Dead head

oh boy

 

Edit: sorry Lepton, this was actually meant in response to MJ

It's similar to the situation Lepton and I are in. When you work for percentage, it's less about the miles and more about the "to the truck" revenue. I will absolutely deadhead 400+ miles for a high dollar load rather than screw around with some $500 POS load that's gonna destroy my week and cut the weekly revenue to the truck in half.

Bearing in mind that I (and I believe Lepton as well, though I could be wrong) are flatbedders. For us, the cheap loads are generally also the biggest PITA loads, with the longest wait times at both ends and the most difficulty as far as securement and tarping. Aluminum coil loads coming out of Lancaster, PA come to mind. Losing 6 or more hours on pick-up and at least 4 on delivery, plus goofy delivery schedules at either end, plus having to double tarp the load (too tall for my steel tarp, too long for a single lumber tarp due to the style of lumber tarp I carry) plus a lousy rate all make Lancaster not worth my time. I'd rather deadhead to Pittsburg or West Virgina and grab something that actually PAYS!

 

as long as a company driver they pay me $1300/week for 5 days
i don't care how many miles hours or whatever it is
you want to be paid hub miles just work for $.28/mile

 

Yes, some companies don't do "forced dispatch" but the hitch is? If you refuse load, they don't pay you your dead head to next load, and yes this is a company driver position, on a business prospective? I can understand why

 

MJ, you are a company driver in a largecar. There is no handholding in your job. You like your job and you didn't take the path of least resistance. Do you not know that people like you are not supposed to respond on 'woe is me/my company is immigrant' threads? You are the Anti-SteeringwheelHolder! You are everything that's bad in the eyes of the ATA. If what they say is true and trucking is what you make it, then the trucking industry is the way it is because this is the way these drivers want it.

"But Six, I was trying to help."

How do you help those that are unwilling to help themselves? Someone starts a thread about going to school to be a driver, asks the crowd to pick the best bottom feeder. Then it's, "Got hired by Moron Trucking, what should I expect?" Some bottom feeder driver comes in and say, "I drive for Moron Trucking and I like it!" (sounds like a Katy Perry song). Next is about transmissions, APUs, driver cams, teams...etc. then you come in and tell them that they don't have to join the Mega Circus. Are you telling them the truth? Absolutely. No one has ever called you a liar, have they? But for some reason, they all get quiet. And someone will say something weak about having to pay dues. "Everyone else is joining the circus, and I have to start somewhere and pay my dues." Wouldn't you hate to see these people go to prison?

Anyways, point is, when you go to the circus, stop trying to liberate the clowns!

 

YOU always roll the DH into the rate before you talk to the dispatcher as part of your minimal cpm.

 

You didn't start an uproar. I was never paid deadhead at my last job either. Deadheaded a couple times from Alberta back to Wisconsin, a couple times from Texas back to Wisconsin. I never looked at that. I looked at odometer miles vs ytd pay and I never felt robbed either.

 

I agree that its about personal satisfaction. I've had friends snip at me about rates or some miles I've D/H, and its like man I made nearly a grand for that shift after fuel, I'll do it any chance I get.

 

Patty, if you feel so strongly that MJ was attacking you then feel free to report his post. Let one of the moderators read through his responses and yours. I choose not to put people on the ignore because their stupidity and "Knowledge" actually makes me laugh. The only person I think I ever put on ignore was "Saddle" somebody or other because he usually had three paragraphs of nonsensical run ons that started with "I remember one time while trucking through the deserts of Canada" in the middle was "Pa never stopped at that restaurant again because he didn't care for the temperature of their tap water in the bathroom" and ended with "And that is how you make the perfect turducken"