Another Company to IC Choice Thread

So again it has been a few days since my last update. Things are going well this week and despite thinking I was having a bad revenue week last week, It turned out very nice. I have deployed a new tactic for looking for freight and am going to try it for a couple of weeks to see how it works. So far this week it has worked out pretty dang good.

Started the week in Romeoville, Il at KC for a nice light 15k oad down to Front Royal, Va. $2.01 a mile, nice easy load. Made it to Front Royal 20 minutes before the window closed and did a quick D/H and headed to my next load. It was suppose to be a 30 mile ride and ended up being 12. Nice I get to save fuel. Got to Winchester and made my pick up a whole whopping 4k pounds headed to Gautier, MS a little on the cheap side $1.47 but the light weight and long miles made up for and loss on the rate. I managed right at 8 mpg on the way down and ran 70ish the entire way. Got that unloaded this morning in a Federal Wildlife Preserve. LOL I got unloaded by Federal Wildlife Agents packing heat... I was thinking I was going to be able to keep my empty trailer but, the product had been stored outside and when it got loaded the did not dump the water off, so as the wildlife officers unloaded them they flipped them over and all the water ended up inside the trailer. I found a very good paying load (considering the area I am in) from Pelahatchie, MS headed to Liberty, NY for a Monday morning live unload. Pays $1.97 a mile and weighs 29K. Not bad considering. All told this week is going to wrap up around $5100 in revenue. Looking now for a load to get me home out of NY or PA. Truck is due for a PM and I am due for a break. I have been running recap hours for almost 2 weeks. I think it is time to get a reset and a fresh set of hours.

Looking forward to spending some time with my wife and kids. Will post another update soon. Until Next Time....

Stay Tuned

Edit: forgot to mention that I got my first DOT roadside with my new truck today. Guy was sitting on the shoulder and as I came around the curve he flipped on his blues and stuck his hand out the window motioning towards the shoulder. Easy level 2 and my 0 CSA score is still intact. the Officer was very polite and had a great sense of humor. We laughed and talked for the 10-15 minutes it took for him to write his report.

 

What a nightmare of a day. I got to my delivery in Liberty, NY and had not booked a load out. We had been watching 3 loads that were headed to Fort Mill, SC. A good paying run home with light freight. This morning I called my ICA to ask about the loads because they had been sitting idle on the board for the entire weekend. He called the CS rep that was responsible and came back with they should be complete in the next 2 hours. Keep checking. So I waited and kept looking and to no avail, they never showed complete.

I needed to get moving and found a load that paid relatively good but did not get me all the way home. Load board said 122 miles deadhead. I checked google and as I already knew it was a bit further. However, once I got it loaded up in Navigo and on my Garmin the deadhead was 190. Holy **** Batman. Already committed to the load I accepted it and moved on. Once I arrived at the shipper I found the only SNI box at the location. Checked the box and did not find any paperwork so I went inside. No door that said shipping so I just walked onto the dock. Stopped a guy passing on a motorized pallet jack and asked where shipping was. He asked which one...lol, How many do you have? Four... I had no idea so he walked me through the newspaper presses and to an office deep inside the building. The clerk was as helpful as he could be, but had no idea what I was talking about. He made a call to his supervisor who was at home and he said the bills should be on the trailer, if not there is no load.

So back outside I go and check the trailer again...NO BILLS, Dang it. Call into support and explained, they call CS and they tried to call. Guy comes back on the phone and says we can't get in touch with anyone, can you go back inside and get us a contact name and number. Back I go to the clerk and explain that the company needs a name and contact number. He gives me his supervisors cell phone number and I go back outside. Call back in to support and give them the name and number. They tried to call and kept getting sent to voice mail. When they came back on the phone they said we can't get through can you go back inside and give them the number to the broker and ask them to call.

When I got back inside the clerk called his supervisor and tried to give him the number. After a brief exchange they hung up and as the clerk was explaining to me the phone rang. The supervisor had called and wanted to talk with me. He explained that they do not contract with SNI and that the broker who booked the load was the only person that could help me. He also went on about how SNI is so big but can't manage to give the drivers a trailer number or make sure we had bills for trailers we were picking up. He was rather rude and finished his rant and hung up on me. I went back outside and on the way out I called the broker myself. Surprise, the broker was from Schneider Logistics. She was as helpful as she could be but explained that she did not have bills for the load either and she was going to call the seller.

We ended up on a conference call and he said he had bills in his office but had to leave home and drive to get them. While he was gone the lady from Logistics was searching for a way to get me the bills. I have no printer and the customer was being far from helpful. Support ended up involved again and the area planning manager as well, at one point we ended up with 5 people on a conference call trying to sort this thing out.

They asked if I could go to a truck stop and get a fax, but the closest one was 25 miles north back in New Jersey. That meant 50 miles uncompensated. Next it was can you spend the night and come back in the morning to get the load. Again 25 miles each direction, uncompensated. Then it was can you pull the load and we will send the bills to the consignee. Well, NO that would be illegal. You cannot legally move a load without a BOL, and I would be the one on the hook for not having the proper documents if I was stopped.

Finally after 2 hours on the phone and 3.5 hours at the customer, I had enough of dealing with this issue and told them all they could pull the load and get someone else to deal with it tomorrow. I was going home. I felt horrible for leaving the lady from logistics holding a load that needed to be delivered, but at that point she understood my frustration and agreed that the load should be left at the customer until the paperwork had been made available to the driver.

I dropped the trailer and am headed home for some much needed time off, a PM on the truck and a minor repair while at the shop. While today was a rough day and gave me a huge headache, DFO reminded me that I had just finished a stellar week and that the one load being a nightmare should not be the last thing I remember about the week. All told I have finished this week with right at $5100 in revenue. Will be a very good check going into my bank account next Friday.

I made it down to Jessup, MD tonight and had to stop so I did not bust my 14 hour clock. Will finish the bobtail home tomorrow and be back at it either Friday or Tuesday. I have not decided yet. Ya'll take care. Until Next Time...

Stay Tuned

 

Just a quick follow up from last night. I called my ICA and asked about getting the VNU fee for my efforts. He got that approved so at least that will partially cover my fuel cost.

Sadwar you are correct. Those days are rare, but when they come up they are really rough.

Time to finish my ride home. Raining like crazy this morning. Everyone be safe and have a great day.