stevens transport

It says right on their web site (bless them for being honest) that, if you run Nation wide.....expect to be home every 3 to 5 weeks.

3 to 5 weeks!!!

Most of the Stevens drivers I have talked to (and it's a lot since they are in my area all the time) tell me it is much closer to the 5 weeks (or longer) than the 3.

WHY?!? Why can't they get you home any sooner than that?

Even after 17+ years in the industry, I will NEVER understand two things about it:
1). Why ANY company can't get you home in less than two weeks in ANY scenerio.
And
2). Why any driver would put up with it.

 

Get the laundry done woman!

 

Wait untill you've been in it 30+ years and perhaps you'll understand grasshopper!

1). It's called 'Business Model'. In OTR trucking, a vehicle must be moving to make money. Rates are based on a tractor/trailer producing X amount of revenue. The business model says, it must be moving at least 4 weeks to break even and more to make money. If an OTR driver takes time off, the truck isn't moving. Do the math. If the driver's home every other weekend, it increases the non productive time to the asset, raising overhead, and requiring higher rates to operate.
It can be done, but that isn't that carrier's business model.
Scheduling becomes a bigger problem. If you constantly move freight from point A to point B, scheduling can be done by a monkey.
But when shipping points and delivery points change by the hour, trying to move vehicle A to point A every two weeks (or whatever) becomes more problematic.

2). There are many of us that not only don't mind being out on the road, we ENJOY it! Just because you don't, doesn't make the rest of us stupid!
Just consider how this sounds: "I don't understand these lazy butt drivers that have to be home every week. Look at all they're missing. What idiots!"
But to many of us OTR drivers, that's exactly how we think!

Now keep this in mind, because it bears more on your questions than anything else: Potential drivers are told from the beginning they will be out 4-5 weeks and nothing is cut in stone. That includes virtually EVERY OTR company out there.
If the driver's complaining, they only have themselves to blame.
If you don't want to do the job...fine! Just don't blame the company.

 

It takes 30 plus years experience to crack 50K there.

Please don't tell the drivers with less than 10 years that make that now at other companies.

Heck, A-T will do 40K his FIRST year !!!!

I do recovery work. Wrecker driver to those that don't know.

And to be 100% honest, I have never in my life, seen the things that a Stevens

driver can manage to do.

Facts are facts.....

But I will say this much, if you are happy there, more power to you.

 

We're not on the C.B. Billy......you don't have to try and impress me.....it ain't working.

For one; I am not stupid enough to put up with "the industry" for 30+ years.....even in the capacity that I currently endure (LTL city P&D home daily and weekends).

And two; every one who has more than one year over-the-road, has seen and been through the same #### you "old timers" have.....so don't think your miserable 30+ years means anything to the rest of us.

A guy gets sick of that talk. If I said I had 30 years.....the next Billy would claim he's got 50.
I have been driving since June 16th. 1993 (heck I guess that is 18 years....my bad)......that's not 100 years; but it is long enough to recognize a Billy Big Rigger when I see and/or hear one.

Bless you guys with no life that are willing to live on the road, with no life, and endure the trials and tribulations of the industry with no life.....because we need you with no life. But just because you have no life does not make your non-life any better than those of us who have a life.
Be a robot with no life......let a trucking company dictate your non-life. Move that freight zombie....because your company told your lifeless ### to....and that's what you do best; you obey the master, because it is all you've ever done, and all you've ever known.

There is NO reason for a company to keep a driver on the road for 3 to 5 weeks, NONE.
Freight moves all over the country from all points of origin....and EVERY company out there has the resources, and the means to get every truck and truck driver to their house on a weekly basis. They (companies and dispatchers) are just too greedy and lazy to do the planning.
Good trucking companies are losing good drivers daily, because they will not get them home to enjoy something other than work. OTR companies lost "me"....a guy with 1,750,000 safe accident/incident free miles, a clean MVR, and never once a log violation----because I was not willing to put up with being used as a freaking monkey. I don't want to live in a freaking truck....and #### sure don't want to die in a truck.

You go ahead and think you are better than me and people like me......but you are not.....you are pathetic in my mind, and I feel sorry for you and people that might love and miss you.

Keep trucking down that road driver; I'm gonna go spend some time with my new grandaughter----because I missed my own kids growing up when I was a lifeless robot.....and I'll be ###### if I'm gonna miss out on my grandaughter.

 

So you're saying that I have no life because I chose to be an OTR driver? Even though I have a family, friends, and people who love me and care about me? We're not in China, so I wasn't forced by the government to go into trucking. I chose OTR trucking because it provides the opportunity to make a better life for my family...not because I have no life.

I am the one that chooses to stay out on the road for 5 weeks at a time. Not the company. I also knew what I was getting into before I even left the house. Steven's home time policy is "one day home for every week worked." That is no different than any other OTR company.

 

White Dog is simply spouting off.
He's frustrated and doesn't see a way out of his travail.
So he picks a company to rag on so he feels better.
It's easier for him to tear down someone else to his level than try and bring himself up to theirs.
Sorry WD. Your loss.

 

And white dog thinks, like so many do, that if you don't live like he does, you are a pathetic looser...
People with closed minds are the pathetic ones.
And after 17 years he still hates his job. Now that is Pathetic.

 

It's good that no two people think alike....but bad that adults have a hard time reading and correctly understanding anothers point of view.

Case in point:

NO.....I am saying; if you choose to drive for a company that feels like they have to use you for 3 to 5 weeks at a time before giving you a day or two off, to make any money....and you let them....you have no life.

Then you, sir, have no life in MY opinion.
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No.......I didn't pick "A" company......I pick ALL companies that use drivers, and drivers that put up with it. The fact that this discussion happens to be on a Stevens thread has no other relivance than, Stevens happens to fit the discription (along with many, many others).
I am not "spouting off", and I am not "tearing down someone else" to reach any levels (yours or mine)......but I AM frustrated that drivers would put up with such crappy home time policies, and give trucking companies the "go ahead" to use them like robots.
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Excus me for a second....I gotta go back and see if I actually used the term "pathetic loser".
Nope! I mentioned "pathetic"....but never called anyone a "loser".....sorry; you lose.

Exactally!

It's 18 years....but who's counting. And I never said I "hate my job"....I hate the industry, and robot truckers who put up with the crap that the industry spews out daily, and doesn't stand up for themselves long enough and on a big enough scale to get the things changed in the industry that turns most of us off of it.

The ONLY reason I am still part of the industry in ANY capacity, is because of the low paying job situation in my particular part of the world....and I am not in a situation where moving to another city and/or state where jobs pay better---or I'd be completely out for good.

 

Still hate your job and can not understand that other people like being out 4 weeks and don't need to be home. It is you who has the closed mind and thinks those of us that enjoy what we do.