Snackbar is chillin'....at Shaffer

I was just going to stay on the sidelines and continue being a spectator on this recent discussion, but I’m bored so I thought I’d throw my useless response into the mix.

I’ve been following SSB since I first joined TTR 15+ years ago. The trials and tribulations he’s been through do make for some great reading, especially while sitting down in the morning taking care of business. I’m going to say this, and it’s not a single knock on what he’s going through or chooses to do. We all have our jobs that we are happy with, not happy with, or just stagnant with. The mindset I see is one I had for the majority of my career, gotta chase miles. Miles, miles, miles. I’m not going to sit here and say which is better or worse. I’m not going to compare my income with anyone else’s. But suffice to say, I stopped chasing miles a year and a half ago and haven’t looked back. I’ve heard folks knock him working for a mega carrier, but at the end of the day, he’s going to do what is the best for him and his family. I left a family owned company that was bought up by the biggest mega carrier in the country, I did my job safely and on time every single day. What did it get me? Squat. In fact, I was denied my year end 401K company match because I resigned with 1 day left in the calendar year, but, the fat arses on the board got their bonuses for that year. After 45 years of this insanity, here’s my take on a company that has a corporate mindset. Team player? That phrase doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. I do my job the same every day, safely and on time, the companies input to that phrase is making sure my pay is in my bank every Friday at 2am. Team player doesn’t get any better than that. I have nothing to prove to anyone. Any company I chose to work for gets that same work ethic from me, nothing more. If by chance, I couldn’t get the miles I went right into operations and voiced my displeasure. I did it with Abilene/Knight, Calex and the mom and pop company I worked for before Calex.

Im not out here wasting my time on 3 day 700 mile loads, piss poor planning, kids for a driver manager, and sorry, if my DM is sick and dealing with a medical issue, I’ll gladly keep them in my thoughts and prayers, but something needs to change.

Since I switched over to a guaranteed pay, whether I work or not, I have never once worried about miles. Those jobs are out there, private carrier jobs are out there. What is going on here is the mouse in the wheel, round and round and round and getting nowhere.

My contractor would hire SSB in a heartbeat for the simple fact that he lives in an ideal area and has no problem staying out for weeks on end. I would bet the ranch that what he would make this year at Shaffer, if he worked here he’d earn a minimum of $25K more and run on average 2000 miles per week. Oh, and get holiday pay on top of that.

I feel for the guy, he has no issue trying anything in trucking, dry van, reefer, OD, or flatbed. Heck, if it paid right, he’d try Uber as well.

My point is this, put the miles chasing on hold and look at other avenues. They’re out there. Bite the bullet for a month and pay for your wife’s prescriptions yourself.

Miles, loading docks, customer interaction, brokers, truckstop follies at the fuel island, fuel solutions, all these things would disappear. Think about this simple concept. Run 1700 miles last week, off 3 days, and get a $150 holiday pay for total of $2350. These jobs exist, but you have to abandon the CPM and mileage chasing concept.

 

If you have the miles to run, running your clock out in 6 days and resetting on the seventh is more productive then recaps. When running recaps you can’t legally run more than 70 hours in 8 days. I can run 78 hours in 8 days with a day off pretty constantly running coast to coast.

 

I don't think SSB is chasing miles for the pay so much, it's the miles themselves. $2300 a week for only 2000 miles? SSB would rather run 3000 miles for $2000 I imagine.

 

There's a boredom factor and a sense of waisting time. Sure, a 300 mile day every now and then can be a nice break, but if it's day in and day out you start to wonder what the heck is the point of being otr? Maybe it's an "idle hands are the devil's workshop" thing for @supersnackbar, running hard keeps him out of trouble or maybe he's like me, inclined towards laziness unless he has something that must get done. Maybe he's a little nuts(aren't we all?) and needs to focus on a task to quiet the voices in his head. Sometimes his rants sound like a broken record (look it up zoomer), but I keep reading, not just for the entertainment, but because between SSB and everyone else's commentary, I always manage to learn something and that, to me, makes his threads invaluable.

 

I can understand the reasons..you left Creffer the first time...and would never fault you for leaving...but if you'd stuck it out and never left...your pay at Shaffer..would now be .72 cpm..and you would have..well over $25,000 or more in profit sharing money