service failures - especially JIT (just in time) critical loads. Too many service failures, and the company may lose the contract.

Rick

Here is an example. I am currently on a load but when i woke up this morning i see 6 inches of snow everywhere and the weather says its going to snow until it gets dark... Well dark and sub freezing temps mean the roads are going to be icy if not iced over when it gets dark being that its Ohio and they suck at cleaning their roads.

So i checked the weather and sent in a mac 22 saying i will be a day late, i will sit a day just to be safe, because there is no point is getting out on the road and hitting ice or having a 4 wheeler do something stupid causing you to wreck when the weather is bad.

ALWAYS err on the side of caution IMO, you cannot help the weather but you can deside to sit a day and wait for things to get cleaned up.

Curtis, these are all great responses. I think a lot of times when people are researching this industry they come across on-line complaints from people saying they got fired for refusing to drive in the snow or in some other form of bad weather. If you have seen that type of thing, just keep in mind that you have only heard part of the story, and usually there is much more to it than what the ex-driver reported. Any driver that has continually proven themselves to be reliable and dependable will certainly not get himself into any kind of trouble for making an effort at being safe.

You are always considered to be the "captain" of your own ship in this business, and if there is one call that you get to make, it is the call to shut down for safety's sake. Don't be the type of driver who wants to shut down at the least little problem that arises. There are lots of times that you can make it through, and as you gain experience you will become better at gauging when you really need to shut down or when you can push on through and make it.

There is not a trucking company out there that wants you to be sliding their rolling assets off into the ditch. They do expect you though, to be a professional and get the job done in a variety of adverse conditions. When it boils down to the fact that it is no longer safe, then you have to make the call and communicate the issues with your dispatcher so that they can keep the customer informed of what's going on.