prime vs. millis

Millis isnt even semi-large, they only run around 500 trucks. And I guarantee that your dispatcher will know you by name.

 

My dispatcher knows me by name, but I doubt he would know me by face. And I dont want him to... Means Im spending too much time at the terminal.

Ive been at Prime for 8 months now. No complaints. No pressure to lease... Other drivers seem more interested in whether Im going to lease or not than anyone above me.

Lease has greater responsibilities and greater freedom. Its the old risk vs. reward argument.

Company gets 1 day at home for every 7 days out. Bankable, but can only use 4 at a time. My FM prefers a minnimum 3 weeks out... Ive been staying out 6-8 weeks, because I want to. I really wish we could use more than 4 days at home at a time. We are hammered on our fuel milage... if we dont make company minnimum, we get our trucks turned down, and if we still struggle, we lose our truck.

Lease is a business, I have a lot of friends who are good at it, and a couple who struggle. Its hard to pinpoint problems with the strugglers because they get defensive about how they operate. It comes down to gas milage, and if you cant afford the loss of revenue than you should wait before going home.

Training goes by pretty fast, especially if you dont take any time at home. I didnt take any, and they offered me up to three weeks (not paid) off before coming back to pickup my truck to go solo. Its something I worked out with Training and my Fleet manager, so dont go assuming that 3 weeks is something you will be entitled to. Assume the answer is always no, unless you ask. In the end, I wanted to get paid, so I came back 10 days early.

 

Actually by only giving you 1 day off for every 7, the company is actually screwing themselves since you are never sure whether you will get a 34 hour restart or not on that schedule. If you are running the way you should, the most hours that you can legally log is 7.75 per day, but unless you are not moving at least 2 days a week, you are constanly chasing your hours, so by staying out 3 weeks you would be shooting yourself in the foot by either taking your 34 on the road(and Im not sure why anybody would want to do that) or you are sitting for hours on end waiting of your time to come back at least 2 days a week, so if you are gonna do your restart on the road, then why not send you home and let you do it there? The reason that they dont send you home is not because they cant, it is because they dont think that they have to. I guess if you are single and/or you have no life outside of work, then the way you are being worked is ok, but most of us do have a life and obligations outside the drivers' seat. There is an old saying and it goes like this" I dont live to drive, I drive to live" which part of this describes you?
And threatening to take your truck away from you if you dont meet company minimum fuel guidelines? I guarantee that if that is true there are more drivers without trucks than do have trucks. Most companies that do this use a unrealistic fuel/mileage goal, so that way they dont have to pay bonuses to anybody, but a very, very small percentage. I guess if you are ok with these work practices then they are a great company--but underneath the real disguise- how do you think that they view their drivers? That's right "expendable assets" just like all the other big carriers!

 

Its 1 day at home for every 7 days out, not days worked. Ive pulled 3 restarts, 1 at the terminal (my choice), 1 during repairs, 1 to give me a fresh clock to run a 2400 mile load in about four days.

uhhh, with a 10 hour break, there are 14 other hours that can be logged on duty. If you had a perfect bladder, fueled once a day, you could legally drive 13.5 hours + 15 min for fuel, and +15 min for a post trip inspect.

Does that happen, no... but it isnt far off... its limited by how many breaks you take. Yes you do run thru hours quicker, but 99 percent of the load appointments arent booked this way.

From what I understand we try to set a 50mph avg plus any 10 hour breaks as a minnimum set point for an appointment. Then you have the reciever and their own operating schedule, and the appointment is set based on the minnimum and the recievers first availability after that.

OR if my hours coming up over the next few days are limited, My FM get me a load that I can do in that time frame or less, and the hours not used are added onto the next day.

The 70 Hours is a constant. Its entirely about how productive the truck is in those 70 available hours.

This country is huge, the closer you live to the center and a major freightlane then that might be true. I spend 90 percent of my time 1k miles away or more from my home. Its not cost effective to send you home empty to sit for 34 hours.

It is cost effective if I give my 7-10 day notice for Time at Home (TAH) and my FM sets up a series of loads that gets me close. Im a company driver, I have to go by company rules. A lease operator can go home unloaded anytime they want and from anywhere, but they are paying for the fuel.

It black and white. Its your choice to come work here. If you want to be home more, find a company that can give it to you. If you go lease here, remember that truck payment has to be made everyweek. Lease guys I know dont head home until theyre revenue hits a point to cover the fixed costs and downtime. The better businessman you are (controlling your variable cost) the more you can afford to take off.

The fuel bonus starts where the company minnimum starts. I have had no problems making a bonus. The better the MPG the more I get. I like my situation, and with this economy, you should comply with their requests. 6.25 MPG is not unreasonable. Every opportunity is offered for to a driver to improve his MPG. Its the drivers responsibility to make the necessary phone calls to get that help. The truth is right there in the trucks computer. They offer to sit down with you and show you when and where you are wasting fuel... its all there. First step is the easiest, slow down. Second is a bit harder, shift properly. Third is maintenece and load balancing whenever possible.

With this economy and the available driver pool, everyone is expendable to a company. If a driver chooses not to use the company's resources to help his situation, its his own fault he's let go.

Last thing, Ive been told that not everyone who loses their truck loses their job... A couple drivers have told me that the drivers are given the opportunity to go back out with trainers to work on MPG. Its usually the hard headed "super trucker" know it all, that ends up refusing to change habits and ends up losing his job.

 

"uhhh, with a 10 hour break, there are 14 other hours that can be logged on duty. If you had a perfect bladder, fueled once a day, you could legally drive 13.5 hours + 15 min for fuel, and +15 min for a post trip inspect."

Try again......., you can "legally" drive only 11 hrs in a 14 hour period on duty, providing you just came off a 10hr break.

 

YEP! He didnt get the fact that if you drive all 7 days that you can legally only log 8.75 hours per day. If he would figure that out 8.75x8=70 (I was wrong I said 7.75, maybe that is why he wanted to argue). so If you use up 14 hours a day that is only 5 days 14x5=70, which means that you would HAVE to have a 34 hour reset or like I said you are chasing your hours--believe me, been there, done that back when there was no 14 hour rule and no reset, and you had to wait until you got hours back. Either He just wants to argue, or obviously he is not sure of the math. I read through his post, and I dont think that he understands that 70 hours is total time on the clock (not total driving time) over an 8 day period. ANd my reply to the original question was that if I am gonna do a 34 hour restart, why would I do it on the road and not home? There is a lot more to do at home than there would be on the road. So once again, I say that if the company is not allowing a 34 hour restart every week, then they are shooting themselves in the foot. If I work there and am coming off a 34 hour restart, I have a full 14 hours, 11 of which are driving time. If he is coming off of the last 7 days with 70 hours down, then he has to wait until midnight of his 8th day in able to get any hours back, and then he only gets back what he did on the first day, by that time I am into my second 11 hour driving shift and he is just starting his first after 8 days, which BTW, proves my original point--which was that both you and the company benefit from a 34 hour restart. If he is "out"(as he puts it) for 7 days and not working for 7 days and he has pulled only 3 restarts, unless he has been there only 3 or 4 weeks, he is either full of it or lying--unless he is pulling at least 1 restart every 8 days he is chasing his hours whether he believes it or not.

 

It amazes me how many people do not understand the basic HOS rules....not to mention split breaking. I think the most important time management needed is not being on the correct line, burning up your 70.

 

Yes, it would be great to pull restarts at home. The only way I see that happening is if I was a regional driver.

As far as how many driving hours you can fit in a day... Im just saying, and correct me if I am wrong.

Hypothetical with no bathroom/break stops and one fuel stop . Lets say I come of a 10 hour break at 0000. I can drive 11 hours, period. one fuel 15 min fuel stop and the post trip inspection 15 min. That puts me at 1130. Take another 10 hour break... its now 2130. That leaves another 2.5 hours left in that 24 hour day. 11+3.5 on line 3. .5 on line 4 and a min. of 8 on line 2 and max of 2 on line 1

I have never had to run this scenario. Im just saying its possible with a catheter.

Again, my company only cares about how productive I am with those 70 hours per week. Its my responsibility to run the loads legally and if I cant they work with me... either repower, or find me a load I can do.

I dont run five days and run out of hours. Typically there is enough time on a load where my breaks are more than 10 hours. I really only run long days in transit. Pickup and delveries days are when I sit on line 2 alot. I try and deliver at or near a fresh clock, it frees up my FMs options for my next load.

Sometimes I am chasing hours. Last week, a 1500 mile trip, Friday morning pickup. a little more than 2 day travel, right. Well, I didnt have the hours to do it in 2+ days. My fleet manager already knew that and the delivery appt. was already set for monday (which made it a perfect fit) or he had sales set it for monday which made it a fit.

Weekend dispatch is spotty at best, depending where you are freight is limited on weekends too. My FM would rather have us set up for the weekend the leave it for the weekend bunch.

Im nowhere close to home, so I would rather be moving and making money, sure I have more down time each day, but I make the most of that time doing laundry, catch a movie, do some shopping. I may have 8 available today and 6 tommorow, I may pick someplace to stop short and enjoy my time in a better location and then I have those left over hours and run a little harder the next.

Freight has been slowing down, its been noticeble, but my FM keeps me moving with the hours I have. 90 percent of the time, Im preplanned and know where Im going next before I unload.

It would be awesome to run hard over a handfull of days, and then be close to home to pull a restart every week. Im not regional. I live in Tacoma... freight typically begins and ends there.... not much just passing through.

maybe your point isnt connecting with me. Im not trying to argue. Ive only got 6 months experiance. Maybe I dont know how bad I really have it. Its all I know. Im commited for another 6 months... I dont like jumping ship, life has taught me that the grass is only different on the other side... some things better, other things worse.

You are right. 8.75 hours on duty each day and you will never run out of hours.

 

i talked to milis and they wanted me totake a refresher course. $2500.oo had to have $100.oo up front same with training so check into it further before you decide