I'm baaaaaack!!!!!!!!

Hello. My name ees Inigo Montoya. Joo keel my father. Prepare to die.

 

Dude, where's my car?
Where's your car, dude?

 

It's time, but there is an override so no worries. Only time I'm gonna idle is on a hot night.

 

Just had a conversation with the ops manager and in a few we'll meet our dispatch team (Rick and Rob -- sounds like a morning radio show).

They seem really big on communication, REALLY big, since a large percentage of their freight is customer freight that has no leeway on delivery times. The windows are generous, but late deliveries are not an option. They have a 99.4% on time rating with their three biggest customers. Dispatches are planned out at 50mph and preplans are based on driver provided ETA. If you're diligent in your work you can pretty much write your own ticket here, within legal and physical constraints.

Speaking of which -- trucks are 65 on the pedal and 67 on the cruise.

Trucker Copilot nav on the Qualcomm, free to the driver.

 

Well, sometimes the big bad company isn't just out to get the poor innocent little truck driver.

Admittedly, not all companies are paragons of moral turpitude either.

The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle.

The CSA numbers are based on percentages, but their classifications are based on number of inspections annually, which puts a sub-200 truck carrier at a distinct disadvantage to a carrier to whom 25-30 violations aren't even 5% of their total units. Or, more to the point, 150 inspections are barely a blip on their radar whereas a smaller carrier will take a real beating. It ain't fair, but life ain't fair.

Having actually met and spent time with their safety head, I seriously doubt he's just throwing people into the fire to appease the inspection gods. It wouldn't make a bit of difference. Firing bad actors is the only way to change things if they are refusing to adjust their behavior. They were a pretty bad company for a while since CSA came into effect, and it got bad enough that they started losing some of their freight base and revenue because of it. Things were going downhill, so it was time to start doing something about it other than slapping wrists and written reprimands because Supertrucker Dave can do 4,000 miles a week.

But, you already knew all of that.

The above being said, while I've been told they dispatch at 50mph, sometimes reality clashes somewhat with theory. Time alone will tell. I've spoken with enough active drivers (who don't bother with these forums) that I'm fairly confident things will work out about how I'm expecting them to.

I'll keep you all posted what wanna know....