Good Night From II

Seems it is either too early or too late for the requested home time these days.

It was much better, most times, with the old system.

 

Here in Childress. Was going to try that next rest area but it was cutting it close. Picked up my General Mills load. What a PITA. Go to the terminal and drop my nice new mt and then check in and they take my DL and hand me the keys to go and unlock the Glad hand lock, then hook that one and check back in and then to General Mills and play d&h again. While I was there get a pplan from Lancaster and true to the way the operate, pu at 1600 on Tuesday, live load and del at 1600 on Thursday. All of 525 miles. No, that was not going to happen. So about 10 mins later, another one, pick up preloaded trailer at Home Depot in Dallas and go to where I hate and said that I would not go so before accepted, made a phone call. Home Depot in Loveland for 1700 on Wednesday. Will be getting a can load out on Thursday. My DM said that with my miles the last month, I am a priority now for miles. At least this one will give me almost 2900 miles for the week. Have not seen that in almost 6 weeks. Was talking to another l/o at the terminal and he told me that he was told by his DM there that the planners have pretty much been told as far as the western planners, give the good loads to the company drivers so can better utilize and we can pick up the slack.

Finally found some cheap fuel in Amarillo. A old truck stop that has reopened. Now called Hana. Used to be called the Jesus is Lord Truck stop.

 

Moosetek, IIRC you like to sip your time on the road and roll with comfortable time for breaks and rest. However, it seems to me you are overthinking the use of the Mac-9 to adjust your times. I remember going through orientation and how they drilled into us we had to carefully look at whether we could make a load on time and use the Mac-9 to say when we could do the load. The reality of it is that the computer system is set up to pretty much automatically reject any changes in the offered time.

When I finished my training a couple of years ago and went solo at that time we were assigned a "Training DM" for the first three months, then given a permanent DM after that. There was a review after the three months, and I remember they tracked metrics like idle time, on time percentage, AND percentage of load rejections. Every time I was "rejecting" a load with Mac-9 with adjusted time it was recorded as a load rejection. My training DM advised me to almost never use that feature of the Mac-9. Instead simply call and ask for the shipping windows.

After that conversation I never again rejected a load due to tight time frames. I would reject them if I had a home time request or something like that, but never ever replaced the times. Not once was I ever given a service failure.

My advise to you is to make a call to your DM to find out more about a load and/or simply accept the load THEN use the Loaded Call to advise your ETA and PTA. It will greatly reduce the headaches for the planners and DM's. The computer system is very frustrating for them, too. You aren't helping matters by "rejecting" loads with new times in the Mac-9. Just accept the load and roll with it.

 

I was just in your stomping grounds last night and this morning. I delivered a load of "sucker rods" to an outfit in Magnolia that I picked up yesterday in Odessa, then for the first time since joining ACME I was stacked with a load picking up in NW Houston area headed right back to Odessa.

Right now I'm in the Pilot in Odessa, oil field central. My delivery is a couple of miles away, and I'm working the local terminals to see if they might be able to get me a load to OKC or anywhere from Amarillo to Dallas to get me part way. After a great week of running with almost no deadhead miles I'd hate to spoil it. I've got exactly 12 hours on my 70 and could use a nice reset back at my brother's apartment in OKC.

The first week at ACME was my training week, with training pay that would make Swift's training pay look good. The second week, with the torrential rain, slowed down all the deliveries to the oil rigs. I only made a few hundred dollars on four half day hauls to rigs all within a hundred miles of OKC. The owner of the truck and I were both a bit upset that I was getting the short end of the stick whenever my number came up to get the next load.

Last week on Tuesday started alright, with a load almost to Texarkana, but then deadheaded all the way back to OKC as they were short of big trucks. Before I got to OKC I got a dispatch to Mentone, TX to deliver to a rig. Then I got a very lucrative "field move" moving two loads of pipe 14 miles round trip which was then backed up with that load from Odessa to Houston and now back to Odessa.

One thing I've learned about driving a split axle flatbed is you REALLY need to round off your turns, much wider than when driving a dry van or reefer for Swift. Tight truck stops can be a challenge, but with all the backing I did as a door swinger I've learned how to make those rounded backs. I do have a valve to dump the air bags on the back axle, but when I've got 48K on the deck that still puts a lot of stress on the trailer tires.

Having fun out here. Next week's paycheck will be nice. Starting to get the hang of it and hopefully the price of oil will go up a few more dollars to start more rigs back up.

 

They're dinging the DMs now if thier drivers don't meet the committed time ...

 

I'd certainly see that if you got a service failure the DM would get dinged. My basic philosophy was to commit to the load first, then adjust times with the Loaded Call or use the Mac-22 if I would be late, or the Mac-34 if I would be early.

In talking with the planners and DM's in various terminals, especially in the JV terminal, I found that they were at least as frustrated with the Plus One program as the drivers. The times you see on the Load Offers are generated by +1. The planners can't alter that, even if the pickup and delivery windows are generous, or if the CSR knows the customer can ship or receive at times that are different than on the LO. That's why my DM advised to always call to find out the real scoop on a load if I had any questions or issues.

Like I say, in two years of running at Swift I never had a service failure. Did I ever deliver after the time set on a load offer? Absolutely, countless times. However, by using the Loaded Call, Mac-22, or Mac-34 to COMMUNICATE with the DM, CSR, and customer everyone was kept in the loop. Frequently I would call a customer to find out if they could take a load early, or if they allowed taking a 10 on or near the premises.

Communication is the key.

On the other hand if you go by the Load Offer times as gospel and use the Mac-9 to turn down the load with new times the system isn't set up to handle that in the great majority of cases. It will automatically remove the load offer. That's frustrating for the planners, as they are trying to get that load assigned, but the system won't allow for the range of times needed by the drivers. Better to call the DM, commit to the load, then communicate your ETA and PTA on the fly.

 

If there is a window, and the new times are within the window, it will kick it right back to you with your new times.
If it is outside the window the load will be removed.
It's a lot easier than doing a Mac 22 after the fact.

My last load was a little different because it was already late by 2 days when they sent me the first pplan, but I didn't know that because they had adjusted the times on the pplan but not somewhere else in the system.
After using Mac 9 twice, and having it resent yet another time the planner finally sent me a message asking that I please pick up the load. I accepted it without further question, then did a Mac 22 after I was loaded to give them an accurate ETA.
The planners message with the first one would have saved a lot of time.

And I discussed it with my DM a long time ago when he said I had a high turn down ratio.
I mentioned that I didn't turn down very many loads, except to adjust the times via Mac 9 as we were instructed to do. I told him it was giving false data because it counted those Mac 9 adjustments, even if I ended up accepting the load.
He agreed and said not to worry about it.
I don't think anyone has mentioned a turn down rate in well over a year, or two.

 

And I'm at the TA in Effingham, IL, headed to MO.

There was a traffic tie up not far from here on WB I-70.
Someone decided to commit suicide on an overpass bridge, and succeeded.
I lost about half an hour before we were diverted to the off ramp, and back on.
I was only about 3/4 mile from the exit when traffic stopped, and I imagine it was much worse for people several miles back by that time.

I had only 39 minutes left on the clock when I shut down, and I also needed to get laundry done. I was out of anything clean by this morning, and this was the only place I could manage.

A couple hours later I get a message from a planner asking if I would be on time for my delivery at 0800.
I said yes, and he was happy.
I'll have to be driving no later than 0330 to make it, allowing for an extra 30-45 minutes for possible morning traffic along the way.
I hate the early early mornings, but I've got enough time - even for my liking to "sip your time on the road and roll with comfortable time for breaks and rest."

I like to be comfortable, and I like my off time.
Is that SO bad?
I live on the road, and home times are just longer breaks a month or so in between. I just visit.
Then I'm off again to get as many miles as I can, within my own desires.

And I can maintain a Platinum rating, even through that.

 

At the FlyJ in Cotulla TX north of Laredo.

Left Houston this morning at 3am (I LIKE starting my day that early ) and slid right out of Houston with no traffic. 50 miles east of San Antonio I hear that familiar BOOM!! followed by Road Gators spreading across I-10 behind me. Wonderful!! Stopped to take a look and it was the RR inside front tandem. All the tread was gone. Sent a mac55 and dialed up OnRoad and got back on the road. No way I was letting this slow me down nor was I going to sit for hours on an exit waiting for a repair.

An hour later they finally answered and I told them the same. Made a quick stop to look at it south of San Antonio and all that was left was the two sidewalls spinning freely. Rolled all the way to Laredo for my live unload at a broker like that. No problem.

After getting unloaded I took it through the inspection lane at the terminal so they could fix it and dumped the trailer on the west fence. Went inside to pick up my paperwork for a load on the yard to tcall back in Houston Wednesday.

Laredo is freight heaven this week!! Jorge Trevino told me they had loads going nearly anywhere in the country but not enough drivers to handle it. There were only 5-6 bobtails sitting around so everyone was getting in on the action.

Almost wish I wasn't going on hometime Thursday. Wouldn't mind a 2K+ run.

 

This is not a good time to be rolling with a hosed tire.