Stevens Transport aviary

how do you not see a door missing? the xtra door i could see if its a sealed load on a drop and hook but one missing. i was giving a repower when i was in training and the trailer around the kingpin had most of the metel curled up and bent so i took pictures and told the office there was no way i was taking the blame for it. glad i saw it before i backed under it.

 

Emulsified since your now working for the mother ship can you explain to me why the weekend / night crew sucks so BAD?

Wait an hour and a half on hold then get some rude SOB that cant answer your question or doesnt want to be bothered and then puts you right back in the que for another hour on hold.

 

Understaffed, overworked, underpaid, have to deal with some rude and inconsiderate drivers....would be my guess.

 

because anyone with senority wants weekends off. there are a few people on weekends i try to call directly that seem to know whats actually goin on.

 

Leave me those numbers? I havent found any yet on the dispatch or rr line worth waiting an hour to talk to on those shifts.

 

The shifts are not standard 8-5, 4-12, etc. They stagger and vary. For instance, some postions are 7 twelve hour shifts on, then 7 days off. If you've ever been to the dispatch window, you will have met Will or Billy. They work such a shift. Right now is Will's week.
Night shifts vary. My shift is thur-fri 2pm to 1am, then sat-sun 10am to 9pm. I have mon, tues, wed off.
Other night shifts are 7pm to 7am. Maybe some of you know JD (viewable in his hawaiian shirts thru the dispatch window. His is such a shift.
But the real problem I think is the responsibilities.
Day shift people plan and build loads, dispatch and deal with customers. Night shift deals with drivers mostly.
In produce, there are 11 persons during the day hours to take calls. At night there are 3.
The idea is we don't deal with the customers (Walmart, Safeway, etc), we don't build loads (those are done before the day workers go home) and most trucks are dispatched already or preplans are in place.
So at night we chase problems. Late loads, shippers that don't have product or for whatever reason don't have the proper shipping information. Drivers that missed picks, and of course the usual TK issues, breakdowns and general questions from drivers.
Primary responsibilities include reviewing all Mac 36 calls and checking with drivers with temps out of range. (you'd be surprised how many drivers have the temp set wrong or are on cycle sentry). We have to find loads that are running late. This can be (and often is) due to shippers that are late or just trucks running late.
Then it's trying to find repowers.
I saw an interesting report today. It covered refrigerated shippers with 1,000 to 6,000 power units. (Stevens is about 2,000). In that report, our average number of repowers is about the same as most other carriers. Our numbers are not high (or low).
Some other carriers penalize trucks that refuse repowers. They charge them as much as $250 to refuse any load.
Some simply fire you.
Others have a policy of letting you sit for three days without a load for refusing a repower or load.
Repowers are complicated and time consuming. We do have a repower dept. It consists of one person. It's all he does and has been doing for the last 8 years.
In addition, each dept has to repower many of their own trucks. At 9am this morning, I was handed a list of 16 trucks that needed repowers. When those were done, a new list with more than 20 repowers was sent out.
Couple this with all the 'waves' of freight and it makes for very busy times. A wave is where we have more freight than trucks in an area.
Every day there is a 'production' meeting where each zone (there are 15 zones) shows the number of loads available vs trucks available. It also forcasts these same zones for the next two days.
So for instance, N Cali had 19 more loads than drivers on monday. Tuesday they had 3 extra loads. Wednesday they had 24 more trucks than loads. So monday, the word is sent to the CSRs to take everything they can get for wednesday.
And so it goes for every zone.
Night time people do not have loads to hand out. If your truck is preplanned or 'soft planned' then we can dispatch you. But if there isn't a load on your truck, you'll sit. Most loads are built and assigned to the trucks by noon. You won't see a soft plan. You only see preplans.
There is so much variance in trucks on plan that it's nearly impossible to stick to any setup longer than a few hours.
Consider how many times you've sat at a receiver for hours past your scheduled time.
Let's take Ralphs in Compton as an example. I have sat in the docks there so long, I've been able to do a 10 and not be unloaded. They are notorious for not getting you in the gate at your scheduled time. Usually two hours or more late.
Now if you're scheduled to unload there at 0700, and the planners figure you'll be available at 1400 (knowing how Ralphs is), they soft plan you on a pickup in Bakersfield at 2100, knowing you can make it there on time, get loaded, then do your break there.
But Ralphs is still done with you at 1300 and you can't hang out. So you can't do a split break. So your soft planned load is moved to another truck, since you probably will run out on your 14 before you can get to the shipper.
Now you get free, call in for your produce talk and load, but it's one of the busiest times of the day, so you sit on hold...and sit. Then don't get a load.
Now here's a gripe of mine. You will be told to call back or we'll get you something, all the while knowing you probably won't be dispatched until morning. I always wished they'd just be honest with me. Not necessarily true.
I am learning there are work arounds, which I'll pass along as I learn all the angles. They will work for drivers willing to run and not play games. And the good thing is they'll work for the dispatchers as well, so they'll likely embrace it.
So after such a long answer to your question, the short answer is FUBAR.
Wish I had a better answer.

 

emulsified:QUOTE:> Repowers are complicated and time consuming. We do have a repower dept. It consists of one person. It's all he does and has been doing for the last 8 years.

Is this the guy that sits alone in the corner talking to himself and drooling on his shirt?

 

That's me in another three months.

 

Hi Smokr,
I'm a recent graduates from California and I have my Class A CDL. Question, is all the training that your noting is to attained a Commercial Driver License or its a secondary training in order to work for Steven's Transportation ? Where is the orientation ? Thank You

 

coming into stevens with a cdl as i did you go through about a week of orientation in dallas. then out with a trainer for around 35 days. then back into classroom for another week then out with another trainee for 3 weeks then back to dallas for a few days then you go to grad fleet for solo time which varies depending on your miles. then you get out of training finally and your in the normal fleet. all together it took me just shy of 6 months. and i already had experience when i hired on. only all my experience was hauling cars which does not apply with anyone other then car hauling companys