Routing

Actual, physical routing is one of the easiest things to teach.  The part that I had trouble wrapping my brain around was why there is a need to teach it. 

I remember being in 3^rd or 4^th grade Social Studies learning how to read a map.  I also remember being given a board puzzle of the United States around the same time.  By the time I got rid of it, most of the pieces were loose because I’d taken it apart and put it back together so many times.

It never fails to amaze me when a new driver gets in this truck with very few map skills and even less knowledge of US Geography.  When I ask them to open the atlas to the US map, they can identify their home state and maybe a couple of states around it, California and Florida.  They have no understanding of what a map key is.

It’s not uncommon for me to have to spend about an hour in the first few days with a new trainee to teach these basic skills.  Teaching these skills is easy; convincing a new driver that they need these skills is the hard part.  They would much rather just look it up on Google Maps.  Technology is great, but Google maps doesn’t know that I’m driving a truck that is 13’6” tall and pulling a 53’ trailer.

I have commented to other drivers that I think basic map and math skills should be part of the pre-employment screening at Freymiller.  The problem with that is it would probably disqualify about 50% of applicants immediately. 

Trip Planning 101

          A few posts back, someone asked me how I teach trip planning.  I gave a quick answer in the comments so as not to write a whole new post there, but I felt the topic deserved its own post.  Now as I sit here thinking about everything I try to instill in a new driver about trip planning, I realize that it probably won’t all fit in one post either.  This is going to end up a series of posts.

          The four main things I teach about trip planning are:

     1.   The physical routing

     2.   Time management

     3.   Weather

     4.   Fuel stops

I don’t think anyone has climbed into my truck with a solid understanding of what all goes into trip planning.  Most people’s experience with driving halfway across the country has been for vacation, if they have ever done it at all.  They go with the idea of “I will get there Tuesday,” not “I have to be there at 6:00 Tuesday morning.”  They go when they go, as far as they want, and they stop when they feel like it. 

There seems to be this incorrect notion that this job is easy.  Just get in and drive, right?  An experienced driver I know once joked, “This is the coolest job ever; I drive their truck around and they put money in my checking account!”  Trip planning is - in my opinion - baptism by fire.  It’s the first piece of evidence that this job takes more than repetitive motion.

Over the next few weeks we will dig deeper into what all goes into trip planning.