Why Freymiller?

                Financially¸ I hit rock bottom in January 2012.  After having been a broke single mom for 3 1/2 years, I was losing my home.  My choices were go live in a cardboard box or get back into a truck after having been out of trucking for 12 years.  My brother, Dennis was working here at the time and he told me that Freymiller had a “friends and family” training program.  Most of the time the situation was where a driver would train his wife and they would run team, but not always.  It was unspoken but understood that if Dennis trained me, we would not run team after my training.  I love my brother, but I’m sure even he would tell you there is a reason that siblings grow up and go live in different places.

                While he was checking into the process of getting me hired on at Freymiller, I checked into a couple of other options, just in case.  One of the companies I called wanted me to give up my CDL (that I’ve held since 1993), go through their school and go take the CDL test again.  Another company wanted to put me through a 2-week refresher course (doable) and then have me with a trainer for about 4 months (not doable.)  I felt like these other two companies wanted me to jump through flaming hoops to be able to work for them.  I wasn’t willing to give up my CDL just to go get it again and I couldn’t afford to live on training pay for almost 5 months.  Thankfully, Freymiller gave me the okay and I was scheduled for orientation.  The rest, as they say, is history.

                There are probably hundreds of companies out on the road today.  Periodically I get asked why I work for Freymiller and not for someone else.  My answer is always the same. “I love it here.”

                 Freymiller gave me the chance to earn my dignity back.  They gave me that chance without making me jump through hoops.  Without prejudice, Freymiller gave me the opportunity to prove myself.  Freymiller is a great place to work.  Let’s change the conversation a bit.  Instead of why do I work for Freymiller, have you asked yourself why don’t you work for Freymiller?

Here's Your Sign!

          I nag the crap out of my trainees about reading the signs as they’re driving down the road.

 “What if the next sign you don’t read says “Bridge Out Ahead or Road Ends In Water?”

          I live in Missouri, where we actually do have signs that say Road Ends In Water!

          “If you don’t start reading your signs we’re going to end up in Iowa instead of Georgia!”

          Besides being necessary and informative, there are a lot of interesting signs out on the road.  Thanks to Android and Google, I no longer have to just wonder what the story is behind some of these signs, I can now look them up and find out.  Some of the more interesting things I have found out:

    

     1.       How Deaf Smith County (Texas) got its name (and that it’s pronounced “deef”)

     2.       That Zanesville, OH is NOT named after Zane Grey, but an ancestor of his. Oh, and did you know that Zane Grey was a dentist?

     3.       Patti’s 1880’s Settlement in Grand Rivers, KY is a replication, not an original settlement.

     4.       Ninety Six, SC has absolutely nothing to do with the Civil War, as I originally thought.

When I have a trainee, I will look up these signs that spark my interest immediately.  If I’m on the phone, I will ask the person I am speaking with to text it to me so I can look it up later.  I don’t even want to think of how many signs (places) I forgot about by the time I got stopped.

Am I the only one that does this?  I’d love to hear about the interesting things that you’ve looked up after having read a sign.

My Freymiller Family

      Something really cool happened on July 14^th that I want to share with you.

      Without going into all of the uglies, I recently went through a divorce and am starting over at square one again.  It’s okay, Square One is a place I’m familiar with.  I have a pickup truck that I’m going to have to sink about $10,000 into before I can drive again.  I started saving money as soon as the divorce was final, but I was starting to get discouraged because it wasn’t happening fast enough for me.  Last week I decided that I needed to buy something cheap so I can at least get around while I’m working on my pickup.  I started looking online and got to OKC on the 14^th with a few cars that I wanted to go look at.

      While it never surprises me, I’m still always very humbled and honored when I express a need or concern and the amount of people who step up to help.  Ronnie (in the trailer shop) gave me the name of his insurance agent and also some other places to look for a car if none of the ones I looked at today panned out.  Chaplin Olen sent me a few websites and also drove me around to look at the cars.  When we were on our way to see the first one, I told him “if this car gives you the heebie-jeebies, don’t let me buy it.”  He offered his opinions and explained why he felt the way he did.  We left the first car behind and as much as I wanted a set of wheels today, I was comfortable with the decision.  I couldn’t get in touch with the owner of the second car (although she did contact me back later) and I did get in touch with the third, but we couldn’t get our schedules to mesh.  When the second one called me back, I texted the Chaplain and asked him if he could take me to see it at 3:00 and he said yes.  We got back to the yard about 5:00 with my “new to me” car.

        I had confessed to the Chaplain earlier in the day that because of some personal turmoil I have been going through for the past week, I hadn’t written my blog entry for the week and I was still at a loss as what to even write about.  When I went back to the Chapel trailer to thank him again for helping me so much we were talking about how generous and compassionate the people at Freymiller are.  That was when it dawned on me what I should write about this week.

        Two weeks ago, my trainee told me that all trucking company recruiters will tell you there is a “family atmosphere” at the company they work for, but at Freymiller, she was glad to see that family atmosphere really does exist.  It really does.  I joke that being at the Freymiller yard is like being at a family reunion for me because I can’t turn around without smacking into a David, Tom, Mike or Dennis, but it really does feel like family here.

25 Years and Going Strong

     This week marks 25 years since I started my career driving a truck.  July 7^th, 1991 I started orientation with North American Commercial Transportation, a division of NAVL that is long gone.  I was one of over a hundred, about half of us with that same scared, “deer in the headlights” expression; the tell-tale sign of a recent driving school graduate.  Sometimes it feels like yesterday, sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago.  I guess it was a lifetime ago because both of my children were born after that event.

     Short disclaimer: while I did start 25 years ago, I do not have 25 consecutive years of driving.  Raising kids and other lifestyle changes have interrupted my career several times.  If you squash it all down, I probably have 6-7 years of actual drive time in those 25 years.

     When I think of the changes that have happened in trucking since “way back when” it boggles my mind.  Many of the changes have been good, some, well, not so much.  Technology has certainly made our jobs easier.  I remember my dad complaining when they put a Qualcomm in his truck, but he found a new appreciation for it the day it was raining cats and dogs but he didn’t have to get out of the truck and go wait in line for a pay phone.  Trucks are better, cell phones have made communication easier.  Trucking certainly has evolved.

     Sometimes I hear other drivers with as many years or more driving talk about “the good old days” when drivers helped each other, other drivers from the same company would socialize at the truck stops, the CB was always hopping.  When they complain about how these things are dead and gone I can’t help but think “well, didn’t you stop doing those things, too?”

     I love driving.  This is the life I choose.  It’s hard to believe that 25 years has passed and I can’t help but wonder what the future holds.

Lights, Camera, Action!

In 2014, "dash cams" were installed in 10 trucks.  It started with the CNG and Local trucks.  To date, all of the 2016 and 2017 trucks have them.  Honestly, I was leery of the idea of cameras in the trucks.  It felt a little too "big brother is watching" for my comfort.  

      Then I got some information.

1. The cameras run/record on a constant loop, but the only accessible data is what's saved to the memory card.

2.  They only record data onto the memory card when there is a "critical event" or the driver hits the "panic button."  When either of those occur, they save the 10 seconds before and 20 seconds after the incident.

3. There are only 3 people in the company who can access stored data from the memory cards.... David and Don Freymiller and the Safety Director.

4. No one has the ability to pull up any truck at random and "spy" on the driver going down the road (or when they're parked for that matter.)

     After giving this a little more thought I realized that when I worked in retail, there were cameras all over the stores I worked in.  There are cameras all over the terminal.  Really, this isn't a big deal.  I think in my mind it was a big deal because in a sense, my truck is my home.  That felt a little invasive, but once I got the facts on how the cameras work and reminded myself that the truck isn't just "my home" but my workplace... it wasn't such a big deal anymore.

     While no one can randomly access the camera in my truck to see what I'm doing, if they could all they would find out is....

1. I chair dance.

2. I'm pretty good on the air guitar but not coordinated enough for the air drums.

3. I eat.  A lot.  Well, not a lot per se, but often.

     There is nothing I do in that truck that I'd be afraid of anyone seeing me do anyway, except getting dressed, but that's why they have sleeper curtains, right?

     Have a safe and happy Independence Day!