Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but we're all guilty of letting these long waits get out of hand. Waiting without detention is almost as bad as rate cutting. I say almost because I'm as guilty of it as the next guy, but what's a guy to do?

I almost got crucified the other day when I told another driver that I couldn't wait for electronic logs to become mandatory, because that would stop alot of the un-compensated waiting that has become the industry standard. When a driver no longer can fudge his log to make up for a marathon waiting session to load or unload, he'll have to either refuse to wait or demand detention. What do you guys think? Am I just young and naive, or would a seemingly industry crippling mandate (electronic logs) actually help us with the waiting problems we face right now?

 

I don't see the shippers caring enough about the logs to change anything until they can't find any trucks to move anything for them. I dunno if I'd make a good O/O or not because it wouldn't take long for me to get fed up with their crap. I'd charge them detention, bill them for it, and file claims when they didn't pay. Even if they never paid me for it I'd still annoy them at least as much as they annoyed me.

 

Yes, I agree that shippers and receivers will always find a way around detention, but my point is that if a driver couldn't "fix" his log to compensate for that wait, them maybe that's what it would take for more of us to refuse to service the shippers and receivers that repeatedly abuse our time. These companies get away with it because there is ALWAYS some broke **** trucker willing to take that load. I could be wrong, but usually the drivers and/or companies that will sit in a line or hours on end and not balk at it are the same drivers and/or companies that will blatantly falsify logs to "get 'er done."

 

Planning is the main issue here, for example if a place knows they can load 2 trucks an hour and are open 8 hours then why do they schedule 24 pick ups that day? i dont know if any of you have dumped DDG or Bean Meal in Elwood, the name of the place is on the tip of my tongue, when they were first come first serve that place was a nightmare

 

Elwood,Ill

 

I'm with you about electronic logs, but they need to make it a 2 way street - and adjust HOS to account for trouble - as well as making det pay mandatory.

If the EOBR is GPS enabled (the only way I'd do it) then we can prove how long we've been sitting there instead of worrying about them clocking in and out (some have the scales in the pit itself). I'm thinking about printing up a simple sheet and asking customers (gate guard, etc) to initial me in when I show up - just to record any wait time and show them I'm watching and keeping track.

The waits I've seen have been as long as 14 to 16 hours in some places. Either they didn't want to stay late and unload me when I got there with more than enough time to unload, or they had "equipment failure". There's been more than once I was tempted to leave them 2 beads in front of their gate and stick the paperwork in the top of it!

With everything going on in DC these days, we're lucky to know what'll happen 5 minutes from now - and that stinks on our end. I've been wearing out the post office and internet to my reps since before I bought my truck - trying to keep the playing field level between myself and the big boys out there. Just the cross border trucking issue alone is enough to scare me some - they want cheap labor and they'll destroy a country to get it! Just look at what's happened to the airline industry......

If you want an eye opener - the movie "Capitalism - a love affair" will really wake you up to how our needs are being ignored more and more. Anyone who dismisses the pile of evidence against us making a decent living every day is deaf, dumb and blind IMO.

 

In the end, I think it all boils down to the fact that we're all part of a fiercely competitive industry. There can, at times, be MANY of us competing for the same load, and that puts the shipper/receiver at an extreme advantage, and us at, well, you know the rest. I'm a pretty young guy, and I have no plans on leaving this industry, even with it's problems. One thing I am hoping for though, is that when the baby boomers start retiring, there won't be enough new blood to take their places, translating to better income and working conditions for myself. Hey, a man can dream, can't he?