Stevens Transport aviary

Congrats on the review and raise!! Like I said, you have the work ethic that is lacking in so many of the new drivers.

Yeah, I got into a couple of 'heated arguments' when we turned down the loads due to weight on load assignment. Dispatcher told us, "we won't know for sure what the weight is til you pick it up, we just plug in a number." My response, "we played this 'game' in Florida and sat on an OJ load that was 2400lbs over gross for 3 days. Why would you plug in a specific weight, like 44,356lbs if you don't know. You wouldn't!! You would plug in something like 44,000."

 

Weight...it's a crap shoot. How much does a head of lettuce weigh? Or how about a watermelon?
The shipper sends over the load information and the weight is included. We go by the shipper's weight, and their's is just a guess. I don't think there's a cure for that ill.
Most produce loads out of anywhere are between 38,000 and 43,000 pounds. The variation would be bagged lettuce or romaine.
A full load of romaine is around 22,000. And guess what? We get complaints on that one too..too light, the wind is blowing me around. Or how about, "I need a heavier load. This won't count for my student's mountains."
Can't win for losing!

 

The official line on dispatch:
Company drivers are force dispatched. They must accept any load tendered so long as it's legal. They must accept it even if they cannot make on time delivery. In that case they are not held responsible for service failures.
O/O and L/O's can turn down any load for any reason. Their name is suppose to go to the bottom of the heap.

Now for reality.
Every driver has a profile window that pops up when their 'front screen' comes up. This usually says one of three things. Cannot go into Canada, Cannot haul Hazmat and Cannot (will not?) go into NYC.
Beyond that, dispatchers get to know a driver and his proclivities and we all try and work with their wants and wishes. When I was driving I went anywhere, but given a choice, would go to the Left Coast. I got a lot of Cali loads.
There are drivers that prefer running in the northeast. Others want the midwest.
Whenever possible, the dispatchers will accomdate your reasonable requests.
But....and this is a BIG but!
Drivers constantly refuse loads, both when tendered and after they are accepted.
Now I can handle (to a limit) someone telling me, "I don't do produce and I'll sit until you have something else", so long as it's when the load is offered and if they will accept it and help me out if there is no one else to run it. But there are far too many prima donnas that accept a load, even pick it up, but don't move or move VERY slowly. Would you believe less than 100 miles per day?!
I come unglued when these same drivers turn down a load, then complain they are sitting.
Management expects us to look the other way and keep the driver happy.
What happens more often than not is a driver burns a load and dispatch 'buries' them so they don't surface on the available board for two or three days.
I'm not talking about someone that refuses a load up front. I'm talking about drivers that accept a load, then don't run it.
The single biggest surprise to me coming inside is the prima donnas that populate this company. Drives me crazy.
And to be fair, there are a couple dispatchers that fall in the same catagory.
Well, I'll stop complaining and airing dirty laundry here for now.
Thanks for letting me vent!

 

I tried looking around but didn't see anything, and I have a quick question: Does whatever hotel Stevens uses have wifi? I know I'll only be there for 3 days (already have my CDL) but I'd like to know...

 

Oh, the main one I got into the argument about was bottled water load, and those weights have always been accurate for us except when they fail to include tare weight. The dispatcher knew we would be over, she just wanted the load picked up and then would worry about getting someone to haul it. For us to pick it up would be a waste of our time because we would end up sitting waiting on a repower and a waste of her time because she would be forced to find a repower.

As for the prima donnas, I've been saying it for months, but everyone puts me down for telling the truth.

 

Often the dispatcher had no privy to the way a load is built. They cannot challenge the numbers such as weight. All they can do is say, "pick it up, weigh it and after we have a weight ticket, we'll adjust if necessary."
The shippers often lie. A good example is JR Simplot. They tender a load thru Americold that says it weighs 43,000. Then they over load by design so when you return from the scales with the weight ticket they know how much to remove, yet utilize the maximum weight capacity of the truck. Your truck may only be able to haul 44,100 due to two of you in the cab. But my truck as a solo may be able to haul 44,500. Also, I might have been fool enough to go into the place with a quarter tank of fuel.
But when you scale out, they max your load.
People that build the loads at Stevens have to use the values sent over by the shipper, even knowing their bogus.
It's a nasty part of trucking, brought in part by past independents that would haul heavy just to get the load.

 

That's all well and good, but we have encountered those shippers that say, "We contract with Stevens to haul up to 45,000 lbs, and we are not going to cut the load" After sitting on a couple of those loads, we started refusing to accept load assignments showing weights that will put us over. Especially OJ, bottled water, and candy loads that we know tend to be 'on the money' except when they fail to include the tare weight.
"

 

You get what you reward. and if management wants the driver happy, and the driver has figured that out, then yes you are going to have prima donas.

I would move a load 100 miles for the day, because I was out of hours, and told dispatch I was, but always got that your the only truck in the area.

It is very interesting to hear just how many drivers are lazy, and uncooperative.

 

Hmmm. If we're not supposed to use names, and I'm supposed to spell the names correctly it sounds like trucker talk for: You're new so I think you're dumb.

Nice to meet you Cujo.

: D

 

Dujo can be a bit psycoponorious at times. Don't let him rattle you.