What would do you in this situation?

I missed you these last few weeks. But no matter, Hope things are well with you and yours.

 

At this pace Jerry Moyes will soon be asking you how to run the company.

 

Got something a little faster than my truck with the same HP.



I gotta hit it and get it. Very busy the last few days.

Where have you been?

 

Solid rules of thumb is never exceed your 8/11/14 clocks, especially on e-logs. The only time I ever did that was when a trailer tire blew out and pulled the mud flap bar onto the inside tire. I was at least 20 miles to the next exit on I-80. After road service fixed it I drove to the next available rest area. That's an exception to the rule, and it isn't the "safe haven" rule.

Burning six hours deadheading in order to have a comfortable place to stay is something I hope you have figured out how to avoid in the future, by stocking your truck with food and all essentials to take a comfortable 10 or more anywhere.

Sometimes I call ahead and ask a customer if I can take a 10 on their property, or deliver earlier than the appointment. Several times when I was with Swift smaller customers would ask me to go ahead and back into the dock and put the seal at the back of the trailer. I awake when the forklift takes off the first pallet and get ready to roll with maximum hours on my clock.

Same applies to flatbed. Many a time I pull into a yard or job location at night, knowing what position they want to unload, and take off all securement and wake up when I feel the first piece get lifted off the deck.

You are selling your 70. Don't give it away for free, especially big chunks of unnecessary deadhead or bobtail.

 

I recall a post on the thread about sitting 6 hours waiting for a dispatch.

6 hours is not bad at all. What is bad is making a message telling the company you will deadhead towards home "Or until the fuel ran out" etc. I don't think those kinds of messages are very helpful in your case. In any case there are laws in place against employees who hold equipment ransom for grievances etc. You would also be proving intent to abandon the truck as well which will pretty much cause the Trucking Industry to abandon you as a valued driver. /sarc.

Waiting for loads is a difficult time but should be understood that it is a specific process where a shipper, reciever, dispatcher and so on all get together to have a marriage to give you a load to run. That takes time. Sometimes there are other issues related to the load itself that requires even more time, example will be produce fresh from the fields will require blast cooling to get temperature put on before loading. That will take a while. As much as two days potentially.

A trucker should know how to wait patiently, cheerfully and without giving his or her bosses indigestion. There should be entertainment, even if it is books and so on along with food and fluids aboard the truck plus everything you require to spend however long it takes waiting. We do not get paid waiting, I think those days are gone with deregulation.

I thought about posting. Part of me wants to give a driver a hard time for making bad problems worse by quitting and unauthorized use of equipment potentially to do it. But a larger part of me chose to write and post in a way that is encouraging with a reminder that dispatching a load is not a instant process and takes time.

Regarding the logs, paper or electronic, you have a sleeper berth, use it to maximize your available onduty time. Or even take a 40 dollar hotel room for a couple days or however long it takes to get dispatched. You would be cleaner, more rested and save the company quite a bit more than that in fuel not burned idling or APU.

I realize that waiting time is a loss against the driver, any time a person is "Awake" he or she is accumulating slowly over time that day or night toxins in the blood that requires a period of sleep to have the body process and remove it overnight so you are rested and ready to go.

It is a unpaid time usually and I would advocate some kind of reform or structure put into place where Dispatchers do not require so much time loss in between loads. Recurring loads only need a few moments of time to process and transfer the information to the correct dispatcher, driver and unit number assigned to the load. The actual deadheading to get to where the load is is ordinary part of trucking and should not rate a big deal.

I realize that some drivers will have reached a point at which perhaps they should separate from the company, turn the truck into the terminal and go home on their own dime. All of these things should already be considered by the driver who intends to leave the employment. Doing this correctly allows the driver to be better considered as suitable hire material by another company. Really bad drivers are weeded out.

Anyhow that is my post to encourage those who may feel alone during waits between dispatched loads and may not feel very positive towards continued employment with same.

 

You've been solo for what, 6 or 7 weeks now?

Impressive.