Empty trailers.

I know you have been doing it a long time so you know full well that the terminals are obliged to have empties available.. The fleet manager should make it a priority, especially around the holidays and act all shocked when the same #### thing happens year after years around the holidays. That's when you start making local driver Cletus earn the hourly age and go fetch us some.. Day cab drivers do not come back here without an empty just like OTR, from October through December. Term manager, maybe mention it at one of the 8 telemettings you have with Swift EVERY day.. hey boys, we need more trailers, been doing this 20 years can we maybe get some more trailers in circulations I'm tired of having drivers yell and threaten my life over gdamn empty trailers EVERY year!

The problem with you bud is you leave well enough alone and tow the line, as a veteran driver and having credibility with the company we need you to speak up! Stop the absurdity that happens every year, put the onus on the terminals to have empties available for us! Don't make excuses for Cletus and the like, OK?

 

They are obliged to have empties available for us. Really?

I really do not know where you come up with your absurd ideas of self importance.

 

Yes! That's part of the job for the locals at the terminal. Reclaiming empties from customers near the terminal, especially around the holidays. If they aren't doing it, or at least coordinating with in-house dedicated outfits nearby, they are failing at their jobs!

For every instance of doing a T-CALL at any given terminal and having to drive randomly to customers BEGGING for an empty, you have a fat lazy local NOT doing his or her job. Wake up, dude!

 

Part of the reason for the scarcity of empty trailers is that a lot of terminals lock down a huge pool of empties for UPS and Walmart. This is compounded with the fact that trailers older than 2007 (or 2008, can't remember) are being actively removed from the trailer pool to be sold or otherwise disposed of.

I don't like hauling old trailers, but you could usually find an old jalopy around somewhere, and if you were lucky it would even be road (and load) worthy.

 

Yes. But those trailers are contracted and paid for by those customers to have them available when needed.

We drivers are not the only ones that feel the pain of that.
How do you think the planners feel about it when they need to find us an empty during those times?
I may get a headache thinking about getting my one empty for this load, but they have dozens of other drivers giving them headaches as well.

 

So the pain of a desk jockey updating facebook between calls, is the same as a truck driver physically driving to random customer sites begging face to face for a trailer. Get out of town.

 

Because the system is telling the planners trailers are in the yard ... But drivers have put locks on them hoarding them.

I wised up when I couldn't find an mt in Denver ... Started thumping on all the trailers with enforcer locks. Called my DM with a list of 8 trailers, everyone of them were mt and available ... Pulled one over to the shop and had them cut the lock off.

Some people can't get it through thier heads that their behavior is screwing over other drivers and it's other drivers behavior that's screwing over them.

 

And as for local drivers ... Yeah they bring back an mt and they're dispatched with it to go pu their next load.

 

It is actually the pain of some mentalities.