karnajj....I didn't "blame" the driver in my statement. I simply stated that the driver needs to be productive for 10-11 hours of their day for six days a week. If you don't agree with the policies that have been brought out, you are entitled to your opinion.

Depending on your rate of pay which I would guess would be over $.40 cpm, if $1000 a week to drive your truck isn't enough money to support your household, then maybe another career opportunity would best fit your lifestyle. I know that I would enjoy that type of pay and before you blast me for being home all of the time, I am away from my family for 2-3 weeks a month and have given up alot of things that I enjoy to make the Driver Development Department better and don't make that kind of money.

So be careful out there on the highways on your journeys across the United States.

 

Or at least the eastern half. I understand there's a big river somewhere that kinda divides the US in half. I saw it once, about a month ago.

Oh, hell, I can't complain. Things are going ok.

 

Drivers don't have anywhere near the control over their productivity that dispatch does. If dispatch cant or wont give a driver productive loads it doesn't matter how gung ho the driver is, he is going to sit. And I have been doing way too much sitting lately. Take this morning for example. I get 3 load offers. One totally sucks, the other two are merely ok. One is a 1300 miler with a little over three days on it the other is a 1700 miler with 4 days on it. I take the 1300 miler to NJ. AFTER I get to the shipper dispatch informs me that my 3 day load has now become a 4 day load thru no fault of my own. So I tell them that there is no way in hell I am going to babysit this load for 4 days and that it needs to be tcalled somewhere. They can't figure out why I'm unhappy with a load that averages 350 miles/day. Dispatch hasn't got a clue anymore how to keep a driver happy. And now that Crete refuses to pay a driver layover pay and turns down over 50% of the detention requests the pay just keeps getting smaller and smaller.

 

I haven't seen a three load offer in about a month. Haven't seen a two load in over a week.

And today's stellar load? 150 miles DH, 150 miles loaded. With 2.5 days on it (that will likely end up as 3+ days, since consignee is a frickin' grocery warehouse). At least I can get my A service done. If I'm lucky enough to be in Columbus at the head of the line tomorrow.

 

You fail to recognize how much harder it is to coordinate 5 0r 6 400 milers than it is to do so for 2 1200 milers. Crete doesn't have that ability. Things have to happen quickly for that to work. No sitting around for 3-4 hours waiting for your next load offer. You pretty much have to be preplanned on your next load hours before you deliver the load you have to be able to do that on a consistent basis. Again Crete doesn't have that ability. And you also failed to take into account how much harder it is on a driver to run like that. It also usually involves far more night driving than most are willing to do. I love it when I get up at 0700, make a delivery at 0800, go pick up my next load and find that it wont be ready for 6-7 hours. The idiots at dispatch will invariably tell you to take you 10 hr break at the shipper and then run all night. How the hell are you going to get any rest when you just woke up 4 hours earlier? But they could care less about that.

 

I got a load offer kinda like that the other day. I got the 'take your break at the shipper'. And I basically said "no, the load is going to be late. The only question is how late."

In theory, multi-load offerings should help make it easier to deal with the shorter loads. You pick the load closest to the one you anticipated when you started your day (week, whatever). But like I said, I haven't seen a 3 load in a month.

Now, when you complain about no pre-plans, the response will most likely be "we can't pre-plan because of so many bad pta's" (FWIW, I'm guilty of this. Still trying to figure stuff out. So when I'm late and I have to wait for a load offer, I don't bitch)

 

I'm with karnajj on this one:

He didn't say he needed to make X amount of dollars, I believe he said he needs X amount of dollars to justify being away from the house for 3-4 weeks at a time.

You state that you are away from the house 2-3 weeks out of the month (home every week I assume). I would be slap happy with that. Try being away for 6 weeks straight, living in a tin can (no comfy hotel room for us, try sitting in the back of one of the trucks at a terminal for two days, and don't idle either) and then fighting with dispatch for another 2 weeks trying to get home.

I'm not complaining, (I just don't want you trivializing our situation) I chose this life and even enjoy it, but I do require a premium pay for this sacrifice (ok, maybe that's too strong of a word, but I'll use it anyway). I have no problem being productive (I think I've proven myself), the frustration comes with now having to be more productive to garner equal or possibly lower pay. Sure, the cut back saves the company money, but at who expense.


I understand the reasoning for the cutback, but that doesn't mean I have to be thrilled about it. Especially when I am fairly confident that the big boys in the company have not taken any pay cuts to bolster the company's profit margin.

 

Whatsamatter evertruckerr, you figure that 7 series BMW in the parking lot in Lincoln belongs to Tonn, and not a driver?

 

Of course not, that's my car. I keep one at each terminal so I can get a quick bit to eat when I'm in town.

 

Oh, cool. You don't mind if I borrow the one in Columbus tomorrow? Oh, let me guess "it's in the shop".