Safety Director

     When I went through orientation in January of 2012, David Frady was the Safety Director.  I remember him coming in and giving his speech about safety.  The most profound thing he said was "They call me the Safety Director, but I am not the Safety Director.  I am the Safety Consultant.  You are the Safety Directors of your own trucks."  Through the rest of his career as Safety Director, when he would send a message out on the Qualcomm he would sign it "your friendly safety consultant."

     Mr. Frady wanted us to take responsibility for the safety conditions in and around our own trucks.  Saying that statement in orientation really flipped a switch for me.  It gave me a new awareness of my role as a member of the safety team.  Sure, we have people in the office with titles whose roles are to help manage the safety (and DOT compliance) of the fleet, but really... safety begins and ends with the drivers.  I hope this gives you a new awareness of your role here at Freymiller.

Greetings From Colorful Colorado

     I cannot tell you how glad I am to see sunshine!  Last week I felt like John from the Lil' Abner cartoon with a storm cloud hovering over me.  Every.  Where.  I.  Went.  It started when I was leaving Chicago.  The rain followed me out to Davenport, IA; back to Cleveland, OH; down to Wheeling, WV; up to Scranton, PA; down to Allentown, PA; out to Edison, NJ; back up by Scranton; down to Harrisburg, PA and finally out to Indianapolis, IN.  From 4:00 Monday afternoon until noon Saturday, I was in almost non-stop rain.  I got a few 3-4 hour breaks during that time, but that was it.  Oy Vey!  I wouldn't last a week in Oregon.

     It's rare for me to complain about wet weather.  In 2006, I was living in Casper, WY when a lightning strike started a wild fire up on Casper Mountain.  I watched from my front windows as the fire made its way down the front of the mountain towards the city, wondering if we would get the order to evacuate and if so, where would we go?  Ash fell like snow, the whole city smelled like a camp fire and wildlife walked the city streets as the fire chased them down off the mountain.  Scary times.  Thankfully, they got the fire under control before an evacuation order became necessary.

     That experience changed me.  I used to whine about rain or snow if it lasted more than a day or two.  Not anymore.  Now my philosophy is: the more it snows in the winter and rains in the spring, the less it burns in the summer.  Sure, sometimes snow or rain effects my ability to do my job efficiently, but I can live with that.  I appreciate the wet weather now; but I was just as appreciative of the sun when I finally saw it again.

Ms. Don'tknowitall

     Back in 1991, when I told my father that I was going to truck driving school, his initial response was to bark “no daughter of mine….”  I heard that come out of his mouth several times that day.  Four weeks later, his attitude shifted to one of acceptance.  I was going to do this whether he agreed with it or not.

     Dad gave me three pieces of advice that I still live by twenty-five years later.  I share these tidbits of wisdom with my trainees as well.  I will share the other two in later posts, but I want to focus on this one today.

     The most important of the three was “the day you think you know everything there is to know about driving a truck, turn in your keys - because you’ve just become dangerous.”  It took me about twenty years to realize that this advice didn’t just apply to driving a truck, but to life in general.

     I’m not perfect.

     I don’t know everything.

     I make mistakes.

     It’s okay.

     I try to maintain this attitude of humility, especially with my trainees because I want them to understand that it’s okay to not have all the answers.

     

     I have learned that whenever I start to get a “know it all” attitude, life humbles me.  It’s almost always followed by a huge no-brainer and there are always witnesses.

     Every day in this truck I learn something.  Sometimes it’s something big and important, sometimes it’s something small, but still important.

     I’m okay with the idea that I don’t know everything.  It gives me something to look forward to tomorrow.

Welcome!

     Welcome!  Thank you for taking the time to stop by and check out my new blog.

     I really love driving for Freymiller and I wanted to share my enthusiasm with others, so I approached David Freymiller with my idea to write a blog about what it’s like to be a Freymiller driver.  It was discussed around the office and they agreed with me that this would be a great opportunity for both them and me.  So here we are.

     My goal for this blog is three-fold:

    1.  To share with other Freymiller drivers why I am so happy here,

    2.  To share with drivers from other companies why Freymiller is such a great place to work, and

    3.  To share with people who have no ties to the transportation industry some of what goes in to the process of getting the goods they buy from production facilities to the store shelves.

     I hope you decide to accompany me on this journey.  If you would like, in the column on the right there is a box where you can type in your email address and click the SUBMIT button to sign up for email updates.  A new entry will be posted on either Friday or Saturday each week.  If you sign up for updates, you will automatically be notified when there is a new entry and won’t have to come back and check every day.  Don’t worry, you can always unsubscribe, but I hope you decide to stay with me.

     Also, I want to point out that this is a company sponsored blog and in the spirit of keeping it both productive and professional, comments will be moderated.  I always encourage healthy debate, but comments that contain profanity or abusive language/tones will not be approved.

Lastly, I would like to ask one thing of you.  After you have seen a few of the posts here and get an idea of my vision for this blog - if you like it - please help me promote it.  Promotion is the life-blood of an online following.  You can help me promote this blog by sharing it in any social media platform you use.  At the bottom of each post you will see small icons you can utilize for email, your own blog, Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest.  You can also recommend it on Google with the G +1 icon.

Again, thank you so much for coming over and taking a peek at what I’m doing here.  I look forward to sharing more with you very soon!