[Orangetxguy]

Originally Posted by jd112488

what a *****!! you got a job dude..alot of guys would kill for your job. home everyday and a steady paycheck.

Hey Jed....what type truck do you drive...and what is your usual route? Saw several FEDEX Grnd trucks while I was running around Ohi, PA and VA the last 3 weeks...and wondered if one of them was you...or even the Hobo dude.

[Double R]

Originally Posted by Malaki86

omg - i'd hate to see you working otr. crying about taking an extra 20 minutes - boo freakin hoo. do you cry as much if you get into holiday traffic, construction delays or accidents?

I was about to ask the same thing but you beat me to it. Now that he explained more (seems each post we get a little more information), I'm wondering what's the problem?

Your run pays x amount. Bringing back a loaded trailer is part of that run. So it takes an extra 20 minutes when you bring back a loaded trailer. BIG DEAL. How about all those times when you run up and back in near perfect conditions and the run takes less time then the company says it should. Do they take money from you check for that? Doubt it!

[freebirdrfd]

Sounds like somebody should get an office job... :cry:

[jd112488]

orangetux. i drive a t600. getting another one here shortly. if you were out in the dark i am the one with a little blue led light in the center of the dash. i go from Columbus to Jersey on Tues and Thur. and back on Wed and Fri. Take I70 out of the state. if you were in the area or ever are again let me know..may buy ya a cup of joe.

[homer]

[ In any case, a driver is paid to drive a truck. It should not make any difference to the driver whether it is loaded

gman is right.
geez now they gotta send another truck to drag an mt over there and wave at woof while he going the other way draggin his mt back to the yard
no wonder we cant compete with those foreigners!

[Orangetxguy]

Originally Posted by jd112488

orangetux. i drive a t600. getting another one here shortly. if you were out in the dark i am the one with a little blue led light in the center of the dash. i go from Columbus to Jersey on Tues and Thur. and back on Wed and Fri. Take I70 out of the state. if you were in the area or ever are again let me know..may buy ya a cup of joe.

Pretty much always on I-70 between Columbus and Pittsburg. See a lot of I-71 too.

[Jackrabbit379]

Originally Posted by Orangetxguy

I dunno man......75,000 pounds of cargo is a lot of cargo. Your talking 11 to 12 axles involved at least. Now....a gross vehicle weight of 75,000...that is entirely different.

75,000 lbs is a lot of weight, but you it's easy to do in a hopper bottom. If you load a 42' hopper bottom plumb full of wheat (or anything else that's 60 lbs/bushel) from front to back, you can easily gross over 100,000. Oats on the other hand, you couldn't get enough of them on there.

[golfhobo]

How does a 20 minute delay on ONE day make one have to start 20 minutes later the NEXT day? 10 hours a day of driving. What? 2 hours commute each way? (how else do you get 70hrs a week?) Unless you are logging exactly 14 hours total onduty time each day, a 20 minute delay shouldn't force you to start later the next day. Am I missing something?

[jonp]

Originally Posted by Zombie Woof

Hey, Jonp, we linehaul guys never get paid by the mile, just daily pay, plus these $15 extras now and then. And no, it's not a live load. No loading or unloading, just a dropyard. The heavy trailer is already there, waiting for me. I just drop my regular load there, and hook up to the heavy "backhaul" trailer, instead of an empty, and off I go, crawling up the hills at 45 mph and whaling down the other side at 85 mph :eek2: ( well, I could, but i put on the jake brake and do 70). Like I said it adds that 20 minutes, and sets me back 20 minutes into my next day, which is a big deal for me.
I guess I have too much stuff to do around the house, better get a maid, or a concierge, or something. So, yeah, I guess I should be a team player and just do it, and be happy to add some profit to the company that employs me.


When they hired me they said something about backhauls, and about being flexible. Can't remember exactly.

Now about the paid backhauls : They have 2 locations for these. One is the 45 minutes extra for $15, that doesn't seem so bad.

But there is another one that is farther off the route, and adds an hour and 15 minutes to the driving time, and about 2 hours to the whole day. This one they added about a year ago, and I think they finally dropped it, knock on wood. Still only $15 extra. This was the one nobody wanted. The OTR drivers were telling us linehaul guys we should just say no, since it was too close to the 11 hours. They sent us out in icy weather too, for this backhaul. Said just get a motel if you run out of hours, or pull over and sleep in the day cab for 10 hours and I'm pretty sure the company can not force you to do it. Nobody ever got a motel or pulled over, but I would guess some drivers had to go over the 11 hours a few times.


I'm not too smooth with authority figures, so I try to avoid them as much as possible, but I have mentioned to my terminal manager that I don't like the backhauls, when the subject arose. Also bitched about it in a nice way to the dispatchers when they gave me these faraway backhauls. All of us linehaul drivers made it clear we didn't like the faraway backhaul, since it was so close to the 11 hours, and the manager was always "checking into it".


We only get about one backhaul a week now, per driver, and not the faraway one, so lately it's not too bad. We were getting 2 or 3 per week for a while there.

oh, ok. that clears up things. I didn't know that you were in a daycab or you were paid daily not mileage. The backhaul drop and hook at the place you are at I wouldn't say much about although if they pay $15 for the other then they should pay it for all p/u. The near backhaul pays a little extra but if your home within your time then I wouldnt say much about that either as its only once a week or so. The farther one I would have a problem with as it puts you over your time. Do they pay for the hotel? I would never sleep in a daycab for any reason. If they pay for the hotel then every once in awhile I'd deal with it.

It dosnt sound to me like you have a bad job but everyone gets fed up with what they are doing once in awhile no matter what they are doing. I'd really take a deep breath at this point and look around at the economy. Jobs are tight. I'd hold on to what I had for a bit and just suck it up.