Trans Am Still

Oh, and jdmredneck, I'm gonna give you a student map pin. I think you are giving this a lot of thought. Choosing a good school, working while you go to school, etc. You, dennisroc and SRQGhost all have pins .....you have been here, asking questions, learning all that you can to make this choice a success.

 

After Wed night I only have Two weeks left of classroom time then I start Down in the Yard where I start learning Pretrip Inspections an Driving the trucks Really looking forward to Hands on Training its also the last 10weeks of school

 

That is a super cute pic of you and your daughter.

I am doing the backhaul of the run that proved to be the last straw, the one that caused me to give notice. No preplan yet so I don't know what they have in store for me.

I put in two hometime requests. One to go by the new house (aka "the clubhouse") to drop off my stuff and clean out my truck. The second request was to go to Olathe at the end of the month and that would be my last day of employment. However, it looks like my first hometime req to go to my house will already be missed. Night dispatch told me when the T-call/swap fell apart on my current run, that will mess up the plans to get me home. I'll wait until Monday, message my regular DM and figure something out.

 

This article was in an online driving magazine talking about the driver shortage and turnover rate. The problems you and George are experiencing are a big part of the problem. There are several issues that they need to address. They need to do something about cdl mills that take a persons money but don't properly train them for the job, they need to raise the rates, provide better health insurance, get a driver home when they are supposed to, and fix the problem of uncompensated time .....that's my opinion for what it is worth. Until they begin to make progress on these things I don't believe they are going to make any headway on the driver turnover rate.

The turnover in truck driving employment has been a prevalent problem and one that doesn’t seem to be getting better any time soon.
Trucking companies have been scrambling to retain drivers and find new ones offering pay raises, sign-on-bonuses and other promises in order to fill their trucks.
According to recent report from the American Trucking Association, however, their efforts have been in vein as the total truck driver turn over rate has spiked to 103 per cent in the second quarter of 2014.
ATA’s Bob Costello chimed in on the continued driver turn over problems and said the situation is “as bad as ever and is expected to get worse.”
These turn over numbers are 11 percentage points higher than the prior quarter.

 

^It is an interesting question. Competition for both drivers and freight is cut throat. Mega companies like TransAm are trying to cut rates to pull in the freight yet have to increase pay for drivers. One way TransAm seems to be doing it is to try to automate all that they can. Reducing support services to drivers, like having personal who can answer a phone, reducing the amount of time personal can devote to addressing issues of concern to drivers.

TransAm is an awesome company to work for when no problems crop up. The regular and routine runs are cake. Good runs in comfortable trucks. I put in my notice as my current DM who is a very nice person just does not seem experienced enough to handle fairly simple problems. The main DM supervisor in Rockwall needs an act of god to jump in and help. My attitude has gone downhill, over this, that is the main reason I gave notice. I think companies are also going to have to address driver support. Turnover will be reduced if they can improve the overall positive experience for new drivers, pay helps but it is only one piece of the puzzle. IMHO.

 

I agree completely, passport. It isn't any one problem and they are going to have to make each part of the puzzle fit a little better for them to start solving the problem of driver turnover and maintaining profits. It will take time, I believe it is an industry in transition. I just feel that in order for them to make any lasting impact on the problem they are going to have to look at a picture of the whole puzzle, not just one part or another.

If they would just let us run things for awhile I believe we could fix it for them! .......Can't you just see the look on the Cranky One's face when he thinks about me "fixin'" the industry problems! ......

 

Wow if Pete's profile pic was from high school we need to find out who updated it from the original black and white.

And yes HTQ I am fine, just busy right now between work around the house and the increase at my current job with the seasonal residents coming back into town.

 

Wow. We can see that our queen is being nice to us, by only saying home time, when it should obviously be homecoming! !!!

 

In Russellville, Ar. for the day. Been driving overnight but trying to get this load early. Should be in Norcross, Ga tomorrow way early.

I don't do pics in the internet. Even on FB. I have always hidden from the camera afraid I will break the lens.

Be safe out there