Crete

[SwervynMervyn]

The recruiter offered me midwest regional.....if I ever get to filling out the app.

Just not sure how following their route all the time would be and getting fuel here and there is.

I know when I drove for Schneider if I would have followed some of their route suggestions would have been a nightmare.

Still considering them, just trying to figure it out......who knows, maybe they won't even like me and all my pondering was for nothing.

[Barrelburner]

I don't know how regional boards operate...I'm on the national board.

We can take a different route than the 'suggested route' if we want to. I'm sure I'd hear about it if I took a longer route all the time, however. If I can find a shorter route, I still get paid the miles listed in the load assignment.

I can call my home terminal and get a different fuel solution, but only once per load unless I have a really good reason.

The national board operates with area dispatchers- we don't have assigned dispatchers. You deliver a load in a different area and then you have a different dispatcher for the next load.

The problem with area dispatchers is this: you are not assigned to the dispatcher, so the dispatcher has no loyalty to you. Their only concern is getting their loads covered. You might want to get home; they want to get their loads delivered on time. Your terminal manager and their surrogates are supposed to get you home, but they have no power to get this done. They can't have you drop a load at the terminal; they can't dispatch you. They can request a dispatcher to do this, maybe the dispatcher will agree. My home terminal has hundreds of drivers, and one person to coordinate home time requests. He is understandably quite overwhelmed. So it is difficult to get home on time. I usually get home several days (or more) early or late.

[SwervynMervyn]

My current company uses area dispatch. And it's like you say, no loyalty or real effort to get you home or miles, just cover their loads.

Guess I will have to find out more how the regional operates.

I was delayed in Findlay, OH for a day this weekend and there were 4 Crete trucks in there as long or longer than I was.

Thanks for the info.