Fuel for Thought

Suck It Up Buttercup!

Everything is running like a well oiled machine. Pick up load. Drive. Deliver load. Repeat. It is great when everything goes as planned. Until it doesn’t. Then it can seem like it is one thing after another going wrong. 

You’re halfway to your next pick up and get the dreaded call - “Stop the truck, the load just cancelled.”

Now what? No load, maybe even reverse course. Daily log has been started. Your hours are ticking away. This day is shot. Revenue lost. Time lost. Fuel lost. 

Turn around and go back to where you started. On the way back you get a crack in your windshield from a rock in a construction zone. Revenue lost. Time lost. Fuel lost. Unexpected downtime and expense of windshield replacement.

Arriving back at the truck stop (where you started from earlier), you find the remnants of a bolt seal stuck in one of your drive tires that someone carelessly threw on the ground. Revenue lost. Time lost. Fuel lost. Unexpected glass replacement. Unexpected tire replacement.

One load lost should not be the end of the world. There will be other loads. 

Suck it up Buttercup! You’ve got work to do.

Now your day is starting to get better.

After a call to your insurance company, you find you have low cost glass coverage. A call to the glass company and the replacement windshield is on the way. Windshield enroute.

While you wait for the new windshield to arrive, you visit the shop at the truck stop. You find the tire does not need replacing, just break it down, patch and plug. Minimal cost, certainly less than a new tire. Tire repaired.

While the shop was repairing your tire, the glass company showed up and replaced your cracked windshield. Tire repaired. Windshield replaced.

Pulling out of the shop you see there is still plenty of parking. Tire repaired. Windshield replaced. Truck secured.

Once parked, you find the load you want picking up tomorrow and get a call informing you that you will get paid for a TONU (Truck Ordered, Not Used) for the cancelled load. Tire repaired. Windshield replaced. Truck secured. Revenue recovered. 

The time is still lost, but while time can never be recovered, it can be managed to an extent. 

Don’t let a bad start set the tone for the rest of your day. When multiple things go wrong at the same time, start with one and work down the list. 

Putting off the items on that list only prolongs the costs. Getting it done and getting back to work can help recoup the lost revenue and unexpected repair costs sooner.

Sitting around crying “Woe is me” does no good.

Again, Suck It Buttercup!

See you down the road,

Greg