Anger Management

Drivers, managers and carriers all play roles in defusing or preventing conflicts

You asked dispatch for a load to get you home, but now you’re going to miss your son’s football game.

You were scheduled to deliver that load three hours ago, but you’re still waiting for the dock to open up.

You don’t understand these charges on your settlement, and no one’s getting back to you.

Trucking is full of conflicts and problems that can stress out the most patient driver. From road issues to problems with carriers, shippers and consignees, the trucker’s job is a daily challenge. How the operator, the driver manager and the company the driver’s associated with deal with those challenges, however, determines whether the trucker feels in control of his or her job or is continually searching for another Rolaids tablet.

“They have a tough job,” says Tres Parker, vice president of operations at Boyd Bros., based in Clayton, Ala.. “We’ve got to do everything we can to make their job as easy as can be. We have to keep conflict away from that driver.”