Good Night From II

If that's the one just above Jonestown, they're always hurting for people. For some reason, they just can't keep drivers on that account.

 

Pre Easter/spring break ... and those numbers spread across half the country aren't that bad ...

 

Most stops for that DC are Philly, New Jersey and eastern PA. To me it's stop light hell.

 

OK Swift veterans, this rookie needs advice. As stated I'm 958 miles from home. Today is day requested/accepted/posted as home day. Apparently no loads in area. Of course we now have the wknd circus on duty in Greer.

I've sent a freeform asking for load moving me in direction or dispatch DH to where there is freight. Nothing on mac30 through the night.

What are my options????

 

As a company driver....probably none. Memphis is planning you on the weekend which means worst of the worst.

Sorry!

 

I agree with Steve for sure. Dan, you're between a rock and a hard place. As others have said, I also don't touch any loads that are not heading in the general direction of Houston 5 days from my due date. I learned the hard way a long time ago.

Still at the wonderful Memphis Terminal waiting on the Shop. They did the B-Serv yesterday in 1.5 hrs but couldn't start on the A/C system and some other recall items until today..so I spent the night at the Holiday Inn. Very nice for $50.

Mechanic says it will take all day minimum to finish so I'll more than likely get an unneeded 34 reset out of this. Will get my ECT in Houston to push my PTA out to sometime tomorrow morning cuz I'm not accepting any loads late in the day if they by chance finish the work. Not after being up all day...so I am seriously thinking about going back to the hotel after check in time and spending the rest of the day and tonight enjoying good food and relaxing in bed. Better than hanging at this homeless shelter waiting on a truck that more than likely will not get finished today.

 

First , check your PTA with Mac34 . Its possible Ms. Snippy changed it to 23:57, planner code for do not plan this truck . Try calling Memphis and tell whoever answers you are returning the planner ' s phone call . You might get through and then beg like a beagle .

Unfortunately , planners are as concerned with our hometime requests as we are with the comfort level of their desk chair . In the future , if you get a load that finishes on Friday or the weekend call your DL and get a stack to keep moving .

You should have accepted the load that would have had you leaving home too early and then worked the system to make yourself late . Find a rest area as far away from a ts with a tire shop as possible . Let the air out of one of the trailer tires and wait one hour . Call Onroad and wait on hold another hour or so . Wait another few hours for road service . Send a Mac 22 and bump your delivery time . Deliver the load and go on hometime .

 

aways set your hometime 2 days before the date you actually want. then 5 days before that, keep pestering your dl about hometime. if you get there 2 days before, you can always help with local work to stay busy. this has worked for me

 

Unless I have an appointment that I have to get to. I'll set my home time in advance 7 to 9 days. But if I don't care about what time I usually get home then what I usually do is if I'm on the west coast I'll just pick a load that's going sort of the opposite direction of Mississippi via Mac 30. and then when I pick up that load I set my home time 5 days out from that day. so the time I deliver only have 4 to 3 days before I need to get home. but my record for turning down loads because of a home time is 8 times.
but have not had to do that in a long time.

 

A21CAV hit the nail on the head. The FIRST thing to be doing if you don't have a load is "ping" your Mac-34, at the bottom you say "Y" to whether you want to check your Mac-34 and you'll get a message back noting the time your PTA is set. Frequently I'll find that my PTA has been set to a time that wasn't my choosing, sometimes days later.

It's true the 23:57 time is planner code for "don't plan this truck". They are putting you on the back burner as they work through their load board. Whether it is because you pissed someone off because you refused a load or whether they are simply prioritizing their workload and have other drivers that have been sitting for a while and need a load, you've been "back burnered". If that's the case then use Mac-34 to set your PTA to the time you want, like RIGHT NOW.

The second thing I do in a situation like that is immediately get on the phone with my DM, best if it's a weekday during the day, when the "A Team" is working. My DM advised if I'm ever without a load or within hours of having a PTA and haven't got a load yet, then I should be on the phone "working it" to push for that next load (that was before I was Platinum Rank).

If you are Platinum, I've found that if I keep sending Mac-30 and it returns "No Loads Available" a few times then magically a load offer will appear. Planners need to "populate" the Mac-30 database with loads, and if they've been busy sometimes that database empties out. If Platinum drivers are "pinging" the Mac-30 database they get messages noting that fact and in order to silence the squeaky wheels they respond. You DON'T have to wait an hour between sending Mac-30's, just wait a few minutes and send another one, and another one, and another one....