I have several:

1.) Road Repair has let me down on too many occaisions. They have not even responded to about 3 or 4 "emergency breakdown" macros I have sent in. I have bought two steer tires out of my own pocket. There have been other incidences.

2.) The tarps and bungies that contractor services provide are substandard. Though, I have not been flatbedding that long, I did get a lot of experience tarping with TMC. I can tarp. After using the tarps provided, every one of them have multiple holes and tears in them. The bungies pull right through the grommets, tearing them in half, the D rings pull out, the edges pull apart and fray and anything at all tears them and puncture holes in them. In a word, they are not made for serious flatbedding. I, guess, now all they are good for is padding tarps. I am going to have to purchase serious flatbedding tarps at my own expense.

The bungies, once stretched, stay stretched and break. Out of 100 bungies I started with 5 months ago, I have about five left. This is after only five tarped loads.

3.) To many office personel are clock watchers. Nothing gets done close to 1700. Too many times I have been in the middle of a qualcomm conversation and it abruptly ends at 1700. They went home and left me hanging.

I will do whatever it takes to get the job. I let few obstcales stand in my way of delivering on time and in fact delivering a day or more early whenever possible. I don't find it unreasonable for my support staff to go the extra mile, also.

4.) A lack of preplans. If you are delivering to Tacoma, WA, as well as many other slow freight areas, Florida comes to mind, why cannot the planners start looking for a load, immediatly, especially, when they know you will be there in three or four days and you are completely reliable.

Don't get me wrong, I am doing well at ATS. I'm told I am one of the top wage earners here. But, that could increas with with a few more preplans. Last week I sat for two days, Monday after delivery to Tuesday before loading and delivering on Friday before loading tomorrow, Monday morning. Not to misslead anyone, I am using the weekend to bounce 600 miles and I am squeezing in a 34 hour restart. Nevertheless I could have delivered another load and and made another $500.00 to $1,000.00. Before, you suggest I am being too picky, I delivered one load a day early and the last one four days early. I took up the slack in the system myself.

I'm sure there are other complaints, but I'm distracted by the television.

Go to Ramler in Athens. Theyre about 15 miles west of ATS west. Theyre cheaper and faster than Truck Sales.

One of the reasons why I bought my truck from the outside was because of those idiot mechanics that ATS employs. I wouldnt let those guys do a $5 oilchange. Especially that Gary shop. Want see me pissed off? Tell me that my load is sitting on the yard in Gary.

Television? Whats television?

I have more complaints:

This program for L/O's is designed to afford you as little home time as possible. You must stay on the road for weeks on end. At the end of July, beginning of August, I took 3 days off, when I only wanted 2. Then, hauled a load from Manitowoc, to NC, sat for a day and a half waiting to get unloaded, and barely was able to save the week. I pushed for a short haul load, and got one out of Bland, VA. This brought me into Friday in the Baltimore area, under an RGN. I think my pay for tha week was $130.

Friday I loaded OD tractors from Baltimore going to OH and MI for over the weekend. Monday night, I loaded from Sandusky, OH to Atlanta, and delivered Wednesday morning. I still hadn't made my trucks bills yet, and they offered me a load from Pensacola to Mojave, CA. I asked about another short load to save the week, and was told nothing was available. Somehow my settlement this week is 193.00.

I haven't gone behind in my lease yet, but I've been darn close.

Anyone else noticing lately that they seem to offer enough to cover the truck bills, and you're lucky to take anything home? Or is it just me? I understand that hometime put me under the gun, but I should have done better the following week. Especially pulling an OD load to start the week!

I'm thinking I did alright this week, as the 11'6" wide Hub from Pensacola paid decent, and now I'm one of the many guys sitting here in Fontana. I've accepted TWO loads in the last 2 days. Both cancelled on me. Everything else they've offered (Shingles to Denver 80,000lbs, and drag it through the Rockies) is not so great. I'd end up spending 70% of the load pay on fuel and be in Denver at the end of the week. The guys sitting here on percentage seem to be getting hammered worse than I am. Of course, three of them are standing by the door yakking with their trucks idling...but that's another story.

But I've accepted TWO loads since I emptied yesterday, and both tanked.

I just want that on record.

Things are slow all over.
How often do you go home?
Sometimes you need to just dh out of Fontana.
If you took the load to Denver you could of got a ld. out of Trane. Did you even ask about that before you said no?

I continue to do well. Especially, considering I have a, whopping, two years experience, total, in the trucking industry. I am still a Class 4 Driver, although I am picking up my fifth load today which will make me a Class 3 Driver shortly. Theoretically, I will be getting load offers from a large pool, reflecting my higher classification.

There are only two ways to put more money in your pocket, increase revenue and reduce cost. As a driver there are many factors that we have little to no control over. I tend not to waste my time with these. However, there are several things I can do to show immediate results in reducing my cost.

My greatest expense, and yours, is fuel. I have little control over how much I pay for fuel. I can choose, when, where and how I fuel, attempt to get the best deal. I top off my tanks and run them practically dry. While not affecting the price I pay as much as saving time with less frequent fueling stops. I try to use as little fuel as I possibly can, this takes real effort getting the, absolute, most out of each gallon. We all know the drill and make personal choices on how fast we drive and how much we idle.

Keep your maintenance up, not only will it save on fuel, it will save on roadside calls, expensive repairs and down time.

Ahhh, I started this tread with some good ideas, but I have been up just short of 24 hours and I am losing it. I gotta get some sleep and I will continue where I left off at a latter date.

I'm not posting as much as I have in the past, mostly, because I am running my ### off. I will have a little more freedom as soon as this audit is over.

See you all in the funny papers.

Why would I deadhead out of Fontana, when I was sitting there accepting loads? The load to denver would have eaten more fuel than it was worth, so even on the mileage contract, that would have been a bad business decision.

I finally got a load that Friday out of the Port of LA. It was an OD load, not the greatest, but it got me back into Texas for Tuesday (thank you NM no travel on Sunday rules). From there I got a Class 2 load into Alabama with an extra pick that paid okay.

Then, I got another Class 2 load over the weekend again into Indiana. From there I ran THREE Chicago Heights to Manitowoc, couldn't take any more, and headed home. (152 miles from Manitowoc).

I'm going to continue to run short as I want to be home the 11th and 12 also.

No I did not ask about a load out of Trane in Pueblo, as I heard that account was closed. Plus, again, I had accepted two other loads besides.

Which brings me to my point.

Not everything that happens is the fault of the driver at ATS, though that seems to be the first thing that people tend to think.

Some additional thought:

Build a network of drivers you keep in contact with. Triplesix has touched on this. As long as you trust your network, it is a shortcut to years of experience learning about freight, freight lanes, shippers and receivers.

I don't follow my own advice at times. I will select a load because I haven't been somewhere before or any other reason.

I like running the West, less traffic, less tolls, less competition and greater miles. On the other hand, there are mountains and less freight.

I avoid the Northeast like the plague. I hate tolls. The should be outlawed. When possible, I try run at night to miss the traffic and weigh stations. Even in the East and Northeast there are some great places to go that don't have much traffic and no tolls.

This Winter, I'm going to try to stay as close to Texas, the South and Southwest as much as possible. I'm going to try to avoid the snow and ice as much as possible. It slows you down enough that you can't make money. I'm sure there will be many other drivers with the same thought.

Sounds like you need a regional job

I never said that everything was the driver's fault with ATS. Alot of it has to do with who your FM is.

Theres a cute girl that works at the Fontana yard name Stephanie. Love her to death. Would loooooove to see her again. But I wont go to California for less than $2.50 a mile. The freight is extremely cheap and the last time I went out there, I went and got a load of shingles from Compton. If I go out there again, they will have to pay me big bucks and then I will take the first $.90cpm load that weighs less than 25k, that goes east of 35 thats offered.
The only time Ive been past 35 since I became O/O is to take a couple OD loads to Pueblo and to take a $5500, 4000lb load to Milford,UT. Not going west of 35 unless the load is paying well.

Mr Sinister, try this:

When you get unloaded in an area, ask your FM what number you are on the board. If you are at or near the top of the board, hold out for the better paying loads. They will come. If you are near the bottom, the garbage loads will filter down to you first. If you get a decent paying load and youre number 16 on the board, snap it up and run, as long as its staying in the freight lanes. Do not take a decent load to a dead area...you will lose your #$$ trying to get out.

It sounds also like your FM and you arent on the same playbook. Youre not here to haul freight...youre here to make money. Sometimes, some of these FM just do enough to get their drivers a load, doesnt matter if its cheap. I was offered a lumber load. I send a message over the qualcomm that said, "HA HA HA REAL FUNNY. NEVER OFFER ME ANY LUMBER LOADS EVER AGAIN." Tell your FM where you want to be.

This too is where the driver network that Terry mentioned comes in. If you know where the freight is moving at, thats where you need to go. The other drivers will tell you. When you find out, tell your FM thats where you want to go. A bonehead FM will not know where the freight is or why you want to go there, but it doesnt matter. You captain the ship. If noone on your network is moving, go to survival mode. If they are moving, you should be moving too.

Thats where I shut the truck off, and conserve money and live on just the bare minimum (bologna, cheese, and crackers wahed down with water.)

I was doing really well back in June, sending $5k a week to the house. July4th tho, everything went to hell. Sat in Laredo for 4 days. Someone came in and underbid CH Robinson (amazing...someone cut Cheap and Heavy Robinson's rates) and Laredo was dead for weeks. Got up into Virgina and sat for days. Went to Florida and sat for days.

The suddenly, things picked up. The last 3 weeks have been good.
I can only hope things continue just a bit longer.