Routing, Company or Lease

i don't get the mentality of driving through a really bad storm or what have you... you are the one that makes the call if it is too bad or not no one else..

as for routeing your self... most companies that lease allow that

 

If you are not permitted to (or are penalized for) routing yourself, you're not a L/O or O/O, you're a company driver. As a contractor, regardless of where you are sourcing your equipment, this is your responsibility, and you shouldn't be shy about telling dispatch this in no uncertain terms, if they do something dumb.

 

I'm a guy who leases tractors to drivers.

In our Lease Agreement, wording is exact so that distinction can be made as to who is a Company Driver and who is a Owner Operator.

Owner Operator can "turn down a load" or there is no "forced dispatch", Company drivers can too, they just get black marked..............

Fortunately, I work for a company who isn't going to dispatch someone into a severe weather situation, no matter if they are a company driver or leased Owner Operator. An example being this past week or so with hurricane Sandy going into the Northeast, we stopped everybody at New Jersey/Maryland going north and held southbound away from coastal I95 in Ct to reduce the impact, once the storm came on shore, it became just a lot of rain and wind, no big deal, just had to be extra careful and watch out for the idiots............things you have to do everyday.

Shippers/receivers didn't bring in people to unload anyway, why push a driver to get there and "sit" in a severe storm.

The whole thing with Sandy backed us up 3 days, but we just worked with it, drivers did too, We didn't order a hurricane to mess up everybody's day, but we had some drives try to blame us for there wait times too................Had one Owner Operator ransom a load until we paid him detention for sitting in Hurricane Sandy. We didn't and he is no longer with us. I believe he is still reading over his signed lease agreement wondering what happened..........

You as a Lease type Owner Operator technically can go anyplace you want at any time. If you want to stop and see Aunt Martha be my guest. One of the things we ask our Owner Operators, if you accept a load, get it there on time. If there isn't enough time to stop and see Aunt Martha, don't stop to see Aunt Martha, do the job you accepted to do.

Now, let me caution you.................not everybody is a correct candidate for Lease Purchase/Owner Operator status. If you were not a really good Company Driver, your not going to be a proper businessman/owner operator/lease agreement type of person. If you are not able to work things out on your own, don't be an OO!!

If your considering O/O so that you can stop and see Aunt Martha, go out of route, be late, offer company a lot of "I'm no doing that-I'm on Owner Operator" stuff, thanks for not coming to where I work.

 

I have not leased a truck, but if I am paying the fuel then I will decide where and how I get the load delivered. If you are paying for the fuel then it is no one else business how you get there as long as the load is delivered on time. I have routed around snow storms or other bad weather. I buy the fuel and own the equipment, so I decide my routing. I will usually take the most direct route, but sometimes it is better to route around bad weather and take the longer route in order to be safe. At one time I mostly traveled California. My primary route was I-40. I have dropped down to I-10 to go around a major snow storm. I would rather put on a few extra miles rather than get shut down in a bad storm. Most of the time I will just go through a storm, but if it is bad enough, I will try to go around rather than get shut down due to the weather. If you are a company driver you may need to clear any out of route with your dispatcher. Sometimes, they may want you to still take the shorter route. Others may prefer you to take the safer route, even with more miles.

 

If you have a CDL, you when it's safe to drive, and not. I have told Dispatch I parked because of weather more than once, If they don't like it, Fly out here and drive the truck yourself. My life is the only one I got.

 

i'm a company driver but my company allows us to route ourselves they just keep the tolls down to a minumum and dont get to crazy goin out of route