Good Night From II

Here in Lowell, IN. What a fun day. Hit my first stop about 1.5 hour early and before I had a chance to get out of the truck they already had to dock plate in. Went to the second stop and when found the docks, oh $&(^. They are in the parking garage under the building. It was a joy and took me just a little while. Then on to the 3rd stop and still way early and rang the buzzer and she asked how can help and I told her food truck and she says wait, you drive for Swift. You guys are never this early. Told her no problem. I can go out and nap and she said no way, back up to the door. Then the 4th also early. Was finished with all before even my final appt time. Already a pplan that will be ready by the time I get back in the morning so can hook up to that one and get back up here and be ready on the 26th.

 

probably because there are a lot of drivers who go by strict delivery times yet a lot of customers would love to get it early, I was told sometimes customers pay for a cheaper rate which are the loads that tend to have a lot of time on them but if you show up early they are joyed. Also considering its Christmas Eve im sure those customers are more than happy to get things done earlier to go home.
I tried telling a surge driver the other day who was sharing some of his otr stories to always try and deliver early, he was also stating he turned down loads that had to be picked up and driven 300-500 miles the same day since he said its impossible to do in the same day, I looked at him and told him he needs to learn better planning then because thats an easy day.

 

Wow...

... ya know, I have heard that refrain dozens of different ways. Drivers that ##### about not getting enough miles (and money) and in the next breath explaining exactly why they aren't getting the miles (and money). If you can't bang out a 500 mile load in a day then it's time to find a new occupation, because the one you got will always be "holding you back".

I've given my initial impression of my latest trainee, and by rights I could boot him off my truck and I may still do that. Since my last post about his lack of ability to put in miles:

- I woke up at 4:00 am to get ready for our 4:30 am departure as agreed to get from Eloy, AZ to El Paso, TX for a t-call. My trainee failed to answer the call to duty alarm clock, despite repeated attempts to wake his ### up. Since I had hours on my 70 and didn't want to jam up another driver that may need that load to Laredo I logged in for pre trip and had my trainee get into the sleeper berth. I drove all the way to make the t-call in El Paso and then we sat for almost a day until getting a load westbound to be in position for our home time. It wasn't until that next day that he realized he'd been in sleeper berth for two days and hadn't made any money. I explained to him that if he doesn't drive he doesn't make money. If he can't be responsible to SLEEP during his sleeper berth and be able to get his ### out of bed to drive then he doesn't make money.

- After that he performed ... better ... on the drive back to Jurupa Valley. He even started to limit his time on his numerous pee breaks, although somewhat grudgingly. He actually seems to have the ability to put in a 400+ mile day! LOL

- After getting back to Jurupa Valley on Saturday we did a couple of piddly local runs, then ran a load up to Porterville, CA and then deadheaded to Van Nuys to pick up a beer load to t-call in Jurupa Valley before taking home time for Christmas yesterday.

I've decided to work with this trainee, as I think I'll be able to coax out a little more productivity. I've told him to lose the pressed business dress shirts and shined shoes and get ready to get dirty. I've certified him for team driving, he's actually very safe on the open road and competent for backing. Our next load picks up in Moreno Valley and goes to Virginia, picking up Friday evening. I'll be impressing on him the need to keep the wheels turning on long haul team driving. I'm sure during the first week I'll be up frequently to take "smoke breaks" to monitor his driving.

While I don't think this trainee will ever put in the miles to make platinum status, he'll eventually be a competent driver that I'm sure one day will be sitting at a terminal ######## about lack of miles and money. The funny thing is we ran into a former trainee at Jurupa Valley that told a story about having to drive for 7 hours straight up I-25 from Denver into Wyoming to make a delivery on time, with high winds and icy conditions. He made it. My current trainee just couldn't comprehend how anyone could drive 7 hours without a break.

Eventually my current trainee may reconsider whether professional truck driving is his career path. He'll get the load safely there, he just doesn't seem to be cut out for focusing on what it takes to put in the miles.

 

7 hours straight can be tedious and rough but possible as long as you are prepared for it, for those types of days im needing to run almost nonstop I avoid drinking a lot of liquids etc to make sure I do not have to stop, these days the longest I usually run without a stop is around 4 hours and its usually because I need to pee but my windows are usually not tight, only occasionally and I try to drive with limited stops just so I finish my day quicker.

As for your trainee he needs to learn the importance of waking up on time, he is in good line of getting service failures, I also would be getting up for "smoke breaks" as well to keep an eye especially if you start getting those team loads and super solo may not be enough to complete them in time.

 

My trainer told me about a student like that. He wanted to drive 2-4 hours a day. When he had to drive 7 hours it about killed him. He then claimed "emergency at home" and got on a bus. We figure his training money was wasted. I hope your trainee wises up, its a real job and he has to do it if he wants to keep it. Good luck to you, I could never train.

 

Yeah, it seems the responsibility to sleep during sleeper berth time is lost on more than a few folks. I've seen drivers up all night in the terminal, playing computer games on their wide screen setups (and hogging internet bandwidth), then getting behind the wheel all bleary eyed in the morning to go make a delivery.

When it comes to watching movies, reading, or anything that might cause me to stay up for a long time that is never done on a 10 hour break. The only priority is to sleep to be prepared for the upcoming shift.

Save the entertainment for layovers or home time.

 

yeah I have not been able to watch but a few episodes of my shows in the past month I been so busy, when I do watch something during a 10hr I limit it to a show thats less than a hour long, movies are for when I have 12+ hours which is hardly ever. I have several different shows downloaded on my laptop I have not even began yet and over 30 movies I have not watched yet.

 

Home. Surprisingly. I was all set to stay out for Christmas and go home next weekend. Had a Campbell soup load going to DeKalb, IL, yesterday. Of course, load wasn't ready on time. Which made me late to deliver. Of course final had no empties. Of course it took me a good 3 hours to find an empty for a Costco load. Why they didn't just have me bobtail, I have no clue. Which put me on schedule to be two hours late to deliver it at 1800 when it needed to be there by 1600 today. And to top it off, all Costco's closed at 1600 today for Christmas. And they are closed all day tomorrow.

Driver leader told me to just take the load home and deliver it Friday.

 

i dont have any problems watching movies,reading a book, or doing laundry during my ten hour break. but then again, i only need 5-6 hrs of sleep. extreme rarity when i sleep all nite. only if i'm really sick. usually wake up 1-2 times a nite. but i guess us old folks dont need our beauty sleep

 

no loads for me tomorrow. so fm had one of the yarddogs give me a quick orientation on how to drive these things. he said i'll be paid hourly to help straighten this mess out tomorrow. btw...merry xmas to you all.