A bit confused.... Captain of the ship?

Hey Spyder, I know exactly what you're dealing with as I've wallowed away on Prime's NE regional for over 2 years now. It won't get any better sad to say. I'd have left long ago but I had a ...'situation' pop up which I thought I'd be better off waiting for it all to blow over, but I'm losing patience with the whole thing. FWIW, it doesn't always feel like it, but when I look up, I have made decent money here.

As for the QC - it's all but worthless. J is good about responding quickly. The FM he replaced and every FM I've dealt with during the day? Not so much. I've lost track how many times I've had to call because my request for lumper $ went ignored and they're standing there with my paperwork wanting a check. Home time was always a QC message and a follow up phone call a day or two later to make sure it was received. About half the time it wasn't.
Little tip; if you're going to say WM where you know the lumper will be $50, send a message to nights and have them put 50 on ya. They actually answer and stay up with the QC. (I had to call in this AM also when my messages went unanswered for well over an hour).

Oh, and don't expect to go very far with the tater runs. I know those loads go all over the place but you'll most likely be going to Bethlehem most of the time. I must've pulled outta there 60-70 times by now. Twice I've been to Atlanta, and handful of times to Syracuse and maybe once to IL. You just won't get the TX run unless there isn't a 48 state driver there to cover the load. Sales does it's damdest to keep us up here. I haven't been south of I40 or west of I35 in over a year.

 

Ill be ###### somebody speaks to me in that manner! Communication is key, and thats all the wrong tone.

 

<---not surprised at this outcome. Best of luck Spyder.

 

Good Luck Driver

 

Don't want you to waste anymore time, but have you thought about demanding you be put on a fleet out of Springfield doing 48 OTR. I'd have a sit down with your FM and his supervisor and you can layout all the problems this guy is giving you and get the straight answers to your satisfaction. You sound smart, so if you do, get your ducks in a row and maybe make a checklist. Convincing case... Don't let them offer your FM a second chance, or a different Pittston fleet. Not a ultimatum, but you want the change cause your already prepared to leave.

This harassment at hometime and keeping you in the dark is BS. I've got half a mind to call up your FM and ask him what's his problem. However I don't know you, I assume you are telling the whole story... But if not then I look like a jackwad.

The day you arrive at home does not count. The advantage is if you get home early or in the morning it's almost a full free day, the disadvantage is if you get home in the evening it's only a couple hours. More often I'm home mornings or mid day. If you got home Xmas afternoon then 26th is day one, 27th day two etc... Now my fm requires us to be ready by 10am central on the first day after our alloted time off. That's 1000 ready to roll in the truck unless prior arrangements have been made BEFORE hometime or maybe he called the day before with a preplan that let's you roll later based on appt.

we get 1 day off for each 7 out. Minimum 3 weeks between hometime. Maximum 4 days (I've made deals for 5). So if you want that fourth day off you either stay out 4 weeks, or have worked an extra week somwhere and you have it saved "on the books" (also you could have taken 2 days when you had 3 to use)

im probably not gonna convince you to stay. I just know things are a lot better than what you are going through. I've got it on good authority that driver retention is gonna be ramped up and a priority for all departments. You probably hold more cards than you think.

 

Oh and getting by the house under a load is not hometime. You are still responsible for the truck and load.

 

How was your PTA set? Did you just rely on your FM to do it, or did you send a macro 47 with the date and time included?

It sounds to me like your FM may have not put the proper information into the computer, so that you and your truck looked like you were ready for dispatch to the night FM. Now that's not lying, it's just plain bungling... and that can happen anywhere. I'd would have handled that situation by giving Pittston dispatch a call and letting them know that you're on hometime, and wouldn't be driving for a couple of days. Now in my experience, I never had a problem with dispatch once they knew that somewhere along the line the ball had been dropped. Communciation is the key.

I'd agree with Chuck, you should tell your FM to get you a load to Pittston, and have a sit-down with your FM and his supervisor to try to iron this out. BTW, we have folks on my dispatch board who are posting 9+ mpg on a regular bases, so it can be done. A lot of it depends on driver technique. Heck... I can get 11 mpg with a 2000 lb load and 65 mpg all day long!

Good luck man!