My FFE experience

That's one of my biggest fears is getting a POS truck and trying to deal with all the other newbie stuff and a company that won't fix their trucks. But I'm off to Dallas in a couple hours see you guys in a few weeks. Hopefully FFE and I can have a good working relationship.

 

Best of luck to ya tobig.

 

Na, I'm not there anymore. I left back in October but I got a card in the mail from my recuiter there and sense work and money is getting hard to come by, I'm considering going back (even with all the BS and all the #### I've talked about them)and giving it a second go around and hope for better result's this time sense WPM say's it's nothing to get hyped up about but he's getting everything like he is supposed to. I'm going to call my recruiter tomorrow and have a nice long word with her about the BS that went on after what she had told me when I first started. Also looked at NasDaq and it look's as if the number's are starting to make a come back so we'll see.

I've got a chart worked out to keep track of trip #'s, QC mile's and actual miles vs the pay rate with the date's as well so if I get screwed over again I'll have it all in number's for them to explain. Hometime really isn't a big deal for me right now. I need a break from the kiddies but mostly make what I can.

Yea, stay off the roach coach. If you can help it, bring some extra cash and order a pizza from Domino's or chinese, it's a hell of a lot better. The Sunny Wok is the better of the two chinese place's that deliver there and avoid the guy that barely speak's english selling pizza's. They really aren't all that great.

Anything else ya wanna know just ask.

 

Talked to recutier yesterday..pretty much standard stuff..will do orientation in Chicago...will talk to him again today..my turn to interview him.. LOL...
Anyway...Questions

How is company on idle? Does'nt look like trks have apu's...

I for one not big on idleing unless weather warrents it..

Do deliveries/pickups stay pretty consistant or are all over the clock? ( this may have been covered already not sure)

I know they run all 48, but will they keep/offer a driver (in) a certian area or region?

not a big fan of northeast states..(New Jersey..and points north) I mean I'll do it just
don't want to get stuck there...Last company I was with at times would take as long as a week to get me out of the area...To me just a time/patience killer.

How much BS do they give a driver if a load needs rescheduled due to breakdown/weather..

Being from Michigan driving in bad weather doesn't bother me as much as some drivers (4 wheelers as well) who don't ..or won't adjust to conditions..Winter 2008
had a fourwheeler (car) try to pass me (roads not too bad) got midpoit of my trl..spun sideways and went under my trl...tandems crushed passenger side..luckily no one in car but him...no injuries..still did'nt stop that quezzie feeling in the gut..untill I found out he was ok.

How about HOS..if I don't have hrs to run a load how much flak for turning load down?

I like to keep dispatch up-to-date as to my available hrs...but at times this can be overlooked...

one last question...

How are they on timely dispatch?

I mean will they send a load, more to the front of pickup window or the end...nothing like getting a load at 1300 that could have picked up at say 0800
and the window is 0800-1600...

Guess thats all for now...quite a bit I know,,but the wider the eye the better to plan for or expect it....Thanks

 

APU's- Last I knew they had a handful of truck's with APU's installed as test unit's but all the other truck's have Opti-Idle. Where it's start's and stop's itself from control's in the bunk when ever the temp get's under or over the set range. Not bad, but take's some getting used to as you wake up in the middle of the night thinking someone is trying to hot wire your truck with you in it lol.

Consistant delieveries? Never! Your hour's will be all over the place.

Lower 48, well, I've done a lot of east coast and hit the Chicago area a couple of time's with them but I noticed during my last month and a half i was staying in the south/ south east area mostly repeating run's from Catus, TX. (farthest west) to Ga. mostly running the I-20 corridor a lot. So I really can't tell ya here. Normally dedicated run's though are picked by senority. Just never been as far north as your talking about. Not with FFE anyway.

Never broke down, however have gotten stuck in the mud in FT. Worth going to pick up a load. It wasn't all to bad but safety seemed to be kinda bent. Safety is alway's hell bent weather it was your fault of not. I don't know what the hell their problem is. Accident's, well, nothing can really be done if it's not in your hand's. That's just the nature of the beast and the beast being the business. I got my ### chewed out by safety for being backed into and wasn't even my fault. I was on my 10 hour break. Go figure.


I tell them straight up I don't have the hour's to run. If I have a limited amount of time and can meet another driver for a swap, then I will. They are tight about log book's. My FM never gave me #### about it. Alway's told me to run legal and that's what I did except in a couple of case's when trying to get home because company policy is that you can't dead head/bobtail home logged under off duty. It must be logged as on duty driving.

Don't expect to get home on time. Try your FM out first because you may get lucky to get one that will get you home on time. But try it out a few time's and if your not getting home on time then you need to put your date for H/T in for a date a couple day's prior to make sure you are home for that specific day.

Keeping your FM up to date on your HOS is a good thing. You will have to do it twice a day with FFE logging in HOS on the QC if you've never done it before. Once in the morning by 09:00 and the other in the evening which I can't remember what time but I think it's around 15:00.

Timely dispatch, ehhhh, well, some time's good, some time's not so good. If the load is late to pick up and I can't make the drop on time then I make sure to point that out and show that it wasn't my fault. Alway's keep that information in mind to back your ares up if they try to throw it back on you for it being late and it wasn't your fault.

Load's some time's run smooth and preplan's will have you running back to back which is what I like best, or load's where they are late and you have to sit and wait on them and no preplan is avalible because you don't have a time frame of when you will be able to get it.

Another thing is don't expect to see anything in detention pay. They are good about making you sit for 23:58 but will get you a load right before the 24:00- 24:01 mark so it kill's your detention pay and you just lost out a whole 24 hour's to nothing but sitting and loosing money.


Fixing to get on the phone with my recruiter and have a word with her. Hope it goes well. Hope all this help's.

A guy at FFE once told me "no matter where you work, there is going to be BS. You just have to find your flavor of BS and stick with it!" That has been on my mind really hard ever sense it was told to me. So I guess this is where it's gonna play out for me.

 

you will send in hours available etc at 0900 and 2100.

as far as dedicated routing, you can pretty much forget it unless you live in an area where they need more ltl drivers.

idling, i never got chewed out for mine, but the fleet I was on had bad numbers so we got the bs as a whole not singled out.

timely dispatch you can forget, do yourself a favor and as soon as you get load information call the shipper to verify.

 

True! LW, did you have a truck where you could use the QC while driving or one that was blocked when the truck was in motion and had to write down directions on paper before you got there?

Still on the phone trying to get through to the recruiter as we speak.

 

all QC's that are done by ffe are set where they won't work when the vehicle is in motion. they even had a few that wouldn;t work until the brakes were set.

 

Yea, mine would work up to about 3 mph. I heard a couple of guy's on the yard say their's worked all the time. They kinda kept hush hush about it though. I was just curious.

 

hmm I never knew anyone that got it from FFE and would work while in motion. There was an o/o who they just programmed the stuff he already had in his truck and it would work in motion though.