"Utilization"

As a solo driver, if they wanted me to run 3500 miles per week I would tell them to stuff it.

I'm curious though. What terminal are you out of?
Some of them seem to have a hair up their *$$ and want to run drivers into the ground with high demands and little home time.

 

Tha

Thats perfect advice......tell him to abandon truck and load. He’ll have companies standing in line to hire him after that! SMH......

 

I actually have done that in my life time with my own conflicts with a dispatch who refuses to do anything at all. Eventually a loaded trailer dropped off legally inside a truckstop with clipboard markings about it and manager gets kingpin lock keys and I bobtail home.

The last time I did that was JIT tires for assembly in Michigan. Within the hour Dispatch had rolled out the red carped with all sorts of communicating as how can we help? They should have ask that earlier that morning. But once I go over the edge and make a irrevocable decision to quit in those days it's finished.

I have never had abandoment in my dac. in my lifetime trucking. HOWEVER there are other terms like service failure (Irrevelant after a quit for cause) and a bunch of other stuff.

Good advice? Bad advice? Who the hell knows. It's your bottom in that tractor seat making these decisions. Those tend to be irrevocable. Particulurly if you did not quit on your own in a impossible situation carefully created for you to make you quit, they will simply let you sit for weeks wondering where the loads are. Then bring in you and truck and fire you for cause.

There are certain things that are absolute in this industry. Employment is "At will" and either the trucking company terminates you or you quit and go work for someone else. Once in a blue moon you even win the unemployment against a company and for cause. They tend to blacklist you after that point. (And fail to hire anyone from that state forever)

The best thing is two.

You can always go to work for a small family type operation, paving etc who does not give a #### about your record. As long you are in that truck cranking at sunrise to go to work until you cannot see after sunset.

The other point is that due to laws, even the worst of work records clear after 7 to 10 years. Even faster than that when some of the companies Ive quit imploded and went out of trucking permanently. It becomes a gap time between employers for hiring purposes.

Things have changed in this industry for the worse if I choose to think on it that way. One part of me is happy I don't get to deal with the steering wheel brain dead holders anymore. The other part is that I have little to no tolerance for dispatch games. To giggle and yank my chain on those computers they use. 200 mile loads? Sure, this once.

Ty, how about a 180 mile load? Sure. Over and over again.

Third or fourth time how bout a nice 150 mile haul. That's flat BS, put it on someone else and take me off your drivers roll and the truck and trailer is here for you to collect. We are finished. It's just irreconcilable differences. I am not a dray hauler I do best with long hauls. If there isnt any I simply move on to a another employer. Until I find the right fit which I did in my last year OTR. Running medicines which pretty much strips out all the grocery, cold storage BS that I have endured at zero pay.

Truckers need to be more professional and then they will gain the important loads that matter. Not the little 200 mile hauls that you can throw into a Penske 20 foot box and do it yourself with two round trips in a day.

And there are people who hate long hauls, but thrive on the short runs. Something for everyone.

However Dispatchers do not like drivers telling them no. And so they will craft a situation impossible so Mr NO will quit pretty soon.

 

U want this industry to collapse LOL that is the most ignorant statement i have ever heard. IF this industry were to collapse this entire country would not have any food or water or clothes... This industry provides everything that society consumes and this industry is not going anywhere. Ur right no company cares about drivers only their bottom line. Thats in any industry ay the end of the day the employees are just a number in te budget on a spread sheet nothing more nothing less. U have to learn how to use ur company the same way they use you. Its part of the game. In any industry... Just because u work for 3 different carriers and ur not cut out for this job , to say something as ignorant as hoping this industry would collapse is comical .. Go get a desk job and stop ur whining

 

TruckinWolf has had some bad experiences in this industry, just like so many others.
Cut him some slack.

It all comes down to where and who you work for.
I have been at Swift a long time and have always been treated right by everyone. Not everyone has the same experience.

His experience with Swift reminds me why I refuse to do dedicated anything, or work out of certain terminals.
And if that account continues to treat drivers like that, it will soon be devoid of any willing people to run on it.

 

Do this job long enough and you'll have your favorites and the ones you refuse to go near.