Stevens Transport Aviary . . cont'

How to "more to the story" without names. Well, first off this boy has never ever refused a load. He has never picked up late or delivered late. When he was running hard and making money, he joked that he had been taken over by the night and weekend crew. Then he said his DM got into a snitfit with the person who was keeping him on the loop he was rolling around on (DAL to IL to NC to GA to Laredo to DAL and around and around) and he went from getting good loads during the week AND weekend to getting good loads during the week and either sitting all weekend or getting a load that had too few miles and too much time on them to getting loads with too few miles and too much time during the week AND the weekend.

so... the more to the story? he feels like his DM pissed off the someone in WNAW who handles Laredo and he is being punished for it.

how to fix it? i dont know. i know how i would fix it if it were me. he just doesnt do things the way i do though.

as far as the escrow accounts go, you guys were always really clear on how much of that the driver sees after Stevens gets their hands upon it. i made sure he knew no matter how this lease ended, not to expect to see any of that money. my whole question was how it works financially when one goes company from lease, and you answered that Professor.

i have said it before and will surely say it again, you guys are exceptional when it comes to providing information.

 

I didnt realize how that sounded until I saw you quote me. I was refering to a flatbed tow truck. Doh!

I know that its to each their own, but take a look into auto transporting. Im home almost every night (my choice to run local), pay is good and its something that I really enjoy doing.

Tanker wouldnt be too bad though...

 

Yeah, I wasnt very clear on that. Sorry...

 

First and foremost, as a lease operator, it is your business. He got into a loop where the planners for the area knew what he could do. That loop changed. Laredo is a an either or, too much freight, or no freight.

Yes office politics do affect the driver, but one also has to look a the reality of the office... each DM has 50 to 80 trucks, and 20 of those take up ALL of his time. I got bounced from DM to DM over my 5 years. The DM has very little to do with how well you run. I fired one DM during that whole time, as she was trying to micromanage me, and that style does not fit with me.

One must be forward with the dallas staff, without being rude. As soon as they have sent that QC message, or answered the phone, you are forgotten. The drivers that are remembered, and talked about, don't get the loads.

If a person is a responsible business owner, when he ends the lease, he will see a reasonable accounting, that does not wipe out the escrow accounts.

 

I've never really looked into hauling cars and trucks but i guess it wouldnt hurt to look

 

If he wants to switch back to the company side he simply needs to tell his DM to "route me to Dallas". If that doesn't get a result he can contact Archie Roberts, his DM's boss, Cat or better yet if he wants to address his lack of miles putting him in a hole, call Bonnie Dorsey. Or send her a macro. I sent her one when I was not getting any help from my business counselor and she called me inside of an hour. He can also contact Angela if he feels he is being ignored, she takes that very seriously.

 

deleted because my temper doesnt need to be here.

 

Got an HOS violation last night. At the gate to the receiver. LLiterally had pulled up to the gate and stopped and the QC went wild. I knew it was going to be close. And was running 15 a full 15 minutes ahead. Then hit construction and sucked it all away. Receiver wouldnt let me stay. I call safety and he asked why I was running it so close. And why did I put my CDL in jeopardy?

I asked what I needed to do since receiver wouldn't let me stay. "Call compliance in the
morning.... click"

I got a message on the QC this is "your" third violation. The first two were mistypes on the CQ during training. Fat Finger and put myself on duty when the trainer or other trainee was still on. passenger rule violation.

I get the HOS last night. My bad. I should have been more forceful in telling them how close it was and refused or rescheduled. But the other two.... When you make a mistake on a paperlog, you initial, correct the log and go on. No one throws a fit about it. But QC does even if it lasted less than a minute. Those sorts of things should be able to be corrected out within a threshold without everyone in a tizzy.

 

When I was with Stevens I always tried to follow the rules. One thing that I remember them pounding into our heads in school was to call safety in instances such as you just described.

My story is that it was late and I was running out of time. I hadnt been solo very long and was still trying to get used to every thing. I called safety and told him that I tried the Loves on Tehachapi (sp) and there was no place to park. I called and asked if there was a safe haven between Tehachapi and Bakersfield as I didnt think that I could make it to Bakersfield (just as we were told to do in Stevens school).

I got the same treatment that you did. After he proceeded to chew my butt I finally told him not to worry about me, that I would do what I had to do to get to Bakersfield as I knew that there were a few places to park there. Then I hung up on him.

I made it to Bruces with something like 2 minutes to spare.

This is one of my complaints with Stevens. You do what they tell you to do in school then you get into trouble for trying to do the right thing.