Excessive loading time!

They don't allow you to run split berth at Schneider, that has to suck occasionally.

 

That is about the most convoluted and confusing system I have ever seen in my life. I even read it twice. No wonder they call you "Engineers". I would hate to have to sit down and figure out if I got paid correctly using that system. The people in payroll must hate having to figure that mess out and explain it to drivers on a daily basis!

 

Not as much as you'd think, at least under the 'old' rules. Very rarely have I ever spent 8 hours getting loaded, nor had appointment times that meant split logging was benificial to me. In 10 years I've split logged twice. With the upcoming changes there are more circumstances that split logging will be beneficial, but overall split logging won't make me more money, so why work harder? I will work my toukus off if it means more money, but if there is no reward, I'm not taking any risks.

 

It's really not that complicated and it compensates for the dwindling length of haul we've seen over the last two decades. If a person has a basic grasp of math, it's pretty straightforward. Reconciling my pay statements takes less than 30 minutes a week - that's with hauling an average of 19 loads a week.

My friend Pat has lived on a boat for most of the last decade. He was someplace on the west coast of Mexico and needed to do an oil change. He went to the local version of NAPA - gallons were $20, quarts were $4. Pat asked the clerk if he could buy the gallon jugs at the price of the quarts. The clerk looked at Pat like he was nuts - "it's cheaper to buy in bulk, why would you not buy by the gallon". The clerk was chuckling at the stupid gringo who "overpaid" for 16 quarts when he could have just bought 4 gallons for "less".

The moral is "those who are afraid of a little math, get screwed by the numbers"

 

I definitely wouldn't log on duty. I log 15 when i show up and 15 min leaving.

 

I drive for Swift, this is my process (driving reefer most of my loads are live load and u load). I arrive at shipper or receiver, Change status to On-Duty add remarks Pickup or Delivery. Send Qualcom message I arrived. Go get checked it. They will tell me what dock or that they will call me when they have a dock for me. Get back in truck, switch status to off-duty or sleeper berth or back into assigned dock, them switch staus to off duty or sleeper berth. If I wasn't given a dock when I arrived, once they let me know which dock to back into, go back into the dock (ELF automatically kicks me from off-duty to driving). Once in dock, switch back to off duty or sleeper berth. And chill! If their procedures allow it, once they are finished loading or unloading me, I'll pull forward, slowly to not switch my ELD status, far enough to close doors and slide tandems if needed. I get myself as ready to go as I can. When they let me know my paperwork is ready, switch to on duty, add remark pickup or delivery, and go get paperwork. With paperwork in hand back at my truck, on my Qualcom, I send my loaded or empty message and then head on down the road to the next place I gotta go. Shippers and Receivers often have slightly different procedures, so these are only approximate. Thing is, If I am doing any 'work related activity', such as paperwork or going to office, I am on-duty. But, when I'm sitting there waiting for the next thing to happen it's off duty time. Another way to put it, is if I have no responsibility to my truck and could get out and walk away from it, it is off duty time.
At Swift, we get paid detention after 2 hours, but certain rules to follow and things to do to ensure you get it. It isn't automatic. And, sometimes there is no detention through no fault of the driver. But, it is what it is. Oh yeah, detention pay can be different depending on the shipper or receiver too.
I agree that excessive detention times are a real problem for drivers and totally unfair to them. But, it is the current system until it changes. I have also found that drivers are completely at the bottom of the barrel at a shipper and receiver with completely 0 clout! Yep, kinda sucks.

 

I took for granted everyone got paid whenever loading/unloading. Obviously there’s a reason so many trucking jobs available

 

If YOU, as the driver are doing the loading or unloading, you get paid. You don't get paid while SOMEONE ELSE is doing it.

 

Sometimes this is exactly what needs to be done. I did this years ago on paper logs cuz the company I was leased to finally peeved me off enough. Logged 14 hours a day every day. 5 days you’re done. Time to go home. I did it three weeks in a row then went to powers that asking why my miles have dropped when I was logging 100% legal. Things changed real fast.