Posted: 7 years, 7 months ago
View Topic:
Was told to bobtail to the shipper, by the planner and a night dispatcher, due to the terminal not having any empty trailers. I get to the shipper, they won't allow me to take my preloaded trailer unless I bring in an empty. No problem, right?
I was only able to use 9hrs 6min of drive time for the day. Planners used up 1hr 48min of my drive time looking for an empty trailer, and nearly 2hrs of sitting around waiting to hear where an empty trailer is located. That's nearly 4hrs of drive time that I didn't even get to put toward delivering the freight to the customer. I drove nearly 11hrs the next day, landed 2.5hrs from final destination.
Did I communicate the load would be late?
I sent my fleet manager a qualcomm message on the day all of this happened (one day prior to scheduled delivery) @ 1134, explaining the reason why this load would be late. Again, at 1148 on the same day, I sent a message to the drive managers, informing them what I had just sent to the feet manager, and telling them this load would not deliver on time.
Note: I didn't just send a message directly to the fleet manager, skipping my chain-of-command. The fleet manager sent me a direct message about the freight I was hauling, and asked me if I would be able to deliver on time. This is when I informed the fleet manager that I would be late, along with reasons why.
Sent ETA information on the same day @ 1629 & 1630 to the fleet manager, as requested. Fleet manager then told me I would receive a service failure.
I gave this information to my drive manager the following day, and his reasoning was that I didn't communicate this load would be late, even though I did.
Thoughts?
Posted: 7 years, 8 months ago
View Topic:
I was not trying to pass judgement on you. I was just trying to show you another way to look at things. I only wish good things for people. I also took so long to type that that I missed some of the conversation. lol. Have a good night.
Have a good one, Big Scott.
Posted: 7 years, 8 months ago
View Topic:
CJ they often assign the new hires in the overnight and weekend slots. Less experience equals less efficient. You remember what it's like to be learning your job, don't yah CJ?
I have actually helped on the weekends, 2 people as opposed to the 4-5 during prime time. However the workload can be overwhelming because there are two people answering calls and working with up to 100 drivers, instead of four or five. Lots of stuff can quickly fall through the cracks and spiral out of control.
CJ if you come across to them in a similar fashion as you are in this thread, perhaps that partially explains the root cause of your issue. "Humble up" a bit. Try to understand their world and then help them to better understand yours. Meet them halfway so to speak, and things might improve for you. Throwing them under the bus isn't getting it done, try a different approach.
G-town, as I have just explained to Big Scott.... because I rant on he internet, it doesn't mean I do it in real life.
No, we have night and weekend people in our terminal. I say that, but only because when I send a free form, you're liable to get a response from five or six different people.
And no, I hadn't realized the newbies were put into that position. Knowing this information puts things in perspective --- I'll take that advice. Thanks.
Posted: 7 years, 8 months ago
View Topic:
It's a nice bonus. I had been looking at some hazmat team outfits but now that I got a new truck and this pay increase we'll definitely be sticking around.
Keep in mind that $2100 comes down to $1750 after uncle sam gets his cut.
Hahaha yeah... $1750 per driver. We have been averaging $1400/split! So $700 each. Ill gladly take the $1750. But are you company driver?
Posted: 7 years, 8 months ago
View Topic:
For your sake, Paul, I will give them all the benefit of the doubt.
How do like dedicated? What's the pay and hometime like?
Thanks.
Gimme about 5 minutes and I'll post a new thread about it. I've been needing to do that anyways. Short answer: it's awesome.
Sounds great, Paul.
Posted: 7 years, 8 months ago
View Topic:
From reading your posts today, you are half of the problem. You have a poor attitude. When you give them attitude they get to show you who can screw who. You seem to have a habit of jumping the gun and taking loads you aren't dispatched for. To me that seems like you are acting like a spoiled brat. I know I am not even in school yet, however I have 49 years of life experience to see the big picture. In life we must do things by the rules. Those weekend DM's you are bad mouthing are just stressed out people trying to do a job. I wish you luck.
Big Scott, have you seen me get an attitude with these people? Have you heard me talk to these people? No. I didn't think so.
Just because I rant about things that I dislike in the company on this forum, it doesn't mean that I am mean and rude to these people in real life.
I am not some 21 year old kid out here doing whatever the heck I want to do, without any discipline from my parents, or without any other work experience. Get a hold of yourself, sir. You have judged me, just as I have judged them. And you think I'm the problem?
Posted: 7 years, 8 months ago
View Topic:
All miles over 3,000? Matt, you'll be getting over 3,000 nearly every week hahaha! Swift needs to adopt this idea... $2100 per driver would be three times our current weekly allowances.
Posted: 7 years, 8 months ago
View Topic:
For your sake, Paul, I will give them all the benefit of the doubt.
How do like dedicated? What's the pay and hometime like?
Posted: 7 years, 8 months ago
View Topic:
I'm with Paul on this. I've always been treated well by the Weekenders. I never assume they can know what I need. I simply ask politely and it happens. I treat everyone I speak with as if they were my own DM. Have you ever sat in their work room and listened to their side of the conversation? The questions they have to answer, repeatedly, when talking to drivers might open your eyes a bit. Give them a break, many of them used to drive and they're trying.
Good point. I know what you mean about being asked the same questions repeatedly. They do it to us all of the time. I can't say that al the night and weekend dispatchers are dumb, but the ones we've been dealing with sure ain't the smartest.
Posted: 7 years, 7 months ago
View Topic:
Going Solo
As some of you already know, I upgraded a few months back and began teaming right away. The teaming was fine, but I really didn't make that much for the time I spent teaming.
He and I both agreed that we both felt we weren't being compensated enough for teaming with one another. So we had been talking about running solo, and I finally made the switch last week.
So far, so good. I ran 3,300 miles in my first week as a solo driver. I think I know why you guys and gals are all about running solo, as opposed to teaming.
While teaming isn't for everyone, I did enjoy having the co-driver that I had, other than him causing us to have two service failures, forgetting to set the air brakes one night, hardly ever checking his mirrors when turning, not always looking in his mirrors while backing, nearly running the tandems into parked vehicles, nearly running into parked trucks at the shipper/receiver, not knowing how to use the Qualcomm, having the hardest time backing into wide open spots, and discreetly naming me his full-time mentor (without mentor pay). He was a good guy, just not aware of how to actually do what his mentor was paid to teach him to do.
So I dropped him off last week for his hometime (5-days), and flew solo for a week and a half. After the first day solo, I was all in. So I got it all set up to be solo. The problem then became him wanting to squabble over the truck, which he did leave a few of his belongings onboard. So no problem. Here, you can have the truck, and all your stuff. I'll get my own truck next week sometime. Going on my own hometime today.