Winter is coming...

For most over the road drivers, winter is, at its best, challenging. At its worst, it is a sheer nightmare. This month, I wanted to offer some rules of thumb and personal "thou shalt nots" that I've used for 25+ winters to make it through this oh so long season. Experienced drivers, you may already know this stuff, but think back to your first winter. I begged for information like this when I ran my first winter.

One way to tell if it is freezing outside is to watch the backs of your west coast mirrors, the CB antenna and the brackets on your hood mirrors. If you start to see ice building up on those, its a safe bet that its cold enough to freeze any precipitation on the road surface. When I first started driving, I was told that as long as I could see spray coming off other vehicles' tires, then the road surface was just wet, not icy. I can tell you from experience that, while that statement is usually true, it is not always true. If the road surface was snow or ice packed earlier, but now you see spray, just hold in the back of your mind that there could still be ice under the spray if the pack was thick enough. The top layer will melt, but not the bottom. The other bad news is that the melted top layer will almost always freeze back solid at night depending on the temperature.

Once you've determined that you're driving on slick road surfaces, my best advice is "no sudden changes of direction and no hard braking". Use your fuel and brake pedals as if you had an egg between your foot and the pedal. Do not break the egg! Your movements of the steering wheel and the truck should be slow and gradual. Don't let yourself get put into a situation that requires evasive maneuvering. Keep yourself as far away from other vehicles as you possibly can.

You need to know your truck. If you know how it "feels" when you hit a normal brake, you'll know when you "break loose" (lose traction) on an icy road. If you know how your truck sounds when it is running down the road on a normal day, you'll definitely know when you hear the noise the tandems make when they start to spin out as you cross a slick overpass. Also, if your truck is equipped with an on-board outside air temperature thermometer, know how many degrees it is off. Ours will read 4 degrees warmer than the actual outside temperature due to where the sensor is mounted. Four degrees can make a big difference in whether you are running solid ice or just slush.

On snowy and/or icy roads, increase your following distance. The Smith System says 14 seconds. I say it depends on how bad the road surface is. If you happen to be on solid ice and someone in front of you starts to jackknife, is 14 seconds enough time to gently slow your own truck without occupying the same piece of ditch as the unlucky driver in front of you? Hitting a brake too hard is most likely the reason his trailer came around on him in the first place. You want enough space between you and him to be able to keep your vehicle under control AND avoid him while he tries to recover from his mistake.

With that being said, don't be a rolling roadblock either. My personal rule for speeds on bad roads is this: if the trans-axle differential is locked in, I should be able to do at least 25 mph and feel safe. If the trans-axle differential is not locked in, I should be able to do at least 35 mph and feel safe. If chained up, the recommended safe speed is no more than 25 mph. The operative words here are "feel safe". At the point that I don't feel safe, I park it. Contrary to what your dispatcher thinks or says, no load is worth your life or the life of an innocent person.

Speaking of tire chains:  For the first 12 years of my driving career, my rule was that if it was bad enough for chains, it was too bad to go. Since we did a 6 month tour of duty for Interstate Distributors, I've changed that rule. For those of you unfamiliar with that company, let me explain. IDC is located in Tacoma, WA. Their drivers have to go through a chaining class during orientation. They expect their drivers to chain and run if it is safe to do so. Once we learned the "right" way to chain up, we have no problem "hanging iron" and running if we feel safe doing so. If you would like to see a video on how to properly hang your chains and a better way to chain, please comment below. You never know when adding a little bling to your ride will be necessary to get you out of a mess or to an icy dock.

Every one of us that runs West has to deal with knowing the chain laws for each state. The starting date for chains to be carried on the truck is different from state to state, as are the particular laws for each state. I believe that Colorado has the earliest compliance date for having to carry chains on the truck. Colorado chain law can be viewed at Colorado's Department of Transportation website. It states: "Commercial Vehicles operating on I-70 in either direction between mileposts 133 (Dotsero) and 259 (Morrison) from Sept. 1 to May 31 must carry sufficient chains at all times to be in compliance with the Colorado chain law." A good article about chain law broken out by state can be found on OOIDA's website. There are links to each state's website included. This article also mentions apps for your smart phones to keep up with state chain laws. I have not personally used any of these apps but might give them a look now that I know they are out there.

I want to give you my two most used links when Old Man Winter starts making himself known. You must be able to check weather on your route and road conditions in the states you are running through. I prefer the graphical forecasts at the National Weather Service. Learn to use this map as you plan your trip and you'll be able to route yourself around most bad weather. As far as road conditions by state, my favorite site is provided by the Federal Highway Administration. It is a state by state listing of all transportation sites. I especially love state websites that include live cameras on their road condition listing. Not only do I have the text version, but I can see the actual road conditions. Wyoming's WYOROAD.info is a lifesaver. These two sites are my best friends during the winter months.

The bottom line is that it is your tail in the seat. You are the only one that can make the Go or No Go call. Do not base your decision on what other drivers are doing or saying. Everyone has different skill and comfort levels. If you don't feel safe, find as safe a place as you can and park. Again, no load is worth your life or the life of an innocent person. The End.

A Tale of Two CDLs

Once upon a time, there were two over the road, long haul truck drivers. One lived in Tennessee, the other in Oklahoma. Both drove team with their spouses, both worked for the same company. The company they drove for was contracted to the Department of Defense hauling high security freight that often contained hazardous materials. To be compliant to haul this type of freight, both drivers were required to have a CDL, a DOT medical card, a hazmat endorsement, a TWIC card and a SECRET clearance.

One day, the Tennessee driver and his wife arrived home for a week off after running six weeks out. The first thing they did, as they always do, was to gather their mail from the mail box and begin to sort through it. This, in itself, can take hours. While performing this time consuming task, they noticed a letter from the Tennessee Department of Motor Vehicles. A letter such as this requires immediate use of the letter opener. The disturbing contents of the letter stated that the Tennessee driver was not medically certified and had 30 days to remedy this unfortunate situation or they would sadly be forced to revoke his CDL. The problem was that the letter was dated more than 30 days earlier than the actual reading of the letter. The Tennessee driver had driven on a revoked CDL, hauling explosives and other hazardous materials for approximately 14 days by the time he actually opened the warning letter.

The Tennessee driver immediately contacted his local DMV office to confirm that his CDL was, in fact, history. After receiving the apologetic confirmation, his next question was, “How did this happen? I emailed both my medical card and my wife’s medical card attached to the same email that went to both our company and to DMV. My company received both medical card attachments. How could DMV have not received both?” Unfortunately, the DMV agent had no answer to this question. The result of the whole debacle, to make a long story short, is that the Tennessee driver was forced to head down to the DMV office to start over from scratch to re-acquire his CDL license with hazmat endorsement. He had to re-take and pass all the tests, go through the background check and fingerprints, and pay all the fees. It took approximately three weeks to complete the whole process. For those three weeks, the truck did not turn a wheel. If the wheels don’t turn, you don’t get paid. Because the freight is team freight, neither driver was able to work. The team lost three weeks of pay because they were not able to get their mail while on the road.

The Oklahoma driver received a similar letter in the mail from the Oklahoma Department of Safety, Drivers License Services. Her letter stated the same thing, “NOT medically certified”. Her letter also came in the mail while she was on the road. She received the same instructions to clear up the problem within 30 days or risk revocation.

The difference between the two drivers occurs at this point. The Oklahoma driver was subscribed to Cyber Drop Box. Not only did she receive her letter online the day it arrived in the mail, she received a phone call telling her that she had received the letter and that it looked to be of immediate concern. Within three days of receipt of the letter, the issue (an unreadable doctor’s name on the card, go figure) was resolved. Oklahoma DPS was happy, the driver was happy and the driver’s company was happy. No one lost revenue because of down time, no extra fees had to be paid and no one unknowingly drove on a revoked CDL. They all lived happily ever after.

The two stories are true. Written documentation exists for the unbeliever. Cyber Drop Box is the answer to every long haul driver’s prayer for a way to stay on top of their personal business. Many things can be handled online, but the most important things still come in snail mail. Cyber Drop Box has a personal interest in their clients. You will always speak to a real live human being based in the United States. The only foreign accent you will have to decipher is “Southern drawl”. The owner and developer is a truck driver’s son. He grew up in the industry and understands the lifestyle. Customer service is top shelf, one on one, make it happen. Cyber Drop Box employees will do what it takes to service their subscribers, as long as it is not illegal or immoral! I recommend this service not only to drivers, but anyone who is away from home for extended periods of time. RVers, airline pilots, offshore workers, pipeline welders, and US military are some examples of other folks who could use this new service. It works anywhere you have an internet connection. Check them out at www.cyberdropbox.com! Never take a chance on missing something important in the mail again.

Where Did All The Good Customer Service Go?

As I sit here and think about the last few weeks, there is only one thing that keeps invading my mind.

"Why is it so hard to do business with people?"

It blows me away at how difficult it is to get someone (that you want to give money to) on the phone, talk through your wants, have them give their honest and professional opinion about what you need, and do it in a way that doesn't make you feel like you are wasting their time. I just don't underst... sigh

I guess I am getting ahead of myself, and just ranting at this point. You are probably wondering who I am, and what am I doing here. My name is Ellis Todd King, and I am the owner and founder of Cyber Drop Box. I am here because I saw a hole in the transportation industry that needed to be filled. I analyzed the problem and determined I had the skills, desire and integrity to solve it. The problem I saw was that drivers had a hard time staying on top of their personal business. Missed mail caused headaches, cost money, and more importantly, wasted their much deserved home time. So we created this company to deliver their mail to them on the road via this website.

Ok. So, that is why I am on this site, but why am I here today... writing this article?

Normally, I will bring you articles about new and existing trucker technology. I will show you cool new toys to make your lives easier. You will learn about software designed that is designed to make you more money by increasing efficiency. I am a nerd at heart, so I will tend to cover more nerdy types of things.

But today is different...

I don't know if I have just been reading too much of the angry trucker's articles or what, but I just wanted to write about something that has been bothering me for some time now.

Where did all the good customer service go?

Over the last few weeks I have been preparing to be an exhibitor at the Great American Trucking Show in August. (I do want to add here that the people at the show have been awesome. I did not want anyone to assume I was referring to them since I mentioned the name. They have actually gone above and beyond, so they deserve a salute.) This requires a lot of planning and coordinating with many other businesses for a variety of different reasons. Many of these reasons are that I want to spend my money and purchase something from these businesses. To be honest, I don't see how they stay financially above water.

I have struggled to get people on the phone. Almost everyone wants to do business via email, and even sometimes text message. I hate when I need answers and I am dependent on getting these answers from email. It can sometimes take days to get answers that I needed yesterday.

I know. I know. Patience you say, but I remember...

*pause for effect and cue inspirational music*

I remember a time when the personal touch was an unspoken requirement for all business. You as a customer were priority. Other calls could wait. People never said "I don't know" unless it was followed by "but I will find out for you immediately!". It wasn't taken for granted that you would be a customer next billing cycle, or the next time you needed to make an order. People called you back, even when they couldn't deliver what you wanted or needed. If somehow, you did receive bad customer service, it was rare and you were compensated for having to deal with that issue. There was a time when a business would have to close its doors over bad customer service.

When did it change? When did we start accepting the abuse?

I propose a change. I know for me and the company I operate by the will of God alone, WILL be different. We will bring customer service back to what it used to be. If there is a problem, we will solve it. If there is a way we can help, we will find it. We will never take a customer for granted. Contracts. No Contracts. It doesn't make a difference. Cyber Drop Box will be that company that left you with a smile on your face. The company that took the time to understand you and your problem. We will not be the script readers and automatic computer voices that are common place in today's world. This is our pledge to the world.

Where did all the good customer service go? Its right here, and it isn't going anywhere!

Are there any businesses that have exceptionally good customer service that you have dealt with? Comment below and let us know!

The Gripe Session

It reads like a scripture passage from some alternative Bible for Trucking: “whenever two or more drivers are gathered together in the name of trucking, a gripe session eventually ensues.” What is up with that? I have begun to avoid groups of drivers standing around talking because all I ever hear is a bunch of griping. No solutions to problems ever get discussed. No positive topics are ever mentioned. It’s just one driver after another offering up their latest complaint, followed by the next driver whose problems are exponentially larger than the preceding rant.

I have to admit that I am as guilty as anyone of expressing my feelings about perceived wrongs and abuses. Knowing that, I have consciously tried to keep myself out of situations that feed my anger. I really have no excuse for participating in that manner. I know how to handle problems with the job. It is a step-by-step procedure.

STEP ONE:
Identify the problem. You have to remove the emotion from the issue and boil it down to a one sentence statement of the situation.

STEP TWO:
Find out who has the power to initiate a solution to the problem. If you have a problem with your fleet manager’s treatment or attitude, you start with that person. If you feel that DOT has wrongly charged you, you start with that DOT officer. Complaining to another driver about your fleet manager or the DOT officer while drinking coffee at the counter at the T/A won’t solve the problem and will probably make your coffee give you heartburn.

STEP THREE:
Organize a written chronological statement of the facts. Bullet points and time lines are your friends, especially if you have QuaalCom messages or official documentation to back you up. Phone conversations are not solid proof. They are deniable and result in a he said/she said argument. Write down your complaint using no emotion and only facts that you can back up.

STEP FOUR:
Know the chain of command. Whether you’re dealing with your company or someone like the DOT, everyone has a boss. Start with the initial person you have the problem with. If you can’t reach a solution with that person, elevate the discussion to the next level: their boss. Follow this procedure until you have either resolved the problem or realize that there is no resolution within the company or group you are dealing with. At that point, you have to make a decision. You will either have to deal with the issue as it stands or you will have to leave the situation.

The main thing to remember is this: REMOVE ALL EMOTION FROM ANY DISCUSSION. State the facts as you believe them to be true in a clear, concise and chronological order. Present the back up to those facts. At no time, ever, has injecting cursing into a discussion proven to have had a positive effect. You must present yourself as the professional, highly skilled and valuable individual that you really are. If you give in to emotions like anger, you will lose your battle.

As our economy falters, our freight is less stable and our regulations continue to change, we as drivers need to stick together and help each other maintain a positive outlook and attitude. Our life experiences shape us. We are all under such pressure these days to pay the bills that many of us are walking on a razor’s edge. When coal is put under extreme pressure, because of its characteristics, it eventually becomes a diamond. Let’s try, as a group, to develop characteristics that will let the pressures on us form us into a “driver diamond” and not crush us into useless dust? Until next time, stay safe out there!

Merging Mayhem

My name is Kat Tracy and I am an angry trucker. There, I said it. Admitting you have a problem is the first step in reconciling the problem. I fear there are many steps left to take before I get it out of my system. In fact, there are probably as many steps as there are drivers on the road. Based on that statement, this should be a long-running blog, unfortunately.

So, what qualifies me to write this blog? Let me just say that 25 years on the road should be enough qualification for anyone, but during that quarter century, I’ve driven virtually every interstate and many of the back roads of this country and Canada. I’ve trained other people to be professional truck drivers. I’ve pulled most types of trailers with most makes of trucks hauling so many different types of freight that I can’t begin to list them. I have also experienced infinite numbers of acts of stupidity, ignorance, rudeness, and downright danger from the motoring public. That motoring public doesn’t just include four-wheelers. Some of you Billy Big Riggers are the most dangerous individuals on the road. All of this means that I have tons of material to write about.

Let me start with one of my biggest pet peeves. This one encompasses the whole of the driving world, from the smallest motorcycle to the largest over-dimensional load. This may be the mother of all of my pet peeves. Merging into freeway traffic from an on-ramp requires timing, control of your vehicle and your full attention at all times. Apparently, no one is teaching this skill in any driving school or driver’s education class in the whole country. Many of the grey hairs on my head are directly attributable to bad merging situations.

People, it is called an “acceleration lane” for a reason! You must be surveying traffic, finding your gap in the flow and adjusting your speed accordingly. You are most likely moving into high speed lanes (55 or higher) so that means acceleration! You cannot do all of these things if you are texting or talking on a cell phone, putting on make-up, opening your breakfast, mixing your coffee, reading your notes for a meeting, folding up a map, or trying to tie down your child in his car seat. Near misses occur all the time because the merging driver can’t be bothered with the traffic he/she is merging into until the very end of the ramp. At that point, they find out that there is no gap and no speed match and their vehicle is totally out of place in the land. This usually ends up with one of two things happening: the merging vehicle slams on their brakes and swerves OR they try to force their way into traffic that has no place to go to let them in resulting in the merging car being reduced to navigating the shoulder of the highway until they can manage to find a hole to move their vehicle into. None of this is safe and all of it is stressful in the max.

Also, signal lights are not optional. Especially in multi-lane merges, signal lights indicate to me how many lanes you need to move as you enter the freeway. I understand that some interchanges require multiple lane changes in a short distance, but I can’t read your mind. If you don’t show me your intentions by using your signal lights correctly, I don’t think you should flip me off when my rig blocks your progress and causes you to miss your exchange. Correct use of signal lights includes turning them off once you enter a lane, then turning them back on to move again. If you leave them on with no break in the action, most people, myself included, assumes you have forgotten to turn them off, not that you are continuing to move to the next lane over.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but just in case, here’s some breaking news for you. Tractor trailer combinations can legally weigh up to 80,000 lbs. Reach way back to your high school physics class. A body in motion stays in motion. To stop that 40 ton rig requires quite a long distance. If you have failed to judge your merge properly for all the previously mentioned reasons, it is logical to expect bad results when you suddenly jam up at the end of the ramp. Sometimes this error can cost lives. Your environmentally green car doesn’t stand a chance against my Kenworth’s diesel burning, atmosphere polluting 450 horsepower engine or the 80,000 lbs. Billy Big Rigger, some of the worst truck wrecks I’ve seen were rear end accidents caused by a poor merge decision. One of the worst occurred when a rig in the travel lane moving at 65 mph hit a merging truck entering the highway from a rest area. Rest area merges have their own, unique set of problems, especially at night. Those trucks parked on the ramps block vision of vehicles moving within the rest area heading for the entrance ramp to the highway. If you are a big rig, your marker lights are not discernible from theirs. Rest area merges require extra attention and focus from both sides of the ramp.

Last but not least, the “mergers” are not always the sole problem. The “merges” can do much to alleviate the merge problem. As you are driving, be aware that you are nearing a merge ramp. Look for the signs indicating the type of merge ramp ahead. Is it a merging ramp into your lane or a continuing lane? Is it a clover leaf on-ramp? Clover leaf ramps are more dangerous because those vehicles have a shorter acceleration lane to get up to highway speed before the merge. Watch the traffic movement on the cross road as you are coming up to the exchange. Is it busy? Can you see any traffic moving to enter the acceleration ramp to merge with the highway? If so, move to the next lane over in advance, if possible to do so safely. If not, pay close attention to the merging traffic. Check your speed against theirs. Odds are, you will have to make adjustments for them to make the merge safely. Remember, you are the professional. Practice safe merges and stay safe out there!