Good Night From II

I decided to talk to the person about my idle time 'in person', so I called my DM and asked who she was.
She is someone from an entirely different terminal, and my DM had no idea why she was ragging on me. He said to just ignore it.
(I had thought she was someone higher up in my own terminal, but no.)

The thing is, I KNOW I usually have a high idle time compared to a lot of drivers.
And, the thing is, I don't simply just idle all the time when I don't need to.
But if it is too cold, or hot, or the batteries get low I'll idle.
That usually puts me in the 30-40% range. (Sometimes higher)

But I try to compensate for it by 'paying them back' in some small way.
I pay my own scale tickets, cash tolls and pretty much anything else that I might be reimbursed for.
If I forget to fill my oil jug at a terminal and need oil, I pay for it. The same with coolant, DEF or whatever.


I pointed that out to my DM and he said to please scan in everything to get reimbursed. That way he could yell at me about the idle time if he felt like it.
(He hasn't even mentioned it in over a year)

 

Moose, my simple rule is to never ever spend my money to do my employer's business. They will never show any appreciation for it and never remember you did it. I go by the saying, "gas, ### or cash; nobody rides for free.". I've got a fat ###, way too much gas so that only leaves cash.

I heard the same about the DVIR.

 

According to an article in Cdllife.com, completing or filing a DVIR for non defective equipment goes away on the 18th but I wonder if Swift will drop the requirement to send the Mac32? We still have to log both pre and post trip inspections of course.

 

I live by a simpler rule.
Play fair.

It may not get me ahead in life, but in Life I will be ahead by far.

 

Please note in which context I capitalize Life.

 

The new requirements negate the need to do a post trip unless something is wrong.
So, no post trip unless something is wrong.

Will Swift follow along?
Who knows.

But can they fire every driver that refuses to do it when it is not required?

All it takes is a little effort on our part to keep Swift from over-reaching at our expense.
Personally, I would love to get back that 5 minutes a day.


With all the regulations and rules, every minute counts.
That 5 minutes might be the difference between me delivering on time or late, because I HAD to take a 30 minute break 2 minutes before I WOULD have been on time!

 

At a Peelot on I-75 a little north of Lexington kY.

Went to do my D/H at Costco this morning but they didn't have an mty so it was a live unload. No biggie as I have a new trailer from the DC and didn't mind keeping it. Scooted down the road a few miles for my next P/U going to Fairburn GA, another live load. Scaled out at 79.6K lbs with 3/4 tanks. The KY/TN mountains will be slow going. Doesn't need to drop till Wednesday morning but I'll have it there at lunch tomorrow and find something else.

MOOSE: you showed more restraint then I probably could've mustered.

LEPTON: your current student is exactly why I have no interest in training. I'd be telling him to cross his legs cuz daylights burning and this freight train is gonna keep on rolling. I suspect he won't make it long as a solo and will be a PITA for his DM.

Ive been hearing the same about the 34 resets and DVIR. The reset doesn't affect me much because I virtually never do a reset when I'm out. I've never filled out the DVIR because I never had the button on my HOS screen with the exception of 3 hours a couple days ago. I log pre/post though and would be nice not to have to log the post trip.

 

I actually lost that restraint a bit.
I got another message from her about my idle, so I told her to call me and gave her my number because I wanted to talk to her personally.
In that one she told me that anything above 32 degrees was no reason to idle considering the amount of miles I do in a week.
She messaged back that it was a different truck (12xx60 instead of 13xx60) and sorry for the confusion. And, it's time to go home.

I'm REALLY glad I have a decent DM who looks out for me.
If I was stuck with her I would either quit or go postal - or both.

 

My trainee did a fair bit better today during our run from Phoenix to Brawley, AZ to Jurupa Valley in terms of limiting off duty time. During the final drive from the last break in Coachella to Jurupa Valley we discussed the HOS rules. He was surprised to find out he only had 14 hours in which to drive 11 hours. Perhaps this was the missing link to getting the idea that you have to keep the left door shut.

At first he was upset to find out this fact, but as I explained this was a common theme among drivers and that if he wanted to drive a AND make decent money he'd better be able to play the game within the rules I think he finally understood I wasn't ragging or riding on him, but trying to coach him to become financially successful in this business.

Tomorrow we deliver this load of hay in Compton (of all places) and pick up a load of "beverages" in Van Nuys headed to Laredo. For some reason we got stuck with a roll door in Phoenix, so I'll need to get an empty solution before heading to pick up our beverage load.

It's a good thing we arrived early this afternoon in Jurupa Valley. So far I've heard three drivers BANG! into the flatbed trailer next to a truck that parked with way too much room on his left, leaving a TEMPTING space on the right with a hidden flatbed tucked in the hole.

They all seem to drive away quickly after hitting the flatbed. Good thing it isn't loaded.

 

Chillin in London,OH

Had the oppurtunity to meet squeak the other day at the target dc. First member here that I've met in person.

I had a student with communication issues earlier in the week (he didn't fluently speak English). He had too long of a reaction time to my instructions and ran the trailer into a gaurd rail less than a mile after starting to drive my truck. His career with swift is probably not over but he is no longer on my truck. I have adopted a new policy; I will no longer train anyone who cannot fluently speak and understand English.

It is not discrimination on my part, but it is just too imperative to be able to interpret my instruction into action to continue trying with the students who cannot understand English fluently. English is not my first language so I understand the difficulty, albeit I have been speaking English for over 20 years and it is much better than my first language now(Spanish).

Blsqueak can attest to the fact that I don't sound like English is my second language. I have no problem with immigrants, my father came here from Costa Rica, but I don't think it is fair to the student nor myself to have to struggle with that.

I will most likely be picking up another student in a few days and resume the training process. My last student that I finished I recommended to the target account and he has been doing very well here.

Btw did did anyone else receive that message saying that O/O's will be getting incentive pay if we run during the holidays?