Indian River

I run Clovis to DFW to Shreveport then 49 south to I-10 to 75 south to the Florida Turnpike. Run the Turnpike to I-4 then I-4 west a few miles to the Hwy 27 exit (there’s a Loves at that exit). 27 south to your right turn and so forth like NavyPop mentioned. You’ll have plenty of room to make the swing. There’s about 50,000 stop lights on that 10-15 mile stretch of 27. You’ll probably hit 49,999 of them when they’re red if it’s in the daytime.

 

I honestly can’t recall. Ocean Spray in Sulphur Springs, TX has let me in early before, but I’m not sure about Kenosha. Let us know what happens if you don’t mind, that way I’ll know if I go there, too.

 

I have no knowledge about the pump trucks, other than seeing them on the road or at terminals from time to time in the last two or three years that they’ve added them to the fleet.

I’ve never worked in the office at IRT, but I doubt anyone is purposely arranging the pickup and delivery times to kill off detention time. It’s probably more along the lines of them accommodating customer needs/requests and trying to prevent multiple trucks from being stacked up on customer properties who may not have the room to use their parking lot as a staging yard or have requested that the carrier send trucks at a particular time, etc. to eliminate congestion, keep the trains running on time, so to speak, etc.

I think they implemented the detention time as a way to protect the driver financially from when customers have plant issues, run out of product, mismanage scheduling, etc. It’s also an incentive for the customer to get us in and out as quickly as possible, so that IRT’s truck isn’t sitting around being unproductive. I don’t think they intended it to be used as a way for the driver to purposely cash in on extra money by intentionally arriving early somewhere in order to “be on the clock” when we could have waited for our appointment at the nearest truck stop down the road until the customer’s requested pickup/delivery time was near.

The tariff/state mile messages following each load assignment is something they’ve just started sending in the previous few weeks, at least for me anyway. I actually asked dispatch the other day what those new messages were for, and they said it was something a new manager was trying out or experimenting with (can’t recall the exact words). Also, remember your empty miles are also factored into that “state mile” number.

I hope things work out for you and you end up happy working for IRT. If it makes you feel any better, I will be live unloading in Riverside on Monday. Afterward, I’ll probably grab a clean tank in Visalia and then live load in Tipton to go to Spokane. After I drop in Spokane, I will probably live load again in Grandview or Salem, OR as usual, but regardless, the weekly average miles should still float around that 3,000 number. That’s how it’s been for the last 6+ years anyway.

Regarding the hub vs paid miles, I’ve never been one to needle them about the odometer not matching the load assignment numbers. If I did, I assume they would needle me about driving their truck 25 miles to the truck stop when I go home or why I drove a more preferred route that ended up being 25 miles farther in order to eat at a better restaurant or do my laundry somewhere that had more washers and dryers. I wouldn’t want them needling me about the small stuff like that, because it would make the job miserable and make IRT just another micromanaged machine where people from 3,000 miles away tell us where to get fuel, where to turn left, where to turn right, etc. No job is perfect, but this is by far the best gig I’ve ever had. I try to take the good with the bad, and in my opinion, there’s not much “bad” at this company.

 

I apologize if my recent response implied that or came out wrong, and I may have misunderstood your post earlier. I was mainly just giving my opinion on why the company doesn’t begin calculating the detention time until the preset appointment time for delivery/pickup. As an example of what I meant:

Right now I’m in Eloy, Arizona at the TA. I’m 382 miles from my delivery in Riverside, CA that is scheduled for Monday. If I were to continue driving there right now, I could arrive a day early since today is only Saturday. However, tomorrow is Easter, and I’ve been to this facility several times over the years, so I know it would be pointless to go on in. If I did/do choose to do that, though, I couldn’t expect IRT to pay me a layover or detention pay. That would be my own choice for driving to the customer that much in advance when I could have just as easily sat here or somewhere a little closer before arriving at my preset time. Someone, somewhere, I assume in the management office at the customer gave IRT the appointment time for Monday. For whatever reason that may be, it’s above my pay grade to ask why. The holiday may have something to do with it. The lack of capacity in a holding tank may be another reason. Their production line may not draw enough juice from their holding tank in order to free up room for my load until Monday. Whatever the reason is, I have to accept it.

Once Monday rolls around and I’m on-site at my appointment, that’s when it’s the customer’s responsibility to uphold their end of the transaction and where any mishaps or improper scheduling could subject them to detention time being charged.

There are a lot of places I’d rather be right now than sitting at the TA in Eloy, Arizona, but I knew when I applied at an over the road trucking company there would be times where I sat at truck stops (or customer facilities that I choose to arrive early at) unpaid. As we all know, that’s just part of this industry and one of the things that make OTR (or a mileage paid job) different than a job where people punch a time clock and get paid for every minute they’re on the job.

I think it’ll get better for you. You probably got hung up in a region where they were short handed or behind on loads these last few weeks and needed the help getting caught up. I say keep giving it some time and an honest shot before feeling regret.

As for the detention capping at a certain amount per 24 hours, I think that’s because they don’t feel obligated to pay a driver for a 10 hour break that he or she was already due for and would’ve had to take regardless. That’s just a guess, though. Personally, I don’t get hung up much where detention makes a difference on my checks.

 

Glad you were able to drop and get out early.