Glad I moved over to Poly Trucking

yes , poly is pretty predictable

 

Pol-Tex loads are just scrap load material so they only go to the other plants (GP, up north or poly west). Just depends on which plant needs product, few times I have even been given a choice as to which plant I wanted to go to if there were multiple loads available, but most time you will just be told to head to pol-tex and pick up this load going....

 

They do have ingredient loads out of there as well. The way you tell the difference is if they include a bunch of pages with barcodes on them or not. The ingredient we haul out of there you will find all over the inside of most of our trailers...it's those little plastic beads.

 

do you usually try to schedule hometime on a regular basis, say 3 wks out then home, sometimes maybe 2 out then home or just what hits you at the time? i like the possibility of a lot of miles if the hometime policy is as good as some drivers on this thread say.

 

also as company drivers, do you fingerprint any freight? thanks

 

we use pallet pullers for some loads with receivers that dont have a dock but those are usually mom an pop loads that u dont have to take if u dont want. other than that there is no touching freight as far as i kno

 

from what i kno some drivers that live in tx go home every week for a few days, others do 2'weeks then 3 or 4 days off, some do 3 or 4 weeks out an a week or more off. some stay home for a few days no matter how long they stay out. when anyone asks me how often poly gets me home i say they dont, when u get back to a poly plant u request a load home, there is either a load that will get u home or there isnt,depending on where u live and how much freight goes to ur area.

 

I used my pallet puller on 2 or 3 loads all of last year...but like you said, when they offered a mom-n-pop to somewhere I've never been, I am prepared to get it out. And like you, I've never heard of anyone having to fingerprint an outbound load. Backhauls sometimes require lumpers to do that, but I've never had them hesitate to put the cash on the card to cover it.

Home time also depends on where home is. If you live near an Outbound customer, or at least within a reasonable drive from one, then there isn't an issue. If you live in an area that doesn't have a customer, then you visit home on the way thru to a delivery which limits how long you can take. When bigcat was here he was planning a move to TN, which is a pass thru state without a lot of customers, so I believe he mentioned that they warned him about the possibility of a more limited home time stay. As a Florida resident, (it happens to be a destination state) I get to go home and stay as long as the Poly rules say I can...as long as I am getting the required miles. Last year, due to my construction project, I was out less than 300 days, but still averaged over 9600 miles a month...so that 8000 mile requirement is easy to achieve.

 

The home time policy is as good as it gets for a person that likes to say out 3 weeks to a month then take it all off in one shot. Weekends and Holidays are excluded from the home time they offer you of 7 business days off. You can get home 1800 on a wed. the 1st of the month and not have to go back until the 13th. You can quote me on that.

 

It sounds like you're saying they get you home when they feel like it if they can. Here is the fact , 14 times out of 15 from March 1 to Mid Dec. there's enough going on to get you home. If you are not one that likes to communicate your needs til the last minute, expect let downs. I have medical needs live in N.E.KY 14miles from Portsmouth OH. I get home when I need to I communicate my needs to them well in advance. Here's the flip side , for the slow season which we're in now , if you have to get home like me , you plan in advance to be home 2 or 3 days before you have to and take a little extra time off , in the event they find you something right away. You may have to sit a day or 2 or maybe even 3 during the slow season when you have to be somewhere , and you don't live in a winter hot spot like Florida. You can get home as you need to with careful planning and communication. Sometimes you get lucky and get a Dayton TX w/ a BH Poltex to GP , to eat up a day of the wait on the load that gets you home. You also can hang around and see local disp at zero dark thirty to get some local work. I don't make that a habit , I come in and if I'm not going anywhere soon I'm outta there to the truck stop.