Stevens Transport A year in review

Unpaid miles are just that unpaid, and no you can not deduct them from your taxes. The cause of the unpaid miles is that Stevens pays on HHMG miles, which is Zip code to Zip code, which is shortest miles. A great example of this is you leave the yard which is on the east side of Dallas, and go to Kraft on the West side of Fort Worth, actual miles 58, paid miles 30. This is why they demand that all company drivers have less than an 8% variance between paid miles and actual miles. The other cause of the unpaid miles is having to stay on paved roads to get from point a to point b. Now if I could drive the way the crow flys, I could get there close to the paid miles.

Some companies use practical route miles, which comes much closer to the actual miles you drive. It is the route the company thinks to be the best route. I know of no OTR irregular route company that pays actual miles. Some drivers would abuse actual miles and drive extra miles to the destination to increase their pay check.

 

Not really. Going to continue to do what has worked, and try small improvements that I find out about.

I will make all my deliveries safely, legally, early or on time. If I can't do that, Stevens knows immediately.

As my new truck breaks in, I will improve my MPG by driving smoothly. Speed is not the only thing that effects Fuel mileage.

Happy new year to all.

 

Here it is the first Sunday of the year. I came back to work on the 2nd, with a load from Windsor Co, to Charlotte NC to deliver on the 5th Tuesday, between 0600 & 1600. Total miles of 1793. Good way to start the year. Ran 1197 miles off by sunday night. Now I will be asking for additional 60 miles as I40 is closed thru the gorge in North Carolina and I have to go around. We will see on Monday.

Got to love this cold weather.

 

Yes they are good about adjusting miles, it is I have to request it. No request, no corrected miles. Has to be a valid reason out of my control.

On the cost of home time, I eat the miles from my drop, Cheyenne WY to Home, Casper WY, a total of 180 miles. They pay me deadhead miles to the next pickup when I come back to work.

Yes this run will cover one week of expenses.

 

If you looked, you would see that any month that was less than 10,000, I took a week off. My choice, and the way I want to run.

I will not take a student, and a rarely do a repower. I rarely need a repower either. You look at it from your idea of what it takes, I look at it I am happy with the miles I ran for the year 11758 for an average of 9798 miles per month. I only needed 1400 miles per week to cover expenses, so I made 31,000 this year.

Now on the driver manager, if I go around my driver manager, my miles drop, so I go with him. You do know that there is competition between the driver managers and their fleet miles?

I stay under the 12,000 mile mark per month due to the penalty.

Jerry I hope that the second chance works out for you, and that you get what you think it takes to keep you happy.

 

Pre plans have been hit and miss the last 6 months. More trucks than frieght, and stevens does not seem to plan ahead, but spends lots of time putting out fires, (late loads). Stevens attitude is put a truck under the load, we can repower it tomorrow to make the delivery. Makes logistics even harder. This is my biggest complaint about stevens. Now there are drivers out there that love to do repowers, I hate them with a passion. Been lied to once to many times about why a repower needed done.

Now yes I have a pre plan today, for a haz mat load to laredo. But once again Stevens does not think ahead, as it delivers on Sunday, and I will run out of my 70 hours on Saturday, and get back 0 hours on Sunday. We will see what they decide to do. Does not matter as the snow in Western New York will probably make me late also.

I like to plan ahead, know where I am going, where I will be stopping to eat, shower, and sleep. Repowers screw that up, as Stevens never tells the truth about where the other truck is, or what time the other truck will be there. And then you get the attitude from the new company drivers that think they are giving me the load because I am an alliance driver, and screwing him.

So the next load is hit and miss, some days I wait, and wait, other days I know before I unload, and other days as soon as I send in my empty call, I get a load assignment that was planned onto me, but I was not told about it. Loads tend to be sent out at 9am and 3pm otherwise.

Sitting in the dock door at WalMart, should be out of here in 2 hours.

then I can go and shower, and get some sleep, as I got up at 1am and drove for 3 hours to get here on time.