FedEx Freight Diary (ala Russian Rabbit)

Mundane week, not much variation except 2 vias and some delay time.

One delay instance was for hooking to a trailer at the hub that had a mechanical issue... It angers me to no end that drivers can't do a proper post trip. You'd think the last driver to pull it would notice something like a brake can dangling from the slack adjuster. The other instance was due to the way my lead trailer was loaded. As a rule, I scale any trailer with a weight listed on the paperwork above 17k pounds. I do this, because I remembered many times when in the city, customers would tell me something weighed 100 pounds, but needed a fork lift to be lifted. I tend to not trust that all city drivers encountering this will have dispatch flag bills like this for reweigh verification. Weight on the drive axle? 22k pounds. So, much to the office's dismay, I bumped the dock and let them know it needed to be reworked. I know a lot of drivers would still pull it anyway to go home, but I'm not taking that chance of an overweight trailer if the scale I pass daily were to be open.

One of the vias I got hosed on. Went to the terminal en route to the hub, and I went to the office for paperwork and the outbound supervisor says "Didn't you get the message?"

"What message?"
"We didn't need the via".

So, I got a small amount of miles and no extra drop and hook for it because I didn't break the set. I know a bunch of drivers will still put the drop and hook in, but it's akin to stealing as far as I'm concerned.

I learned a long time ago not to break the set until I get the paperwork from them, because one time at a different center, I broke the set and put away the empties, grabbed my dolly and went over to the office to find that they didn't need the via as well.

This week will kick ### going into the weekend, because the driver that has my favorite run is taking Thurs/Friday off, and the extraboard will be taking a different run, leaving dispatch to cut my run to fill his. Also, this week will put me about $70k ytd.

Also, one day I asked for additional miles to be entered for taking an alternate route and I noticed he put them in as LCV miles. I asked him to remove the LCV premium but he didn't. So the office is probably looking at me like I have 3 heads for asking them to have payroll deduct it from next week's check (only .65 additional).

 

Do they hold you to your show time at the hub each night?

 

When you get your dispatch information your “Depart Time” listed on the dispatch is 30 minutes after your show.

 

Last night was typical Charlie Brown luck for me last night. 2nd position in my lane called out pretty much last minute, and I was cut from my position and bumped up to that spot. Perfect... earlier start time, trailers are ready an hour before I get to the hub, the hub is still a ghost town because of how early I get to leave my yard. Zero traffic both ways as a result of leaving the hub early. Turn and screw for a 9 hour night... mint, right?

#1 and I left at the same time, got there at the same time. Awesome trip out there. Just busting balls over the radio all the way there, stopping for coffee, enjoying good runs (#1 in this case is the extraboard that I'm good friends with filling in while the true #1 is out for medical issues), listening to other trucks stuck in highway construction shutdowns ##### about the two FX guys that were keen to use a go-around that almost parallels the highway past the blockade. One of those truly blissful driving evenings.

Get to the hub, #1 breaks his set, I drop my rail container in a door, plug in the equipment disassembly verification and task, click "Load Next Trip" and then it begins... "Unable to load next trip". Which means, my dispatch is NOT ready. Get ahold of #1 on the radio, same thing for him. The two most premium runs in my building that have trailers done hours before we get to the hub... are not ready.

Why? Oh, unbeknownst to us, because we leave the yard that much earlier with the earlier gate times... half of the entire lane called out, and as a result, the hub has to send out vias to cover my center's freight. On top of that, my center was WAY over projection for freight, so 2 additional vias had to be added on top of the regular coverage.

Should have been back on the road coming home by 12:15 after taking my break, instead, left the hub at 2:15. And the only reason I was put ahead of the last two vias was because I would have missed my gate time if they held to the "vias go first" doctrine.

Still got home and in bed around 0630, barely avoiding the impending doom on the highways leading toward downtown.

But, tonight, all is made good... my run is cut for lack of drivers tonight again, and I'm going to NJ for a meet instead. I'm happiest when I get to roll to NJ, regardless of lane sequence. Longest miles in my barn, fun trip down the 95 corridor, and on the meet lane, drop a full set, hook a full set, inspect, screw.