USX drivers...how's your day??

highwayman · Dec 2, 2011

getting things ready, will be up in irving on sunday to change back over to company driver on monday...and get this thing back on track

musicgal · Dec 2, 2011

Congratulation, Matt!!!!!

Billy Jack....I so hope things work out better for you.

Two loads in two days with no PU#......what fun.....want to get this load delivered early enough to get to bed before midnight (it was 4am this morning on last load) and restart our day on the day shift.....fortunately load only delivers 100 miles away.

highwayman · Dec 2, 2011

thanks musicgal .... me too

SheepDog · Dec 2, 2011

Hello everyone... pray all had a great day!
I delivered load this morning and than was assigned next load to pickup at Army Depot..love being involved with the Military. Anyway, the PU# was good but load had already been picked up 5 hours prior to me arriving. Took over 2 hours to receive next PU# for same location but, they stop loading at 3pm,,which I knew that. Couldn't get that load till monday...not happening with me. Received a call from some FM wanting me to do a repower with a driver whose truck was being worked on in Shippensburg. No problem, headed that way. Got a message from my FM saying too far to deadhead, (165 miles). So, he gave me another load that deadheaded me half the distance and is a HV load. I pick up at Amazon in moringing and deliver at Amazon as soon as I get it there....

mattp · Dec 3, 2011

Got my first solo load toward berwick for my dt account a whopping pup trailer and when they gave me it it wasn't even registered had to have registration faxed no license plate currently in virgina city starts with a d I'm too tired to find out I'm bed have a good night everyone

NoCoCraig · Dec 3, 2011

mattp said: ↑

Got my first solo load toward berwick for my dt account a whopping pup trailer and when they gave me it it wasn't even registered had to have registration faxed no license plate currently in virgina city starts with a d I'm too tired to find out I'm bed have a good night everyone
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LOL, you are a real trucker now

NoCoCraig · Dec 3, 2011

Sitting in Markham getting the GPS antenna replaced. A very nice and weel deserved break. In the last three weeks with 4 1/2 days off in the middle we have run over 16,500 miles. A bit tired. Love our new fleet manager and life is pretty freaking good.

We are re-doing the setup in the truck (again). Anne should be in the truck interior design business. Will be posting the new setup pictures to the blog tonight. I LOVE the new setup.

Poobah · Dec 3, 2011

It looks as though I need to revisit this topic one more time. In my previous post regarding attrition rates, I focused on only two different categories of drivers: 1.) Drivers who were invited to orientation and actually showed up, but who washed-out and were never hired; and 2.) Drivers who were both invited to orientation and were actually hired and received a USX driver I.D #, but then quit, usually during their first year. I see now that I should have differentiated between these first two groups and a third one: 3.) Drivers who were invited to orientation but never even bothered to show up.

flood said: ↑

good job on the numbers BUT it doesn't show ALL THE NUMBER's
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flood said: ↑

(according to the DOT agency that collects the data, it does) only company driver (w-2) and company trucks it doesn't show the LEASE drivers (1099) and LEASE trucks so my numbers are close..... Unless we can arrive at a reasonably firm and concrete number that represents the total driver population, any attempt to put a head count on attrition rates, in any of the three categories previously mentioned above, becomes meaningless. I have two points to make here regarding this.
1.)usx has over 10,000 drivers so a 400% turn over would be 40,000 new drivers a year....!post#1678. Your very helpful I.D.#s make it possible to peg the hire rate at 9317 new drivers per year over a 71/2 yr time span. If the FMSCA number of 6638 refers only to current company drivers (W-2s), and if the total population of USX drivers (W-2s and 1099s) were 10,000, then this implies the following: 1/3 of the USX fleet is O/O and L/O. If we subtract the company drivers from the total driver population, we are left having 3362 O/Os and L/Os, or slightly over 33% of the entire fleet. Company owned USX trucks are numbered using five digits with the first one usually representing the year of manufacture. O/O trucks are prefaced with the letter C, and lease trucks with a letter L. Perhaps things have changed dramatically since I was there, but when driving through the terminals I dont recall seeing anything close to a 2 to 1 ratio of company trucks to C and L units.
2.) The FMCSA website puts the number of drivers at 6638 but is vague about making a clear distinction between company, lease and owner-operator drivers. So what figure is really accurate? The simple and definitive approach is to just ascertain exactly what was included in the FMCSAs statistic of 6638 total drivers since their website by itself, is not entirely clear about that. In an effort to clarify this, several days ago I made calls toUSX, Chattanooga; FMCSA, Washington, DC; and Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Cambridge, MA. All calls were directed to voice mail. The only one that returned my call was Volpe, who as it turns out, is the arm of the DOT charged with gathering, organizing and submitting the statistics we find on the FMCSAs website (including the number of drivers), for each motor carrier operating under USDOT authority. The person I spoke to, read to me from the instructions given to each trucking company regarding how to properly submit the information. The number of drivers is to include all drivers currently operating for the company either full or part-time, interstate or intrastate, company, contracted, leased or in any other way directed by the company to move its freight. This information was given to me verbally, so I am paraphrasing it here as well as I can recall. Others may wish to verify this and can use the link provided above to obtain contact numbers. Therefore, in the absence of any other hard evidence to support the 10,000 number, the 6638 figure is the correct one.

log id# are giver to each new hire driver's in order so my number of people is right
Yes, I agree. Knowing that the company issues I.D. #s sequentially is very useful and your 7½ yr span between your own two I.D. #s provides a significant datapoint to work with. Thank you for providing that.

the number of 40% was from the lady doing orientation and the total she told me was only 20% make it past orientation, 40% don't show up as MUSICGAL pointed out 40% would have been 69 so again close
This gets to the heart of what piqued my interest here to begin with. Only one person out of five is actually hired: the lady doing orientation and the total she told me was only 20% make it past orientation. This statistic of course refers to the number people in all three of the categories listed at the beginning of this post. So, when we include the folks who never even bothered to show up for orientation, and going with the remarks from the lady doing orientation., we see that four times as many people fail to make it through to be hired as compared against the total number invited to orientation. This confirms and validates HDs prior claim of a 400% attrition rate -- when looked at as a function of all of the three categories defined above. (This has to show that the rumor of the turnover rate being 400 + percent to be true. Does anyone have any other opinions??)post #1863. The fact that so many would not even bother to show up for a scheduled orientation is almost impossible for me to comprehend. When one considers that the company shoulders the expense of hiring people to prescreen applicants (DMV check, criminal history, DAC, or whatever precursory work they do before extending an orientation invitation), arranging for transportation and lodging, etc., and then have up to 40% of these people not even bother to show, it becomes not too difficult to appreciate some of the reasons why many trucking companies treat most drivers with such little regard.
and my 1st orientation (company driver) only had 9 and we all made it
My first at Colton had about 10 or 12 and all made it as well, with the possible exception of a fellow with 25+ yrs experience who balked at having to take a bus from Colton to Portland to pick up his truck. He was concerned about not having enough money for living expenses in the interim so I loaned him fifty bucks. I have not seen or heard from either one since. Everyone else in that group were students needing trainers and we were all bused back home to wait for a few days. Overall, the delay was not a big deal. Mark Robbins in the training dept at Chattanooga was extremely proactive in finding a trainer and arranging the necessary transportation.
my 2nd orientation (o/o) had 1 and i made it
My second orientation in Irving was the first week or so that Dodd (a very good-natured fellow) was conducting them, I think he still does. We had a full room, so maybe 50 people, and about the same number later in the week for a second session. As I recall, only 7 - 10 were not hired for any of the usual reasons. I did however stay in touch with 3 of those of us who were hired. Two were former CREngland L/Os and the other one was my roommate; a recent retiree also. The two former CRE drivers left within the first month. I ran into my roommate several times during the following several months, once while he was with his trainer (he had a very good one), then again a few months later after he was on his own. Both times he expressed almost nothing but delight with his new post retirement career and as far as I know he is still with USX.
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A FEW MORE THOUGHTS
My intent here in posting all this is not to appear confrontational or combative in any way whatsoeverI sincerely hope that my posts do not come across as such. Perhaps due to my age, personal and vocational background, education, etc, I feel compelled to look too deeply into mundane things (after nearly 44 yrs of marriage it still drives my wife nuts, even though she is a woman possessed with a herculean amount of patience).
Congratulations to the folks on here who have recently upgraded, and especially for those who have managed to endure for several or more years. Heartfelt ATTABOYS and ATTAGALS all around. Numerically we see that you all are members of a very elite group of professional Freight Relocation Specialists.

Troy72 · Dec 3, 2011

Hello all read through a few posts I m in training right now going on the 4th week. Training on the Family Dollar account in Marianna Fl so most of the time is unloading truck and not driving LOL im beat thougt i was going to die the first day im pretty use to it now. I have 90 hours of BTW hours in right now looking to go upgrade around the 19 of December. As to the turnover rate of drivers is mind blowing my trainers id is 501xxx and mine is 507xxx and he only been with the company 1 year 1 month. LOL funny about the orientation the 3 day orientation turned into 6 for me I failed the eye exam right off LOL went to get glasses went back for the wednesday orientation was wearing the glasses examiner asked if it said it on my license I said no she said i couldnt use glasses for the exam I took the glasses off and passed. Pretty pissed off after that I spent over $250 on glasses and didnt even use them was seriously thinking about going home hearing all the stories I m glad I stuck it out . Hopefully Tunnel Hill has few upgrades the day I go for mine I want to be home for Xmas since I missed Thanksgiving. Take Care All

seasoned transportation · Dec 3, 2011

they give breakdown pay, after 24 hours and they do not count sunday. When your truck breaks down once a week though, I guess it really does not matter, does it?

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