Dream Ride-A-Long

This might be a fun topic or it might be a dud, lol.

Who would you take along with you for a week if you could select your favorite person?

I don’t know about other companies, but mine prohibits us to take any other CDL holders.

I think I would take Stephen Colbert, just for fun.

Who would you take?

A week? Not gonna happen, potentially too distracting. I prefer the solitude and the space.

BK, I know this is a joke about Colbert. I’d like to drop him off in a small Bible Belt town and let him experience “fly over” country first hand.

Fortunately I have a one person truck with no passenger seat, so this ain’t happening.

If anything I’d like to have my wife’s dog “Rusty” ride along for a week. It would probably be too distracting though. He loves to play fetch and tug with his favorite Lamb Chop toy.

Perfect place for Colbert would be a small town in Oklahoma on US-69 with a “Cowboy Church”.

Oklahoma Fellowship of Cowboy Churches

A week in a day cab is too much. For a day? I'd like to take some dispatchers for a trip, so they can see how it is on the road.

Otherwise, I can't really think of anyone.

For a day? I'd like to take some dispatchers for a trip, so they can see how it is on the road.

My thoughts exactly!

Last week I had a run to Kansas City, then work my way over to Cargill in Marshall Missouri for a drop/hook. When I got there none of our loads were ready, didn't even have a trailer in a door. In the past they've just had us come back empty. When I called dispatch I was told "hang tight I'll call you right back." To them, calling right back ends up being 2 hours later. I respectfully told him that, to which the response was call back in 5 minutes if he hasn't called back. I told him I was leaving empty in 15 if I didn't get a call back. That got the point across and I had a call back 3 minutes later telling me come on home.

Thursday I had a drop/hook in Mason City at Smithfield. When I chose my route I made sure they were aware that there's 2 of us going up there set to arrive at similar times but only 1 drop trailer. Sure enough, as I pull in I see the other driver walking to the window to check in. Called dispatch to be told hang tight even after telling them the guard told me it's 3 to 4 hours once you get into a door and they won't be even putting it into a door for a bit. I ended up making a call to someone above him and got approval to leave empty after voicing my frustrations. The problem is our office staff has nobody, other than our supervisors who have their office separate, with any driving experience. They're far too reliant on the computer doing it all. It hasn't been uncommon for the system to route us 90 miles away for a couple cases. If someone would actually take the time to review I'd hope they'd have enough common sense to say that isn't right and get it put on a truck closer. As a driver, it works out great I'll run the couple cases in and still get my stop pay for the 2 minutes it takes. It just gets old getting fleetwide texts about idling yet they'll waste how much diesel on poor routing. Last month I got sent 100 miles out of route ONE WAY to pick up a 2 pallet backhaul in Faribault MN just off I35 despite having 3 trucks coming back from Minneapolis empty. Office staff in general doesn't grasp that our time is limited especially as we sometimes race our 11/14/70 to make it home daily. They punch the clock and go home after their 8. I've also wanted them to send the guys that load our trucks out for a ride along.

I have a one person truck with no passenger seat, so this ain’t happening.

Same here!! We only have 1 truck with a passenger seat for training. ABF also has a strict no rider policy. If I could, I would like to take the wife and my boys out for a ride. I often return to the terminal after a few hrs then take another assignment back out so the ride along would only be 4-6 hrs tops.

If I had a full-size condo I’d take my wife out for a week so she could experience the road. However, She isn’t physically able to climb in and out of the truck.

So what I do is save video clips from my dash camera to share with her. It gives her a feeling of riding along.

Jerry Fritts, Candy Bass, Tim Ridley, Dave Nemo, Bill Mack, Charlie Douglass, or Brett.

For a day? I'd like to take some dispatchers for a trip, so they can see how it is on the road.

My thoughts exactly!

Last week I had a run to Kansas City, then work my way over to Cargill in Marshall Missouri for a drop/hook. When I got there none of our loads were ready, didn't even have a trailer in a door. In the past they've just had us come back empty. When I called dispatch I was told "hang tight I'll call you right back." To them, calling right back ends up being 2 hours later. I respectfully told him that, to which the response was call back in 5 minutes if he hasn't called back. I told him I was leaving empty in 15 if I didn't get a call back. That got the point across and I had a call back 3 minutes later telling me come on home.

Thursday I had a drop/hook in Mason City at Smithfield. When I chose my route I made sure they were aware that there's 2 of us going up there set to arrive at similar times but only 1 drop trailer. Sure enough, as I pull in I see the other driver walking to the window to check in. Called dispatch to be told hang tight even after telling them the guard told me it's 3 to 4 hours once you get into a door and they won't be even putting it into a door for a bit. I ended up making a call to someone above him and got approval to leave empty after voicing my frustrations. The problem is our office staff has nobody, other than our supervisors who have their office separate, with any driving experience. They're far too reliant on the computer doing it all. It hasn't been uncommon for the system to route us 90 miles away for a couple cases. If someone would actually take the time to review I'd hope they'd have enough common sense to say that isn't right and get it put on a truck closer. As a driver, it works out great I'll run the couple cases in and still get my stop pay for the 2 minutes it takes. It just gets old getting fleetwide texts about idling yet they'll waste how much diesel on poor routing. Last month I got sent 100 miles out of route ONE WAY to pick up a 2 pallet backhaul in Faribault MN just off I35 despite having 3 trucks coming back from Minneapolis empty. Office staff in general doesn't grasp that our time is limited especially as we sometimes race our 11/14/70 to make it home daily. They punch the clock and go home after their 8. I've also wanted them to send the guys that load our trucks out for a ride along.

I like the idea of having dispatchers spend at least a single trip on a truck to see what it is like dealing with customers, finding empty trailers, etc.

I saw videos on Knight Transportation website of their executives doing ride alongs with drivers from Phoenix to Las Vegas and back. It was interesting some of the feedback that was given to them by the drivers. This was most likely a recruiting stunt, though, to show how in touch the executives are with drivers. Dispatch or Driver/Fleet Managers are front line.

I would actually consider moving into dispatch to get off the road some day. At my advanced age not likely to happen.