Rule #1

     By the time you read this, I will have a new trainee in the truck.  I thought in the spirit of such, I would share with you a few of my truck rules that I share with my new trainees.  Just for clarification, these are MY truck rules, not Freymiller training policy.  Freymiller has a great training program (shameless plug for my company here) that is top quality.  These rules were born out of necessity to make life easier for two strangers trying to co-exist in an 8x8 space.

          1.  Please don’t talk to me the minute my feet hit the floor. If you try to talk to me before I’ve gone to the restroom, smoked a cigarette and gotten at least a bit of caffeine in me, you’re wasting your time because almost nothing will sink in.  The exception to this is if something is shooting blood, shooting flames, or if our hood is leaving the parking lot hanging off of someone’s ICC bumper.

          1.  If I say the word “stop” with a sense of urgency, hit the brakes.  Don’t think, don’t ask, just stop.  I’m doing this because I see something about to happen that I don’t think you see.  I don’t care if you stall the truck, just get stopped.

          1.  Part of the training program in this truck is “Embrace Your Inner Dork – 101.”  If you aren’t able to laugh at yourself when you get in this truck, you will be able to by the time you get out.  We have fun around here.  If we can’t make it fun, why bother?  I take my responsibilities in this truck very seriously, but there are no perfect truck drivers and when I pull a no-brainer, it’s okay to laugh (as long as I haven’t caused any damage in the process.)

          1.  You will be in this truck until one of two things happen.  Either until you prove to me that you can run this truck without me, or you prove to me that you’ll never be able to.  I don’t expect anyone to know everything; my job is to teach you how to handle every situation we come upon.  When your training is done, you will be able to handle just about anything that happens and when you don’t…. you’ll know where to get the answer.

          You may have noticed that all of these rules are numbered 1.  There is a reason for that.  They’re equally important.  These aren’t all of the rules, but these are the most important.