Stevens Transport aviary

When the Qualcomm was first put in, they said there would be no reason to call in. Then of course, they had us call for deadhead, safety, etc. etc. But there was no good reason to call. Everything could be done via QC. HaHaHa,

 

Our DM prefers that everything be done by QC!! We usually talk to him once a week, maybe, LOL. It helps that the DH 'talk' is now covered by a QC message!!

 

Coming off home time, they called and asked if I would do a repower for a driver who was out of hours, swap trailers, drive 104 miles and deliver... I won't even get into the issues I have had in that 104 miles, but I got a message to call for a produce talk. I figured canned message, again 104 miles to final... so Ignore it... start driving and get another message to call ASAP for a produce talk... so I called, but what a waste of time...

104 miles... overnight, no check calls to make, etc...

 

Well that was fun! I made it to a rest area with 3 minutes remaining on my 14. Tried to be proactive and started callin Safety with about 1 1/2 hrs... left, that was a waste of time, was told call back when you have the bills... "I am leaving now" I get the bills with 41 minutes left... did I mention this is Landover? Cant stay there... so I dial the number.,. Then I send the ecall, close doors etc and figure I'll give it a shot in the DC traffic at 7:30am... make it to the rest area on 95 N as I said with 3 min left... still on hold.

Glad I didn't wait, but #### it, why does is have to be so hard to have an issue addressed? It was readily apparent I was going to be very close. I ask for some guidance, give them a heads up that this is happening and I get, call back, I'm leaving... SMH

 

The produce, deadhead, afterhours, etc talks are all live. The QC message telling you to call in is automatic and won't quit until a person enters the proper 'key' into your Check Screen. Same for Canada talks and about 30 others.
You'd be surprised at the talks...FedX, Waco M&M, Candy, weather, and some I've never heard of before.
They are all there for one basic purpose...to cover someone's butt.
But they do serve a purpose. For instance, the produce talk. If you've been driving for Stevens for a year or more, you can almost recite the talk verbatim. But if it's been a while since you hauled produce, you may have forgotten that you owe two produce check calls each day. Or that you can do it with Macro 36. Just a good reminder and it helps make us more careful with the freight.
You'd be surprised at the number of drivers that fail to use four load locks, then call us at he consignee to tell us there are cases of carrots all over the place.
or the number of drivers that don't monitor their temps and drive two days across Arizona and New Mexico with the reefer off because they failed to buy reefer fuel.
There is a person that monitors every produce load and check call every day. I did it for a while.
You forget your produce check call, you get a QC message, "please send in your temps".
You don't send...you get a phone call.
The Waco M&M talk...it tells you how to approach the place. Don't come from the Pilot station, come from the other way. Or there's a $200 fine. There's a police officer sitting there virtually always, just waiting for a trucker that comes from the wrong way. Lot's of signs, but people don't read them.
Low Bridge clearance talk. Had a driver call last night. Was at a bridge that was an inch too low. He had stopped and did everything right. (His QC routed him that way, even tho he'd had a Low Bridge talk). While waiting for the police to arrive and stop traffic, another Stevens truck ran under the bridge at full speed. Just high enough to ALMOST clear. Scrapped the top and probably made the trailer 13-5 1/2.
Sparks everywhere, but he kept going. This all happened when I was on the phone with the first driver.
Two hours later, get a call from a driver about how his trailer was damaged. "must of been that way when I picked it up at the shipper".
When asked why he took that route, he said "the QC said to. I didn't know I wasn't suppose to."
Therein came the question, "Why didn't you call in for your routing talk? It was sent to you multiple times on the QC"
So it's CYA time.
The real problem isn't the talks. It's the phones. We all know that.
If management qualified us to all give produce talks just like we do High Value or Deadhead talks, we could do that in 30 seconds and have you on your way instead of putting you thru to Produce and bouncing back to us every 30 seconds for the next 20 minutes.
If ownership would allow us to hire one more person for saturday and sundays just to answer the phones, everyone's life would be better.
But as the saying goes...if wishes were fishes, we'd all be fed.
But the talks and the QC continue...they always will. Soon they'll have training videos on the QC.
(sigh!)

 

The qualcom is there to help you. It's space age electronics.
Nothing can go wr
Nothing can go wr
Nothing can go wr
Nothing can go wr

 

For about the last year we have been getting a message stating, "Your DH is over 150 miles. Ensure you know the weather conditions ahead. Plan your route, no cruise when deadheading, increase following distance. Drive truck like it has no brakes. If you feel unsafe, park and communicate. No jake brake. Proceed to shipper." We do not get anything telling us to call in for DH talk.

We also quit receiving the 'Laredo message' about not parking anywhere but the TA.

There is also the 'National Beef Talk'.

Also, do you honestly think that they will ever put the 'training videos' on the QC??? After all, we lost all of our 'Media Manager' stuff, like Pete dealerships, KW dealerships, FL dealerships, Snyder Tires, when the 'powers that be' discovered how much it was costing them!! My expectation is that all the 'promised' stuff like Wi-Fi, Transflo, etc will never come to fruitition because of the expense.

 

Hey all. Here I sit in SD waiting for the driver I'm supposed to reposed to get me home. Just got a message that he hit some weather and won't be here until morning. So my question is will I be able to make otd? No answer yet. Does any body know the dh limit? I know we go over 300 from Denver to Dodge city. I could have made it most of the way home after delivery, but instead I'm another 48 miles further away.

 

Don't think there really is a limit. We have been deadheaded from Morris, IL to the St Paul area before, and a couple other 400+ DH. As for going home, I have heard of guys DHing almost 500.

 

I just found out the load to get me home doesn't deliver until 2000. I just messaged my dm and told him the driver can deliver it himself and I will dh home in the morning. If I had left my delivery this morning and headed back towards home I would be sitting no more than an hour away. Well that got shot down.