Stevens Transport - Dallas, Tx.

I've only been leasing since April and there are a lot of tricks to learn still. In the last two months I've had two good weeks (above 3,000 miles) with the other weeks being enough to pay for the truck and get a couple of hundred (2,000 - 2,2000 miles) for my troubles. This is an improvement over when I started and every other week I owed Stevens for the privilege of delivering their freight. If instead of being a looser living in my mom's basement, I were a family man with kids and a house payment, I would have been out of this racket a long time ago.
My training partner is thinking about becoming Alliance and I've told him to ask around what other people's experiences have been because I've told him what a hard time I've had with it. He said he hears about half and half, half good and half bad. I've encountered about the same. If you're a trainer or best of all, have a spouse who drives with you, you'd be silly to not go Alliance. For solo drivers like me, some do good and some not so good. Again, it could be that I haven't figured out the tricks yet but there is only some much I have influence over. If I ask to get repowered off a LA run which I'm ahead of because I know what a black hole LA is and my DM or the repower guys go "so what?" then I'm not sure what else to do.

My hat's off to all the people with positive attitudes out there, I wish I had one but I have been given the right prescription yet

Stay safe out there ladies and germs

 

RedEyeXpress: Sounds like your DM is an A-hole. Fire him and get a better one. Good DM makes all the difference. Ask around 2 find out who'd be best 4 u.

Oh, BTW I've experienced a bit of slowdown in last couple of months too. Maybe the vacation season?? It started to pick up about 3 weeks ago though. Hope it'll last.

 

RedEyeExpress, your DM has influence over what loads you get, and building a good working relationship with that person takes time. Also remember that they have 50 to 80 trucks on their fleets. My DM has 72.

Being ahead of schedule on a load does not warrant a repower. So long as the load will be delivered on time, that is what is most important to Stevens. Knowing this, when you are ahead going into California, set yourself up in the repower zones for the loads coming out that are running late. Think 4 to 500 miles from the produce picks. Works sometimes, but not always.

I can run 1600 miles a week, and pay my lease, and fuel expense, and put $300 in my pocket. I have an older KW, and average 6.9 mpg.

I have had a harder time staying moving this month, than any time over the last 16 months. The surplus dry freight that Stevens moves is gone. Grocery stores are ordering less produce and meat this year than last.

The old adage that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, does not work with Stevens, the more one complains, whines, the more they will sit and wait. I use the comment section on the daily check call to let them know when I am running ahead. My DM works from that.

Changing DM's is an option, but be careful with that option. There is competition between the DM fleets, and being the new guy on the fleet, means you get the left over scraps.

Be safe, communicate, and things can get better.

 

First off here's my point of view learning when to repower is a art. Noone wants a load with only 400 miles on it. As soon as you get your last load before you scan your trips in start planning were you want to repower and when. If you transflow on thursday you don't want a trip on tuesday that delivers friday yeah more miles but you end up having low miles for that week I don't look at it as how many miles can I get its how much can I work in one week. Solo driver truck 8087

 

Fist off u might want to ask Archie what exactly is the dm's job and you will find out its not to get you your loads.i know this fom experiance.see i had a gr8 dm i had a new 07 pete with an apu he ran the hell out of me...i banked on the average 1200.00 to 1800.00 a week.then he just quit and they kept gettin new dms and i went from3200 miles a week to 100 or 1200 miles a week.that is a huge cut in pay let me tell u.your dms job is to make sure you get the ld there on time,issue t checks,expadite repowers ect...if you want to keep moven know the dispatchers in each region and plan on when u will b mt call them and explain when and where you mt how many hours u have and for them 2 please find u a load out asap.Sam is a good one to deal with for cali produce loades.build up a good relationship with him and he will remember u .i used to get alot of repower loads in az from drivers comin out of cali for them 2 turn round and take my load to cali and i take theres to Cheshire,ct wow g8 miles...dont sit and wait for your dm 2 find u a ld go out and market yourself with the one in dispatch over the region u r in or going to u can make friends and build your business network stronger.always be respectful and u will get alot farther...be safe

 

zombiekc, You do know you can transflo when ever you want, after every trip, once a week, every 10 days. There is no requirement to scan your trips once a week. There "business" class suggests that you scan once a week, but as any business owner will tell you, cash flow makes and breaks a business faster than any other reason. I scan my trips as soon as possible, getting the cash into my pocket as quickly as possible. Sure this makes for some negative settlements, when they take out the expenses, but the next settlement is a positive one.

Sam is the whole foods guy in Cali. Better have full hours before calling him, as all whole foods loads are tight. Your DM has influence over the loads you get. If your DM has a good working relationship with the other DM's and Dispatchers, the repowers come quicker, and the loads are preplanned on you before you are ever empty. Keep your daily check call accurate, so the planners can count on you, and the loads are waiting for you.

 

Lea: I remember in business class, Major told us, and I'll quote him word by word "Unlike on company side, you WILL transflo once a week". That doesn't suggest any other options does it? lol
I'll try it your way next time.

Irish Papa: By my experience, what Stevens office people tell you and what is really going on are two totally different things. see above.

 

Yea, Major says that, but it is that they, major, cat and bonnie were tired of explaining to the not so smart people why they had a negative settlement. So they state that one must scan once a week. Now as far as payroll is concerned, you may scan as often as you like, or as little as you like, just make sure you stay within DOT rules and get your logs in on time. I like money in my pocket, and not allow Stevens to hold my money interest free, so I scan after one or two trips. Not a word has been said to me to NOT continue to keep my cash flow by scanning often.

Another thing they say in "business" class is to keep your cash advances to a minimum, as you are borrowing from yourself. Not entirely true. When I or you take a cash advance, we are borrowing money from stevens, against the current trip, therefore we are using Stevens money interest free, until we are paid for that trip, then Stevens deducts the amount from our net pay. Just like we borrow money from Stevens to purchase fuel, that they recover when they pay us for the trip, plus that pesky $3.00 service charge.

No service charge on the cash advances yet.

There is the written policy, which is the white book they give us at orientation, there are the updated policies that are distributed at the work shops we all must attend, then there are the stated policies, that you will never see in writing, as they are to make someones job easier.

A dm does not get you your loads, that is dispatchers job, and load planners to pre-plan loads, but a good dm works very closely with both to keep you moving. And a dm that keeps his or her's fleet moving, makes more money for themselves.

 

as most of you know,i am starting with stevens late sept,i do NOT have a bank account,what do you suggest i do,do i NEED one,how do you all get paid?

 

Another reason companies want you to get your bills to them quickly is because they often don't get paid for the loads until proof of delivery is turned in to the shipper. Marten was like that. We had a driver in our intermodal dept get fired simply because he was late with paperwork a few times. It was company policy, so it was a fair termination.