Glad I moved over to Poly Trucking

Equipment wasn't the main reason, but I left Poly on good terms shortly after they started purchasing those Internationals back in 2011. At one point they had me take one back to GP after a driver resigned up in Cottage Grove. With so little shelving/cabinetry and no upper bunk I had to stack all my stuff in a big disorganized pile that overflowed from the bunk onto the cab floor and get a hotel room.

Thankfully I didn't have enough seniority to be assigned one. They had me slip-seat back into another Columbia soon as I got to GP.

Even though it wasn't the main reason, knowing I'd have to eventually drive one of those Internationals definitely played a role in my decision to leave when I did.

 

I left the house last Friday with a backhaul picking up in Jacksonville going to Dallas TX for Monday around 1200miles. No great loads for Monday so took a gp to Hattiesburg MS. Left Monday and delivered Tuesday then picked up my backhaul in Jackson and returned to gp Tuesday night, around 1050 miles in 2 days. No great loads for Wednesday so took a gp to Rockford IL for Friday morning delivery. So from last Friday to the following Thursday I had around 3300 miles.

My backhaul after delivering this morning is Addison IL to Chanhassen MN delivering Monday. I called receiver and got it changed for tomorrow. Put myself on the outbound board for up north for Sunday. Got a 1 stopper to Albany NY that's already loaded so I'll just leave with it Saturday if everything goes well.
Not my normal loads but everything seems to be going well, good miles. To. Easy.

 

Any poly drivers in Massachusetts and gonna be back in gp by monday?

 

I've had my home time set for over two weeks, and I know it's pretty ####ty up here in the northeast, I put myself ready for a bh yesterday morning and just got the call...picks up in Yarmouth MA, MONDAY!!! And another pickup somewhere in PA Tuesday, delivers to farmers branch the 18th...I was supposed to be home the 17th...not to happy about having to sit in MA all weekend...or missing my planned vacation

 

Getting home on time wasn't one of Poly's strongest suits when I was there five years ago, but outbound does at least make the effort and usually succeeds at it. The thing about home time at Poly---and this has probably been repeated here ad nauseam in this thread---is you must always be watchful in advance and do absolutely everything within your power to avoid doing any bag delivery right around the same time you're going to need the load that gets you home. The reason for this---and they don't tell you this in orientation, or at least, they didn't tell us---is that backhaul places a very Werner-like value on driver home time.

 

I can attest to the fact that with a boat load of communication and smart planning on your part , you can always get home when you need to with them. Here lies the problem , you want to get 2 or 3 days worth the work before going home , but don't want to do local shuttles , you try to get that load and all they have is longer one's !
So you must choose knowing : if you take this you can't get home , or sit 2 or 3 days waiting for what gets you where you want to be. Many times the option to do local shuttle is there , I have been told by different people that some drivers won't do shuttle even if they're asked to.
I myself have been known to get lazy once in a while and sit 2 days , but that's usually when I've turned 45 to 4700 miles over 7 or 8 days. If you been up against your 70 last 5 or 6 days because you're running pretty good , and you're asked to do a Searcy , then 2 days from now you'll get the load home , you should get them to plan you your home load in advance , once you have that locked take the Searcy Ar. but be sure you have the hrs to get you to the house for the day you need to be there . Over 3.5 yrs here , not once have they failed to get me home when I needed to be there. Note: During Jan Feb , and Early Mar. I have sat 3 days waiting for that load home with no local work or short run options. It's the slow down months that get frustrating , and it usually happens twice to me between 8 Jan and 8 Mar. Once you get into Mid Mar. Things pick up and it's usually Late Nov before things begin to wind down. I take about 3 weeks off at Christmas , like 12/22 thru the 1st week of Jan.
so the slow down in late Nov doesn't bother me much.

 

Did they up the governor to 70? The reason I ask is because 70 x 68 = 4760. 70 x 70 would be 4900 which would leave a little more room for all those 15-minute post trips, pickups, deliveries, non-GP fuelings, etc. but still cutting it close. Numbers like 45 to 47 in a week call for a little extra explanation.

By the way I get the whole paper-logging thing---I used to run for Marten. 10-15 years ago their logs were about as "paper" as it gets. But when I was at Poly five years ago I chose to pretty much log everything as I did it since they were doing those random audits. Also I just really liked running for them, so I pretty much did everything by the book there. Not saying you don't, but isn't 45 to 47 a tad high?

 

I'm not getting into it , if the miles i said didn't meet your math , do this take 3 700 mile days , add 3 650 mile days. And 2 600 mile days. Then take the 300 I did the 1st half day I ran which I didn't include , in the number along with 200 miles on the 9 day. I don't consider 300 miles the 1st day a day nor 200 miles the last a day , because you can kick 500 miles out in 8.75 hrs. That's just a little better than a half day.

 

Yes logging at 65 mph gets you 568 miles in 8.75 hours of line 3 activity. Eight days straight of this gets you 4544 miles in 70 hours of line 3 activity. (It's not like there's any mystery to any of that--it's simple calculator arithmetic.)

If Poly's logging policy still sets 65 mph as the line 3 maximum speed, then as I said before, unless Poly increased its logging speed to above 65 mph sometime during the past five years, 45 to 47 in eight days is high.

But my hunch is you're not actually violating any of Poly's policies. You were probably just tossing around some figures here without expecting them to be taken literally by anyone.