Truck Driving Jobs

VitoCorleone99 · #11 09-29-2009, 04:42 AM

I'm not sure how your planning and dispatching routine differs from ours, but the information that comes through on our pre-plans is usually only a sliver of that which is relevant to the load. Maybe a load needs to pick up between 8am and midnight on Monday and deliver between 8am and midnight on Tuesday. We'll be told that it picks up at 8am Monday and delivers at 8am Tuesday. They give us no information about 'windows' or any of that. So, at first glance you think there's no way it will work. Then, after confirming the assignment, you find that you're actually expected to pick up by 10am on Monday and deliver by 9pm on Tuesday (or whatever alternative scenario your hours would allow).

Perhaps that's what the planners were doing with you or perhaps it's just a matter of them not paying attention. I have no way of knowing. I just know that, for 3+ years, it has been my practice to accept whatever they send me and then keep my hours updated in the computer system along the way. Until last week (September 22nd to be exact), scheduling problems had never been an issue as long as my available hours had been reported every morning. Since that one instance, it hasn't been an issue either. (I'm dropping off a load tomorrow that didn't exactly go according to plan, but it's not my problem.) The desk jockeys do what they do and I do what I do. Everything seems to work out.

Of course, it may simply be that the planner in your case couldn't add. We've all seen that every now and then.

jonp · #12 09-29-2009, 07:06 AM

I ran into alot of this at a couple of carriers including Swift where I drove for 3 years. Yes, I had pretty good luck with swift except for the WEEKEND DISPATCHERS. I think it has a lot to do with companies putting people on the weekend when the freight is lower to learn the ropes. They do stuff that they just don't realize they should not do. Many load planners have never driven a truck or have never been in the area of the country that the load is so do not know the traffic patterns. some do, of course, have a god complex. As for the dispatch putting the load back on you when you declined it...you should have stopped and picked up the phone at that point after doing what you did and sending the message so there is a trail. Never accept a load if you can't do the pick-up or delivery on-time. Send a message saying that and asking if they can change the times. If they can't don't go get it to avoid the service failure. If you have been into the customer alot and know that they have leeway in the times you might go and get the load but let the planners know on your qualcomm that you will not make the p/u or delv times although you are willing to go and get it anyways. CYOA is the name of the game here.

While at Swift many years ago the company bought out Best West. I was in Calgary and a dispatcher from there sent me to get a load north of there going to Salt Lake. I told him I didn't have the hours to make it as the load was several hours north of me and I would have to take a break before delv. I got in a terse argument with him about hours etc....anyways I went and got the load and stopped in Calgary on the way south and told him I couldn't make it again. He responded that he took me off of the load and I was to take it to Sweet Grass, MT and relay it to another driver and he would not respond to another message from me. This was on a Sunday. So, since I was taken off of the load I dropped it right there in the parking lot of the truckstop in Calgary and parked next to it since I wasnt moving any load I would not get paid for which was what it sounded like to me. Screw him. The next day I got with my dm and he laughed and said not to worry about it. I left a qualcomm trail a mile long that I couldnt get the load, I was taken off of it, etc....The company talked to that clown about how he treated drivers too.

nctrucker1 · #13 09-29-2009, 08:14 AM

When I was with swift, the dm i had wanted me to go an hour and half out of my route to fuel at a terminal. I told him that did not save fuel as well did not make sense, besides, I would not get paid any extra for the extra miles. I left swift after that load was delivered. I could see how things were gonna be with them.

Kevin0915 · #14 09-29-2009, 10:58 AM

I did get a phone call from my DM yesterday saying that if they ever tried that again, to remain professional, and have them call his cell on the weekend thru memphis (think that is where the weekend driver managers are based for me anyway).

In the Mac 9 to accept or decline a load, there are 3 reasons given available to accept for not taking a load. 1) Hours of Service, 2) Hometime request and 3) Other. Then there is a line below that saying "reason:" and another note saying "If other, must call driver manager".

But here is the thing i could not understand. Okay, my PTA is set at 07:30. yet the window for p/u ended at 07:30..............35+ miles away. WTF??

anyway, i hope that planner got into trouble....probably not....but we'll see how this weekend plays out.

b00m · #15 09-29-2009, 07:41 PM

Yeah,

That's the reason i hate it swift and their dispatch.Plus, those dispatchers don't have the slightest idea on how to do their job right.Then, for all this BS you don't even get paid,it happened to me too when they routed me to fuel in their long beach ca terminal and put me out of hours,out of route and not being paid on the extra miles.I can say there was a lot of free work with swift,with this being the reason i let them go,after a month otr.

Best thing you can do is let them go,if every driver wouldn't take their BS, this industry would be quite different.

Just my 2 cents.

zipy46 · #16 09-29-2009, 08:42 PM

Have you ever been in a dispatch office and overheard dispatchers and drivers going back and forth on the phone ?

I did just the other day...it was a riot

Great Dispatcher Quotes:

1) "What ?...what do you mean you don't have the hours ?...I know more about logbooks

than you ...and I don't even drive!".... CLICK ! :rofl:

2) "Late ?....what do you mean Late?" ..... No...no...no... you move the fuel stop back to 0300 and you will be able to deliver on time".....

3)

I will post more as i catch them

Trucking companies are nuthouses :lol2:

Double R · #17 09-29-2009, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin0915

i hope that planner got into trouble....probably not....but we'll see how this weekend plays out.

My guess. You will be sitting all weekend. Although dispatchers(planners) can be stupid and have no clue of what goes on outside their desks, never p%ss off the hand that feeds you.

Kevin0915 · #18 09-30-2009, 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Double R

My guess. You will be sitting all weekend. Although dispatchers(planners) can be stupid and have no clue of what goes on outside their desks, never p%ss off the hand that feeds you.

eh...screw em. i'll just be sure my DM has me planned thru the weekend, or be sure to have me close to home, cause i'll deadhead there and sit. I didnt pack enough clothes in my bag to go on that power-trip with the planner.....

rkeck · #19 09-30-2009, 01:31 AM

I'm a driver but I can sympathize with planners and fleet managers and Customer Service Reps. In these tough times, corporate offices are handing down demands to cut costs WHEREVER POSSIBLE, HOWEVER POSSIBLE. And this often translates into cutting MT miles and getting max equipment utilization, period. This is hard to do AND consider practical matters as well.

Try and imagine looking at a screen that shows 45 MT trucks within 50 miles of a load that is approaching too late for on-time delivery pickup ... and all of these drivers want to go home or an 1100 mile run, and don't want the "crap" loads. I know drivers always say "dispatchers and planners should spend a month in a truck in the real world" and this is true, but by the same token, drivers should spend JUST ONE DAY in a planners or dispatchers world, in this poor freight climate, while shippers are looking for any excuse to drop a carrier to bring in another cheaper carrier, because shippers have all of the leverage now and carriers have to literally beg for freight and can't afford any "screw-ups" ... shippers don't care what a driver's log situation is, and planners and CSR's are very aware of this.

I'm not siding with the planner, I'm just saying, today, it is tough for all jobs within large and small trucking businesses.

jonp · #20 09-30-2009, 02:04 AM

I had a number of run-ins with weekend dispatchers. Be polite but firm. One of their favorite tricks was that my dm would set me up on loads for the weekend and around 1800 or so on Friday I would get yanked off of them and be given crap loads. Happened too often to be coincidence. This happened not only at Swift but a large number of times at Roehl which is one reason I am no longer at that company.

Schneider load planners don't pick up stuff either. When we get sent a load we estimate how long it will take to do the route and deliver it and then send in the hours remaining on our 14hr and 11hr clocks so they can plan a 2cd load on us. The times will vary due to the driving times but since we go into the same places all of the time we are usually within 15min on our log. The 14hr, of course, does not change. Week in and week out I will be sent a 2cd load that delivers past my 14hrs sometime up to an hour past. This week my 2cd load delivered at 0445 and my 14 was up at 0400. I pick up the phone and my boss takes it off of me. Happens all of the time.