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Listen in as we hear from 4 FirstFleet driver trainers that came to our Driver Trainer Conference in Charlotte last week. Elizabeth interviewed Patrick Mercer & Steven Jones from Richmond, followed by Robert Reynolds from Covington and Ronald Mitchell out of our Atlanta Dairy. Get some tips and tricks from these trainers as we talk trucks, the Smith System, and what it takes to be a trainer.
The company podcast of FirstFleet, Inc. designed and intended to connect and communicate with our team of dedicated transportation professionals around the country. Let's start a conversation.
*Unedited Transcript - there may be errors. Please reference the audio for any questions*
Welcome to first fleet ten four.
I am coming to you live from the well not live, but from the driver trainer meeting in North Carolina and I am joined by two of our wonderful driver trainers here at first fleet. You guys want to introduce yourselves and Patrick Mercer from. Um, Steven Jones from Richmond also. So, uh, tell me this, how long have you both been with first fleet?
I've been with first fleet since August, since August. Okay. Not too long. That's awesome. How about you? I've been with first fleet, September of 20 18, 20 18. Very cool. So you've been at first fleet longer than I have. Very cool. Little bit. Yeah. So tell me this. What is, um, what's one thing that brought you to first fleet.
What made you interested in first fleet? I was just shopping around on driver post one day in first fleet popped up. So I, I called them and I liked what they had to say, the way they did things. And I didn't see a whole lot of negative things on their reviews. So I put in an application and met up with Matt and here I am.
There you go. Glad you're here. Pretty much the same situation driver pulse, really. Okay. Our recruiting team will be very excited to hear that
they're recruiting work. Very cool. So tell me this. What would you say are some things that you like about first fleet that you think first fleet does better than someplace you were at before? 90% of the time? It's very easy. They get along with your dispatchers, your dispatchers learn how you like to run.
What they do is they try to set you up with the runs, that suit. If you'd like to come in early, they try to give you the early runs. If you like to come in later, they tried to give you the later runs. They tried to work with you. Now that's not going to always work. The, everybody knows this is truck. And so there's something going to get thrown in there.
That's not going to always happen. Yeah. I agree with you on that. The same. Yeah. Same thing. Well, the equipment is good, stuff like that. Sure. What is your favorite truck? Kenworth Kenworth. Uh, I like to Kenworth, dude. Okay. I've I've heard, I've heard a lot of good things, Kenworth and Volvos. I hear a lot of people like the vault.
No, nobody likes the Volvos.
Peterbilt and Kenworth as a favorite trucks, they ride the best they, they handled the best. Okay. Exactly. I agree. When I finally get Ron to take me in and teach you how to just ride one around a parking lot, somewhere. Mechanics field. We got a big enough lot and I'll let you drive one around. Perfect.
This would be fun. Bring it on. It's like a dream come true. Okay. What are some wishlist things that you think you would love it at first fleet would do that you've had at a previous job or you're like, oh, this worked out really well. Maybe you guys should think about that. Anything that comes from. Bring back the McCain, the manual beet trucks.
Yeah. Let me stick with the automatic. I like manual, but I prefer the automatic. Gotcha. Yeah, I, yeah, I think if I'm going to try one, I'd prefer an automatic, although I drive a manual car, but I hear they're different, so totally different. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't want to be one of like one of those rookies just choking it out and just, you know, I've got my CDL back in 98 and that's really, before they came out with the automatics, they was, they were slowly bringing them.
Gotcha. But, um, I'm one of them old guys that learned on the manuals and that, uh, I liked what I started on. I'm like, man, you was as well. But like I said, I had four knee surgeries, so I usually don't work too well with me far as being stuck in traffic or anything like that. So I don't get me wrong. The automatics are great in a traffic jam, saves that left leg.
For sure. For sure. All right. So what's your favorite thing about being a driver trainer? I mean, people pretty much people. I think I've met quite a few, you know, Build some relationships far as no friendships, things like that. And most of the people that I've trained, they pretty much, I give them my number and you know, it pretty much stay in contact as well.
Yeah. I'm with him, you know, meeting the people, uh, Helping anybody out that needs, that needs to help, that that's willing to learn. Exactly. You know, I have no problem. If they have a desire to learn, I'll teach you. Sure. You know, and just like he said, building up, you meet a lot of new friends that way, you know, to meet friends these days.
So that's awesome. Yes. And it's pretty much one-on-one so, right. Absolutely. Very cool. And I know you, you love to help people, which is why you have, I know you have some hobbies as well. I do a volunteer firefighter. Yeah. Things like that. He's all about serving people. He's a helper. No, we need, we need more, you people more, you crazy people willing to run into burning buildings.
I believe you I'll take your word for it. Yeah. So we know what brought you to firstly, any, has anything in particular kept you here over the years? I haven't really been here for years, but I like everybody. With a, I couldn't ask for a better, better boss than Matt. He's very understanding he's if you call him, he answers his phone.
If he don't answer his phone, when you call him, he's going to call you right back. That's awesome. Um, dispatchers, they, they tried to do, they do their best to accommodate your needs and things like that. If you, if you come to them and say, Hey look, man, I got something to do on this day. I need to be off by this time.
They do everything in their power to try to get you off. And work with you. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Anything else keeping you here? Oh, well, like I said, I love the people as well. I guess I get along pretty much whatever they want. Yeah. He liked the job. Yes I do. Yeah. I really do box plant.
Okay. I mean, sometime at the box planet that can get a little chaotic at times, really. Okay. But so far so good. You know, like I said, the dispatchers and the managers seem to handle that pretty well, you know, get everything back in order. So I've learned that over the years, it's all about who you work with.
Exactly. Exactly. You can do the crappiest job, but if you work with great people, And then it makes it better and much fun and that much easier, you know, and us as drivers, we have to understand the dispatchers. Aren't going to always have the easiest days. There's going to be something thrown in their plans.
And when something gets thrown in their plans, it's going to throw it off on us because we're going to end up having to do, Hey, look, man, this, this load's got to go. I know I told you this. This is an emergency, you know, so you, you accommodate them because in the long run, they're gonna remember the favor that you did for them.
So they're going to turn around and help you out. Yeah. Great. Thank you so much, Patrick. And Steven, it was really good to talk to you. Yeah. So excited to get to learn more about you and your Richmond terminal. And now I'd like to introduce two new guests out of Covington, Georgia. All right. If you guys could introduce yourselves for me age before beauty.
Oh, okay. Oh, Robert Reynolds out of Covington, Georgia. Okay. And I'm Ronald Mitchell out of Covington, Georgia. Okay. Glad you guys are here. Really appreciate it. So how long have you both been driver trainers? I'm about two and a half years. Two and a half. Okay. Uh, I've been a driver trainer with first fleet, uh, for about three months, three months.
Okay. So tell me what brought you to first fleet? I was looking for some local, be home, be home more. Well, my own situation as I have my mother, so my wife, so my dogs, so it really worked out good. Well then at the time I was working six days a week, about 10 hours a day, he ever had. Running about 50 miles, one way to order.
So it's paid good, but yeah, just too much work. I didn't have a life. Right. Absolutely. Having a life is important. Yeah. Oh yeah. What about you? What do you think? Uh, kind of the same thing it was, uh, me and my fiance had. Just had a baby. So it needed to be local. You did need to be local. Yeah. And, um, before firstly to taken over, I'd already worked at the dairy.
My stepdad is actually the yard Jackie at the dairy connection. Right. So I'll reach back out to them, ask them how first fleet was. Great re you know, rave reviews about first fleet and how the drivers felt about the company. So I decided to reach out to, uh, David Kennedy, the terminal manager, and yeah, he was more than welcome to bring me back on board.
I hope he got a referral bonus for that. My stepdad. Yes. He definitely got a referral bronze for gig. Those things are no joke. Yeah. Well, this is money. It was before the increase, but of course we share everything. So I made them give me a piece of it because he was getting nice. Very cool. Well, congrats.
How old is your baby now? He is too. Oh yeah. He'll be three in November, man. And he's like, I'm getting a lot of good dad time now. Oh yeah. And honestly, I just being back with, firstly, it actually helped me out a lot because the first sleep me and my fiance were actually able to buy a house this past October.
So in this market, that's amazing. Yeah. No, trust me. I'm pleased to be here. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. All right. So local, you definitely, you both were wanting to be home to be around what what's really kept you. The terminal that you're at in Covington and Georgia at the dairy. What has made a difference or what's your favorite thing about your current location?
Almost same on terminal manager, Pedro Roman, really pagers, good guy. Uh, I'm not pulling any punches. He's the best supervisor I've ever, ever worked for. I'd push him out of the way and step program, a drain for the man. He's good. That's fair. I'm sure he'll love that. He is. He's awesome. Awesome. Cool. I matter of fact, I'd pick an Oni most of the day.
I said, you know, you're running me out of town Friday and that's my three-year anniversary date that ain't too cool. Boss took it to spend it with all of us
pays good, you know, benefit to great. Oh yeah. My wife had a lot of medical issues, so it's really nice. Okay. How about you? Uh, for me, for me the favorite part, uh, honestly just the atmosphere itself. People would think that, you know, working at the dairy and moving milk and, you know, Spilled milk stories in a hot Georgia summer.
And yes, the aftermath of that is unfathomable. Can you drink milk? I must know this. Can you drink milk after all that? But I don't really, uh, I don't really drink milk. With serial maybe, but the most part I've stopped drinking milk, you know, I don't blame you at all. Well, and the terminal I'm outta we, we haul cardboard boxes.
So when I'm all work, I don't want to see a cardboard box. Totally get that. Yes. It's kind of like that whole thing of like, you know, a mechanic. His car is always broken down and busted because he's been working on cars all day. He doesn't really want to work on his, so yes, it's kind of that mentality.
Understandable. Yeah, I, yeah, I don't, that's a hard job. Just the spoiled milk smell. And so to mitigate that, what you don't do is spill milk. So you're probably a pro at load strapping. Yes. Yes. So is that one of the things you definitely make sure your trainees know how to do yes. And you know, what not to use.
Uh, and even in certain situations, how to, you know, think through the problem before you just. Sure. You know, one of the things that I like to say, and I explained this to him all the time is that, you know, a plan without action is wasted thought. Ooh, okay. But action, without a plan is wasted time. So you have to think things through before you do it, but don't just do something without thinking it through.
Sure. That's an always get in the worst mistake. So now he's getting the biggest situations when I do something without thinking it through too bad to military. Oh, okay. Yeah. So you were both in the military? Yes. Okay. What, where did you serve? I served in great lakes, Illinois, uh, damnit, Virginia, and I served on the USS haler, D D 9, 9, 7 out of a Norfolk, Virginia.
Okay. So in the Navy. Got it. Yes, Navy. Cool. And what about you? I was on the USS Tripoli out of, uh, San Diego. We did desert storm wound up doing some combat action. And does it storm. Got some bad stories on that, but. Well, where's the war and you got to go down that road. I ain't going there tonight. Amen. No worries.
But thank you so much for your service, both of you. I really appreciate that. That's awesome. Not a problem. And did I hear you are both in the same unit? No,
okay. Gotcha. We made it. We made a lot of them. Sure. Yeah. You meet a lot of Marine Navy won the football game last November. So we're good. Nice priorities. I got ya, right? Yeah. Football was very important. That actually reminds me. Who do you all pull for in Georgia, Georgia and Georgia bulldogs. 21 national champs.
Very nice tattooed on the arm. Oh, look at that. Oh man, you are legit. That one doesn't come off. I'll tell you another written. This is a true story. I can take y'all there. Right? Uh, to, uh, McGarry road and McDonald's well he's long cemetery go. The Moslem building. He can look up about six rows. You'll see my name and my wife's name on our plaque.
And it says, go doles underneath. My name was like, you ain't putting that on your headstone. I ain't gonna be around to read it. What do I care?
dogs is spelled D a w G S.
That is awesome. That is all. Put this on the air with me and you certainly are. Yeah. Well, tell me this. So we've, we talk a lot about wellness on the podcast, but we also talk a lot about, um, safety and maintenance. I'm trying to get maintenance on here and a bunch of other stuff. Is there any, is there something that you've always wanted to hear on the podcast that you think a lot of our drivers around the country needed?
Uh, I'd say with safety, uh, because as a driver trainer, what I've been doing with my drivers w with the drivers that I'm training. Sure. Especially when it comes to like road tests, I heard, uh, as we were doing our meetings, You know, you kind of check out of your peripheral, whether or not the drivers doing what they're supposed to do as far as looking at mirrors.
So I asked him about the Smith system and to see a David Smith system five keys. Okay. So you'll have to tell me what that is. I'm a rookie, you know, it's okay. And that's what trend is we bring records alone. So with dismiss albums, you have five keys to driver. Okay. One is aim high and. Okay. Okay. What does that mean?
That means don't just look directly at the car in front of you. Oh, okay. We're we're elevated. You're looking at oh, right, because we're not three feet off the road. Regular Zack. You see what I'm saying? So I can see over your car, over the car in front of you over the car in front of that one, over the car in front of that one, I can see about a mile up the road.
Sure. So I need to focus on what's going on up there as a long, as along with everything that's happening in between that, because that's all peripheral. So if I can see the right. Close up there. Guess what? I can dial back and adjust and do what I need to do well beforehand instead of waiting to get up, you know what, once again, got it.
Aim high and stairs. Got it. Okay. Okay. All right. Leave yourself an out. Leave yourself an out. I hear, I hear Ron Crow, John Cole. Everybody says that to me all the time. Make sure that you have a way an escape route. Exactly. Does you mean a road or are you talking like it could be road? It could be emergency lane.
It can be anything to leave yourself an out, even if you're on a back road. If you see like a gas station coming up or a turn lane coming up or something, make sure that you have a way to immediately. She went over your vehicle so that you don't impact a vehicle in front of you or around you? Yeah. Okay.
Okay. Make sure they see you. Okay. Okay. Truck's got a lot of lights on them. Use them, use them, be it, turn signals, changing lanes, headlights flashers. If you're having to come to a stop, because once again, you're, you're high. You're watching. So people behind you can't see what's happening in front of you.
Right? So. Should alert them should, you know, there's a possibility that you're coming to a stop. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. Keep your eyes moving. Okay. All right. Because that whole focus and sitting in one spot, it can cause you to become drought. Okay, so looking, checking your mirrors and at the same time that some of these go hand in hand.
Okay. So keeping your eyes moving. It goes hand in hand with leave yourself an out, because if you don't check your mirrors, you can't leave yourself. Gotcha. So you're keeping your eyes moving, not just on the road, but on the mirror, on the mirrors. No, one's knowing what's coming up because someone might not be beside you.
You could have been riding for five miles and not seeing a car left or right. Yeah. But Jessica, you got something it's coming up on biker season, right? It's going to get hot. Okay. Absolutely. So, and last but not least get the big picture, get the big picture. Okay. So they get the big picture, goes with all of it.
Leave yourself an out, keep your eyes open, keep your eyes moving, you know, get aim high in steering. Cause all of that is a part of getting the big picture. So I asked my trainees all the time. Do they understand that system? Do they know the system? Have they ever heard of it? I've had a few that have never heard.
Okay. So I teach, I teach it to them, you know, and I just, one of the things that I want to do with first to actually implement that into the. Gotcha shows. And so that way people are actually cognizant of that because it makes you not only a better truck driver, but just a better driver period. Yeah. I'm learning so much.
I'm going to, I'm gonna use that for sure. What about, what is, what would you say is the most important thing that you teach your trainees? Pre-trip pre-trip. I love pre-trip. Well, be honest with you that, uh, well, at first, uh, you know, I told you before I came to work here, I was working six days a week.
That's what I was doing. And teaching breached her up at a truck driving school,
which school, uh, over at a Warner over at Roadmaster, over at Thorton road. Got you driven driving from McDonald over to Thornton. That's the truth. Amen brother. Wow. So pretty true. Three years over there. So, wow. That's my baby. That's your baby for sure. Anything we missed on the videos that we shot with her.
We might've cut. I guess he did a pretty good job. How are y'all enjoying the driver trainer meeting so far? You've is this your first one? As I, my first Dell started the COVID started, was getting ready to have one and then COVID started. So as a bedtime, I started driver training. We had missed last year and it was awful.
Yeah. Um, actually it's been pretty good as long as you feed me. Good. I'm happy that has been accomplished, has been accomplished, um, between lunch and dinner. I can hibernate. I mean, I'm a little fellow. I like my groceries with you there, but yeah, very informative and good to actually meet, uh, people from other terminals locations of the regions.
Um, You know, mingling with coworkers, you know, grading relationship
oh yeah. I just ride down the street meal house. Yeah. And I got, trust me, I got the perfect TV for football games. It's all about, it's all about the connections with guy, you know? Absolutely. It has been a pleasure. Pleasure to meet you both and talk with you and glad. We're so glad to have you here as being a part of the first fleet team.
So yeah. Matter of fact, dull, by being part of the team, I'm picking it. Pedro, my terminal manager the other week, I said, you're going to play on my retirement party. I ain't going nowhere. He ain't getting rid of me. He got a good gig that he did. Hey, but he loved it too. Yeah. Because me and the other driver trainer, he, he relies on us.
Yeah. Very cool. Well, thank you again, really appreciate you both. And, uh, thank you to all of our listeners out there and as always stay safe.