Freight Is Slow?

OK, this is my third short week and I'm getting the "freight is slow" thing from my manager. Anyone else experiencing this? I do live in Maine so it could be an area thing, but in the past they've kept me busy relaying loads (or repowering, whatever you call it), and now they're just sending me home early. And a few other things don't seem to add up. Those familiar with my other "paranoia" threads will understand why I'm wondering if that's really the explanation.

Honestly I have been hearing other drivers complaining about slow freight but I never sit. I usually don't have enough time to get from my 90 to 01 which is driving me crazy.

I'm company though so it might be different for lease or OO. I also live near philly with lots of shipping ports and customers so I'm never late getting home. Our terminal is 130 miles away.

Man I don't think it being Maine is the problem. We get quite a bit of freight moving in and out of the state. A friend of mine hauls for pottles and is running hard right now. Not sure what the issue might be.

Yeah, something doesn't seem right. I unfortunately haven't always followed the wise advice of maintaining a good relationship with your manager, but I thought things were OK. But I feel like he's not really trying to keep me busy the entire week. He said the bottled water people who provide a lot of our work canceled a lot of loads last week and still aren't giving us as much this week, but I have no way of confirming that and I'm not sure I believe it. And I tried to ask my manager if there was some problem other than slow freight, but he misunderstood and thought I was asking if I was the only one sitting, and he said "no, there's one other". Well, he has 20 something drivers, so why are there only 2 of us?

Anyway, trying to resist the paranoia, but I don't know how long I show hang around until I decide it's not working out.

That actually does make a little sense. Another friend of mine was hauling water from Poland spring to market basket in Boston and they let him go because they weren't getting enough loads. Hartt has been pulling a lot of their stuff.

Hmm..well, it could be true I guess. I just looked at some assignments for next week (there's a web site we can use to see them), and I have 2 assignments for the same miles I had for last week's first 2 assignments, and they are the same shippers and receivers, only next week it's going to take me 3 days instead of 2 because of the appointment times. So it looks like it's only getting worse.

It's near the end of the quarter... Lots of miles. I said it in another comment earlier. Today is the first day in weeks my truck has sat for 18 in between loads... It's definitely time for it.

Well, today I ran in to another driver on my managers "team", and when I talked to him about how he was doing, he had the same story as me, so I at least I know now that it's not me personally. He also said that they had him go pick up an empty and take it away from one of the bottled water plants (it is Poland Spring, BTW), and I'm bobtailing in when I pick up a load tomorrow, so apparently they have reduced the loads our company is getting, and probably told them to get rid of the extra trailers.

Also, I know some people like to read this and assume it's my fault because I don't run hard like they do, but the first 4 days of last week I didn't stop except for legally or biologically required breaks, and the two loads that I had that had delivery appointments I just made by less than 10 minutes each time. So to me it sounds like a luxury when you actually have the spare time to arrive hours early.

I unfortunately haven't always followed the wise advice of maintaining a good relationship with your manager

Could be something else then?

And after rereading your last paragraph it's funny you mentioned paranoia earlier.