A Lesson In Patience

Last week, my FM went on vacation. He was out Friday a week ago until today. Our payday cut off is Tuesday. Anyhow, right after he left, I started getting awful loads...short miles, way too much time on them, plus lag time between loads. Had 3 of those back to back before I pleaded with dispatch to have pity on me, explaining nicely that I just finished the week with a whopping 1300 miles. I don't know if it was my approach or just nobody noticing what a serious run of awful I had gotten, but things sure turned around. I am finishing this pay week having run just over 4000 miles. Barely had time to sleep, shower and eat, but man it's been fun! Absolutely everything was on point. I had committed loads pre planned before I even reached the 90 for every single load and was able to manage my clock so that everything clicked into place. Was very glad that my guy was back at the helm today and let him know I would like more weeks like this one. LOL

I'm happy for you that you got through to someone... way too make things happen for yourself and then take care of business!

Kat, I'm going to take a page off your book, I was just assigned a new DM , and things are not going as good, I will wait and see how these week works out and than use my smooth talk.

Last week, my FM went on vacation. He was out Friday a week ago until today. Our payday cut off is Tuesday. Anyhow, right after he left, I started getting awful loads...short miles, way too much time on them, plus lag time between loads. Had 3 of those back to back before I pleaded with dispatch to have pity on me, explaining nicely that I just finished the week with a whopping 1300 miles. I don't know if it was my approach or just nobody noticing what a serious run of awful I had gotten, but things sure turned around. I am finishing this pay week having run just over 4000 miles. Barely had time to sleep, shower and eat, but man it's been fun! Absolutely everything was on point. I had committed loads pre planned before I even reached the 90 for every single load and was able to manage my clock so that everything clicked into place. Was very glad that my guy was back at the helm today and let him know I would like more weeks like this one. LOL

You really have to know how to lobby for more miles, and that never ends for most drivers. You'll have to take the bad loads with the good, but you'll also have to make sure dispatch keeps up their end of the deal and gives you the good! In their defense they have a ton of drivers to take care of and sometimes a few lousy loads will get put on a driver in a row and no one will notice. Just give em a shout and let em know it's time to give you some gravy runs.

There will always be some drivers who really don't understand the big picture of how these companies operate. They take a "drivers vs office personnel" approach to the job instead of realizing they really are part of a team. No matter what team you're on, whether it be in business or in sports or in family, the members each have to do their job for the team to succeed. They also have to support each other, stand behind each other, and hold each other accountable for doing their job. Sometimes you'll drop the ball and you'll ask for forgiveness. Sometimes they'll drop the ball and ask your forgiveness. In the end, if you'll keep the big picture in mind and remember you're an important part of a team and that it's not all about you, things will go so much better for everyone.

So it's a balancing act. You give and you get. You'll do favors, you'll get favors. You'll give forgiveness, you'll ask forgiveness.

4000 miles! That must have been one hell of a paycheck! Congrats! Most I've done in a pay week is about 3300.