A Trucker's Tale – A Fine Sight

Oct 21, 2026 - 5 hours ago

One of the least desirable functions of being a terminal manager, or dispatcher, is the disciplinary role, including the ever unpopular “reprimand.”

A Trucker's Tale – A Fine Sight — *He said WHAT, now?*

Most drivers are aware, unless they are missing “those last two pallets,” of the reason(s) for their counseling sessions, and truthfully, most ass-chewings go pretty well. Those sessions that do not go well are the most memorable.

As his terminal manager, I brought a driver into the office to learn of the reasons why he had been very rude to our largest shipper. Several other drivers had observed the verbal altercation, and all had reported that the driver had been out-of-line. The driver’s attitude was that the shipper was an asshole, and therefore, it was the driver’s right to ‘get in his face.’ The evidence of his inexcusable behavior was very clear, so I informed the driver that he was being given three days off without pay, and if this behavior happened again, we would have to let him go.

The driver jumped out of his chair, stood up, and shouted, “I ought to just whip your god damned ass and get it over with!” Now, this big, strapping young fellow could have wiped the floor with my ass, seeing that he had me by about five inches and over 100 pounds, so I replied, “Well, you can probably whip my ass, but when I finally get up, I will still have a job. You, on the other hand, will be in jail, and you will have no job.”

He pondered this statement for a few seconds, then said, “Hell, you ain’t worth it!” and he made his point by slamming the office door on his way out. He actually took more than those three days off, because, thankfully, he found a job driving for another carrier. I’m fairly certain he didn’t start working for a first-class, upstanding trucking company with strict hiring guidelines, since we didn’t even get a past employer request from the company.

Part of his bad attitude may have had something to do with his tall, gorgeous, built like a brick out-house, slutty wife. Several weeks before this driver’s counseling session, his wife had come to the office one summer Friday to pick up his paycheck. This ‘fine sight’ sat in the chair beside my desk, and I was compelled to observe her loose-fitting (hell, damned-near falling off) halter top, and her marvelously loose-fitting short shorts. I will also gladly tell you she did not believe in panties. If I was a betting man, I would wager all I have that she knew what she had, and that she knew how to use it. I have always been proud of my restraint (yeah, right) by not succumbing to the unspoken, yet clearly implied, offer by this fine, red-necked hussy, but as you can tell, the memory still lingers, and it is also still quite vivid. Don’t all we truckers just love hot weather?

During my time as terminal manager at another trucking terminal, our largest steel shipper told me that one of our dispatchers was not very effective, and that the man would not accept any dispatch responsibility when I was away from the office. When I counseled the dispatcher, I reminded him that he was “in charge” of dispatch responsibilities when I was out of the office. I was more than surprised when he said, “I wasn’t aware of that!” He had evidently forgotten that he had been performing these duties for the past year that I had been there, and for at least a year before I arrived. I just chalked it up to his way of getting me off his ass.

Upon returning to the office one afternoon, instead of walking in through the front door after parking in the front of the building, I dropped my company car off at the mechanic’s bay, and then I walked through the warehouse and entered the driver’s lounge. Several drivers were awaiting their dispatches, and I bantered with them some and listened to a few of their jokes. I then went through a door leading to the office hallway. This hallway allowed a person to walk four or five steps before they could be seen by an office person.

As I closed the door and stepped into the hallway, I heard the dispatcher say, “No, baby. I can’t help you because that ain’t my de-PART-ment! Okay, I will have the terminal manager call you.”

I thought to myself, “Oh Lord, please don’t let this have been a conversation with our biggest customer!” Walking-on into the office, I learned that it had indeed been our biggest shipper, so I placed the call and had my ass chewed-out again.

When Slick Nick arrived for his shift, I asked the dispatcher to follow me out onto the yard so we could talk in private. I began by telling him how disappointed I was by his actions, and that it was totally unacceptable to refer to someone from the shipper’s office (especially a man) as “Baby.”

He got this terribly offended look on his face and asked, “What chu you coming down on me fuh?”

I let him know I was coming down on him fuh because the shipper wanted me to find someone else to work with them, if I couldn’t get him to do the job correctly. I said many other things, but I ended it with, “This is the company’s largest terminal, and we are moving one helluva lot of freight. I like looking good as we do this job. When I am away from the office, if you don’t look good, then I don’t look good. And let me tell you, I do like looking good!” With that, he hunkered-down his shoulders, cocked his head and looked up at me and declared, “I see where you’re coming from! I’m gonna make us all look good!”

How do you think he did? He acted like a true dispatching professional, and it made me feel great that our discipline session had provided positive results. I was starting to feel very comfortable with my managerial acumen. Unfortunately, his professionalism only lasted for about a month. He then got so ornery and belligerent that I ended up firing him.

After I informed him of his termination, he told me the only reason that I had fired him was because he was black and that I did not want a black man in a dispatch position. I replied that his being black had nothing to do with it, and that I would have fired one of my brothers if they had been as damned sorry a dispatcher as he had been. Our predominantly African American driver workforce, including Big Daddy, (who I wrote about earlier) didn’t agree with the dispatcher’s comments. Truthfully, most of the drivers told me that the man should have been fired a lot sooner.

Ed Miller ([email protected]) has more than 40 years of management and ownership experience in the trucking industry. Today, he is a part-time tour bus driver, published author of “A Trucker’s Tale”, and regular contributor to Supply Post. He is a father of three and a grandfather of two, and lives with his wife in Rising Sun, Maryland.