Company wants me to rent A car to retrieve truck from dealership

Another thing I forgot to add, if they are not paying you to go get the truck, leave it. You are not under any obligation to return their property that you are not in control of.

If the company dings you on the dac, write a response to it which is your right.

 

I know, Chinatown, I saw it too, the noive,,heck, I'd probably buy a used Geely from you.

 

The weekend passed and on Monday they said truck was still in shop wait until today. I called this morning and they first claimed that the truck was going to be broken down another week and tried to have me recover a truck in a state next door to my own. I thought that was weird, called my dispatch who has been very professional and nice (as has everybody I've spoken with over the phone), he said that it was supposed to be fixed and contacted my terminal, he called me back and said that my truck was indeed fixed. So I feel like they just needed somebody to go get that truck and didn't care that my truck was already fixed.

The above is a circus. There’s definitely a communication gap. Add in the out of pocket costs they’re wanting to put on the driver and suddenly the circus is a 3 ring circus. I get the feeling that they want him to pay for the rental because if the truck isn’t ready to work, the office jockeys are betting he quits.

 

Because I had my truck leased to them. Unlike you I have personal experience. Solo drivers don’t get the scraps, everyone does the same thing depending on what fleet you’re on. They haul very little broker freight. My typical run was 2 rounds a week from Nebraska to Indiana, like clockwork. Leave Monday morning and home Friday night or Saturday morning. They are one of the most organized companies I’ve ever worked with, but I guess with a 3 digit DOT number they’ve had a few years to secure customers and iron out the kinks in their system.

 

Several years ago I flew from Florida to California to pick up a truck that had been broken down for several weeks at a dealer near LA.
They offered to have me ride with another driver going to Oregon then he would take me to LA, this was not going to be a team run either!
I said NO! I offered to buy a plane ticket if they would reimburse the costs of the ticket, they agreed and I bought it myself and even got my flyer miles!

 

They’re not perfect, but I wish I would’ve gone there sooner. The only reason I left was I got the chance to learn how to haul fuel so I sold my truck and took that opportunity.

I lived within an hour of three big outbound customers and one of their drop yards. My miles were super steady every week despite the fact my longest regular run was around 700 miles. In my experience it was roughly 80% drop and hook, and I’d take that over long runs any day.

 

Do their customers take the loads as soon as soon as you can get them there? Give me 700 miles drop and hook every load. They'd be there the next day every time lol

 

Most places had a time it had to be dropped by and any time before that was fine no matter how early. Walmart would allow 24 hours before the drop time. The main thing was simply communicating when you will drop so they could plan the next load.

 

Ahhhh ok that sounds cool. So it's easy to get 3000 plus miles a week then. I agree with your philosophy about the long hauls. I do like long hauls, but I prefer that average length of haul of 700 to 900 miles that I can get off the next day. Long hauls sometimes can be double edged sword if planned improperly.

 

As a former private fleet reefer driver (Tyson) who moved to FCC, I can assure you you’re wrong. My miles here are better, the equipment is better, maintenance is better, the schedule is better, the customers are better, the staff is better, and even the facilities are better. Pay and benefits are equivalent.

No regrets making the move. None.