Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

After now being on my 16th DM in the 9 years here, DM’s are a dime a dozen. I don’t get to close with any of them, not because I’m antisocial, it’s that there tenure here has told me a DM’s job at Abilene is short lived. Hell, I’d rather be the janitor/grounds keeper, he’s been here longer then me.

 

Sitting here at the dock in Phlugerville Texas waiting for my receiver to open up so I can get this $14.99 a pound Boars Head ham off my trailer. This was a nice 1425 mile run over the weekend. Outside of the 105 degree temp all through Texas, this was very uneventful.

Now into some discussion on why Abilene has the issues they do. I have a friend that came back to work here 11 months ago. He worked here 7 years ago, and he and I both teamed to Edmonton Alberta together right before Christmas that year.

He called me and told me he sold his house in Vermont, and was buying one in SC to be close to our new Savannah yard and that he was promised a M-F off on weekends job running short haul freight. That whole plan lasted for about 2 months, and since then it’s gone straight down the toilette.

Why? Because as usual, this company hires inexperienced 20 something’s to run a terminal and can’t plan their way out of a wet paper bag. It turned out to be nothing but lies, constant misplanning and catering to drivers that cannot and will not do the job. It’s the same adage of the monkeys running the zoo. So he has given them every opportunity to work with him for the reasons they promised, but finally put his notice in. He cleaned out the truck over the weekend and is dropping it off at the yard in Savannah this morning.

This is not something new. One of my trainees I had 4 years ago, Van, had been going through the same thing in West Memphis. After 3 years of running local work there, he too quit because of the piss poor operations run by the WM group.

I’m not going into a long dissertation on the ill’s of this company, it’s useless, there’s plenty. They see problems, have a big turnover in operations, get new people in, and it’s the same poop. I’m sure one day it will be straightened out, more than likely after I’m long gone. My observation? As long as they have wannabe drivers looking for a new career after being a barista at Starbucks, not able to attract seasoned, safe drivers that understand this industry, they will put these drivers on the road and deal with them at a reduced wage. I see it as if you throw enough excrement on the wall something will stick.

One observation I noticed Saturday when I stayed at the WM yard for my break, that has me still scratching my head, goes right to load planning.

We have a customer in Savannah that loads a boatload of our trailers. It all goes to Dollar General DC’s throughout the country. During my daily walk Saturday after parking, I went and checked all the bill boxes just to see where the freight is going and who the shippers were. Thankfully, 95% of the loads were our customers. Here is something I can’t get out of my head. These Dollar loads that originate in Savannah, sitting in the WM yard, are out of route going to the final destination. The ones I saw firsthand were going to Houston, San Antonio, Odessa and Longview. Can someone explain to me, why, with these simple drop and hook loads at the final consignee, that are 24/7 drops, are sitting on the WM yard? Out of route? This is what bothers me. Not that I really give 2 poops, but really, just because the multi billion dollar company can afford that, it’s still piss poor planning. With knowing exactly how our freight winds up being late out of 2 different terminals, this in a nutshell is what’s wrong with this company. I guarantee that if they had more then former Barista’s and shift managers from Popeyes working here, they could change this around very quickly. Just like I say whenever I see our junk pile of equipment at the yard, operations people are no different, you get what you pay for.

 

Oh, one other thing. Abilene deems me an unsafe driver. I lost out on my monthly safety bonus last month because I went 10 over in Utah once. So it cost me $362. I’m fighting them on their verbiage in the letter announcing the parameters and how it’s presented. 10 over to them is based on the company speed limit, not the posted speed limit. Their way I was doing 81 in a 71, Utah says on their sign I was doing 81 in an 80. So, by missing out of the bonus, not getting so much as an email/QC/text or phone call, I’m deemed unsafe, yes, me, the one that has given this company. 9 years of service, 1.3 million accident free miles, no tickets, and bring to the table 43 years and 4 million safe miles with only one ticket in that time. Look out motoring public, there’s a loose cannon driving this Abilene truck sharing the highways with you. Trust me, the money isn’t the issue, the way they presented it is though.