bad company - they like to railroad employees

from everything i have seen they will not ever try and make you go out of hours, they are too carefull on that . if i have a preplan all i have to say is i dont have the hours, they just delete it

 

*troll*............

 

it has to be, they dont even want you moving the truck in the parking lot after your 14 is up, they pretty much have zero tolerance for faking logs dont they?

 

Yeah I have never had any problem. I just tell them if I can't make it on time and they either adjust the delivery time or get it relayed.

 

I have to kinda agree on both sides of this, I have many times been given a load and knew it would be tight, i guess tight and out right no way are different, when i would call i would let fm or whoever is in there know that i didn't think i could make it, they would start braking it down to the minutes. saying how i should be able to get there with 15 mins to spare. of course my reply is typically " yes i would in a perfect world where no one else is on the road" the main problem i see becoming a trend is not listening to us when we tell them we cant do it, they dont take all the issues that occur out here into their little "frame of time" on more then one occasion i have had to deal with this and when i would say i couldn't or send a msg. 58 you would think i committed some sort of sin.
So yes i think the bottom line is they need to listen to us when we tell them we cant make it, i dont care what they think i can make it there in, I know what i can and cant do and thats that. .... ok, I'm stepping off the podium lol

 

your right, you will never been asked to do anything like that, but, the trend is somehow you are still suppose to be able to figure out how to get it there. How to do the Impossible, had one last week were i was 5 mins late, told them the day before i would be late cause of 2 hrs in gridlock with a flipped over rig on I-95.. but i managed to do it and cause of my 10 hr break i had no way of getting around the time crunch. so i got there 5 mins late for the appointment, got 3 phone calls and an ##### chewing over 5 mins,

yet i can send something as simple as a msg 16 to request fuel update cause i cant make the one listed and take 2 hrs to get it back. lol... typical,

 

I was told that they check your logs to make sure you are running legal. So I couldn't see them telling you to go past your hours of service.

 

yep... they do check em... I had a 14 hour oops went over 15 minutes or something and they let me know... Didn't really say anything other than let me know it was over.

Rebel, I've seen similar things to your statements too. Fuel ran low and had to fuel twice at some place emergency style... lolsent 16 and they gave me routing to the T/S 5 miles up from the first one I wasn't gonna make. Then had to fuel on the turnpike because of it.

Seemed that during evo 3 my preplans were always good, but real close... Where I thought I was late, but wasn't. Because they gave me the time at the start of the window.

We'll see how it is with a regular FM now... Sure it will be interesting.

 

I'm not telling anyone to go against rules or policies here, but this has been my experience to date.

1) If I need fuel for my truck or reefer, I pull into any place that takes Comdata. I put minimum of 50 gal so I get a shower. So far I haven't been spoken to. If your choices are smart, the office ppl can figure out what your doing and you save them time.

2) We are professionals. I accept tough loads when it comes to time but that's my job. From the get-go I keep my manager informed of traffic and hrs. I must be doing something right because today in over 2 months is the 1st time I've been asked to take a reset and that's because my truck is in the shop. I also usually run with 1 or 2 preplans on me. In 90% of the cases if I was going to be late, and I keep them informed often, they have moved back my eta. When I have been late I've been told "In no way was that your fault."

3) IF I have to take an alternate route because I can save time on a tight deadline or save miles, I may ask permission 50% of the time. (You better not get a ticket or hit a low bridge or wire!) BUT I always tell the route I'm taking and why. This is always done by qualcom and by phone lastly only if I know I can call and not lose time. Yes at times it includes taking toll roads.

In saying all of this my fleet manager's decision always trumps mine.

Then again from others I hear horror stories. I do believe when it comes to fleet managers I'm really one of the lucky ones.

I do love my job.