Stevens Transport aviary

I understand the competition and not wanting to make waves, but with eobr's and e-logs it becomes an issue. And there are refer companies that are now paying detention on loading.

And sometimes in business some customers actually cost you money because you let them walk all over you. Shippers that do not honor appointment times. Receivers that do not honor appointment times.

Ok rant over. For now

Repowering in green river UT and back over I70.

 

So, I get all the way to Miami and they have cancelled my load! LMAO!! Too funny! Oh well, at least I got surcharge on empty miles for deadheading down here...... Idiots.

 

Stevens is obviously a profitable company but they must waste a huge amounts of money on mistakes like these. As a side point, the whole way that drivers of larger companies are treated at shippers and recievers. When I drove for a small refer company (30 tractors) and picked up at the very same places as you guys I was treated a whole lot better. Quick loads and unloads while the Stevens, CRE and Marten trucks sat around, It happened all the time.

 

There are trade offs running with large or small companies. Each driver needs to make a decision based on their needs and wants.
With a small company, there tends to be a lot more personal communication, a 'family' type atmosphere. The experts call this a 'nurturing' environment.
As a company grows, it abandons this environment and trades for a 'efficiency' operation.
Now don't laugh. it's true.
Years ago, as my partner and I were growing the business, we had to make decisions on these very points.
As we became larger, it became necessary to 'let go' and not run day to day details. We had to entrust them to others...plant managers, department foremen, planners, CSRs and more.
We became more 'detached' and altho I tried to keep a certain amount of personal attachment to each employee, when we reached the level of 60 or 70 production personnel, it became impossible.
Both for time and basic relationship with new hires.
Imagine spending just 5 minutes with each employee per WEEK talking about family, the ball game, etc. That comes to more than 8 hours per week!
As a result, newer persons feel there is no personal tie and it's 'us vs managment'.
In addition, the owner has to entrust the operations that probably run very well due to their own insights, talents and perceptions to subordinates who don't have the same 'skin in the game'.
Here's an example:
We had to deal with more than 300 taxing agencies in various states. We had one person who did this very thing.
She made mistakes (not that I wouldn't have!) but when we were penalized for what seems a simple mistake, it came out of the owner's equity.
This drove my partner crazy (he took care of front end operations, I took care of all backend operations) because, quite frankly, he was so anal, he never made those mistakes. But people are people and as we grew, we had to put more and more people in positions that cost us money when they made a poor choice.
Stevens is no different. They put people in a position to do a certain job and that person makes a mistake, or in worse cases, just doesn't care and makes poor choices constantly.
Think of it....Stevens hands $180,000 truck and trailer to a new hire (after O-2), entrusts freight of varying value and their dedication to move that freight to it's proper destination.
All of us that have been around the block a bit (especially those of us that train) know of drivers that just don't care, just won't do as requested.
Think how that affects so many in the office. From the DM who has anyone from Archie to Smokey comming down their neck to the CSR, Planner or a myriad of others for just that one load.
What about the other 59 drivers he/she has to worry about today?
But a larger company generally affords safety in money...usually is more financially stable and has larger cash reserves to handle problems.
Mine was a small company. We had only 14 trucks, plus production facilities for manufacturing. We had 120 employees.
I don't miss chasing after receivables, AQMD, DOT, OSHA, etc.
I don't miss employees coming to me and complaining how they are being picked on because we won't (can't?) rewrite an entire schedule so they can have tomorrow morning off for a parent teacher conference they have known about for two weeks.
But when we were 20 employees, it was easy for me to make those adjustments on the spot and work around the consequences.
Yes...huge amounts of money are 'wasted' on these choices by employees. But fortunately, companies like Stevens make enough profits to overcome these issues.
And shippers work with the smaller companies more efficiently because they don't usually have the drivers that just don't care.
My two cents worth.
Now back to my 34....

 

Hmmm, if I were working in upper management at Stevens someone would be answering a lot of questions in order to keep their job. Between Maryland and Miami there HAD to be someone closer that could have made that pick-up!!!

 

I do believe i'd be back on the phone with the person who originally set the repower up and DEMAND some additional compensation. Wasn't the trip you agreed to, with an additional stop and extra time.
Remind them you have a long memory and will think twice before helping them out again.

 

Why can't I just drive o e of those advertisement trailers around all over and make my own stops (and get paid for them) and get paid loaded and FSC for that? ...... Ijs.

 

I am sitting in Harrisburg, PA doing a 34. Will be done at 0330.
This load is heading to Ogden.
I am suppose to be in Dallas by midnight. My 90 is up. My med card expires at midnight tonight. (But I always have my own med card, so I'm legal)
Get a call from a planner an hour ago: "How soon can you be in Indy?"
"oh, safely....1500 tomorrow." I'm thinking someone is getting this all figured out and they'll repower me back to the yard.
"Won't work."
"what have you got?"
"Load coming down from Canada, needs to go to Sanger. Peterbilt."
"When's it due?"
"Friday 1900."
"Well let me see...how far from Indy to Dallas?"
"869 miles"
"So you're calling to see if I can drive 540 miles to Indy tomorrow, grab a Peterbilt load and then drive 869 miles to deliver it 28 hours later...with two 10's inbetween?"
"yea...guess that won't work, eh?"
Yea I guess!
What a gandydance!

Smokr... we've all been there. Usually by our own demise. Good luck. Beat 'em up for some more money.

 

the smog in Dallas is bad.... Maybe its affecting their thought process?