Glad I moved over to Poly Trucking

What a day. Called customer for directions to fac in flower mound they asked about appt told them it was 2200. They don't unload then called broker and was told they have to get correct appt and not go into fac till confirmed appt. Waiting till tmrw to here from broker.

 

Looks like things are pretty quiet over at Poly - this thread just dropped off the first page of the forum. With that in mind, maybe this is a good time to introduce myself to you guys. I read through the entire thread, and got a LOT of information on the company. Thanks to everyone here who contributed with their experiences and advice!

For the last two years I've been driving for Roehl Transport. For the most part, they really have been a good company to start out with, and for that purpose I would recommend them to anyone. After two years however, I've decided that it's time to look around at some other options. My main reasons are the pay, and more importantly, I absolutely HATE driving in the Northeast, and want to find a place where I won't have to do that anymore.

Regarding the NE, it sounds like you don't have to go up there with Poly. I just love the idea of non-forced dispatch. One question for you guys would be, what happens if you are empty and the only loads available for the day are going to the NE? Can you just decline those and wait to see what comes up the next day? I'm hoping that is the case.

As far as the process is concerned, I have downloaded the application, and am in the process of getting it filled out. Although I don't have 10+ years of experience like some of the guys on here, I do have the two years of OTR experience, and haven't had any tickets, accidents, etc. My record should be perfect. I also live in Minnesota, and with Roehl I've been parking my car in a drop yard in St. Paul Park, MN, which is very close to Poly's Cottage Grove Terminal. Hopefully those two things will help my case enough for them to hire me. (Keeping my fingers crossed).

Anyway, thanks again for sharing your wisdom with myself and other drivers on this board. Hopefully I'll be a part of your team before too long.

 

Good luck Zang. Living near Cottage Grove may give you a little extra muscle into getting on here.

Made it up to Loveland, CO this afternoon. Unfortunately can't unload until Tuesday morning so going to be resetting time here at Johnson's Corner. Got the grilling supplies stocked up so should be a rather pleasant stay.

 

Many of the loads leaving Cottage Grove will go east, but you can turn them down & wait for something going west. However, this could be detrimental to your productivity as you may have to wait several days for that west bound load to be available. But that is your call to make.

Living in the Minneapolis area could be a help in getting hired. As you have read, things are done a little differently at Poly vs a regular OTR company. Frankly, once you understand the processes/ procedures you will enjoy the work environment here.

Best of luck to you!

 

Are most of them going north east? I don't have a problem at all going to the south east, or even as far east as Ohio. I just don't want to deal with the north east anymore. Anything other than that NE quadrant of the country is fine with me. I'd be willing to wait some too I guess. At least I would be waiting near home .

Here is a question that I don't think has been asked. If I were at home, could I check out the available loads on the internet, or would you need to be in the truck to see them on the Qualcomm?

 

Hey Majestyk, I sent you a PM. Did you get it by any chance?

 

You would put down when you are available to leave out and they would call you with a list of loads. The QC is basically not used for much here as most things are done over the phone. From my experience leaving out of Cottage Grove you will generally have something headed into Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and a couple of things rolling into NJ, Maine, CT so you would usually have some option as to avoiding the NE.

 

See my next Post. I messed up on this one.

 

Hey Zangief, maybe I can help answer your questions a little more. Thanks for reading through the thread and you do have some good questions. I too, prefer to stay out of the Northeast as much as possible. I've only went up in the northeast once since October of last year and I only went there because the load would allow me to get through the house for a few days before going to deliver. Ok, loads at Poly are NOT something you can look at on the computer. Available loads are only shared with you when Outbound calls. They call drivers in order of who put their name in first for that particular day. In other words, if you informed Outbound that you wanted to be on a load out this coming Friday. Then five other drivers did the same thing. Outbound would call each driver in order of who was first to get their name in for Friday. So you let them know on Monday and I let them know on Tuesday. They would call you with available loads out before they call me and so on. Kind of a first come first serve type of deal. They might have ten loads available for you to choose from. Once you take one then only nine choices would be available for me and so on. Now if none of the ten loads were something you wanted then you could decline to take a load and be pushed into the next days loads. However, you would be waiting another day or at least until they had all those ten loads they offered you given out. I hope that part makes sense the way I typed it out here.
Ok, now let me add this twist. That same system is used for all our outbound facilities. However, the Cottage Grove and Henderson facilities are a little more limited on choices of places to go. Grand Prairie serves more all over than the other two. Most of the loads out of Cottage Grove go East or West. You can get other loads out of Cottage Grove but most are East and West. Sometimes they have a load south to GP or whatever but it's not that often or something you can count on. So, being based out of Cottage Grove limits your choices a little to stay out of the Northeast over someone who is based out of Grand Prairie or whatever. However, that doesn't mean you couldn't stay out of the northeast. You would just have to take something going West or south and get to Grand Prairie for better load choices. There is no set rule and always exceptions to the rule. It's like JD says...best to get on with Poly and learn the system. Once working here you learn more about it than we can try to explain on here. I hope this has helped answer some of your questions. Good luck with it and take care out there.

 

####, clearly picked the wrong load this time. Delivering tomorrow after reset that was ok but back haul doesn't pick up until Wednesday morning and they won't change appt. time. Oh well time to fire up the old grill and cook some chicken to ease the pain