Been with Prime for a few months as an L/O now.
ran tanker for a few weeks and hated it, it's not a terrible job but not my cuppa tea. I love flatbed, or atleast that's what I keep saying to myself when I'm standing on a lumber load.
Prime is really a great company to work for, I mean that honestly. We have great communication, but sometimes wires get crossed; it's an unavoidable fact of having this many trucks and the amount of support staff as we do.
Today I dropped a load, turned, burned and got to my 01 to find out "holy crap! I'm picking up a gen set and CAT engines! Jesus Christ my job is awesome!" The gen set is not wrapped, as such needed a tarp. Oh well, I can live with that. Put down at the pickup and get a call from DM (I'm loaded one gen set, two engines) "hey, did you tarp those engine?" Oh course not, they're wrapped in shrink wrap. Two layers of it no less! "Well go ahead and throw some tarps over em." Why? No, seriously, why? These engines, they're the kind used for those large earth movers- the monster dumps...18k each...these things are made to be outside, all the intakes are sealed and again- they're double wrapped!
This isn't the first time I've seen Prime to be tarp happy, but I just spent 4 hours pulling two lumber tarps over these yellow monsters. I'm filthy, feel disgusting and exhausted, sitting here knowing when I call my 90 to check about the tarps I'll be told they're not necessary.
Just ranting about our support staff that haven't ever been in a truck, let alone thrown a chain in their life.
oh well, could be worse. I could be the office jockey!
Prime, why do you have to be so tarp happy?
Discussion in 'Prime' started by cabwrecker, Dec 2, 2014.
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Chinatown, Lepton1, blairandgretchen and 2 others Thank this.
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That plastic wrap won't stay long once you get rolling down the interstate. You would look in your mirrors and see shredded plastic flapping in the breeze. That plastic is strong, but not as strong as the wind.
blairandgretchen, n3ss and SHO-TYME Thank this. -
Simply, if the customer requires that the product be tarped (and the customer is not always the shipper OR the receiver, it's whomever booked the load and is paying the freight bill), then the product needs to be tarped. Prime doesn't make that decision, the driver doesn't make that decision, the customer that is paying everyones salary is the one that gets to make it.
hal380, jomar68, Marlin46 and 1 other person Thank this. -
I'm not overly worried about having to pull tarps, I'm just saying it was a waste of time and money. Just got off my phone with the receiver "only tarp the genset, we didn't ask them to have you tarp the engines."
so in short this is a communication breakdown with sales, or rather I just suspect laziness on admins part.DrtyDiesel Thanks this. -
and so goes the life of folks who only get 25 bucks or so to tarp. save your money, buy your own truck instead of doing the lease op thing, and get with someone like landstar or mercer where you pick and choose loads that don't have to be tarped, or either get 100 per cent of the tarp charge.
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This reminds me when I pulled flats for roehl and lonestar.
About 3 months into working for roehl I noticed I tarp a lot. I'd get to the customer and they'd ask me why I tarped it? I'd say I was told too. Anyway, after being annoyed that I would see my load be pulled from outside or out of the mud and require it be tarped, I started asking the shipper and the end customer. At roehl I hauled A LOT of lumber from Georgia Pacific. I liked GP because they had tarp machines, really helpful. Anyway, every time I'd get a load to Lowe's, I'd call the store. If they didn't require it be tarped, it didn't get tarped.
Now when I worked for Lonestar I got lazy, I'd tarp maybe once a month. So when I did have to tarp I still contacted the consignee and asked if it needed a tarp. We never tarped those shrink wrapped engines.
Anyway, didn't mean to hijack your thread, but I agree that tarping sometimes sucked. Other times it made me a LOT of extra pay and made the time consuming task worth it. I did take pride in a tarp job with straps underneath and going down the road without any parachuting action happening. I always used 100 bungies though so that helped keep the tarp in check hahacabwrecker Thanks this. -
DrtyDiesel Thanks this.
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If there is EVER a claim against a CAT LOAD you pulled , you will be glad you TARPED IT , some of their customers think you are delivering a ROLLS ROYCE not an industrial grade piece of equipment
Lucar Thanks this. -
Had an argument with night dispatchers over Tarping here just a while back. Picked up some billets that had literally just came out of the furnace. 01 said it would take 24-48 hours before they would completely cool off. Got a call from night dispatch demanding to know why I wouldn't tarp them. When I explained it to him I was told "this wasn't an excuse" lol. Now, if they call, I just say "yup" and keep Rollin on.
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It could be a security issue, so people can't see what you are hauling.
Lucar Thanks this.
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