Watkins shepard

Discussion in 'Motor Carrier Questions - The Inside Scoop' started by sal, Aug 31, 2007.

  1. dancnoone

    dancnoone "Village Idiot"

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    May 6, 2007
    Mississippi
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    Tossing groceries isn't the "big deal". I haven't seen a company yet that wouldn't pay for the lumper service. It's the time at the dock.

    You might have 20 pallets of one product, or 20 pallets with 60 mixed products. These have to be broken down into 83 pallets with varying amounts on each pallet. Unless the warehouse snatches it off, turns you loose, then breaks it down. You can easily see where it increases your time at the dock significantly.

    Many of the warehouses have gotten better. But there are still quiet a few that are lower than driver recruiters, on the food chain.

    Yours truly is banned from Super Valu in Anniston/Oxford, AL and I'm not losing a wink of sleep over it.
     
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  3. Lurchgs

    Lurchgs Road Train Member

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    Feb 13, 2008
    Denver, CO
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    I can't argue with that at all. Fortunately, so far my loads (in all of two weeks) have been mostly yankers. Just grab the whole stack of stuff and get the truck out of the dock so the next guy can back in. Two exceptions: Load for Target DC was all floor loaded, so had to be hand unloaded. Was done in about 2 hours, but the dock manager sat on us for an additional 3+ hours so they could go to lunch. Second exception was Sysco. Lumper service. That was pull-pallet/sort pallet. Even then, they were done in about 3 hours. Dock manager - again - sat on our paperwork for 4 hours, so they got charged demurrage.

    Neither place was nasty about it, but neither were they apologetic. I'm on daily pay, so it didn't matter a whit to me. My trainer got $150/hour for sitting after 4 hours. Lots more than actually driving. In each case, we were careful to make sure dispatch knew we were being delayed, and we called our next appointment to make sure THEY knew. Dispatch got a bit tweaked, sending "are you done yet' messages on the Qualcomm - but the next guys in line were cool with it. They only asked if we could meet the delivery time. Since the answer was 'yes', they were happy.

    Well, maybe not happy but certainly not bent out of shape about it. They did say we might have to wait for dock space - but that's reasonable. Turns out our longest wait was about 20 minutes while one CO made sure a driver left (his trailer didn't meet their standards - which he should have known before he ever backed in)

    I do agree, though, that the snatch/sort would make the most sense. I worked that end of things briefly, and while I was there, we changed from pallet pull / pallet sort to empty and sort. It was a lot more efficient, and easier. For one thing, it saved a lot of time looking for '100 units of bozo noses' that were still in the nose of the trailer, but was the last item that needed to be on THIS pallet.

    For my money, the one at a time concept is soundly endorsed by the lumpers because it takes significantly longer.

    I don't lose any sleep over it, though, since it's not something I can change.
     
  4. Naw'lins Born

    Naw'lins Born Light Load Member

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    Feb 17, 2008
    elizabeth, nj
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    I thought delivery to lowes was bad, sheed I'm grateful now.:biggrin_255:
     
  5. rixcamp

    rixcamp Light Load Member

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    Jun 4, 2008
    seligman,az.
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    Hey Danc, you're EXACTLY right! Also, there's alot of midnight p/u and delivery of loads. Good for nightowls, but not for me! Been there, done that!
     
  6. truckin916

    truckin916 Medium Load Member

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    Sep 7, 2007
    Wild Wild West
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    Not to say you won't sit at a grocery warehouse with W/S though. Maybe not nearly as much but you will. I spent the better part of 24 hours at a grocery warehouse on more than one occasion with W/S. They are pulling alot of brokered loads these days and most of them are setup to either make you wait or take 4 days to go 600 miles.
     
  7. dancnoone

    dancnoone "Village Idiot"

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    May 6, 2007
    Mississippi
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    Doesn't work that way here (east side). We generally get rid of the load at a terminal if it has that much time on it. We've got too much freight coming out of our terminal to allow a regional driver to sit for 2 days, unless he needs a reset. I've delivered 3 grocery loads in the past year. One was completely refused and dropped in the yard, the other 2 were off loaded immediately.

    I was asked to deliver one just this week. But did not have the hours to make the load. Another driver covered it. This load was dropped, by another driver at one of our terminals.

    In my time here. I've never been given a load of 600 miles and 4 days to deliver. I have been given loads that allowed me to take a reset. Which I needed most times.

    That said, I always collected lay over for the times I've sat needlessly. It's a simple matter of reminding the FM to add it to the payroll. And placing the auth number on the trip envelope.
     
  8. truckin916

    truckin916 Medium Load Member

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    Sep 7, 2007
    Wild Wild West
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    That's cool. 8 out of 10 times I asked to drop a load at a terminal and keep running I got the "we don't have anyone else to deliver it" story.
    Granted in Q1 this year there seemed to be a shortage of local drivers and not as many loads to keep us running.
     
  9. dancnoone

    dancnoone "Village Idiot"

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    May 6, 2007
    Mississippi
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    That's true, you guys out west had a rough time of it this winter/spring. I know one time when I was in SFS terminal, some of the short line drivers were saying the Modesto yard had too many loads that needed to be delivered. With more coming in.

    Things are looking much better here. I suspect that's due to the closure of other companies, and the freight that has to be covered due to that. It never really got to terribly bad here. I'm still holding a 1k a week average that would have been higher, had I not taken/been given time off.
     
  10. sal

    sal Medium Load Member

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    Aug 18, 2007
    sacramento Ca
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    Danc

    Say what's your truck Number ?????? Myself I've got $1500 in layover pay sence the first of the year 1600 after this weekend.. It sounds like your an (the) excption?
     
  11. dancnoone

    dancnoone "Village Idiot"

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    May 6, 2007
    Mississippi
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    But you're OTR, and a first year driver too correct? I'm sitting on my ### at home. I can't collect lay over LOL I sat one stretch for 11 days. I wound up taking my vacation pay to have a check for that period. No lay-over/break down. But I was at home, so I was happy.

    But I have had about an equal amount of days off, if not more. But only about $100 lay over. Looking at my most recent paystub. Stop pay is about 31% of my total pay for the year. I had 16 stops this past week alone. If you deducted that, I would have less than $725 a week pre-tax.

    As far as being the exception. Far from it. We have several drivers here that average that, and more. But, we also have several drivers that will beg for multi-stop loads. I'm one of those drivers. I'll take 1600 miles a week, every week. If there are 20 stops involved.

    I have suck ### weeks too. I had a check recently that was only $350. But, it equals out eventually.
     
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