The WORST Shippers and Receivers - Truckers WILL NOT Buy Their Products!

**ralph** · 07.11.2012

Originally Posted by truckgopher

I have to say PEPSI, why? they generally treat my drivers with no respect, they make us wait several hours with no explanation and load us extemely heavy. On several occassions they don't even have scales on site and we have to drive for 1hr to the nearest scale in Hayward CA. They are firm about appointment times and when you arrive on time they make you wait for hours. They have a policy to load their trucks before the long haul trucks as a result we waist a lot of time.

And yet you keep sending your drivers back for more abuse>WHY would Pepsi change their ways? What's their incentive?

**truckgopher** · 07.11.2012

Nope, during a driver meeting everyone disclosed their complaints with PEPSI and I immediatly pulled the plug on them. Today, we constantly get phone calls from brokers regarding loads and the first question that I ask is "is this a PEPSI load?" Never again. I like to think that my drivers are my biggest asset and treating them with respect is my number one priority.

**MMLog** · 07.12.2012

Good for you Now if everyone would get on board like you have done with Pepsi and I have done with Sams, the independents might get somewhere

**Spokester** · 07.17.2012

I didn't read every post, but if Americold isn't on this list, I'd be surprised. I really don't like this business. It's 100 deg outside, I have a frozen load; so what do they do? Open the doors, and have me back in, only to leave me sitting for 2 hours now without even touching the load. Typical. If I'm out of here before the 6 hour mark, I'll be really surprised. This is the Fogelsville, PA Americold. My last time here, 7 hours on the dock, was late for my next pickup. I especially love that they charge $100 for being 30 mins late for an appt, but don't seem to care if they make you late for an appt 7 hours or more later. This is one of our major accounts, but when I'm on my own, I'll NEVER come near one of these time-wasting jerks! Countless hours sitting on their docks uncompensated. If I'd kept my clock at the "On-Duty Not Driving" line like I'm technically supposed to while waiting in my sleeper for them to do their job, I'd have lost THOUSANDS of $$ in lost driving time, not just the time spent sitting on the dock. Pisses me off.

There are others, but none as bad as Americold!

**Rattlebunny** · 07.18.2012

I'll grant you that Americold is bad. But then most grocery warehouses are the same way. If you hate waiting, here's hoping you don't have to wait for a meat load in Kansas ... anywhere. EG: DDT 12/14/11 00:35 Actual Ready Time: 12/17/11 13:25. More than three days waiting for a load to be ready.

This is part of the hell that is refer dragging. You'll have days that go smoothly and your load will be quickly unloaded ... or your trailer will be loaded and ready before you get there ... but more often than not you're going to end up waiting forever and delivering in the wee hours of the morning if you're dragging a refer. Best of luck.

**ironpony** · 07.18.2012

Originally Posted by Spokester

I didn't read every post, but if Americold isn't on this list, I'd be surprised. I really don't like this business. It's 100 deg outside, I have a frozen load; so what do they do? Open the doors, and have me back in, only to leave me sitting for 2 hours now without even touching the load. Typical. If I'm out of here before the 6 hour mark, I'll be really surprised. This is the Fogelsville, PA Americold. My last time here, 7 hours on the dock, was late for my next pickup. I especially love that they charge $100 for being 30 mins late for an appt, but don't seem to care if they make you late for an appt 7 hours or more later. This is one of our major accounts, but when I'm on my own, I'll NEVER come near one of these time-wasting jerks! Countless hours sitting on their docks uncompensated. If I'd kept my clock at the "On-Duty Not Driving" line like I'm technically supposed to while waiting in my sleeper for them to do their job, I'd have lost THOUSANDS of $$ in lost driving time, not just the time spent sitting on the dock. Pisses me off.

There are others, but none as bad as Americold!

There is nothing in the HOS regulations that requires you to log line 4 while in the sleeper waiting. You only need to be on line 4 when you are actually on the dock supervising loading/unloading, dealing with paperwork, etc.

Any C&S warehouse is much worse than Americold.

**peterbuilt48** · 07.18.2012

Originally Posted by Spokester

I didn't read every post, but if Americold isn't on this list, I'd be surprised. I really don't like this business. It's 100 deg outside, I have a frozen load; so what do they do? Open the doors, and have me back in, only to leave me sitting for 2 hours now without even touching the load. Typical. If I'm out of here before the 6 hour mark, I'll be really surprised. This is the Fogelsville, PA Americold. My last time here, 7 hours on the dock, was late for my next pickup. I especially love that they charge $100 for being 30 mins late for an appt, but don't seem to care if they make you late for an appt 7 hours or more later. This is one of our major accounts, but when I'm on my own, I'll NEVER come near one of these time-wasting jerks! Countless hours sitting on their docks uncompensated. If I'd kept my clock at the "On-Duty Not Driving" line like I'm technically supposed to while waiting in my sleeper for them to do their job, I'd have lost THOUSANDS of $$ in lost driving time, not just the time spent sitting on the dock. Pisses me off.

There are others, but none as bad as Americold!

I remember back in the 80's I had to pick up a load there.I brought in my own pallets and they still charged me $75.00 to take them off my truck and another 75 to put them back on . I had a check for the load for 75 dollars for them to load and a bunch of other bull.Anyway,I walked out of there with no load and all my pallets and the money.I called boss man and told him If he wants to pull that load as a back haul so bad to send another driver in because I'm going home. He said he would send another driver in and the other driver had the same problem and he went home too.We ,as drivers were all close knit and I called him and told him the problem I had and he said he had the same but he left We as a company never went back.

**peterbuilt48** · 07.18.2012

Originally Posted by ironpony

There is nothing in the HOS regulations that requires you to log line 4 while in the sleeper waiting. You only need to be on line 4 when you are actually on the dock supervising loading/unloading, dealing with paperwork, etc.

Any C&S warehouse is much worse than Americold.

never had a problem with C&S.Several others in the same area,yes.

**Spokester** · 07.20.2012

Originally Posted by ironpony

There is nothing in the HOS regulations that requires you to log line 4 while in the sleeper waiting. You only need to be on line 4 when you are actually on the dock supervising loading/unloading, dealing with paperwork, etc.

Any C&S warehouse is much worse than Americold.

I still have yet to read every iota of regulation... Was listening to "Landline Now" on Sirius, and the lawyer they have on there spoke about how the HOS regs work. He was saying that if you can't jump in a cab and go somewhere, or walk away from the truck while it's sitting somewhere (like on a dock being unloaded), then you are technically supposed to be "On-Duty Not Driving". He's supposedly the "expert" that studies this, but you know how that goes. Even if it were true, I still wouldn't log that way, it's just absurd. That kind of uncompensated waste of driving time would have me leaving trucking if it were enforced. Barely making enough to justify being away from home all the time as it is; knock off a few thousand $$ in lost income, and I'd go back to my $15/hr bicycle mechanic job...

**ironpony** · 07.20.2012

Originally Posted by Spokester

I still have yet to read every iota of regulation... Was listening to "Landline Now" on Sirius, and the lawyer they have on there spoke about how the HOS regs work. He was saying that if you can't jump in a cab and go somewhere, or walk away from the truck while it's sitting somewhere (like on a dock being unloaded), then you are technically supposed to be "On-Duty Not Driving". He's supposedly the "expert" that studies this, but you know how that goes. Even if it were true, I still wouldn't log that way, it's just absurd. That kind of uncompensated waste of driving time would have me leaving trucking if it were enforced. Barely making enough to justify being away from home all the time as it is; knock off a few thousand $$ in lost income, and I'd go back to my $15/hr bicycle mechanic job...

The regulations are intentionally vague, that's part of the problem. The intent is what's important, and unfortunately that quite often requires a court to decide. Do the terms "loading" and "unloading" mean the entire process of checking-in at the gate, presenting/receiving bills, driving the truck to the dock and backing in/out, AND whatever is done at the dock whether you are present or not? Or does it mean just the physical labor of moving freight onto or off of the trailer - and/or supervision of a lumper? I don't see anything in the regs requiring that you must log all time at a shipper or receiver on line 4.

OOIDAs attorney is taking the very conservative view of it's everything from the moment you arrive until the moment you leave a shipper or receiver. When providing legal advice to a client, he's probably right to do that. If he says anything else, then there's room for a client to come back on him for providing faulty legal advice if the client gets jacked-up by the DOT. OTOH, I've heard the FMCSA Administrator opine that it means just the physical act of loading or unloading the trailer - just the time you spend on the dock actually dealing with the load. So who is right?

Log it like you do it. If I'm sleeping, I'm certainly not "in readyness to operate the truck" or performing non-driving labor - which is the definition of line 4. The bottom line is that you could argue a logbook violation in a court of law, and most likely get it dismissed if you were logging line 2 time and catching some Z's. But the same FMCSA and the state LEOs may not remove it from your CSA record.