Central Refrigerated Truck Stop

What he needs to do is focus on trip planning and communication.
Both will take a while to fully understand.
Every load that he gets information for he needs to fully look at before he accepts the load. Look at log and at where he will be starting. Get all the miles worked out, deadhead and loaded. As well as route planned.
He needs to know where he will be and when. This is very important for many city's. Since they can add hours to a trip.

If he does the plan and sees that he can do the load. Then he lets his driver manager know. That he can do it. And when he should arrive.

If he cannot do the load, or it is in question. He needs to let the DM know before he takes the load. And let the DM know when he will be able to pick it up or deliver it.

No DM is going to just cap out a drivers miles at the start. The only thing a trucking company has to offer is ontime safe delivery. If a driver does not plan well, and gets late. Then we are not giving the service they paid for.
So DMs will many times start a driver out slow. Then build up.
If he feels he is ready for more miles. Then he needs to communicate that to the DM. And show the DM that he is ready.
He should be able to average 2200-2800 per week with no problem.

 

Thank you for the reply. I will let him know. I appreciate you getting back to me and especially letting me know how many miles a solo driver can actually accomplish in a week.

 

As chrome said, plan and communicate. If he get's a load that has too much time on it, ask to be able to get the delivery moved up, or drop it in a drop yard. Also make sure he is setting his availability to be able to take a load. Also whenever they send out fleet messages looking for help repowering loads, if he can help let them know. Also if he's sitting waiting for a load, keep communicating.

 

Yes. Dedicated fleets are responsible for their own freight. On rare occasions you'll get and OTR driver or a local to take your load, but ultimately you're on your own with it.

Give your dedicated fleet at least a month, preferably 2 if you can manage it. It takes your dm a while to get to know you, and what you're capable of, and it will take you a while to get into the groove and learn how the fleet works.

 

The answer to that really depends on what he's doing. We have to send specific macros, if he's not sending them, he won't get loads. One's very important, it's the macro 6, and it updates when he's available for his next load. Without it, he won't get loads, unless he's on a dedicated fleet.

That's a fairly new change, the guy who's now in charge of the load booking, customer service, etc, is a stickler for that macro. If you don't keep it up to date, forget it.

Is he making his loads on time? Late loads affect his getting better ones.

If he has loads where he knows he'll be 18-24 hours early, he should let his dm know, and try for a drop somewhere. There are a number of places where he'll have to just deliver the load, but often, if he's going to be in way early, he can drop the load in a drop yard, and someone else will deliver it. It all depends on how freight is, and where he's at.

Make sure he's communicating with his dm that he needs more miles, and that he's doing everything he can to prove he's worthy of more miles.

Also, remember that after Christmas, freight slows down until tax day, or thereabouts, so freight is going to be slim. He's going to be doing less milage then too, so it might take until April before his milage improves. He just needs to keep delivering on time, and communicating to his dm, so when freight picks up, his dm knows he's reliable.

 

I am so glad that I don't have to deal with a lot of that. I get some frost, and some ice, but generally the highways and interstates around me are pretty decent all year round.

 

Your layover pay question has been answered, but I wanted to ask you something: Why did you wait until you delivered to send out your mac 6?

Freight at Central is planned out several days in advance. If you're delivering on a Wednesday, you need to have your macro 6 updated Sunday, and Monday be asking where you're going next. If you wait until Wednesday, all the loads for Wednesday will have been assigned Monday and Tuesday, and you'll be waiting until Thursday or Friday for a load.

Keep your Mac 6 up to date. It used to set itself to 2 hours after delivery, but the guy who's in charge of the freight bookings and all that is a stickler for it being accurate. So, it defaults to 00:01 on the day you deliver. That way they can see it, and see that you haven't updated it. When they see that, they don't bother assigning loads most of the time.

So update your Mac 6 early, and often, and bother your fleet manager well in advance.

 

All great advice, and like Smadronia said its very important to let your DM know way ahead of time. Once he is experienced he will know how to stack his loads and have several ready to roll. Essentially its good to contact your DM as soon as you have trip planned your current load. Let them know exactly when you can deliver so that you can either arrange to drop if early or reschedule delivery so that you aren't sitting and can get to your next load asap! If you have 3 days to go from Chicago to St. Louis you want to get there as fast as possible, not dilly dally around stopping at truck stops, taking your time etc... so that you will be there for the original delivery time. Get your load, get it to the receiver. If you can't drop or can't move your appointment time, if you are there they may try to squeeze you in or someone may show up late. Never, ever use up the time allotted to deliver!

Its going to take time to get used to being out there too. There are a lot of other things going on that he will be learning besides pickup and delivery. Just load planning alone probably eats up a lot of his time right now because he is new.

 

Well its been one year since I started with my trainer ..got another .01 per mile raise..a one year congrats award also suppose to get what ever christmas gift we r getting ..looking forward to finding a local job now the wife is expecting need to be home more glad for the experience ...just hope I can male a living doing this closer to home ...merry christmas to all and to all a good nite from the petro in rochelle ill

 

I just finished my first year and normally have 2500 miles per week solo non dedicated runs I get in early to my loads and as soon as I get aload I ask where do I go after that ..unless its a very long run like three days ..communication is very very important.. Hustle as much work as u can..get a load plan it out call and ask what is the earliest time u can deliver..is there on site parking or can I park on the street.. Can I drop..talk to the receiving dept yourself don't ask or expect dispatch to do it the won't... I have never had a problem working out my own drops and scheduling or rescheduling my own loads ..even with macain and walmart..just be professional respectful ...use your mac 9 to list your eta and let dispatch know where u are at the time I u have sent in a mac 6 and don't have a new load the day of your 99..send another that morning then a freeform message to dispatch reminding them u will be available for another load with hours to run..when u get to your 99 if u still don't have a load re send messages and then call up and ask where us my load.

When you do get multiple loads assigned to you make the time to check the days..hours ..and timing of the 01 and 99.. Very often they will overlap or be in conflict with each other..many times this has happened to me where I had to point out the conflicts of multitiple presets to dispatch them send them regular updates as each on was done I called each receiving office at my 01 and o99 let them know what my time frame was and it all worked out even rescheduling my walmart drop on thanksgiving day

So even though I am a company driver I try to act on my own as much as I can dispatch is just to busy and slow to react and think when I need them too..it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission