Glad I moved over to Poly Trucking

You, sir, have me at a disadvantage...if you introduced yourself, I apologize for my memory lapse, but the one nice thing about going senile is you meet new people every day.

And you would be surprised at my age...I've always had a youthful baby face. To give you a clue, I have my AARP card, and my oldest of 4 (and soon to be 5) grand children just started kindergarten this week.

 

It is good, and leads to discussions to disagree with others, but it must be done with respect for the other person. You can disagree with the other persons view point, what they are saying, but don't attack the person, or be offended by what they have to say. Attacking the view point is the key to discussions.

Just because someone has 1 million miles does not mean they know everything, as there is always room to learn. And just maybe, he has been doing something wrong that whole time, or developed some questionable habits, and never realized it.

As for the complaining about the problems at Poly, I thank the guys who keep it real.

 

You can tell by my data usage that I have had a down month so far. In June, data was 100+ gig and crappy miles, July, data was in the 70ish gig range and vastly improved miles, August (so far, today is the last day of my billing cycle) I am over 120 gig (with a week at home), and miles eeeeeeeh, at or slightly better than June maybe.

Had a very challenging customer for my back haul. I found not 1 but 2 state routes in IN that were closed to thru traffic due to construction, so I had to do course corrections on the fly. The load picked up over the IN line west of Cincinnati. I think it was a former warehouse complex that may have been part of the Segram's corporation which is behind a residential neighborhood with only 1 legal route...then hunt for the specific building within the complex. Once I found them, got backed in, but getting back out was another story...there was a construction site you could pull into, then blind side out into another site under demolition, then back out. Nice people, fast loading...just a challenging pick up. But, I guess that's why we get paid the big bucks.

 

i too have followed mr snackbars posts for many years
i find nothing offensive in his posts and my company has lowered the boom on me for musing out loud around the brown nosers about whats wrong with the company i killed myself to help grow.
the new young manager hates me and has lost tons of business.
i should have jumped for a few more cents years ago.
speak freely
loyalty will bite your rear hard in this biz
i better quit posting now

 

Another oil change, another f'g oil leak. Not major, (or major enough to be a DOT issue)but they won't let it off the yard, so now I am in a freakin' loaner again. 15-20k is all I get between problems any more.

-warning to those easily offended by a VERY negative update, do not read past this disclaimer-

To any one desperate enough to seek employment with Poly Trucking...flee, run, stay as far away as possible. Yesterday, when I was checking out loaners, most of which were allegedly repaired, I found 1, that was written up for exhaust in the cab. When I started it, it still had exhaust in the cab even though the shop said it was fixed. And then there is the truck I chose, which was written up for batteries (needed jumped). Well, it started o.k. when I tried it so I figured it was fixed, and the shop wrote it up as fixed so I chose it. Since it was late swapping stuff over, I was hot and stinky, I decided to go to the Comfort Suites by the interstate...and that is where I am still because the freekin truck won't start, it kinda tries to crank but the batteries are dead. It has a Dynasys, and the batteries are so dead that they won't even crank it's little motor over. And this is only a 1/2 day after it was driven. Don't waste the data to email an app...it is time that this place has problems attracting drivers to work here...I cannot wait to find another company...there is no excuse for this multi-billion dollar corporation to put decent equipment under their people. They want us to keep these trucks clean and shiny, and want us to wear an appropriate uniform shirt so the company presents a positive appearance to the public. How good of an appearance does it present to have these trucks behind a hook, sitting on the side of the road with the hood up or broke down in a customers or local business' property. Trucks break down, I get it, but with the last truck I owned I had over 800k on it, and it broke down less the entire time I owned it than these trucks do in a month. Sorry, the owners may know a lot about making trash bags, but I guess they don't know much about putting qualified management in place to streamline operations.

 

The last time I posted I was a bit upset , about the PM list and the fact that they took the Showers from us at the plant , so my decision to sit at the Truck stop 21 miles from plant Fri 8/14 1500 to Sunday about 1300 was because I'm just not playing into that come in here get on the list and be truck hopping just to go get a bite to eat in the event they couldn't PM it on Sat or Sun. Therefore I was PM'd on Mon , and load out Tues. So Tues , left to head up Burlington NJ , 1600 Miles , Friday mty and had a rear right door latch problem , the hardware failed and I was to be ####eysville MD , McCormick & co Fri by 16:30 , luckily I had spare hardware in my truck , not standard hardware but long enough Bolt to go through outside of door to the inside and secure the lacth with the nut , I went to McCormick , asked maintenance for 2 lock washers , reattached the latch with a lock washer so the nut didn't loosen in transit to Wilmer TX , then got loaded. Put in for a 900diff , and Sunday night dropped load at GP , grabbed a gate pass and headed out til Monday afternoon. Came in to get with Sup about a lost Toll bridge receipt , 37.50 , Betsy Ross br. and clue him into the fact I have spent a good 5 hrs sweeping trailers last 5 weeks.
Simple fix , he put me in for some hrly pay , and then some.
So after sitting Fri to Tues , I knocked out 3100hub miles Tuesday 8/18 at noon to Sunday 8/23 at 1945. End result , from Fri 8/14/15 at 1500 to Sunday 8/23/15 at 2000 grossed appx $1,675.00 , now yes that is 9 days and a few hrs , but keep in mind I sat twiddling thumbs 3 days of that. See I know for a fact that a vast majority of drivers are around that 1,675.00 for 9 days out , and avg'ng 350 to 450 miles a day at 40cpm by Rand McNally practical miles. Still Poly is thrown under the bus day in and day out. If you work with these people , and not against these people they will to the extent you make money work with you. However , they can treat you exactly as you treat them , and you get that everywhere you go , what goes around comes around.
The reason I haven't posted since I was sitting around is because I been busy running , making 1675.00 bucks over 6 days. See I know with poly because I done it many times that I can sit 2 or 3 days , then work my butt off for a week and still make decent money. And here is my clincher. While there are 100 of thousands of drivers that turn into truck stop commandos from Friday afternoon to Monday morning 2 or 3 times a month. I'm at home at least 2 weekends out of 5 and total between 7 and 10 days at home out of 35. I run 2 to 3 weekends out of 5 , and occasionally sit a weekend at GP or a truck stop nearby of my choice.
Then again , I plan well to the point that my times at poly getting screwed for 2 , 3 , 4 days or more aren't but maybe twice a year , and If I can't handle that without going belly up , then I need to work on my budgeting or find that 75K job that grows on trees in this industry. I just don't understand how it is that all of us aren't making between 75 and 100K a year and home 5 or 6 days a month , because there are a lot of drivers convinced those jobs are plentiful.

 

I just can not understand SSB , why they haven't offered you a brand new truck yet ? Can you explain why after a year with Poly they didn't give you a new one ? Just wondering

 

Why don't you just come right out and say it. "I'm better than everyone else". Because your posts certainly indicate that's how you feel.

 

I guess you have to know where to look driver. I started a job last year this time driving brand new cascades loaded to the nines. Smart shift trans, 550 detroit , or Cummins,Jake's, lane guidance ,collision mitigating system, factory installed cb, six way captain chair with heat and a.c.in the seat and Sirius xm standard. Four way diff lock automatic fifth release you name it in a day cab. all aluminum on the truck and trailer. trailer has air ride air drop and pin release with tire inflation system with warning light.interior light with leds and Amber turn signals with turn/marker up top. Quite reefers.
Home every night, day or night shift. Four on three off you make between 275 and 350 a day with an occasional 400 plus day thrown in. Your average a day is over three for sure and show some initiative and it will stay higher.
The option to work a five day shift is there as well as six. Four day guys make seventy a year, five day eighty, six day ninety.
The four day night guys get out early Sunday morning are off all day sun, Mon, tues, and don't have to be in Wednesday till 10-2am so essentially four days off but home every night of the week.
Not an elusive company, they hire all the time in almost every state. The only catch is you work for every dollar. Not hard but you work for it none the less.
I'd rather justify working hard for my money than justify why the little money I have is okay because I was sitting in a truck stop twiddling my thumbs.
The industry is changing and it's trending towards building more plants and dcs so as to get away from long haul trucking. If they can piggy back your one amazon package from the east coast to west coast all with day cabs they can do it with a full trailer. It's becoming less cost effective to keep guys out on the road and more of a liability to the customer. Start looking local.

 

Maybe because there are no empty "new" trucks, and there are a lot of drivers here that are ahead of me in line for new ones if/when they buy more. At this point, it would be a waste. After my dead loaner got towed in, i chose another one off the list that had to be signed out at the shop according to the list. But, there was no write up to sign. So I checked with the shop and was told they shut it back down. It didn't even make it off the parking lot before it died. I didn't see anything obvious wrong, so it must have been electronic. Choose the only other loaner available. The driver must have been a 3 pack a day smoker. Got 50 miles down the road, and I get a whiff of antifreeze. Sleeper heater core has a leak. As long as it isn't too serious, I'll live with it. Then, just before the GA/AL line, it shuts down because it acts like one of those "oil filter pluggers", or so it seems. I pull off, check things out, restart, and the oil pressure comes back to normal. I get to my delivery the next morning without any issues. Make it back into AL and pick up my backhaul, without any issues. But, I deliver in TX tomorrow, and I am expecting this POS to have issues just before I have to deliver. It's dropping a gallon+ a day of coolant out the heater core but these Cummins engines in these Prostars don't have the shut-off valves like a Freightliner to cut them off, and I"ll be ###### if I am sitting at a dealer for days to have it repaired on the road because after this last truck juggling weekend, I just DGAFF. And when you ask about a remedy, they don't seem to GAFF. If I wouldn't have been able to roll with this truck, and had to sit all weekend on the compound, I would have had my airline ticket bought, and my last days as a Poly driver would have been spent broke down and in a motel. This junk equipment, and the lack of any real attempt to solve the issue many other driver are facing with constant equipment issues is why I see no future here. So far the only remedy I've seen them try is buy more of the same POS model trucks that have been so problematic. That would be like banging your head against the wall, finding out it hurts, then finding another wall, banging your head there, to see if it hurts the same... I guarantee if a piece of machinery in one of the plants failed as often, they would replace it. If a fork lift broke down daily, a new one arrives on a flat bed...if the computer died, it gets fixed right, and quickly. All because those things directly affect their bottom line, where with us, we have a backup. When they can't move product via company trucks, they hire outside carriers to move it. That is why I say my days are numbered. .50 cpm is only beneficial when you are turning miles, and when they won't put equipment in service that can turn miles, there is no use staying. .50 cpm isn't worth the constant problems.