COVENANT -- From a wife's perspective

This is the perfect place to vent your frustrations! All our trucker hubbies complain, it's part of the biz.

 

There are problems with trucking that some seem to mentally come to terms with, while many, to most cant. That problem is when you are with a bad company that you know cares zero about you, does not care what you want or need, and will send you into any weather regardless of your experience.

Your phone calls are greeted with a hurried answer or distain. You are having to live in a very small area with someone you don't know, and probably don't like. You have no time to rest, your sleep patterns are always changing. When you are sleeping, either the highway, a shippers or receivers dock, or something will jolt you back awake right quick.

Sometimes you just can't sleep, no matter how tired you are. You lay back there bouncing and worrying about how you are going to stay awake and not kill yourself from lack of sleep, for if you stop, then your co-driver and DM are both on your butt.

The shippers and receivers that most of the larger companies work with are no better at treating you as a person, you are sub-human. You talk to people through a hole in glass, you are told you cant use their bathroom or eat from their machines, even though you can see them, are starving, and could use a face wash.

The DOT and every other cop on the road are just looking for something to charge you with because they hate trucks, and need the money. Other drivers cuss you out on the radio for some slight mistake you made, or they cuss you just for the company you drive for.

You eat at truckstops that rob you because they can. You can't find a place to park. You have to go, go go, then it is wait, wait, wait. You only talk to your loved ones on a telephone. You get home when they let you, not necessarily when they promised. You know they are just waiting to fire you as soon as you are due a bonus or raise.

But the lack of rest is the worse. After a week or so of the above, a person needs a few days to get their body and mind rested at home, away from it all. You know the company knows this, but does not care. The idea is to optimize as close to 100% of availiable truck time, and if a driver quits, there are several waiting to take his place to be used in the same way.

If you add in home sickness, or even just a cold, all of the above turns into a huge cloud of doom. Then add on top of that, you are learning a very stressful job, one that that you may really not like or want. It almost becomes too much, but you know you are trapped because of finances.

As I said, some seem to come to grips with it, but most people don't. He is in the worst part of his driving career, at the worst time of year, being holidays and winter.

Some people are truck drivers, and some are not, just as some people are military, and some are not, some can work in a factory, others would rather did ditches in the freezing cold. What works for some, just doesn't for others.

As an add on: He is driving in ice and snow, in a vehicle he does not feel comfortable with, watching others crash, hoping it is not him next. He is also trying to sleep while someone he does not know drive him into bad conditions, not knowing if he will wake up or not. That will play with your mind too.

After all that sunshine and encouragement, I hope things improve for you.

 

we got a message from our DM that idleing past the 30% will not be tolerated! they will deduct the overage from your pay.
let them try! i will contact OSHA soon to see what rights i really have.
i wonder when they all go home and are cozy and warm and safe do they watch the news and see what hell the drivers are going thru?
how can they possibly come to work each day and put these policies into the q-com?
i couldn't do it....i have feelings....and i wish that we would all finally stand up for our rights to decent treatment by these large companies. but we are a fragmented industry, and we will not do this,what will it take? the death of a driver in his/her cab following this policy?
REMEMBER THAT GREED AND INDIFFERENCE TO YOUR FELLOW MAN SERVE THIS MASTER! :
We are going to oklahoma today, but rest assured that this truck will idle for heat, maybe it will take one driver at a time, but with some resistance...we can push forward...i consider these people a waste of:
best wishes,stay warm and safe...
mcr&deb

 

I am amazed his trainer didn't know about the fuel... I remember learning that at the beginning of my training. Some of the trks I drove and this one now have a sticker right on the dashboard saying "CAUTION, use low sulfur diesel fuel only." One time the co. sent us a QC msg reminding us to use only this kind of fuel. I have a list of Pilots showing which ones have # 2 (got from a trucker's magazine) at a Pilot. I don't always fuel at their fuel stops, cause our Comdata card is accepted at any Pilot and I can choose when I want to fuel. I have been at Chatt since Wednesday morning of last week. First had to take "new" trk to shop. Now I am looking for a partner but didn't find anybody yet. I think it's a little more difficult for a female to team up (in this job)than for a male. I got offers from some males but didn't think would be a good match. Not this time, specially after all the stuff I've gone through with partners... However, I was waiting on a guy who was coming from Idaho on Monday. But on Saturday I called him and he told me he was mad and quit the co. cause he had enough. Today I thought I was going to team up with another guy but he also got enough and decided to quit today. There were 2 females in the team meeting today but they both were smokers, no Hazmat and other things... But that's ok, at least I am not out there, in the icy, nasty weather, waiting on a load... and they are paying me 50 dollars layover pay every day. In the meantime, I have been visiting the payroll dept quite frequently to fix discrepancies thanks to my sorry dispatcher, and other mistakes they made... It was funny when I asked the lady at payroll why I was paid only 0.31 cents per mile running solo on the same week when I got 0.18 cents per mile running team? I said that didn't make sense and her answer was, "Many things here don't make any sense either..." She seemed quite overwhelmed and frustrated.... At least they deposited the 2,500 bonus (less taxes) in my account. Tell Mr.RC to always, keep a copy of the Trip Info Sheet (and make a note on top of mpt miles, load miles, total miles, mpt runs, local pays, etc) as well as a copy of all his receipts (weigh, tolls, anything that he pays with his money for trk and/ or co.) and write down his name, id #, pro #, trk # on them before he sends the originals to co. They have the habit of losing receipts and if he can't produce a copy, they will not pay him. If he has any question about filling out Trip Info Sheet, call payroll and ask. It's better than not being paid because the info wasn't right. The first or second day I was in this "new" trk, I had to idle for over 5 straight hours to charge battery. And I sent macro to dispatcher asking him who should I talk to to make sure co. would not charge me for the idling. But he told me not to worry about it. And heard that co. will not charge anybody for the idling because nobody is respecting it anyway. Well, sometimes I used to remove a fuse off the fuse box so they wouldn't be able to record my idling. However, I would lose QC communication with them (so that is not a very good idea...) Only when I was 100 % sure they would not send me any msg. I know there's another way to do this but not sure how it's done. Will check. Stay strong and safe.

 

Ms. and Mr. RC, I hope you guys are doing well... Today we got a QC msg urging us to call # for president's weekly msg. He said that loss of control accidents at Covenant are breaking records. They had 20 so far only this month and 9 jacknives... He urged the fleet to slow down and said they are considering other measures to prevent these accidents, even shutting the fleet down if necessary.... Plz, be safe out there. BTW, team coordinator was able to get me to run solo until I find a new partner... I sent PTA, confirmed pre plan but still no load assignment....

 

Considering that most of the "fleet" seems to be sitting at truck stops, waiting for a load, those figures sound even worse.

Maybe hungry drivers tend to drive faster and in unsafe manners in inclement weather conditions?

To add insult to misery, now it seems Covenant is tryin' to blame the drivers for their
demise.
How convenient.
It's Y'all's fault that we're goin under.

 

I am not sure about that message from them....can it be that the ratio of "new" drivers to seasoned drivers is off?....they want cheap labor so this is the only way to do it....
Then again alot of seasoned drivers get "complacent"...and are just as dangerous as a newbie,and this has been proven.
Maybe if covenant were to hire seasoned drivers, pay them well, and give them incentives to be safe when the weather/road conditions are bad....
they can nip this problem right away...but greed is totally consuming...
and they like other companies will fill the seats with less experienced drivers and will have to pay for the actions of these drivers.....
also you need to consider the "QUALITY" of training they get to deal with
the winter/road conditions. Many trainers see the trainee as a fat paycheck and thats all....and this is also the root of the problem.

 

All you hubby has to do is send a message on the qualcom letting them know the roads are bad and he will need to estimate the delivery day and time so they can call the reciver and reset the appointment.

If they give him any crap just tell them that he needs to slow down for his and others saftey.