Is this normal behavior of a trucking company?

Hubby and I have been waiting and hoping for dedicated account at Watkins and Shepard. About a month ago we got a call from Missoula asking if we wanted a dedicated run....Yes! We said yes. They said ok, you'll start it up in a couple of weeks or so.

So we anxiously awaited our start date, ready to make more consistent mileage. We only make .31cpm so getting good miles is important...a dedicated route would help greatly.

The day came that we got a run going to Conover, NC...that's where the dedicated account is. So we had the company route us through Dalton GA to get our car, we took our car up to Conover since we were starting our new dedicated run.

We get our assignment out of Conover, going to Phoenix, then CA. Good. We do our pre-trip, load up and head out! We're very happy to finally be on our dedicated run!

About 10 miles into our run, we get a call from headquarters... telling us to turn around, return to Conover and do a different trip.
Then the terminal manager from Conover calls us telling us to come back. uhhh.... ok. So we turn around and return to the terminal.

Our 2300 mile run is twizzled down to a 237 mile run to Atlanta that doesn't unload until the next day. That didn't sit too well for me, I'm feeling like we just got screwed.


Is this normal behavior for a trucking company?

 

yeah, first company. We don't know whether to be upset about this or not. Not sure if most companies do these type of things or not?

 

We're tired of having to do these little solo-type runs because it makes for a very small pay check. Not good for a team at all to do 237 miles for the day, then have to sit until the next afternoon... losing a lot of mileage there.

This, on top of some other things, has forced us to start looking elsewhere. W/S is a friendly company, not too good for teams though. From what we hear from the solo guys, they are making a killing. Not us.

 

Chinatown, I called Quest. If one person has a year or so of experience, then the team partner can have as little as 3 month experience. Sounds like a good company for teams. All the Quest drivers we have talked to out on the road are all happy and getting plenty of miles...clearing $1200 or more each per week.

We got out all of our check stubs tonight and done some figures: we have averaged around $500 per week each since we started in febuary. We run hard and have never been late on any loads. The problem is these little solo runs that they give us... can't seem to get consistent good miles each week. So since we have already begun getting pulled off the dedicated account for solo runs... we're feeling dishearted about teaming at W/S anymore.