Primary Means of Communicating With Employer/Company/Family

E-mail seems to be taking the place of the cell phone . Drivers shouldn't be distracted by phone calls . My carrier gives all drivers smartphones . Drivers are instructed to communicate with dispatch through e-mail only so phones are free for communication with customers . Drivers are allowed unlimited use of the browser for access to personal e-mail , Facebook , etc .

 

I have a smartphone and a mobile broadband device. My phones also support Skype as well as on the computer with the MBB. We will skype once or twice a week, otherwise the wife and I talk daily.

between the two, I have voice, email and text messaging pretty much anytime of the day.

 

Company Qualcomm
Anybody else Cell Phone/Intarwebs.

 

company "dumb" phone and personal "dumb" phone. no laptop. no phone talking while driving either, my rule,not company. if it's important I'll call back.

 

Yep; just a regular cell phone.

Some companies will give reimbursment (usually set amount) for personal cell phones, some will ask you to submit only the business related calls on your bill and reimburse you for them (which is crazy these days because there is really no way to tell when one pays a straight monthly fee), and then there are those that require you to have your own phone, and don't give you a dime (this case you can write a third of your cell bill off as a deduction).

Of course you have the companies that asign there own cell phone to you for business use only.

I have dealt with each method....and prefer to use my own phone, and get reimbursed a set amount each month, or use the deduction. I don't want to baby-sit a whole other phone.

As for personal calls; my wife and two adult kids know better to call me unless it is a true emergency....and everyone else is easy to ignore. I will call my family and/or anyone that has called me throughout the day, when I am parked.

 

Qualcom for trip info from dispatch. They will call if immediate communication is desired. I am not pulling over to check what the single beep from the qualcom is during a run. Just to find it is a lost trailer alert, or weather alert, etc...

Family contact, I am home nightly! Heheheee Or I will text the wife during the day, while I am stopped anywhere, if something comes up whether humorous, important or just a banality.

Mikeeee

 

ours is text message. if we need to call then we call shop phone as our dispatch doesn't seem to have unlimited minutes.

i think our office uses internet phone service though. i know they use internet fax service.

we don't get reimbursed. but we do get the tax writeoff. we have to have our own phone. so if the driver doesn't pay his bill. really puts him AND the company in a jam.

i'm the only driver with an electronic office. i have internet. i use for my laptop. i have my own fax service. printer and my logs are done on laptop.

i refuse to sit at the scale becuae i don't have my paperwork. and some of them scales refuse to give out there fax number. that can really put a driver in a bind. been there. done that. won't do it again.

 

Unlimited/free texting is your friend. So is having a 'favorite/most preferred/free' plan that allows you to talk to the people you most often must speak to via voice.