Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

We have assigned trucks too, that being said it's not like we don't share of flip flop here and there when we need to, I have a jacket, hammer and some other minor stuff in my truck, nothing that if it gets lost or stolen wouldn't be a big deal. However it's funny because we all have some personal stuff in our trucks and the company is pretty okay with it so they like to keep the slip seating down to a minimum.

I am for the most part the only person who drives my truck, during the work week. I used to share with a transit driver and that was fine, but I switched routes and I had to go back to my own tractor so now I have my own tractor.

 

We have a couple assigned trucks one who assigned himself a truck after he went bat crap crazy about being assigned a straight truck one day.
Otherwise the rest of us slip seat, because we will never have enough equipment to have assigned trucks. The owner hates the very idea of assigned trucks. And the dispatcher even hates the idea of assigned routes.

 

hey
I finally found a 9-5 trucking job

too bad it's 9pm to 5am.

still, i really only did log 42 hours over 5 shifts (and 2400 miles). Take out one extra little short hop run and it would be 40 hours.

That's actually kind of incredible.

 

I love these drivers who come unglued for just the most petty of reasons. "You can't assign that stop to me that's not my stop? This is some bull crap!"

I don't know usually I just take what they give me and make the most of it normally there pretty fair and even if a route is a little long so what? So it's long one day, I had a long Wednesday 2 Wednesdays ago and it was fine because at the end of the day it ended up making for a healthy pay check.

Dennis Praiger yesterday had a good one and this ties in, he said when he was in 4th grade he was in parochial school and the Rabi said "Alright, boys time to fold your hands for afternoon prayers."

So he walked over to the Rabi respectfully, but with purpose and said "Rabi, sir, I'm not in the mood for afternoon prayers."

The Rabi looked at him for a minute, stroked his beard and went "Dennis Praiger isn't in the mood for afternoon prayers? So what?"

As far as the man he doesn't want to drive the straight truck goes uhhh all I can say is so what?

 

Cool! I have minimum experience with dry box doubles. What I do have experience with is pulling piggy backs. I have been able to back up and park with one truck pulling 2 trucks but with 3 behind me, not happening. I know that the shorter the trailer the quicker they cut. I also understand what they mean by "whip effect" too.
It's definitely an attention getter when you pull 3 tractors behind one. You quickly learn the value of small corrections.

 

Yup, that's basically what the rest of us think about getting in a Straight truck. SO what?
We handle a lot of irregular size freight, and our dispatcher, bless her heart, never looks at the stuff. She just looks at how many are there for any one stop. It does make sense to send a small truck on some routes some days based on the number of stops and the number of pcs in the truck.

Until we tell her that the stuff is 8ft long and 4 ft wide. The biggest I have hauled was 13'6" by 7' wide. It was going to be my last stop in the nose behind a couple stops that I had to pick up on the way to that delivery ( I shunted that one to another driver who could put it right inside his door, so they could grab it with a lift and do it the right way.)

Then we get the additional pick ups, and some customers who REFUSE to drive on a straight truck to get out their 2500# tote of liquid. Or the 3500# cross fit apparatus that is in the nose and has to be broken down to get it out.

We are trying to get it all in and delivered, but she still thinks if she sends a straight truck she is saving money somehow, when we cant get a pick because its too big or too many pcs or cant finish loading the stops, because there are too many oversize pcs.

But the best is when we point out that some stops cant be delivered on a particular day. Because they are closed those days. She gets defensive and huffy, telling us that we WILL take the stop and that we have delivered it before on such and such days.
But, ok, So what.