Delivery times?

Depends on the customer. Sometimes the carrier's customer is a broker. However, in most situations, either the carrier or the broker will have a contact number or an email and will contact the receiver for delivery time. The thing about these pickup and delivery appointments is these times are sometimes set days before and by the time YOU the driver get the dispatch your late on both. Guess who gets punished when a shipper or final gets peeved and takes it out on you. Happened to me once. This is one of the reasons I told an old employer to go (not going to say what I actually told the guy because @MACK E-6 might thump me) himself then quit. Last time it happened I was in Atlanta, left that place drove back to our terminal and told my FM to get me out from under that load or get another driver on the truck. This is a HOT BUTTON with me.

 

You’d be surprised how many drivers there are in every fleet that have zero motivation and zero “company man” attitude and must be micro-managed to keep their performance scores competitive with other hungry competitors.

Plus a very large portion of America’s logistics system have effectively moved to a near JIT model out of both necessity and effectiveness. They are keeping smaller and tighter inventories, across more distribution hubs spread across the US. Late arrivals happening as a matter of routine mess up the entire chain for numerous parties.

 

Well, I have zero 'company man attitude'.
And I could not care less about JIT loads, unless it is within my own time frame.
They can try to push me, but I do things in my own time or not at all. Period.

That is not to say that I am inflexible. I do adjust my times to suit the load if need be - to a certain extent. But I will not be pushed too hard for too long, because I like my down time too much.

I am the captain of my ship (well, truck). Not even an admiral will sway how I run it.

 

Imagine having 50 drivers on your board, or 3,000 in your company, and every one had your attitude. But of course you won’t consider this. “It’s all about me, me, me”

 

Move to a get there when it gets there model and start de-stressing.

JIT is not good for the entire Nation. We are not at formal war.

 

I am going to support @STexan on some of the comments. Ask your dispatcher/FM on the next opportunity how many (problem children) they have, you might be surprised at the answer. I know sometimes appointment times are unrealistic, you know what? Spiff happens! If you can make that appointment legally and safely DO IT! Stop playing wink wink with that waitress or saving the world playing some video game. I remember once way back when a driver would laugh about an appointment and put another quarter in a pin ball machine. I am not the only person in these forums that have sit and watched this from the dispatch perspective. A woman coming into the company asking about a husbands check said husband pulled already through advances and spent, or a FM that when said driver is near a casino will always want an advance and then promptly miss an appointment. I'm not on a soap box. Just saying some of you don't see both sides of this. Once you do sometimes your eyes are opened, I certainly know mine was. Just saying!

 

JIT loads should pay more or be rejected.

 

Why?

 

Maybe decades ago when truck capacity was relatively low compared to loads. But today, most fleets are over-built and have a large number of drivers basically twiddling their thumbs. Relays and repowers are too easily done to insure a load arrives on pre-determined time. If driver A won’t or can’t do it, there is a driver B who will.

 

It depends. Me I deliver to Walmart’s so I know what times I can get into each of my stops. Some you can get into any time overnights, some have you wait till the reciever comes in at a certain time.