What Skills will Help a Truck Driver?

Being successful in a truck driver job involves a lot more than sitting behind the wheel and driving a truck all day. Truck drivers are not held in the highest regard today, but there are multiple skills needed to become great driver delivering  fast, friendly and safe service.

A good truck driver should have excellent communication and people skills. There must be no confusion between them and their dispatcher and they must be able to work well with customers to resolve any delivery or pick up problems. No matter what phase of the job, a driver will be in contact with people and needs to be able to get along and communicate with others.

While modern electronics and GPS have made things easier, a trucker still needs to be able to navigate, particularly in the case of a large semi truck, and be aware of roads that can and can not be traveled. Even with electronics, drivers should be able to read maps in case they find themselves in a remote area where their GPS keeps “recalculating” and they must be aware of all clearances to make sure the truck and trailer can safely pass under them.

Truck drivers need to be reliable and responsible. a truck driving job can be a dangerous proposition and the driver must be constantly aware of all others on the road to help prevent accidents and mishaps. It goes without saying that they must follow the rules of the road and all laws, such as the posted speed limit, as well.

As in many other contracted fields, self motivation is very important in a truck driver job and helps a driver to perform at their best. It’s so easy to hit the “snooze” button on that alarm after a long haul, but being motivated to make the delivery on time is what separates the men from the boys, or the women from the girls, in a truck driver job position. Let’s not forget that truck drivers may be male or female and vary greatly in age and experience.

Perhaps one of the most important skills to be a success in a truck driver job is organization. With the latest regulations, there is more and more paperwork that must be done on a daily basis. All logs, electronic or otherwise, must be filled out correctly to avoid troubles with regulators and employers. Speaking of electronic laws, some basic computer skills can also be very helpful. Trip packets have to be completed as well as accurate expense reports to either get paid or as deductions on tax returns.

With so much time spent alone on the road, sometimes in very “out of the way” places, it can be a trip saver if the driver has some basic mechanical skills and a thorough understanding semi truck operation. With these skills, a trucker can identify problems before they cause a breakdown and may be prevented as well make some the necessary repairs to get back on the road if an issue does occur. While not a necessity of the job, it can definitely come in handy and save a great deal of time and money in shop repairs.

For the aspiring trucker, having some of these skills will make you even more employable. For experienced drivers, these skills can help to ensure a success

ful career, advancement and generally will make your life a whole lot easier.  For the rest of us, next time you meet a trucker you might want to shake their hand and appreciate a little more all the skills and techniques they master in order to deliver our stuff safely and on time.

Go filmi to dodge penalty!

Somit Sen, Times of India News Service May 19, 2010

MUMBAI: Amitabh Bachchan or AB for short, Lal Rumaal, Kachcha Papad... Well, these are
some of the monthly code words used by unscrupulous agents to help truckers bypass RTO
checks for overloaded trucks and tempos in the state.

Sources in the transport industry have revealed a major nexus between agents and RTO
officials whose unusual modus operandi has encouraged rampant overloading in the past few
months. Besides being illegal, overloading is a major hazard as it can cause accidents on busy
highways as well as damage road surface.

A big-time Mumbai transporter who did not wish to be named told TOI, "The RTO has a flying
squad which checks trucks and tempos anywhere on the highway for overloading. The agents,
who are hand-in-glove with them, usually operate from some of the dhabas situated en route."
According to the modus operandi, a truck driver is instructed by his owner (or the party
sending a consignment) to contact an agent at a particular dhaba. The driver is supposed to
stop over at the dhaba for refreshments. He then interacts with the agent over a cup of tea or a
glass of lassi and collects the chit containing the code words.

Sources said that sometimes, these codes are the first few lines of a song from a recently
released Hindi film. Once the driver sings the song, he can bypass every check, they said.
Another transporter from Dana Bunder said, "The RTO has to maintain its targets of
recovering fines. So, it nabs innocent truck and tempo drivers who are not part of the cartel.
They are harassed by the officials who scrutinise every detail of the consignment and find some
loophole to fine the truck driver."

When contacted, Maharashtra Truck Owners Association general secretary Parshuram Katke
confirmed that there was corruption in the RTO, which encouraged rampant overloading of
vehicles across the state. "The fine has increased from Rs 200 a few years ago to Rs 2,500 per
tonne recently. But, this has not deterred unscrupulous truckers," he said, and added that there
have been accidents due to overloading, which posed dangers to other motorists driving on the
highway.

J K Jain, general secretary of the Bombay Goods Transport Association, said that the RTO
often harassed those carrying machinery for government projects. "Since the machinery is
fixed to the vehicle, the officials often insist that they would calculate the collective weight of
both vehicle and equipment. And, if this weight is not declared in the documents, it is termed
as overloading," he said. Another transporter alleged that the RTO manipulated the fine
collection to meet its annual targets.

A senior RTO official denied the charges by saying that the transport department was serious
about collecting fines from overloading vehicles. "Our fine collection for overloading offence

Courtesy: Times of India

Hollywood 1957 classic: Hell Drivers

Truck driving madness.....

Must Watch....

Try to locate Sean Connery in this movie - third or fourth after he was launched.

Not Emperor Ashoka’s enemy!

“Don’t mistake me. I am not an enemy of the Great Emperor Asoka,” says Dr S T Ramesh, Director General and Inspector General of Police, Karnataka Government in mid-May this year. He agreed to meet after I “SMSed” my request for an audience with him to discuss the “failing law and order” situation on National Highways while traversing through Karnataka, which he and his team police. For a while, I could not get the drift of his comments. What has Asoka got to do with him or National Highways?

“Permit me to explain,” he requests. I oblige. Ramesh was on the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways’ Panel on Road Safety until recently. He was of the firm opinion that trees on both sides of highways are a big obstacle causing accidents. So, he was giving expression to the agitation of some group or other who were opposed to cutting trees to widen roads. “How can you widen roads, if some trees cannot be felled down?” he asks pointedly.

Now I get his “Asoka” moment. At school, we learnt that the Great Emperor Asoka planted trees on roadside and he was lauded for that developmental work. Nobody doubted – or will – the brainwave behind the ‘plant tree’ movement of those days. But, the ex-cop from Karnataka simply cannot see eye to eye with those who oppose tree cutting for highway development.

His line of argument is simple. Forget about felling trees for widening of roads so that today’s heavy movement of commercial vehicles ferrying goods to various parts of country. Ramesh goes to the extent of saying trees are one of the “major causes” of highway accidents. “Not every stretch of national highways is four or six lane. Put it differently, a major length of national highways are just dual carriageways and with decades old trees on both sides. Today, the vehicle sizes have also undergone changes. They carry more,” adds he. It is no secret that road has come to dominate even for long haul, causing heart burns to the railways, a government monopoly.

Ramesh is not alone in voicing his demand to fell trees. Prashant Gawasane, Project Director at National Highways Authority of India at Mangalore, joins the chorus. Don’t mistake them for anti-nature campaigners. They are as good a development strategists as you and I. As our Leyland truck, ferrying granules from Bangaluru to Mangalore is passing through NH 48, I am witness to highway expansion most of the time. Massive tree trucks, cut in large pieces are lying on the roadside for transportation out of the place. Road levelers are working as early seven in the morning. Two lane highways are being turned into four or perhaps six lane highways. Good, we will all agree. If NHAI’s Gawasane is to be believed, tree displacement is the second biggest challenge before him next only to land acquisition.

“What do they expect me to do? They certainly appreciate road expansion. But put a condition that trees if they to be cut, should be uprooted and planted elsewhere. What can we at NHAI do? We are not into tree plantation. The state government has to make provision for such things because afforestation falls under its jurisdiction,” explains Gawasane in his office in the heart of Mangalore hardly a few kilometers away from Mangalore port.

Reverting to ex-cop Ramesh’s tree-as-the-cause-for-road-accident, it appears he is not off the mark. On my journey from Tata Nagar in Chattisgarh to Ludhiana in Punjab with steel wire rods on the Tata truck we were moving via Ranchi in mid-February. Having passed through the capital of Chattisgarh, suddenly I notice a tree in the middle of the highway, left untouched. Since Pandeyji travels in the same route always, I could not help looking at him seeking explanation. “It is a big challenge to veer our trucks around. We also don’t know why this has not been felled down so far,” says he.  At the nearest dhaba where he halt for a tea-break, other heavy commercial vehicle drivers echo the same sentiments. Catching hold one of the contractors en route supervising the expansion project, I politely ask him about the tree-in-the-middle-of-the-road syndrome. He throws up his hand in despair and sneaks out.  Such things lead to accidents mostly in the night time due to lack of adequate lighting on the highways.

What Asoka, the Great, did in his time has little relevance to us today. Those days, trees provided shade to travelers on foot. Perhaps to horse riders as well. There were no motorized vehicles moving on those passages. Today’s situation is totally different. Roads, it is rightly said, changes the landscape of thousands of villages through which they pass through. Road building exercise provides massive employment opportunity and helps trade in a big way.

Development comes at a cost. Let’s accept this fact. Let’s not miss the forest in search of trees.

NOTE:

This Chapter was part of 10,000 KM on Indian Highways published in November 2011. 

To know more about this book, visit www.10000kmonindianhighways.com

Mr S T Ramesh has retired since then.

Truck Driver - Bollywood clip

Check out from 6.15...

Life of a truck driver and his dreams on the food front alone...

Film: Mela (2000)

Check out  for more details:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mela_(2000_film)

Novel Justice!

Dushman, released in 1971, turned the spotlight on how to tackle when a truck driver kills someone and this untimely death renders living unbearable for the victim's family.

This movie, a super hit, examines how it can achieve twin purposes: punish the guilty and at the same time ensure the victim's family also gets support...

Watch this clip - an emotional scene (with English subtitles)....

Truck driver song-1 - Gaddar (2001)

It was one of those peppy songs with a typical truck driver's penchant for loud and foot tapping number.

Sunny Deol, in this movie Gaddar released in 2001 alongside Aamir Khan's Lagaan, was a super hit.

To know more about this movie, check out ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadar:_Ek_Prem_Katha