Swift (disagreement with company)

I can totally agree with your post. And i can understand the whole "team" concept. I have been impatient at times. I have done a bit of complaining, but it has never been in the form of "my truck is a piece of crap..." or anything. it has been because i SIT. early when i upgraded to solo...i had a problem with being assinged an MT trailer. then when i got directions for one, and got it....it seemed like 30 min to an hour waiting for my load dispatch. Now, i became impatient when i'm sitting at a yard in a no parking zone, unable to pull onto the road because i dont know where i'm going, burning my clock waiting for someone else to do their job.

biggest thing was i would send in a message....and wait and wait for a response. i finally mentioned to my DM via email that if someone would just recognize i've sent a message, a simple "let me see..." or "looking..." will do just fine. if i dont hear anything, i'm just left to assume someone is doing something.

But like i said, i am trying a new approach this week and not picking up my Q-comm for anything other than asking a non-load question, or MT, loaded, etc. calls.

You should feel lucky, PawPaw.....atleast when they upgraded you to your truck, i am willing to bet it was nice and clean for ya, not to mention B-serivce was done on it. I'm waiting to get my B-service done, A-service whatever other service can be done. it is about 1800-2000 miles from clicking over to 540,000 miles.

 

Actually my truck had 649,000+miles on it. Yes, the inside was well-detailed but the outside was a mess and TM said to leave it for now due to weather (which i agree with). As for service, I am sitting in Alb until late tomorrow (been here since yesterday and actually probably won't get a load until Wed.) because of a safety issue that the shop missed when they serviced the truck. Though by most standards I could raise cain about it I figure it is better to just wait, especially now looking at the weather. There doesn't seem to be a single road out of Alb that isn't in bad shape. In fact many have shut down here until tomorrow for safety reasons.

And it is a bummer to get a dirty truck. When I was with American Eagle the truck I recovered had cigarette butts and ashes throughout (even found about 20 under the mattress. I hauled three bags of trash to the dumpster and asked for a new mattress when I got to Lancaster. It is nice if they can ave it done for you but, often in an effort to get a driver rolling, that cannot happen.

As for the qualcomm, it is frustrating to wait. Here is a good explanation (given us in orientation by our TM's wife who teaches it here). A DM comes in in the morning and may have 5 messages waiting. They begin to answer and someone calls on the phone. While he is talking to that one on the phone five more qc messages may come in. He begins to try to do those and then another "emergency" call comes in that takes a long time to deal with. During that time 20 messages could come in and now he may have 30+ messages backed up. All those are stacked in sequence as to their arrival time and so he has to sequence through them. That is why they really push communication through the qc unless it is a true emergency. It is kind of like when you go into a business and have been patiently waiting, then the phone rings and you get to wait some more. Best thing is to use the qc to keep dm informed of wht is going on as needed.

 

I gotcha. Do you know exactly the process for a driver to get a load? (i may have asked this before to you, and you may have already answered....)

As for my DM, when we introduced ourselves, he gave me an outline of his day. He comes in at 7a, and he says the first hour is spent going thru messages and getting caught up. from 8a, then ill start working with current day issues. from 10a to 11a, he sits in a certian spot and has his lunch, then back to work.

I can appreciate the help from his end, atleast giving me the "ok, let me check..." type email just to KNOW he has seen the message, and i am not just somewhere sitting on my thumb (or he on his).

I am so desperate to get off this 910, i am sorry i even got on it. It might not be so bad come March or April, but i was just thinking to myself, 'i sure am glad i'm not an O/O right now, or my mobile home (the truck) would get foreclosed'.

Is it safe to assume that if you ARE an O/O the odds your ahead of the company driver to stay busy?? Seeing how they know O/Os have a truck payment, etc...they have more of a NEED to stay rolling?? Or do DMs, TMs and Eminem just dont care?

 

Swift uses MicroMap to assign loads. I had a pp the other day that was removed before I could respond (driving). Asked DM and he stated it was multiplanned. In other words there was more than one truck that would be in the area at the time to get that load. The first one who responded got it. My DM knows I will help him out so he asked for my cell # so that when something like that happens again, he will try to call and see if I can do it. Once the system determines available drivers it preplans them and awaits a response. Once you accept a pp you will not get the load assignment until you send your mt call.

DM's and TM's do care. They have a vested interest in keeping their drivers moving with good freight. There are incentives for keeping a driver busy. Also, keep in mind that different parts of the country are planned by different planners. So, I get back east, I am not planned by my terminal but the area planners.

 

That is some good information. What can i do to get me out of an area where the freight is just null? I can understand sitting for a day waiting for a load. But i cannot understand only getting 83 miles for a week. that is BS. I've got almost 600 miles under my belt this week so far, another 900-1000 and ill be happy.

If you say there are planners regionally, what can i do to get out of a reigon where there are just no loads? What can i do when probably every planner has 'buddies' in their little network, that they feed the few loads they DO get?? Sounds like if anything, i need to get my tail down to Texas/OK area. I'm out of the 910 after christmas, so maybe if i can get into the AZ area....things will be much better.

As far as the apology thing, it is hard for me to offer one when i dont think i am wrong. Yeah, i have been impatient at times, i never complain about getting a 90 mile load. What i have complained about were directions that sucked (once) and sitting for 12hrs waiting for someone to find me an MT trailer. (once, and said MT was no more than 10 miles away)

 

Our terminal has one planner that I know of plus the TM plans when that one is gone. It is really doubtful that planners have buddies because of the way drivers move around; on dedicated fleets maybe but not in general freight. As for getting out of the bad area, let your DM know that you would be willing to go west. Keep in mind thought that, if you have requested Christmas hometime, heis doing everything possible to keep you in a loop that will make it easier to get you there.

To show you how bad east freight is right now, due to bad weather here in the I40 corridor, there are four drivers staying in Alb today who are "repositioning" trailers from the east coast to Fontana CA. A couple came from Ohio and one has a 2400 mile deadhead from the Carolinas.

A concilliatory note, even when we may not feel we are in the wrong, can help smooth over any feathers we may have ruffled. We can be right but still be wrong in our approach and we never know how what we have said or done has affected that other person. If we want to have a fresh start we need to be willing to extend the hand first.

 

i would assume those reposition jobs atleast pay. yeah? give me one of those for cryin' out loud. give me something. anything is better than just sitting. anything is better than doing 83 miles in a week...yeah?

yeah i want to be home for christmas, but dont pull loads from me because it might get me a little out of position. dont make me sit in one place for 3 days just because you have an outline for the course you want to take me, and the load a planner has for me, takes me 300 miles off that course. thats all i would tell my DM....

i mean before last week, i was averaging 1600-ish miles a week. i never once complained that it wasnt enough. i never said "gee i really need to get 3000 miles" then whine about not getting 3k. i took the 80some mile runs and added another on time delivery to my resume.

Just cant wait till after Christmas. ill run all 48....and come mid Jan....if i still dont see 1800mi weeks, then there is a problem with my DM.

 

West coast right now is more booked up then the east. East is horrible on freight, and everyone is cutting each others throats on rates to get anything. If we deadheaded every truck out of the east that had low miles, we would have the same thing on the west, and probably be bankrupt shortly thereafter. The is reasoning behind deadhead moves, but its in moderation, and right now, only in the companys best interest. Before this recession, we would deadhead (reposition) trucks for both the drivers benefit and ours. The margins are not there now for us to be as flexible.

DM's manage their drivers and act as a liason between the driver and the rest of the company. There are 15 planning centers across the country that planners work out of. Planners know when you will be in their area, if your solo, team, mentor, owner etc.., when you are due hometime, how many hours you will have to drive. They see all that, the same as a driver manager. I am sure your DM is messaging planners, but realize that if your in an area with 100 trucks sitting, those messages will not help. They actually hurt, because I am sure atleast 80 of those 100 trucks DM's are also messaging, and the planner just starts ignoring them.

I am not going to lie, and I try to communicate without sugar coating things. Freight is horrible right now, and I think its going to get even worse for the first 3 months of next year. Are there things you can do to improve your odds? Absolutely. I replied to your PM on some of them.

Get out of a comfort zone. Compare a confort zone to a conveniance store. If the conveniance store only accepts cash, no credit cards, are they limiting their revenue potential? Absolutely. They will still get business, but repeat business by people who use debit/credit cards is not likely to happen. Dont limit where you will run.

Look at teaming with someone. Teams are usually the first trucks to get loads or be repositioned to area's needing teams. You also get paid more. Hometime is much easier as a team also since you can be home from anywhere in the country usually within 2 days. Go transcon if you team. Tell your DM to get you into the transcon divisoin (026).

Getting to know planners for each area can help. Doing this is not an overnight gaurantee to help. It's building good relationships, and it takes time. When I used to plan, the drivers that would do anything I asked, even the super crappy loads, would always message me when they came into my area. If I had loads that I was having trouble on, I would plan them on it and back them up. If I had nothing, I told them nothing I can do right now.

Wes

 

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No kidding! I have been sitting in NJ for 24 hrs, nothing anywhere even remotely close....might be here for days as it is.

 

Seeing how i dont have any sort of relationship with planners, how the heck do i even start? Yeah, i know, next time i am in Memphis, i will be sure to go in and atleast offer my help doing those 'crappy' loads. I've got no problem cutting my teeth, starting from the bottom rung of the ladder and working my way up.

You said something about drivers who were in good with planners, who would message them when they got into their area. I assume they have a way to direct message them??

Ill look myself, but is there a map showing the different areas the planners have?