On being dispatched on already late loads

Worked in my foot. Gaurd shack has said "Out." as in get that load off my property and don't show up without a valid appt time. Dispatcher finds out about the out, forgets promptly three words "Work you in" and changes to yer fired.

Force that lazy dispatcher to make and issue a new appt time based on the new situation. What is past is literally water under the bridge, you are no longer on that old busted schedule.

Ive refused loads like that a time or two. It's just no way. That load is going to get there at a time in the future. Not when the customer wants it.

 

Forced dispatch never kept me from refusing to pull a load, for whatever reason. I refused a load going back to a store I was once robbed at gunpoint behind with the reason being "nope".

And a load going to a very ####ty and dangerous part of Chicago with the reason given being "I value my life".

Your life. Your time. Your cdl.

 

And THIS is the major crux of the problem. I know from experience there are 2 primary reasons a load is late. Either the load has been allowed to sit unassigned for a while OR a driver has been dispatched and for whatever reason does not get it delivered. There is NO way a receiver or broker is going to EVER pay detention for a late load. And like you said and I agree most carriers are not going to pay detention if they can't bill it. We have so many inexperienced drivers driving today. Many of these guys either don't want to mess around with fixing a bad load or they are too dang scared and try to weasel out from under the load. Sometimes waiting to get a bad load fixed will cause that load to be late. I have always tried to tell green drivers to pay close attention when being loaded. NEVER allow a shipper to close your door and seal it until you have looked inside. I actually used to use a padlock in such a way as to prevent this in those places where a loader will just jump off a dock and close the door while you are pulling forward. Look at the bills, if the weight of the load is close NEVER allow ANY of it in that last 6 to 8 feet. Hold your ground and make them take it off or reload it. I bring this up because it has been my experience that most loads that need fixing are those that are too heavy on the tail end and you can't slide the tandems back far enough. An once of prevention! It is a FACT on a heavy load ANYTHING in that area right at the door will have to be fixed. My last few years I simply refused to sign the bills and asked the loader what did they want me to do with the load? Another reason loads are late is emergencies en route. I picked up a load once at a drop yard near Chicago because the driver's wife was sick. In these situations I was always willing to help out. Loads are also late because the stupid load planners and account executives are stupid and don't post the loads correctly and they sit until someone looks at it and it gets fixed.

 

No 100% BS!!!! It is such a shame most drivers fall for it. This is just another excuse made up by office/dispatch to cheat drivers out of pay.

Your employment contract is with the trucking company. If they offer to pay detention you have a right to that pay weather they collect it or not. Demand your pay, and when it is refused, take the issue to your local labor department. It is not the truck drivers job to manage the shipping contract, it is office staff. Make them get off their lazy ### and do their job.

Even if they did not offer to pay detention at any time, if your detention is counted as working hours, your pay will likely fall under the minimum wage rate and they will be required by the labor department to compensate you.

That is not a problem as the office see it. Load times are only late because of two reasons.

1) The load has been gotten over-ripened on some planner's/dispatcher's computer as they play office grab-### for the whole morning. Only when they fall beside the 8 ball do they make an effort to get back to work and make that load move.

As such they are shopping for a sucker of a truck driver to take responsibility for their lack of work.

2)The load has sat on a broker's/load board computer waiting for some one/company pick up a load as a backhaul. Only when the consignee/customer is looking for his product, does the price go up to where somebody has the motivation to sign the contract to move it.

At this point you may also have to refer to point 1) once again.

If it does get dispatched to a truck, the company is no doubt making money on the load exclusive of any detention included in the contract. They need to pony up and pay the driver and not make an excuse to cheat him.

Yes classic BS. The more they can cheat you out of your pay, the more money they make.

Thats why they have 100% turnover.

 

Do any of these trucking companies ever discipline their office staff for not doing their jobs correctly?

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

OTR & LTL - over the mountains - through the woods - coast to coast - sea to shining sea

The OTR & LTL truck drivers of America are positively the driving force of our economy.

 

Loads are late just as much if not more because of drivers error or malfeasance.

 

OP was talking about getting dispatched on late loads and cheated on detention, not malfeasance on the driver's part.

 

Then you went on rip about it being 100 % BS about detention pay blaming it all on the carriers. You might pull that crap on the green drivers in here but I've been around a bit and know better! I'm out!!

 

HUH? What's your point?

If a carrier advertises detention, they need to pay it. The fact that the trucking company collects detention or not has no bearing on the contract a trucking company has with it's employee.

 

If I am put on a load that is already late, the planners already know it is late. They just want to get it covered.
If I show up at the shipper and am detained too long I will get detention pay. I just need to document on the BOL my arrival time and departure time. It never seemed to matter who was paying for it.
Then I send a mac 22 (late call) to give my actual delivery date and time.
The delivery will be rescheduled to my time or a bit later.
Easy.

But that is with the horrible Mega company, Swift.