DOCK/FACILITY ETIQUETTE 101 long format.

Would you say the drop in productivity is due to bad drivers or due to Elogs?

 

The difference is you already knew how to trip plan and run smartly. For an experienced hand who was following the HOS, an AOBR made life easier. The ELD made life more challenging, but far from a deal breaker. For someone who knows basic arithmetic, a calculator is a phenomenal time saver. For someone who doesn't know arithmetic, a calculator is a crutch. As much as I love the flexibility of paper logs, given a choice between a paper log and an AOBR, I'd choose the AOBR because it simplified things without a meaningful impact on me. However I'd choose the hassle of paper over the rigidity of an ELD if I were still OTR. Running linehaul none of it matters.

Definitely due to ELDs.

One of the reasons I quickly became a 'top driver' at Schneider was because I learned how to cheat the AOBR without raising red flags with the Safety Critters. Say you're heading south on I-57 crossing from Illionois to Missouri. On an AOBR, if you stop at the quasi inspection station just after the Mississippi and stop the engine it will pull 3 minutes back to when you crossed the state border. Spend two minutes thumping the tires and you can move the 3 miles down the road to the truck stop where you can exchange the coffee then start running again with the 30 minute break completed. Anybody who actually looked at the log page would have questions, but hand 8 days of logs to a Safety Critter and ask them to find the violations - most of them won't find that one.

When I came out of the house with Schneider, most times I would need to move 5 miles south to Fox River Fiber to get an empty. No one would log that time on a paper log. Some of us knew how to move the 5 miles without tripping the drive line on an AOBR. Either way it's at least an extra 30 minutes on the 14 and 15 minutes on the 70. Then there were the "pick up an empty at FRF then go live load at Tufco". I could cheat the AOBR so that I wouldn't need to start my day until Tufco had finished loading me. I started moving the truck at 0600, but left Green Bay at 0900 with a fresh 11/14/70. On an AOBR I could move from the truck stop in Neely's Landing to PG without starting my clock, same for the PGs in Vandalia, Iowa City, and Edwardsville. I remember once hitting PG in Edwardsville with 3 minutes left on my 14, dropped my load and hooked a TBO empty, moved over to the yard to swap empties, slept for a few hours then moved over to Dial where I spent a couple hours in the dock loading before hitting the road. My log looked like I got to the company yard and shut down for 10 hours before swapping trailers. Most of RollinCoal's 'efficiency' is drivers bumping docks during the driver's 10 hour break.

Good drivers learned how to cheat the logs - as long as the story the logs told made sense no one would look too deeply. Even without drivers actively cheating the system AOBRs made a difference. On AOBRs, a company could set the criteria for hitting the drive line. At Schneider it was 3/4 of a mile of constant movement or 30 MPH. Circa 2013ish FMCSA made a change that AOBRs had to pull back the change to driving at the moment the wheels started turning. IE the driver pulls out of the spot at 0700 and hits 30 mph hour at 0712. Under the old rules drive time would start at 0712, under the new it would start at 0700. This change of regulation led to Schneider turning up the trucks from 60 mph to 63 mph. When we made the switch from AOBRs to ELDs Schneider Regulatory thought it would increase productivity despite me SHOUTING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS otherwise. By mid 2020 Schneider increased the governors to 65 mph to compensate for the decrease in productivity.

 

This is just my opinion:

People who can’t trip plan should not be drivers. People who can be “forced” to drive when they don’t want to drive should not drive. Braindeads ( people who can’t remember the baby in the back seat or that they are pulling a trailer or use mirrors) and steeringwheelholders ( extremely mentally lazy) should not drive.

Cattleprods allow these types to drive. They don’t scan ahead or check the mirrors, so the truck does everything for them. They didn’t level the field, they lowered the bar. Apparently, safety cannot be a priority when you lower standards.

The result of much lower standards? Piss bottles, crap bags, creative parking, hoods being ripped off, fuel islands blocked.

 

You're preaching to the choir.

"Safety first and always", provided it doesn't impact the bottom line. The last trainee I had before leaving Schneider should have never made it to my truck and everyone knew it, but big part of the Training Manager's quarterly evaluation was the pass/fail rate - if he failed too many new hires without exhausting EVERY option he took a hit. That's why my last trainee made it to my truck when he should have been washed out the first week - 3 different instructors failed him before Steve managed to put the fear of Berstuk into him and he didn't do anything Steve could fail him on. We made it two hours into the first load when I called the Training Manager, who ducked my call. The guy should never have gotten a CDL, but even after I failed him we 'had' to have a Safety Critter take him on a check ride before we could term him (they didn't make it out of the lot).

There should be absolutely no reason that anyone should fail Schneider's new driver orientation for skill issues. They all have CDLs when they arrive, they should know how to pretrip, couple, do a 30 minute drive through town without hitting a curb, and back into a 12 foot wide spot. But they can't, so the Training Group spends time which should be spent teaching trip planning remediating basic skills. It's absolutely a race to the bottom.

A year ago I said "I wish this verdict will lead to more scrutiny of who we hire and and more drivers getting fired for their stupidities. It won't. What will happen is we'll cram more technology into the truck instead of properly training drivers in the first place and holding them accountable once out on their own."

I would love to have any barriers to entry for this industry - drivers, authorities, and brokers. The excessive churn has destroyed 'institutional knowledge' and any sense of comradery.

 

Same page, hand.

I am one of those drivers that has pride in the ride, take care of my appearance, still have all of my teeth, bathe on a regular basis, clean clothes, read the DOT regs Bible, read all the state provisions for OSOW, will actually stretch a stretch trailer on the initial pre trip with the trailer. I take the job very seriously and bring that A Game every single day.

HOWEVER…

No matter how well I do my job, I am going to be be judged according to the least common denominator. That smelly, loud mouth idiot talking loudly in a headset in public places, thinking he’s witty or some great intellect, smell like arse from 40 ft away, belligerent, self centered, never learned how to listen (not just hear, LISTEN…huge difference) that the company sends in after me. This is a battle I can’t win.

Because of this, I won’t wear any company swag…no tees, no hats, no hi vis vests. No company logo on my truck, no listed truck number. For the most part, I will not talk to drivers who work at the same company. Most of them are lease drivers and for the most part, lease drivers are stupid (they have to be…how else do you get some company driver to pay for his job and your truck without him being stupid?).

 

I read this, and yes I do know how to trip planning properly, and to your point, the computer logs helped me to become better because of that foundation. Now when a driver is on paper logs, they just assume Nashville to Memphis is a 3 hr drive. You'll only show 3 hrs that way, but a couple of years prior to thr mandate I began paying attention to the actual clock beginning to end of every destination. Starting and ending at a certain point of either city could put you closer to 4 hrs with no traffic in a governed truck, so once elogs came about, every trip and every movement became data for me. I could see what it takes in minute by minute action. I've got a load dropping right outside of Charlotte tomorrow night and it requires me to go through Nashville. I've got just enough time to get on the east side of Nashville. No rush hour, and I will have one less known mulligan on this run. The point in me saying all of this is, as much as we want to blame elogs, I don't think it's the device as much as overall poor training for newer drivers. I can tell you train new drivers the right way, because I've read many of your posts and utilized a few pointers and it's helped me to become better. It ain't enough Rogers out here. People think you just put it in the computer and wing it with no strategy. If there is a firm appt, it takes strategy. We get loads that are 700-900 mile loads that have to overnighted fairy regularly, at least I do. That takes tremendous skill and strategy. Honestly, I think that's where an OTR driver makes his money, and i think that's what separates the really good ones from the bad ones. I think if there are more Gentlerogers out here training, the industry is in a better place.

 

Saw a YouTube yesterday where the FMCSA is considering holding shippers accountable if they load a non English speaking driver.

 

I agree. and don't care whats in the trailer, I care about legal weight, and securement the rest is between the shipper and the reciever. As far as what speed I drive, most lots are marked 4 mph, dont like it look the other way. Im new just driving since the 70"s.

I like elogs, takes the pressure off fro dispatch, I ran alot of year with paper, noway was paper better, paper vs eog has never made a difference on my on-time delivery record. If the load is loaded late, then it will probably deliver late, but I infor dispatch when I get dispatched, and of any delays along the way.

 

The Government gives out a valid CDL to someone, and now wants warehouse workers to screen the drivers for them?

Oh thats rich......