Might not make it a year....
 

Okay, the other day i got this pre-plan. I notice that it was already a day late on pick-up. I figure 'what the hell' it wont take me but a day to drive it there, and ill get it there 'on time' anyways. I come to find out, i totally forgot about 11 hrs dropping off one night, but the next, i only had 3hrs coming off...and i was short hours. I was about 150-200 miles short of the final. I message ahead, when i find out the mistake, letting them know i'm running late. The load was originaly planned to deliver at 4p on the 2nd. I get a message back saying it was rescheduled, but the date/time was 02/02 at 00:00. Come to find out the load was never actually rescheduled. I arrive at the final at 05:00. This place was so unorginized, they even screwed one driver up, loaded him, then somehow deleted the BOL from the computer. So they had to unload it...and reload it. (least that is what he said over the CB) I call the shipper ever hour or two, message my DM asking if he can call the CSR. I finally get a dock assignment at 10:00. I wait and wait and wait, and i dont feel any movement. an hour goes by and yet another. I call inside, again, only to get attitude (no i did not give them any, i was very professional and polite) that 'you were late, therefore you are a 'work in', and we'll get to you when we get to you'.

I finally hit the sack, and just go to bed. this was about 20:00. I finally get the bouncing around, and i know i'm being unloaded. 30 min. later, i get a couple phone calls...this time from the guys inside. Knowing full well they want me to come inside to get the paperwork and let me know i can go. Every other driver, they have come out to hand their BOLs to them. I ignore the phone calls, get my shoes on and get my log book ready to roll. They end up bringing me my BOLs 15 min later, and i take off......the time???? 23:30 !!!!!!!!!!!! WTF !!!!!!!!!!!! well with a fresh clock (the only blessing of the day) i head to my next load pick it up and head into Wisconsin.

I send a message to my DM asking about detention pay and/or layover pay. He tells me that he asked the FM about getting detention pay, to which the FM said the load wasnt given a new drop time...so i wasnt getting it. But i was getting layover pay.....a whole $50. Now granted $50 is better than nothing...but when you figure out i was there 19 hours....that comes down to $2.60-ish/an hour. That is almost a joke.

so i got to thinking....about this one guy on the CB while i waited to get unloaded, complaining about how there are very little union drivers anymore. and how us scabs are riding the coat-tails of the 'hard work' they put in getting the things us drivers have nowadays. He was complaining about how Dick Jones....CEO of ....whoever transportation, has their 8 houses, private jets....blah blah blah....but dont give two cents about the employees who earn him that way of living.

I got on, to tell him that he seems to forget, that he works for the company....the company dont work for him. Cant blame a businessman (or woman) who does the work to improve and grow the company into something BIG. Cant hate him or her for being more business savy than me or the next driver. if it was so easy, we all would have our own 10,000 truck shipping companies.

But then i thought back to when i worked in the airline business. the company i worked for could care less about their employees. (much like most freight companies) But a couple counters down, was another airline, and their employees always seemed to put their best foot forward. stay those extra hours, work harder.....and they were rewarded for it. And in turn....they worked HARDER. The company showed they cared about Joe Blow.

The company might spend a million dollars more just on its employees, but down the road, that million will return 2 million because employees who are HAPPY and feel halfway RESPECTED will be 2-3x more productive. thus...2-3x more profitable company.

I am finding it hard to think i will be here come next november. I want to get my year in, not only to get the tuition paid off, but because it will look better to my next employer. But i quit my last job at the casino because i got tired of getting the shaft at every turn. It isnt THAT bad yet, but when you SHOW that you want to drive....you dont complain about not getting home time, and mention you would rather drive and earn a paycheck, i think a company would/should take that into consideration....keeping a good employee rather than pissing him/her off, and they end up going somewhere else, making the competition that much more productive.

$50 for sitting 19 hours because SOMEONE else dropped the ball....really is a joke. I could have made $100-200 being a begger on a busy street corner, but i've got more pride in myself than to do that

oh, and one last thing i just thought of. My roommate i had during orientation, we chat from time to time. He told me within a month of going solo himself, he got on this Dollar Tree dedicated account. He gets paid $100 to unload a trailer by hand (all loose boxes), $10 per stop plus the miles. he says he makes $200-250 a day, brings home $1000 a week. He was based and assigned a truck out of Edwardsville terminal, and when he got offered the Dollar Tree account, the terminal he would be based out of was down in Oklahoma. He asked the FM in Edwardsville if he could have it....and the FM gave him crap about how they usually dont release trucks from the terminal.....but he still got it.

making $200-300 a week just isnt cutting it. When i DO make a $500-600 check, it is only because i wasnt able to scan my trips to Phoenix in time for that paycheck, and they went on the following paycheck. I planned to be out of debt by end of April. But then again, i was planning on making 2500 miles a week as advertised.

Miles ARE picking up for me, when compared to the 1100-1400 miles i was getting the first few weeks....but still a far cry from being able to live on $100 a week, and shipping the rest off to the collector. =)

Sounds like another satisfied customer in cpm/minimum wage OTR game .

I wish you the best of luck on whatever you decide to do. It seems as if you are starting to come into your own.

Originally Posted by :
Sounds like another satisfied customer in cpm/minimum wage OTR game .

Sigh....

Originally Posted by BIG JEEP on 44's:
Sounds like another satisfied customer in cpm/minimum wage OTR game .

this is what i dont get. WTF does it matter if i start out making 28 or 31cpm? an extra $40 take home a week? again, its better than zero...but your paycheck is either $1000 or its half that. quite a big difference. and it all comes down to how many miles you run. WTF does it matter if someone just starting out is making 28 or 31 if they arent getting the miles??

am i happy where i'm at? BARELY. But going to ask my DM if he cannot start looking for dedicated routes for me to run. the hard work dont bother me. unloading a trailer a day in 4-5 stops dont bother me. I would rather do that....get the free workout, and save time doing it....than to sit a day, drive 500 miles....sit a day.....drive 300 miles.....get the picture?

Best of luck, Kevin. I hope you get through this. I think you will.

It's a very difficult environment these days. I would suggest trying to make the best of it at Swift. I dont think I would quit for another OTR job. It would just be more of the same, until you get some experience. There are some good jobs out there in time. Whatever you do dont quit until you have another job lined up.

Originally Posted by Snowman7:
It's a very difficult environment these days. I would suggest trying to make the best of it at Swift. I dont think I would quit for another OTR job. It would just be more of the same, until you get some experience. There are some good jobs out there in time. Whatever you do dont quit until you have another job lined up.

Take what Snowman just said to you, to heart there Kevin. Times are tough. As another of the Swift drivers posted the other day, there is a lawsuit that was started in 2004, that is making it's way through the courts. That may make a difference in the future.

Right now...drive the safest you can, get some experience behind the wheel. Next March, you will be in a position to find a better job, one that pay's what you are looking for. First comes the "experience" that you have to get.

Well, Kevin, you're beginning to see one of the problems with the BIG companies. Being as big as they are, they even have problems trying to keep things straight. Wait till you get sent after a "PHANTOM LOAD". Or, you get to a shipper and find out that another driver already ran with the load. Or, they want you run with a load, and you have to cross a "bad weather front", and when you tell them it isn't safe to run, they come back that half a dozen other drivers are running through it, and you realize that if you don't go, they PUNISH you with short miles. By the end of a year, you'll learn some of the games they have in store for you.

But, good luck to you. There are smaller companies that try playing those games with you, but most seem to realize that drivers are NOT a "dime a dozen".