Excessive loading time!

Lol! Or........write a fat check for some of that high dollar artificial turf they sell these days. My Sister and Brother in Law paid a small fortune to have that stuff in their yard. Sure looks nice though!

 

Sometimes, maybe the load is not ready. There are glitches in life. It is what makes us appreciate the better times, otherwise we would all be even more spoiled than we are.

A couple of times, what worked for me, was tell the guy on the dock to wake me up when he is done. Seems, no one likes to see someone getting paid for sleeping.

Also, what might help, is if more drivers took the time to thank the guys and gals in shipping when they get a truck out quickly. Probably not a lot of accolades or perquisite in loading trailers hour after years, for grumpy, smelly, demanding....

 

I'm sorry, but I don't respect the basic premise of this comment. I have seen "stuff" happen before. I was being unloaded years ago when the ONLY forklift available broke a fork. The owner of the place once notified made a phone call and had a rental there in about an hour. Then apologized to me and offered to buy me some lunch! Only a monster would be unable to understand that crap like this happens. That is not even close to the issue with this detention. The primary problem is industry, in general, have NO respect for the driver's time and that a driver's time is a commodity to be wasted. If a load is not ready then the people need to communicate this to the carrier so they can make an adjustment. I have seen this done before. There is NO excuse for the way drivers are shafted like this. NO, ZERO NADA respect for the driver's!
This gets compounded by the fact the carriers don't have to sit for hours and hours and have NO empathy for their driver's situations.

 

Don't just sit there, or play video games.
If you can't sleep use the time to better yourself. Clean the truck. Study for hazmat. Start looking for the next job. Go for a walk.
The other day I was in Peverly Mo and got unloaded in less than a hour at one place then loaded in less than an hour at another.
I love dryvan.
You better bring a snack if you drive reefer.

 

Being able to go rent a fork lift is probable. Trying to figure out why a load is not ready, isn't quite as easy. Might, just be because somewhere along the line, another truck driver was late.....and most likely not his fault either.

May be able to make an adjustment if it is a mega carrier with 17,000 trucks, but with a small fleet on the other end of the country, well good luck with that phone call.

You probably got breakfast because they knew you. I cannot ever imagine a driver from a large company at a huge ware house, there for the first and only time getting red carpet service like that.

Also, I stated.... sometimes.. We have all wanted on occasion, to pull a gun out and shoot up the shipping department, maybe a supervisor and a fork lift driver or two while we are at it.....but, I could easily expand on how many times my attitude has affected my wait time.....both ways.

Thinking one should and will never have to wait in trucking is a pipe dream and a lesson in frustration. Or, the rest just have the wrong job.

Remember, one overly demanding driver, will most likely cause the next 20 to be screwed with. Just a thought.

 

Regardless, the biggest majority of the time, either the loader or the unloader on a live unload have no regard whatsoever for the driver and the driver situation with their hours and other things, you can make excuses all day long for this behavior! However, It is still reprehensible and simply wrong! That’s just simply how it is!

 

I feel your pain and you seem to understand what all drivers have figured out for over a half century....they need to stop messing with trucker's time. i agree, just isn't right....

 

I guess if I was to mix all my issues with shippers/receivers into one word, that word would be their contempt toward drivers. I have been detained at places all over the US that refused to allow drivers the common courtesy of allowing us to use a restroom. One place I used to have to go to a lot was that way. Over time I really begin to hate that place. They won't allow you inside, had to speak via a phone setup, and gosh help the driver that did not have their pickup numbers right! No human contact at all until you passed security and then if you had any kind of an issue you had to back up ways in a VERY busy area. Just no use in that kind of crap.

I guess my thermostat was set about average when it came to this crap. More than once I left a shipper in anger swearing I would not go back. While that sounds child like it was what it was. Another time a few years ago in NC I pulled my tire thumper out and told that idiot unloader if he placed his hands on any of my gladhands again he was going to need medical help. These idiots had the notion it was OK and acceptable to yank a gladhand off before I discharged the air supply. Like I said, total contempt toward drivers. This was what set me off more than anything else. I could always understand plant difficulty! That is just how the ball bounces, you face these situations as they come and be professional in the process. The contemptuous behavior directed toward drivers in general and to me, in particular, was something I could take so much of before I had enough! Once I got to that point I was gone!

I always tried to stay professional. Generally, I think I was successful the largest majority of the time. However, one thing I would NEVER do! I did not drive a truck "job scared". Most every carrier I drove for knew this and did not press my buttons. YES, this was why I always had the reserve with me to rent a car, buy an airline ticket, and/or ship my things home!

 

I'm a Schneider TE - policy is that once you are parked in a legal spot and have the ability to turn the truck off (you don't have to, just be able to) you can log off duty or, if you are physically in the sleeper, sleeper berth.

Remember that Schneider policy is that we are not allowed to split log, and any tasks in Workflow must be logged on duty, so there is no real advantage to logging sleeper berth.

You would do well to have a conversation with your dbl on exactly what you get paid for what work you do. You would do twice as well to track all the work you do.

Last December I got roped into helping with an account start up. It started as "bring as many empties from Gary as you can, as quick as you safely and legally can" - 7,200 miles in two weeks plus $400 in shuttle pay, in other words nice pay checks. Then it was can you be available for the first week so we have some extra coverage (read "we're going to screw this up, help pull the chestnuts out of the fire"), no biggie. In two weeks I'd figured out which loads had a high profit to work margin and which were to be avoided. After week 4 I had a conversation with dispatch about how they were loading me. Dispatch was trying to get me the "long" loads, but running multiple shorter loads was more profitable. Fast forward 4 months. I'm talking with dispatch and he tells me about how the other system driver working the account just figured out that the loads he had been #####ing about were actually paying him $30 straight time while the loads he begged for were only paying $24 an hour, best case.

When you know your pay structure, and you track your loads, you can make better decisions on your trip planning to maximize your income. Sometimes it's better to push hard and deliver ASAP, sometimes it's better to take an easy trip, it all depends on your HOS, parking, and freight lanes.

As a midwest regional driver I make a base CPM, then:

• Loads < 50 miles, $35 plus base milage
• Loads between 51 and 100 miles, base plus 50 cpm
• Loads between 101 and 150 base plus 15 cpm
• Loads between 151 and 200 base plus 5 cpm
• $15 for trailer shuttle
• $35 for trailer search (ie consignee on d/h didn't have an mt, I was dispatched to another customer who also didn't have an empty the $35 kicks in)
• Detention is first two hours free, then $15 plus $15 an hour after that.
• Layover and breakdown is $65 a day (it might be higher but it's been a long time since I've gotten either)

Depending on region and work configuration, your accessory pay may vary.

My point is that knowing EXACTLY what you are getting paid helps you make better choices. You will start getting job offers, some of which are appealing and most of which just look appealing. If you truly know what you are earning you will be able to make apt comparisons and differentiate between those you are out to screw you, those who offer the same thing with a different color truck and those who will be a step up.

I can tell you every load number and what I got paid for that load in base pay plus accessory pay for the last 8 years. I can give you length of haul, loaded and empty miles, the difference between paid miles and hub miles, and percentage d/h vs live load, d/h vs live unload, and d/h on both ends. Knowing all of this has made me one of the highest paid van drivers at Schneider, and I don't work all that hard.