Senior Moments in Truck Driving

You know I do a lot of talking on here and every week when I post we seems to get a decent amount of views. No one ever comments or ask a whole lot of questions, so this week I am interested in hearing from you - doesn't matter if you're a student, veteran truck driver or anywhere in between. Now we all have senior moments, as they've come to be known, where we forget something or do something completely foolish.  Just recently someone was telling me one such story.  They could not find the keys to their truck.  Come to find out they had left them in the door of their truck. What are  some of your stories?   I love a good story.   You can learn a lot from listening to other people's stories.  The only thing we ask is that you keep it kind and not judgmental if you comment on a story.  We've all made a mistake or two or more out there on the road. 

Handling the Home Front

Today we are going to talk about one of the big elephants in the room. Now I only train male students for the simple reason that sexual harassment is a huge issue in America and unfortunately there are people that use it to their advantage to get ahead or seek revenge. I have a family to support so I choose not to place myself in a bad situation.  I am not saying that all women are like this.  I have not found any women to be this way, but I choose to protect myself and my family and not take that risk. That being said I will move on to my next point. In my experience as a trainer, a huge problem I have come across is that wives and girlfriends do not handle separation from their boyfriends or husbands well. This is a huge problem that everyone tend to ignore. Why is it a problem that needs to be addressed?  Because it becomes a distraction that will very likely get yourselves and possibly someone else killed out on the road. Constantly being hounded about when you are coming home and hearing how things are going wrong at home are distractions taking away from your focus on driving. You cannot very well be safe out on the roads if your mind is constantly at home.  Not as students or as drivers. This is a high stress job already so hearing that its bull that you are not home every night or you have to be out longer then planned does not help. Far too many drivers and students are worrying about things at home instead of doing their jobs out there. If students are not focused on learning the job, they become another hazard out there on the road.  As a trainer, I witness this problem follow the same cycle pretty much every time.  It starts out small then escalates to the point that it's a daily phone call telling them to quit and that the student was lied to and the wife/girlfriend was lied to.  Divorce is high because wives get lonely and have to deal with all the stress of the home while your away then your focus is on her unhappiness instead of driving.
So how do we turn this into the best of a very difficult adjustment?  Trust me I remember the stresses of the adjustment period all to soon.  First, I made it very clear to my wife that if she wanted me home safe and sound I needed to be able to focus on my driving.  Be as honest as you can with them without fueling the fire.  For example, my wife knows that she has to wait for me to call her when I'm trying to drive through storms, tornadoes, rough traffic areas, etc.  I answer tell her "Not a good time, I'll call you back." and she knows to leave me alone until I call her back.   I also try not to increase her worry about me.  There are plenty of stories about me driving through areas with tornado warnings or other things that would keep her from sleeping a wink while I'm away.  So I don't tell her.  She knows things happened but she knows that it isn't a good idea that she knows what they are. Second, you have got to have a plan on how the household will be run.  My wife handles everything except the bills.  And she knows how to get the answers to questions she has about things like the cars if I'm not available.  Third, is handling when you are on your way home.  Everyone gets excited about going home and having their trucker home.  As a trucker's wife/girlfriend, she needs to learn that nothing is certain until you actually walk through that door.  It is extremely frustrating, but us drivers have no control over the weather, traffic, or the dispatchers.  My wife gets a general idea of when I'll be home in the morning so that she can plan accordingly.  She does NOT tell the kids at this point.  Later in the day, once I know that my day is done and I'm a few hours out from home she gets the first eta.  The kids are the last ones to find out because they are too little to understand if there is a delay.  No good comes from telling them early and then having something change.  That just makes them very upset and adds unnecessary aggravation to  my wife's day.  There's plenty of fuel folks to ignite the fire with.  Trust me, I do not take pleasure in telling students to keep information from their wives while they are training.  But I have both my family and theirs to think about and my life is in the hands of students when I put them behind the wheel. I do what i have to makes sure everyone gets to go home in the end. So as always folks be safe and safe travels to all of you.
How do you more experienced drivers and truckers wives/girlfriends handle these difficult areas?