Every employee can impact your companies image
This is a bit of a rant, but I’m going to do it anyway. I drive a lot for my job. I spend endless hours on the road driving between client locations. I often have my iPhone on the dash where it gets better reception and use bluetooth for calls and even have it plugged into my car stereo via one of those junky tape deck adapters so I can listen to music, Podcasts, or more recently streaming Podcasts via Stitcher (which in my opinion is one of the killer iPhone apps). It’s also very handy for snapping photos of interesting things you see on the side of the road.
This morning, I was driving from Raleigh, NC up to Blacksburg, VA where I’ll be spending the week for work. I got off I-81 to fill up my car and when I was getting back on, I had a small altercation with a semi-truck driver. It was a typical entrance ramp on the right and as I was coming down the ramp a big rig, who was accelerating, got up close to the van in front of him in the right lane, making it impossible for me to merge. I am a pretty safe driver, so I slowed down almost to a stop and eventually was able to get in the right lane, but I was already in the gravel.
I was a bit torqued, as I thought it was a very rude and not to mention very dangerous to be driving a loaded semi truck in what I believe was a very unsafe manner. I did not get road rage and chase him down, but eventually I was in the left lane passing the same truck while climbing a hill. When I pulled up next to the cab, the window rolled down and a hand came out and shot me the bird with some animated gestures to go along with it.
The truck in question was a flat bed with no noticeable logos or “how am i driving” notifications on the back. However, it had the name of the company and the city and state on the side so I snapped a picture. It was easy enough to google “Granite Hardwood, Granite Falls, NC” and give them a call. The receptionist seemed a bit leery at first when I asked for a transportation manager, but she eventually passed me onto a manager who was very apologetic and concerned. He asked me several locations, and said he could identify the driver based upon the description of the truck as well as the general vicinity (I-81 N in Virginia near Chilhowie). He assured me that steps would be taken. He even said that he had problems with this driver before (then why is he still driving around representing your company?).
However, I still felt that this blog post was justified. Not only was I endangered by an aggressive driver, but the driver couldn’t let being the aggressive driver and running me off the road be enough and needed to make an obscene gesture.
If you own a company or make hiring decisions, make sure that you hire the type of people you want representing your company if they will be wearing your logos or diving your branded vehicles.