Good night from...

also i know scottie and squeak are runnin kw 660's and thats what im in right now at this other place and i love it. any thoughts on trucks to lease?

 

Personnally, once Plus-1 took affect and more and more the planners are not really being that involved with what is going on, it has become hands off. What irks me, L/O really does not really have any priority. The computer is looking at PTA and hours and trucks in a area. You could be in a area, one L/O and one company truck. But mt same time, both same PTA and both with plenty of hours. Becomes a luck of the draw as to who might get a great load and one gets a crap load. Have had it happen to me once. I got a load from Fontana on a Fri to Vegas and company truck, Fontanta and del 1500 miles on Mon. Ever sice the numbers changed on the trucks.

Now one thing that I wonder about, if the computer can not tell company truck from L/O, can it tell the difference if Mentor with student on the truck.

 

what exactly is the plus one deal? running for rite aid i never got into the OTR stuff with swift so i have no idea what it is

 

also as a leaser are you still under the same rule as comp. drivers in that you can only take thanksgiving or christmas off but not both?

 

It's a computer program that is supposed to be designed to get a driver one more load per week.
So, Plus-1.

What it does is send pplans with the barest minimal of time for the run, intending to get the driver to run harder every minute of every day, in the hopes of squeezing in one more load before weeks end.

If the customer has a pick up or delivery window it is not shown, just the times that Plus-1 has determined as 'optimal'.
There is very little consideration for things like breaks, traffic, weather, construction, load weight, fueling or scaling times, or more than .5 hours for drop/hook. Many times only allowing 1 hour for a live load.
It calculates times based on loaded and mt miles, which we all know are usually short. Sometimes by a couple hundred miles.
And many times when the pplan is sent, it seems that you'll be expected to jump in the drivers seat and roll within 15 minutes if you are to make the appointed pick up time.

It should be called the 'Plus-1 Service Failure and Stress' system, because if you accept most pplans as sent that is all you will achieve.

 

so you can declinea load that says its a plus 1?

 

The load is not identified as a Plus-1 load.

You can decline any load with the proper reason.
Plus-1 schedules so tightly that I usually adjust the times with the Mac 9. If my times are within the customers needs, it gets kicked right back to me with a request to commit. If not, the load is taken off me.

I got a pplan this afternoon. Pick up 01/03 at 1645, preloaded, and deliver in SC 01/07 at 0800.
Right around 2330 miles.
That's 4 days I would need, but only given 3.5 days to do it in.
I might have been able to do it at max speed with very strict 10 hour sleep breaks, minimal pre-trips, very minimal breaks, no rush hour traffic, no time for fueling, no construction zones... etc.
Might. I think it was still short on time.
So I declined the load with a final ETA of 1700.
It was simply taken off me.

I'm not going to kill myself running all out all the time, especially when I've been sick these past several days.
Well, or any other time.

I take tight loads sometimes. But I usually try to give myself a little breathing room.

 

Moose, i was looking at that load, and I was thinking that we are supposed to be pplaned at 47mph. And with all of my figuring, even without pretrips and fueling, it was still take at least 48 hours drive time and 40 hours in breaks. The last time that I added, 88 hours does not equal 3.5 days. That was a load for a team or Mentor with student running super solo. As a L/O and feeling good, I would not have accepted.

 

Back home. KW told me to give them a call on Monday. They were still trying to get the problem as far as the exact part number that is needed. What a start to the new year.

 

Just finished orientation in Jonestown PA waiting for a mentor to get here tomorrow evening. Any advice?