Driver leader angry with me because I declined running reefer

When I was there, I took home time for a week once and when I came back my DL switched me from refer to dry van and and my miles drop significantly. I quit a couple weeks later. In my experience, disrespectful dispatchers are not worth dealing with.

 

Because no driver should ever take a week off to go on a honeymoon or take the family on a vacation.

I love how these companies try to polish a turd by calling a dispatcher by some pretty name.

 

Sales is the real money making part of ANY company.

 

Being forced to pull a trailer type that you don't care for at a multi-trailer type company has nothing to do with "put in your year and pay your dues"...if I wanted to pull van only, I would go to a van only company---especially as a newbie.

I'll definitely 2nd. this entire statement!

I'll 2nd. this one as well.

To the OP...tell anyone and everyone at Swift that trys to get you to pull a reefer "I really only signed up to run dry van" but be prepared for retaliation in the form of low miles, sitting, and the oldest most problematic truck in the lot. It's what these bottom feeders do.

 

I'm not a big fan of brow beating drivers. Just keep this in mind though. It is one of the sayings among reefer drivers. "people have to eat" When I pulled reefer I got more miles and seemed to make more money then I did with dry van. With this said however reefer is not your regular daytime delivery and pickups either. Keeping those reefer units running considering some of the nuckleheads out there that won't fuel them before dropping and/or won't turn in a defect ticket or red tag a reefer unit before dropping an empty happens all the time. Another problem is blood. Blood means instant washout ASAP once empty not 3 days later. I can't tell you how many times I have encountered maggots and lose hours having to get expensive cleanings done because a driver "just" dropped a trailer with blood in it, and sometimes with no other "empties" available this has caused a service failure. In all honestly I don't recommend a new driver get into reefer's right off. If you do get into reefer make sure you bring a good pair of rubber boots, a good broom and a powerful flashlight, trust me at some point your going to need all 3.

 

Yeah, I've picked up some gross empty reefer trailers, for sure. I think reefer is somewhat a step above van. It does take a little extra effort, and I do remember being treated a little different on the "cold" side, a tad more respect, but I was getting paid by the hour, so I didn't care how long I sat there, ( I think they knew that too) where as on the dry side, they seem to forget all about you.

 

Or find a good reefer company and quit.

Be sure to tell the head driver on the way out the door to your new job.

 

Rude customers? You're going to find them anywhere not just reefer/groceries. It comes with the territory. Get used to it.

 

I did my first year pulling mostly reefer with Core Carrier Corp. They had some dry van too. It was an experience pulling reefer. Lots of unpaid work. I survived, got my full year after solo dispatch and went on to greener pastures.

 

The best part of open deck. Rude customers are very few and far between.