Road Warriors Reflections II

In this episode of Road Warriors II: Reflections, we dive into the critical importance of situational awareness on the road. Life behind the wheel is unpredictable, and truck drivers often face rapidly changing conditions that demand focus, experience, and quick decision-making.

We share real-world stories about navigating dangerous and unpredictable weather, unexpected road hazards, and the many pitfalls that come with long hours on the highway. Through these reflections, we explore how mistakes can become valuable lessons and why staying alert and vigilant is essential for every driver.

Transcript

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If you are listening right now at this very moment, then you are in the commuter spot, and I'm your host, Steve Commuter. This show is brought to you by Golden Way Transport Services Incorporated, offering freight dispatching and consulting services. For more information, please go to www.goldenweightransport.co. Now today's show is a part two of Road Warrior Reflections. So we are continuing to share stories and more stories. And anytime we can think of, it's all about the stories, the experiences. So we'd love for you to join us. All you have to do is go to our Facebook page at Commuter Spot. Share your stories, share your experiences. We're growing this organically. So just like anything new, you have to start from the bottom. And we are working our way to the top. But we thank you, all your listeners, all your downloads, all your support. So today, Road Warriors, share how it's looking out there. How is how is it with all of the changes? I mean, one in particular to trucking and to our daily lives for fuel prices. How are we all handling that? How is that affecting our everyday lives? I mean, you know, this is not a political show, so we don't want to just dive into all the politics behind it, but we'd like for you to share with just how that makes you feel and how it is affecting you. And what are your plans? Do you have some plans to downsize or um omit some things that you've had you've done before, you know, um, or reduce some expenses, or what is what is keeping you going? And because daily I I'm experiencing it in my car, in my truck, just in business in general, because I mean, these trucks take a lot of fuel. It's extremely expensive to keep to keep operations going. So especially for for smaller businesses. Are you outsourcing, um, resourcing, or how are you, how are you getting along? I tell you, it's not easy, but we're all out here doing it. You're not alone. Trust that. You know, you can always turn something bad into something good. You can find little things about it without dwelling so much on the negative and just find some little piece of positive, like living for sure. Seeing the sun if it shines, seeing the rain getting wet, feet cold in the snow. And we know how it is to drive in these adverse driving conditions at times because it can be unexpected. Some people don't even check the weather. I am now a weather checker. I didn't do that at first. It was like, I just drove. I'm like, I got somewhere to go, I'll deal with what happens when it comes. Are you one of those? We'll be right back with more. Stay tuned. Working commuters. Have any of you ever felt like your friends or family are viewing your work as just you're just having so much relaxed, free time, fun time. You're doing more of that than you're working, but you're really, really working. You just use the work to get to the fun. Oh, yeah, that happens. That literally happens all the time. And I don't feel guilty about it anymore. Before I used to feel guilty thinking, oh my gosh, I need to be at home. I could be cooking, cleaning, changing diapers. But if my work led me there, I want to explore. So even if that's just exploring, you know, eating at a new restaurant or the museum or a park or anything that I could do, I don't want to just be there and not have explored or tried out something that's known for that area. And um, yeah, but we've got to make some time. So if we're working commuters, you know, we might have an advantage um to take a little downtime. That's what I call it. I mean, we have that because it's regulated because we have to have a certain amount of hours off, right? In all these transportation fields, why not use that time to just get out there, get out there and find something, try something new, try something different. Don't be afraid because a lot of times people really think they go to certain places and they feel like there's nothing to do here, or I'm in the sticks, or whatever the case may be. But do a little research, be very vigilant, of course, situationally aware. I learned that as a flight attendant. Keep your awareness up, but definitely enjoy some of your time. So, okay, Road Warriors, let's get into some reflections of some past things, and we'll be right back with more. But another uh common practice that they both share, that they both require is situational awareness. And this is from a person-to-person standpoint, because not everyone is as vigilant and as cautious. Two people aren't the same. So what one may feel is uncomfortable or a possible threat or something that they've they've seen or predicted to happen, another person may not have that same feeling. So their levels of situational awareness is quite different, but there are three levels, and you can find this when anywhere that you look up what situational awareness means, but there are three levels to it. There's perception, which is basically observation, what you observe in your line of work. Uh, there's comprehension, understanding unusual behavior, maybe from a person or uh a particular particular situation that you're uh in at the moment, if that involves work or just your everyday life uh projection is the third, which is those people that we were just speaking about that can actually predict something happening before, you know, just using your senses, your senses, and maybe feeling something before it happens, and just kind of just preparing for that risk. So, how do you apply all these three of these in your everyday life? Because it doesn't, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to be in the transportation uh industry to have situational awareness. Situational awareness is around you in every day, it's even in your home when you you sleep at night. Some people are victimized, um, and that's very unfortunate, you know, because sometimes you you don't know, you don't know what may happen anywhere that you are, but you feel more comfortable in your circumference of your home. But when you go outside of that home and you travel for work, as I do and as I've done for um over 25 years now, um, you know, it's it's something that I find safety is just so important to me. It just stood out to me in my career as a flight attendant where you're taught situational awareness, but the way that we used it, you know, was looking out for things that we're suspecting on the plane, um, certain people, you know, different behaviors of these people. And overall, everything dealing with that aircraft, anything out of place, you know, these particular things we were looking at. And when I got into trucking, I saw that I needed to apply that same concept and pay attention to my surroundings as if I would if I was not. If I worked like my younger days at a restaurant or I worked at Kmart. There was Kmart. That don't let that tell you my age. I hope you're not counting. But um, yeah, I worked at a Kmart. I feel like that was like my second job. I always paid attention to my surroundings because I had to catch the bus and the train from my house because it was on one side of town, which I'm from Atlanta, and anybody knows that city, even back then, traffic was bad, but now it's even worse. So I had to catch the bus, then catch a train to get to my job. And so I was always looking around, observing people, just kind of, you know, making sure I put myself, you know, in a position to maybe prevent a situation if it was going to happen, um, being cautious, you know, and not trying to be overly cautious because we all want to feel like we can walk around and feel safe no matter where we are, especially if we're in our own um city. But it's always best to not let your guard down. It's not um because anything can happen anywhere. So even then I was looking at it that way, but I didn't know that there was a name for it. So I didn't come across the true meaning until I became a flight attendant um right at the legal age to become a flight attendant. And so now in trucking, you know, as soon as I got into trucking, I found that there were so many things that I needed to be situationally aware about. So I knew right away Atlanta wasn't a friendly place for truckers. Like most truckers hate my home city. Um, there's absolutely traffic madness, and trucks can't really move freely, get to their destinations because most of them are passing through, but the ones that even have to deliver there, God knows, I'm sure they're getting, I hope they're getting a fat paycheck because it's hard. It's really um stressful, you know. It's stressful to go to sit and wait, knowing that a delivery is due at a certain time, and now you're in this unpredictable traffic. But now, because of the city and it's growing and a lot of people are moving there, you can pretty much predict that there's gonna be traffic. And now I just say it's every day, all day, even on the weekend, right? So, and people that have like the worst road rage, and not the worst, because there are cities that have road rage, but people can be very aggressive on the highway. So to truckers, they don't care, you know. So that was a thing that I was situationally aware about, and I pay attention to um how people and how they're blowing the horns. I even pay attention to that sound, you know, which is falls under that level one of situational awareness, you know, sounds are you listening for those? Because the aggression, you know, when you blow the horn, you have that that, hey, you speaking to somebody blow, you know, and then you've got that uh one blow where you only hear it once because they're just kind of alerting you, hey, you're kind of in the way or you're doing something wrong. And then you've got that one where you just lay on the horn, like you know, you live in New York City, you know what I'm talking about. Just laying on you never let that horn go because you are so mad that the horn, that's all you hear, and that lets you know, really kind of the level of just how mad a person may be at you by that. But now, like I live in Asheville, North Carolina, which is a beautiful city. But I when I say nobody blows the horn, it's like you are really insulting people if you blow the horn in Asheville, North Carolina. Like nobody blows the horn. You can mess up, and everybody's just looking like, go ahead, you're an idiot, or I don't know what they might be saying, but nobody's blowing a horn. You're just messing up. I mean, you're directly like they're bothered by it, but nobody is even expressing any type of, you know, anger behind it. So it's like I'm situationally aware that different people act differently in different cities. So imagine my career flying out of countries. There were things that I noticed in other countries. You know, I went to um I was in London, you know, speaking to someone, and they were like, Oh, you're better off in America. At the time I was so young, I didn't really know what they meant by that. But I'm like, I'm better off in America. Okay, I had a great time in London. I walked the streets to have blisters on my feet so that I could see the Buckingham Palace, and it was amazing. So I walked the gardens and it was just totally amazing. I had the best time, solo best time, because again, I was by myself. So I took a car from the hotel with the information of the hotel so that I can hopefully find my way back. But I just kept walking and walking and walking because I was just thinking, what if I never get the opportunity to return? And then when I went over, I was in Asia, with China specifically, I was like a star to them. They thought like I was Beyonce, and I'm like, I look nothing like Beyonce, but thank you. But they treated me like that, and they wanted to take pictures and they, you know, they're all touchy-feely and grabbing on you and everything. And I'm just thinking, wow, this so did not happen in London. But I mean, I've been to so many countries, it's it I could go on and on for that, but I definitely it heightened my awareness to just make sure that I'm looking, no matter if I'm in an internationally traveling or I'm traveling within the states, I'm looking to see the attitudes of people, you know, how they're moving about, what they're doing, how they're treating me, how they're welcoming me. Because in trucking, these things could be one way one day, and then there's a change the next day. Um, I I I know that when I first started in trucking, I used to be able to find like a Walmart because Walmart was 24 hours. I could depend on Walmart being open if I needed to shop or I needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, I needed to sleep. Then I knew I could park at Walmart. Well, Walmarts aren't really as welcoming in some cities to truckers anymore, and then they aren't 24 hours anymore. So uh shopping, I'm sure truckers still go there because they're everywhere, so you can stock up on everything you need. They're the one-stop shop, but a lot of times now they have these height clearance bars. You know, you've seen them. An example would be like if you rented a car and you were returning the car, there's those uh barriers or bars overhead that say like seven feet max or whatnot, and you know, uh trucks, and or if you don't know, could be height-wise, could be 13 feet and more. So you know that your truck wouldn't go in that, and they have those now in some Marmor parking lots in some cities, not all, and uh some places trucks and RVs are still welcomed in Walmart parking lots, but for the most part, a lot of these things have changed, and there are things just constantly uh changing. I had a big truck towed truck and trailer from a Sam's parking lot in Georgia, and here I'm thinking, you know, this situational awareness again, because you may think you know how your city operates, where you're from, you're there all the time, you frequent there, you shop all the time, people know you, but then a situation like this happens, your entire truck just told for being there, parked there one day, you know. So things happen, and sometimes you just kind of have to definitely have to get a feel for where you are and what's happening around you. And even though we all know that we should be paying attention to our surroundings, you'll be surprised how many people aren't. How many people still walk around with both ears plugged with music or anything that is a complete distraction, and that one thing that could help you prevent certain things in this situational awareness thought process is to definitely not be distracted, the less distractions, the better. So in trucking, we have a lot of distractions because if we're driving long periods of time, you know, we may be deep in thought or we may be on the phone or listening to music and dancing and singing and all while driving. And that's clearly a distraction, and not to say we won't do it, because I still do it. I find myself, whatever state I'm in, I'm bumping the music, playing the music, sometimes a little louder than other times, but I'm playing the sounds or the tunes from that city. So if I'm listening to New York, I'm I'm going back, you know, I'm doing the old 90s, you know, I'm playing Biggie or whatever artists I can think of. If it's Chicago, you know, I'm playing Chicago music, Miami, I'm playing my Florida music, you know, that really excites me. But too can be a distraction because too much excitement and you're driving a big rig, you know. But there's it's just part of doing something to help ease your mind. I listen to a lot of audiobooks. So there's, you know, things. But I I tell you, situational awareness is big, it's even with weather changing, because there was a time I was in a parking lot in Indianapolis. I went to sleep in the truck. Everything was weather was nice. Um, it was cool, probably really nippy because weather temperatures go down at night anywhere. Um, and uh it was really just not even winter, it was like after winter, but I fell asleep and everything was clear. I woke up and it was like three inches of snow. Now I have to drive in like adverse weather conditions. And the only way that you can really prove adverse when you're trucking is that no weather predictions were out that day. So you're literally you can't, you know, if you don't make your deadlines, then you can't do anything with your hours. You're just, you know, you have to abide by the same logging rules. But if there weren't any predictions that the weather was going to be that way and there was no way of knowing, and it just all of a sudden happened, which it happens that way, but that's hard to prove, and a lot of times people don't. But you know, you get an extra like two hours drivers, this is for commercial drivers, to log your time. Also, if you work for the airline industry, they too can change your duty status for crew members depending upon adverse weather or maintenance. It's just one of those things that when you are in the transportation industry, anything goes when it comes to weather conditions. So you just kind of have to see how the cards fall. We'll be back in just a few. Stay with us. Thank you, listeners, and I also want to send a special thanks to J Hustler Productions for the amazing sounds that you are hearing throughout the show. And on our previous shows, I want to thank all the musicians who sent some amazing music in as well. Soon to come, I will post a list of their names just so you can kind of match the names with the music. You may have heard some of their sounds before. In any case, I will have those posted up and thanks to everyone once again. So let me share with you a story that a trucker sent me recently about running out of fuel. Now I don't know how many of you ran out of fuel, whether you've ran out of gas in your car or your big truck, but this was definitely a big truck, and it happens. You think that it may not be a situation that happens as much, but it does happen because a lot of times, especially owner operators or subcontractors, you're given a surcharge in some cases, and or you've allotted an amount out for fuel because you've done all the numbers. So you know the miles per gallon, and you're thinking you know how much you need to get to where you need to go. But this driver actually knew that he was going to run out and was able to get off, get in a safe space off the highway. He was still on the off-ramp, but he was able to get over to the side out the way just in time before the truck just completely cut out. Now, his dilemma was at the time was trying to figure out whether or not he would have to go through the whole priming process, in addition to adding the fuel. Well, luckily for him, which he didn't find that out till later, because there was a city worker who was who was nearby and pulled over and asked him, did he did he need any help? And then they called the Toll truck company in the area who also came out. So he basically didn't have to make those calls. They were like there within minutes because the city worker was able to call someone he knew or the local company, and they came right away. Now, before they even knew whether they had to prime the truck, they quoted him a price, and that price was$450, and that was to include getting the fuel and moving him like off the line because apparently he was over the line and he needed to be off the line, you know, further off to the side. He was using using situational awareness, trying to feel out the situation, feel the get a feel for the people who were helping him to see if this was one of those situations where he was getting taken advantage of, or was he getting genuine help? So this is where he was really he started, you know, having high alert energy. And um so he suggested, well, why can't I be able to just get an Uber maybe to the gas station? Because I see on the map it's like right around the corner, and they sell diesel. So I should, you know, I should be able to just go there and get the fuel I need. And the tow driver was like, oh no, you know, you've got to have way more than you can carry or bring to the truck, which legitimately would probably be the case. And then especially if there's priming going on and all these things needing to take place, that a lot of times just the driver himself may not be in the position or you know, in the right area to just take care of these matters himself, so may have to actually call on the experts. But in a lot of cases, some things can be done single-handedly, and this driver took it upon himself to just go with his instinct, and he um he called me and he asked me, you know, hey, is this truck is this this do I have to prime this truck? And I I let him know, well, older trucks, depending on the year of the truck, because some trucks are self-primed and some you have to actually physically prime yourself. Well, again, his luck was just it was all playing in his favor because he didn't have to prime this particular truck, and he was still quoted that same price. He they once they even realized that it didn't need priming, the price was still the same. So he opted to go ahead and get that gas himself, and I told him I felt like I suggested, um, I should say, that he should only get maybe about five gallons, and that should get him going, being that the gas station is literally right around the corner, like just a right around the block, and there was diesel there, so that worked, and he was able to get to the gas station, and it saved him over$400. So, think about that, you know. Sometimes before you call in the big dogs, in any situation that you're in, you may be able to help save yourself some extensive expenses that may not be necessary. Just think about that. Welcome back. So let's expand a little bit on what we were talking about before we went to break. So there are a lot of YouTube tutorials on basically everything in life that we could ever go through, or maybe need steps to, right? But there are some things like trucking, for instance, that are just so hands-on that until you experience it, it may not be something directly you can go and you know, just get that source of that help, you know, that you need based on just watching a YouTube video. Now, however, that's also depending on timing. Like you may not, you're on the stranded on the side of the road. You know, the last thing you may be thinking is to pull up your phone and look for, you know, a YouTube channel to find a tutorial that will, you know, help you um find a solution to your problem. So a lot of times you call out maintenance, and you know, you have to, if you work for a company, you call the company, let them know of the issue. They, you know, basically advise you on what to do next, or if you own your own truck, then you're basically all that stuff, you know, is really in your hands. And um, here at Goldenway, you know, as the consulting division, we definitely would be able to point you in the right directions of mechanics that may be in your area, tires for maybe a discounted price than you may find in certain areas, you know, a whole source of networks, truck parking. Uh, we're affiliated with African American Women's Trucking Association, who also has a just a whole directory of resources, you know, right at their fingertips. And, you know, all these, all these little dots, once connected, could really help you in your uh, you know, in your business, if your owner operator can really uh connect some things for you and you know, just keep you going, keep you have you ahead of the game before the problems happen, because the problems will happen. So that's just something that you know happens in trucking. And speaking of trucking, Matt's 2026, which is the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky, is happening on March 26th through the 28th. Okay, so I hope to see you there. You know, it's just uh it's it's a huge place, and this will be my first time, but I've heard so much about it that I can't wait to just experience it. I have been to previous shows in other places, I've seen some trick dial trucks that were unbelievable. And so, you know, I look forward to seeing what they have, you know, this year. So I hope to see you there as well. And as we close out this episode of Road Warriors Reflections Part 2, I want to remind the truckers that the FMCSA has put out a list of non-regulated ELD devices. So if you are operating on one of those devices that has been revoked, then you want to have that replaced before or by May 4th of 2026. And if some of you have been fortunate enough to revert back to the paper logs, I'm sure that's going great. You're loving every minute of it, but the time runs out on May 4th. So you definitely want to get that replaced so you are in compliance and we need your truckers. You're shipping out all of our goods. We see you. I am you. Keep moving, America. Until next time,