SOME MAKE IT...SOME DON'T

"The only place where success comes before work is a dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, quoting one of his teachers.

Why is it I have problems with the same owner-operators over and over again; and never have problems with other owner-operators? Why is it that whenever I get a phone call in the middle of the night, before I pick up the receiver, I usually know who it is? I just don't know the problem du jour. Or when I get a phone call in the morning wondering where a truck is, because it is not at its destination, why it's always the same few owner-operators who are late?
ALWAYS!
And when you call their cell phone they never answer because they don't want to hear it. Or they answer their phone and blame their tardiness on everything from their wife not calling to wake them up, to the weather (always a good excuse in upstate New York), to the proverbial flat tire that nobody could fix until morning. Why is it never their fault?
NEVER!
Why can't they just say, "It's my fault. I screwed up."
To wit:
ME (9am--on the phone to Dewane): Dewane, I've got one from western New York to Swedesboro, New Jersey. You want it?
Why is it I have to ask the same owner-operators if they want to work and just tell others what to do because I know they want to work?
DEWANE: What's it pay?
Why do some of my regular owner-operarors always ask this question and my other regulars, the ones who want to work, just trust me? And why are the worker's 1099s always considerably more than the owner-operators who ask, "What's it pay?"
ME: Thousand dollars. Nine hundred to you.
DEWANE: Yeah, I'll take it. But first I have to go to the DMV to straighten out my license. It'll be a couple of hours before I can go.
Why is it the same owner-operators always have something to do before they can go and others just go?

DEWANE (Noon--at the garage): You said this load is nine hundred to me?
ME: Yes.
DEWANE: Where's my backhaul...Philly?
ME: Probably.
DEWANE: Then give me a five hundred advance.
Why do the same owner-operators always need an advance and the same owner-operators never need an advance?
DEWANE: Make that five and a quarter. I've got to give Brent twenty-five to change a tire.
ME (incrediblby): He hasn't changed that tire yet! It's been two days!
DEWANE: No.
Why do the same owner-operators take care of their equipment...make sure whatever needs to be done is done before they have to drive...and the same owner-operators wait until the last minute to have work done to their truck...or don't have it done at all?
DEWANE: I've got to go to the DMV while he's changing that tire.
ME (more incredibly): You haven't gone yet? (The DMV is two miles max from Dewane's apartment.)
DEWANE: I'm going now...

DEWANE (2 pm--back from the DMV): They suspended my license.
ME (most incredibly): Why!
DEWANE: That Camaro of mine my cousin totaled...I cancelled the insurance, but my wife never turned in the plates. She said the garage wouldn't give them to her because they claimed nobody paid the tow bill.
Why do the same owner-operators say "nobody paid the tow bill" when they mean: I didn't pay the tow bill because I didn't have the money and wasn't going to work hard enough to earn it; and let's just hope the DMV doesn't catch up to me.
ME: Dewane, it's 2 pm. I've got to cover this order.
DEWANE (ostensibly): Let me go back to the DMV. Maybe they can call Albany and get this thing straightened out.
ME: Call me.

DEWANE (5 pm--back from the DMV): There's nothing they can do. The paperwork has to be cleared in Albany.

Why do some owner-operators make it and some owner-operators do not?

The Highway Reporter