All Carriers Steal from their Drivers

Question.....Who owns that truck?

If you don't own it....You either abide by the terms of employment or go back to flippin' burgers......

 

They do it because ever since they were 5....Sitting in the Radio Flyer....Pretending they were running their daddy's rig.... They got "The Fever"......

 

quite honestly,

if you did that in a truck I owned, I'd fire you for not being productive and wasting my company time and resources.

You, as a company driver, (me too for the moment) are paid to be productive for at a minimum of 11 hours per day. (11 hours on-duty driving). Your ability to manage your day and maximize that clock WITHIN YOUR CONTROL should be able to put you at or above 10 1/2 hours driving time per day and even pushing 11 hours consistently.

Typically for me, I drive 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours non-stop. Some times I have gone as long as 5 hours. If I get into a groove anyway. Time goes quickly.

If you are on e-logs, take the time on how to learn to do an 8/2 split on the thing if you can.

This morning is a prime example.

I had 0 hours when I parked it at 9 PM. When I loaded in Aurora yesterday, I sat for over 2 1/2 hours. I went to Sleeper immediately and now at 5 AM, I can STILL make my appt at 8 AM about 60 miles away. AND I still got 10:30 minutes of driving in for 631 miles.

If I had just ran my 10 hour reset, I would have been hosed and not been able to drive till 7 AM and missed my appointment time.

And for the record, no ONE person taught me this.

It was something I learned how to do in 4 weeks on the road and talking to different drivers and dispatch.

3 different conversations finally gave me the pieces to make it happen correctly.

 

I know what your saying, but like the load I'm on now. I picked up at 9am yesterday, it was a 343 mile run that deliveres this morning at 8. I drove 55 yesterday, parked an hour from the place. Now I'm just hanging out till 645 then ill head over for my delivery. I'm not wasting time, I'm getting better mpg's and not having to rush.

I'm trying to see what's the best I can get out of this '07. My other '07 got 6.5-6.9 if i was lucky running it like that.

Seeing as this '07 is basically brand new, I wanna see if there's much of a difference.

Ethan

 

Did you company by a bunch and then moth ball them? I know prebuys were way up and then '08 happened and a lot of people sold em off because they couldn't afford the overhead.

 

Pretty good chance your trainer would get fired then too.

Personally, I would have hammered it in to the consignee last night unless they prohibit parking.

As it is, you have now started your 14 hour clock an hour out and will likely have to wait for a bit when you get to the consignee.

You have a 14 and an 11 hour clock. The 3 hour difference I see as my time to fuel, pre & post trip as well as allow me to take some rest/food breaks.

When that 3 hour buffer is gone, then you are forced to loose driving time and that is money in YOUR pocket.

If you had finished at the consignee last night, you wouldn't start that 14 hour clock until you actual have to leave the consignee's location and started driving.

Not only have you started your 14 hour clock and can't really stop it. You are now going to have deal with morning rush hour traffic.

This morning I pulled into my consignee just as morning rush hour was beginning to pick up and yet missed the worst of it. I now get to sit on the dock instead of fighting traffic which kills mileage even more as it's stop and go.

As a company driver, I hope to have a truck that allows me the ability to deal with the traffic. I drove 64 mph all the way in to the consignee. There was one spot that I had to go down to about 48. That was because that is what the traffic flow was doing. It allowed me to maintain a 1/4 to 1/2 mile buffer in front of me. Traffic didn't pile up behind me and the jack wagons (cars and trucks) doing 55 in a 60 MPH zone were creating road blocks that had 50-100 feet following gaps and people lighting up brakes like nothing before.

 

Yeah, my '07 has 160,000 miles on it. The inside is dang near brand new. The only flaw is the driver side window button has some paint rubbed off of it lol. But that's it.

Ethan

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't do this on all loads. First off, I was delivering to a small place on Iowa. I knew there was no rush hour traffic to worry about in this location. Second, my appt was for 8am, consignee had no overnight parking and I stayed at the nearest truck stop.

There was a rest area 10 miles down the road, but id rather stay at the truck stop, seeing as I already had a parking spot and it was getting late.

I don't like to stay the night at consignees. I have done it, no big deal, but I prefer not too so i can have a place to go to the bathroom. Not all consignees have a bathroom you can use 24/7. The place I delivered to is only open 8am-4pm.

I know what I'm doing, I plan ahead very well. But if i don't have to rush and freak out over using up an hour of my 14 then I won't. I take my time and get my loads there on time. No sense in rushing if you don't have too. I already had a pre plan from here, so i knew I could take my time and not worry.


Also why would my trainer get fired? I've been solo for 5 months... its not like I JUST came out of training.
Ethan

 

I'm sorry...I'm suffering from a case of deja vu....


I could SWEAR I've seen this argument hashed, rehashed, and re-re-re-rehashed before on TTR.

With no one changing their minds.

 

As being in the industry a while now, I feel the "feelings are a 2 way street. I legally can't "steal" anything from any o/o. I follow the rules, yet somehow I average a loss of about $20k a year from "trusting" the trustworthy people that just want to work and get along with everyone. As on this side of the fence, I like to think back as to how many times I am told "I am an O/O, you can't tell me what to do. Yet, if anything is ever needed even concerning a drivers finances, I am the bad guy for not fixing his truck when he should have been saving.