Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

Well, I called in this morning and asked the first weekend shift DBL that I go ahold of (mine is off Fridays) if he was ready to deal with a pissed off driver. Gave him the story and of course was told that option #2, have me handle it, was the only one.

He saw the load I had headed out of this area needs to pick up by 1400. He talked about that if I can't pick up that load in time there will be a good chance that I will get sent back up into the northeast.

At this point I stopped him and explained that that will not be happening, and that I will go over anyones head if need be to get this truck brought back to Charlotte at which point we will have a real problem.

I am done being walked all over. I am no longer going to take BS from Schneider. I am willing to work WITH Schneider but I will not be abused by them.

I talked with this DBL with respect, as it is not his fault that I am in the situation that I am in. But I was very firm with him that I am not going to put up with crap any more.

He forwarded me on to claims, the lady there wanted me to email her a picture. I did, but she hadn't received it yet. After explaining more about just how much damage is done to the load, and adding in that I have a load that needs to be picked up by 1400, she said there was a possibility that they may have me drop this trailer at a vendor and go from there. She said it could take a while to make some phone calls.

So, still sitting here. This is Schneiders final chance to prove to me that they are a company worth working for as a company van driver. Depending on how they handle this my day should either go OK or really, really poorly. Lets just see what happens.

 

The guy will get a service failure for this most likely. One thing that I don't like though is when drivers go out of their way to destroy another drivers career. Yeah, maybe the guy was a complete jerk for leaving flat tires for the next driver, or flat spotted tires. I've heard drivers state specifically that they've called in and ratted out the other driver. Most of the time it seems like its IC's that are the most hellbent against drivers (the few people I've overheard stating they make sure to get the guy in trouble happened to be IC's)

but you don't know the entire facts. A lot of times these yard dogs at the facilities are the ones that flat spot the tires because they really don't care about someone else's equipment. They don't even bother to release the brakes and they just drag the trailers around the yard. And in regards to flat tires you don't know if the tire went flat after the driver already dropped it. A lot of times the tire won't go flat until it cools off after a long trip. Or if the tire got punctured enroute and slowly went flat over a few hours. By that time the driver is long gone.

In this case the driver obviously screwed the pooch, but why try to get someone fired?

 

who said anything about going out of your way to get another driver fired? If you pick up a trailer with damage you call it in. You would be dumb not to because now you have accepted responsibility if you don't. At that point you leave it up to the powers at be to investigate. If that involves another driver than so be it. That driver may or may not be guilty and if he is and plays ignorant at least he knows he won't be able to get away with it on the future

 

Exactly my point. Report the issue and let the company come to their own conclusions. I'm not saying anyone on here suggested anything I said. All that I'm saying is I have personally overheard conversations in which drivers are hellbent to "teach them a lesson" and when they call in to SEM and their dbl they demand that the previous driver be held accountable for the issues that they left the next driver. There are drivers in our company that are like this, that is all I'm saying.

 

Still sitting here waiting for someone to get back to me. I called in right at 0800 this morning, so I spoke with the claims rep at around 0815. Its now 1200. My pickup for my load out of here is at 1400. Trying to get ahold of a DBL but have been on hold for 15 minutes. I have a feeling I know where this is going.

 

Too many chiefs and not enough Indians in Green Bay

 

i'd never push for somebody to lose a job, but a little bit of their pay for the hassle would be nice.

 

Start putting in applications. You need to find a company that knows how to communicate better

 

Just have your DBL give you extra pay directly from Schneider. You don't have to take the pay from the other guy, Schneider can afford it LOL

If they want to dock him pay or punish him they'll do that separately.

 

Diesel, you have bent over and took it up the ### so much I applaud you for finally standing up. Go get em.

On a better note, I finally got my truck fixed. After the third set of steer tires and the fifth alignment in five months, my truck now rides and drives with no vibration whatsoever. I highly recommend the West Memphis OC shop. The other four OCs I had been to had no clue.