Good Night From II

You should have dinner more often. Think of all the headaches we could be rid of...

 

LOL did that to me in route to deliver

 

At the Phoenix terminal on a 10 after dropping at Marshall's (seems like old times from when I was on the dedicated account, had a good chat with the guard). They didn't have any empties, so we opted to head over to the terminal and see if we could snag one for deadheading to Brawley, CA for a live load tomorrow morning. After that we head to Compton, CA for a live unload.

I'm on the third day with this trainee. Backing skills are great, he's got the knack for knowing how to follow a trailer into the hole. Normal grinding and ultra slow motion going through turns on the road, missed a few shifts on the hills east of Moreno Valley on the 60, but I know he'll be a good driver.

Here's my problem. So far he's shown an absolute need to stop for a restroom break at least every 90 minutes or so. These aren't your average hop out of the truck, take care of business, and hop back into the truck affairs. At a minimum we're talking 15-30 minutes and it has to be a modern, clean flush toilet facility. If it's a 30 minute break we haven't been able to manage one in under 45 minutes and yesterday it got extended to 70 minutes.

Beyond the bathroom breaks it's the need to stop for full on meals.

I've calculated that at the rate he's taking breaks there isn't a chance that he'll ever finish a day without being hard up against his 14. He might be able to push it and get 9 hours within 14. My fear is we'll be getting a firm appointment or JIT load that we'll miss our appointment. Today we were 2.5 hours late for our original time on the drop and hook with only 280 miles to run, but that was okay because the actual window was up until midnight tonight.

I've pushed him and explained the situation in terms of time management, but it seems to be falling on deaf ears. It's almost to the point that if it doesn't improve I may need to consider asking driver development to remove him from my truck.

While I realize there needs to be some accommodation for physical needs, there has to be a line beyond which a trainee recognizes there needs to be responsibility for keeping the delivery on schedule. If that can't be met and they continue to dawdle on rest breaks and exploring cuisine in faraway places or strolling through the middle of a truck parking lot talking on the phone when the clock is ticking, then it's time to move on to an occupation that isn't so time critical.

I'm not going to jeopardize my platinum bonuses because a rookie can't get it through his head that this is a time sensitive job.

 

Soon to be followed by a post in TTRs bad companies section about how his Swift Mentor wouldn't let him go to the bathroom, get a decent meal and then kicked him off the for needing to pee on occasion and trying finish eat his lunch.

 

if he is wasting hours a day doing that stuff then he will always make a minimum paycheck and should just go work at McDonalds where there is a restroom 10 feet away at all times and food at his disposal.

 

True that!

And all I have to say about that is 1:45 off duty time to cover 5:15 of driving, not to mention logging in 0:30 minutes late for pretrip because he "starts slow in the morning".

 

And if he does upgrade to solo, he'll be the one that only gets the loads with the 300 miles per day average and the huge windows, which he'll spend in the truck stop griping that "Swift don't give me no miles".

That's fine; he can run those. I'll keep my 500 mile days, thankyouverymuch.

 

All that I average a day on this Target is about 250-380 per day, but am not complaining. About 20-25 additional stops per week. For a L/O, not that shabby. All that I ask for with the stop pay is about 2100/week

 

I also heard today on Road Dog Trucking that the DVIR will be a thing of the past come 12/18, unless there is a problem that needs reporting.
We will no longer be required to fill it out if everything is OK.

Anyone else know anything about that?

 

I'm in Lumberton, NC (well, nearby at the closest truck stop).

What a day.
I get to my delivery and have to hire a lumper.
After 2.5 hours the green light comes on, but I have to wait for the paperwork to be brought out to me. I went in to check after another hour and was told it's not ready, go back to your truck.
After another hour goes by I feel the trailer shake and the light is red again. I go in to check and was again told that it will be brought out to me when it's ready.
I was also told that if I was in such a hurry that I should have unloaded my own truck.
Another half hour goes by and the guy comes out with the BOL, showing that certain things were missing and others were not even ordered - which went back in the trailer.

I filled out the Mac 5x-whatever for refused/missing cargo, but I couldn't call claims because I had no reception there. (I had to use the receivers phone to do the ComCheck for the lumper)
So I went to a nearby Walmart and called from there.
After 1.5 hours I called them back and was told they'd send some e-mails and get me going.
After another 1.5 hours I called again. I was told the guy who is working on it just came back from lunch and they would get right back to me.
After another 45 minutes I call back again.
5 minutes later she is telling me that she is sending an e-mail to the shipper and giving them 15 minutes to respond. I told her that after a 5 hour unload and another 4 waiting on them I only had a little over an hour left on my 14.
She said to go to a truck stop and they would try and get it done before the end of the day.

So I get here and shut down, and the next message is someone from my terminal asking why my idle is so high when 48 others have much lower percentages.

Some days just pour in buckets.