What's Your Shortest Work Day?

Had my shorter work day today, took a trailer from my yard to another 20 miles from mine. Since we are slow that was all they had.

Was on the clock for around 2.5 hours.

What was your shortest day?

Not sure what qualifies as a short work day, but with what I do it’s not unusual to sit all day at a shipper if they are pre-loading a trailer and way behind schedule. In those cases, I get layover pay but no work. I’ve sat for 30 and 40 hours just waiting.

But once I get rolling there really are no short trips.

I’m always amazed at the endless variety of jobs and work methods in the trucking industry

The day after New Year's day 2022. I had a dock work assignment and we clocked in and reported for pre shift. At pre shift the supe said we don't really have anything, who wants to go home.

I asked "do I still get my holiday pay?" He said yes since it's not a call out so I volunteered and went home. I was on the clock for about 10 minutes. One of the benefits of having a 9 mile commute.

1 day @ CRST, I think we were in Texas, made our delivery, awaiting our next load. Well, get a call first from our DM , telling us he was looking for a load. In the mean time if we could relay 3 empties to Fed-Ex nearby. It was like 1.5 miles or 2 from us. Ok no problem, we got this done in under an hour, then we sat and wait another hour or so, get a 2000+ mile load, and away we go.

Well, come payday, those trips only paid us, 1 mile each, 1 way, not both ways. Then we didn't get paid for 1 relay, and they were NOT paid $25 each (Forget actual rate, mighta been $50)........Told our DM we didn't get paid for 3 trailers and not the supposed rate either, and the mileage was half what it actually was. "So what? you paying How Bird Flies" Miles? LOL

We never accepted that relay crap again (rarely asked to) No, I wasn't being 1 of those difficult drivers to deal with, just had it like that with our cool Head DM

We never accepted that relay crap again (rarely asked to) No, I wasn't being 1 of those difficult drivers to deal with, just had it like that with our cool Head DM

Yeah, CRST has been doing that for years because they did that to me once when I was there. My occurance was in Riverside.

"Do me a favor.....We'll pay extra for this short trip....."

As I recall vaguely, it was about five miles round trip, a live unload that took more than three hours in the dock, and a big extra of under $5 for more than four hours. The next one was a round-trip to Sacramento. Upon returning to the terminal , the joker tried that stunt again. No more favors for them, but I did have time to research other driving options, leading me to Roehl Transport.

I was on the clock for about 10 minutes. One of the benefits of having a 9 mile commute.

That is a short day, I have a 5 mile commute so I didn't mind having such a short day.

Told our DM we didn't get paid for 3 trailers and not the supposed rate either, and the mileage was half what it actually was

Anything we do under 100 miles is hourly, no reason other than not wanting to pay for them to pull that stunt.

Upon returning to the terminal , the joker tried that stunt again.

There is a reason they have the reputation they do.

Yep PR and the toll roads pffft, had to use 1 in Ohio or Penn I think, the first time. I had to pay $50 out of pocket. Took 3 weeks hounding the DM for reimbursement. My co-driver then, was paying tolls 3-4 times totaled close to $200 for all. I don't think he EVER got repaid those fee's (he hit a parked truck in Jersey Pilot, so terminated for a bit) He got ticket knocked down no points, came back driving with someone else.

My mentor who still drives there on their dedicated R&L loop, told me long ago.. To just drive the the fast pass lane, and not pay, let the cameras take pics of truck and bill CRST. So, any time I had to go thru toll booths, that's what I did,roll thru fast pass.I never did hear from the boss anything about my tactic lol....They got deeper pockets than I had.

1 time, the booth was right at the end of the exit lane, right by our delivery, I kept looking in the mirrors for them to come after us lol.

Just last week I woke up at the Flying J in Patterson, CA, drove within sight distance to the Kohl's DC, about a mile, did a drop and hook for a preloaded, and went back to the Flying J because the consignee was in Modesto, 30 miles away, and couldn't deliver until next morning. Don't worry, I got layover. Total workday was about 45 minutes.

I had a drop load going to my company's yard on Friday night. I was going to be cutting it close whether I got there before my clock ran out, so I stopped at a truck stop 45 miles away. The next morning I drove the 45 miles to company yard. I put my truck in the shop for a simple maintenance issue. The shop has been backed up, but I wasn't concerned with timing because of the snow storm blowing through. So, I had a 53-minute shift.

Shortest I had was a 15 minute pre trip. I got handed a load on a Friday afternoon. As I started planning it, I checked the pick up time at shipper , it ended in a half hour and I was 150 miles from it. They're closed on the weekends.

So I called my DM , got paid layover to reset over the weekend. Made 300 bucks extra for a nice relaxing weekend.