Stevens Transport aviary

tl have you ever delivered to dillons in goddard ks. just wondering that is where i live.how bout the nice kansas wind? fun huh?

 

Nope, never delivered there. Kansas wind, about like Wyoming wind.

 

Well stuck at Am Best till Monday. I was assigned to a trainer who was supposed to pick me up today but was never notified of it and is on vacation till Monday. By the time I found out Randal was gone for the day, so I sit here till Monday when I can get this straightened out.

 

I just can't seem to get out of Dallas. We were repowered off the load going to NJ and now we are back in Dallas waiting to unload at 0600 in the morning. The next drop is at 0300 the following day. After that there are drops at 1400, 1900, 2100 and 0600 on the 24th. If anyone wants to repower this let me know.

 

Time to get on the phone, and see if any of those drops will take it early.

I personally HATE repowers.

They are necessary when a truck breaks down, to get the load delivered, but Stevens uses them way too much, and the repower group has their favorites whom never bumb a dock.

I am going to be a day late with my meat load to Hunts Point...snow storm stopped me .

not a word from the repower group, not a word about rescheduled appointment. Now monday morning the proverbial will hit the fan.

 

Another satisfied Stevens driver here.

My name's David. I just got into my Alliance truck this past Monday. First load: two picks in Ft. Worth (Tyson and VersaCold). Papa John's pizza toppings heading to their distribution center in Gilbert, AZ. Easy two and a half day run.

Just before leaving Gas City in Benson, AZ. on Wednesday morning, I get a pre-plan for Earthbound Farms in Yuma. Great. I'm sure it's a 5 or 6 pick load, and I won't be getting out of there until Friday night. So I head to PJ's and get empty around 1300. Send my E-call, and almost instantly I get the dreaded "Head to Gila Bend ASAP to retrieve your fax yada yada yada". I knew it was coming, but I dread having to do the fax / call thing all the same. Jam down to the Love's in Gila Bend, pay the $2.00 to get my two faxed pages, take a deep breath and expect the worse as I start to read over them. From what I can tell, it's just one pick. It's 25 pallets worth of prepacked salad. And it's only 7200 lbs gross (including pallet weight). Woohoo!

I head out to my truck and call produce. They confirm that it is only one pick, and that it's only 6900 lbs because I wouldn't be receiving one pallet of product. Didn't ask why, didn't care, just replied "10-4", hung up, and took off towards Yuma. Got down there to the Love's (what a fustercluck that place is...need a whole nother thread to go on about that place lol), shimmied my way into a paking spot, and ran in to take a quick shower. It was around 1630 by this time, and my appointment at the shipper wasn't until 2300.

Head out of the Love's at 2200 and drive the 3 miles over to Earthbound Farm. They take me right in, give me a door assignment, a worksheet to fill out with the usual info (company name, trailer license plate number, etc...). They tell me I can "feel free to wait in my cab while I'm being loaded and they'll come out and get me when they're finished". I politely declined the offer and said "It's too hot out here for me anyways, I'd rather go stand around inside the cooler for 2-3 hours and play chicken with all the forklifts". He didn't laugh, just shook his head and said "OK. The loader will be at your door shortly". I grab my coat, gloves, and inventory sheet from Whole Foods (the consignee) and head in.

Do the whole song and dance while getting loaded (pulp, verify case count, place temp recorders on pallets, etc...). Finally finished around 0130. Get my bills from the office, pull away from the dock, close the doors, slide the tandems, and take off to Barney's / Flying J a few miles down I-8 to get some sleep before hitting the road.

So I was amazed that a produce load could go that smoothly, only have one pick, be that light, and have that many miles on it, with plenty of time to run them. My trainer so eloquently put it: "That load is 2600 miles of pure cha-ching baby!" The load's headed to Cheshire, CT. btw.

So here I sit in Weatherford, TX. at the Petro (about 35 miles west of Ft. Worth) taking my 10 hour break. Had it not been for the cold front and snow up in Oklahoma and Kansas City, I'd be sitting up there somewhere tonight instead. But, produce assured me I'd be paid the extra 350 miles required to take the southern route to avoid the crappy weather. I'll be verifying with my DM in the morning when he gets in. I asked S in produce to put it across the QC that I'd be paid the extra miles, but he hasn't done that yet lol. I'm not holding my breath.

So, like so many of you here, I have enjoyed my time here at Stevens so far. Of course I've a bad load or two, ran into some horrendous weather (who didn't this winter, ya know?), had a few truck problems, but that's part of trucking, and not exclusive to Stevens.

P.S. Who said that the leasers get their trucks set at 68? Mine's still at 62, and will remain that way until I get to my two-year anniversary. Is there something I'm missing, cuz I'd sure love to have it set at 68 haha.

My truck number's 7980. I look forward to running into you guys / gals out on the road sometime.

Take care!

 

Made the drop at 0600 this morning. Mr. Trainer called the dispatcher and now we are headed to the Windy City. My dad was in the area so after the delivery I was able to go and eat a nice meal with him and visit for a while before headed to Chicago.

 

welcome

Glad you are adding your experiences too, the more the merrier.

The joys of a 62 mph truck.

I have now passed my 2 year anniversary, but have not been back to the yard yet. And then it is 66 mph not 68.

I picked up in Yuma last week 2 picks, and it took all day!!!!!!

I see you are from California, so you will want to go home, which means another driver that wants to go to California, and help keep me OUT.

Panic set in around 10am this morning in dallas over my load, that by that time was totally late. The weekend crew totally ignored my running late messages and even my repower request where a team could have made the delivery on time. Guess it just was not high enough priority for them. It is not a tyson load either. QC beeps and beeps, my phone rings, we have a repower set up in carlisle PA, what time can you be there? About 5pm. #### that does no good! yea no ##### sherlock. They, (meat in Dallas) finally got it rescheduled for Tuesday, 6am to 11 am...

yea me Hunts point here I come...From the West coast, to the east coast in 1 week.And a day off for snow

Time to get some sleep, so I can roll across the GW before sunrise.

 

Hi guys,


So today I passed my DMV test ,and I will be heading to Dallas this Saturday for oerntation this Sunday.
Hopefully with some hard work I will continue on and begin my career with a trainer.
So, are there any big surprises that I can look forward to during orentation?
I am very green ,but I think I am a hard worker, and hopefully I can learn things fast.
Reading these posts are what got me to apply to Stevens. I like it that the training is longer than some other stater companies.I think I will need all the training that they offer so that I can be comfortable when I get my own tractor.
Anyways I will post from time to time with some "new guy" questions.
Again , thanks for the posts and everyone have a good day

 

After a week on the new peterbilt I thought I would post some fuel mileage numbers.

The first fillup was in Sulphur Springs, TX with 154.2 gallons and a hub reading of 17630.

Fillups are as follows:

03/20 Dandridge, TN hub 18739 166.37 gal 1109 miles 6.65 mpg
03/22 Norman, OK hub 19813 161.00 gal 1074 miles 6.67 mpg
03/24 Hamhshire, IL hub 20645 128.00 gal 832 miles 6.50 mpg

Total Miles: 3015 Total Gallons: 455.37 Avg mpg: 6.62

When on the highway the cruise was set at 60.2 mph which was 1340 rpm.

The fuel economy indicator on the dash usually reads 6.9 mpg, however, on the run from Norman, OK to Strafford, MO I slowed the truck to 58.2 mph # 1290 rpm and the economy indicator improved to 7.2 mpg.

There are other factors having an effect on the mpg's such as shiftpoints and how the truck is accelerated. In addition, this truck is bigger and heavier than the KW t-2000.

I am still experimenting on the truck with different shiftpoints. 1400 rpm seems to be pretty smooth, however, I am going to see if it will also work at 1300. I am also going to see what how much of a gain can be made from cruising at 58 mph.

It may be a little difficult to get a completely accurate reading because my trainer and I have differences in our driving styles.