Good night from...

OMG, I'm so sick and disgusted with myself. Couple days ago arrived at the final, they said put 'er in dock 1. There was a truck in dock 2 already, and this was going to have to be a blind side back situation. On the driver's side (blindside) there is a little smoke/breaktime shack with a roof overhang that is 13 feet tall and extends into the dock area about 18 inches. In my effort to give a wide berth to the truck in dock 2, my trailer crunched the corner of the roof over hang sending splinters of dry rotted plywood to the ground. Of course the office personnel wanted to make a big federal case out of it, taking pictures and writing up accident reports. The dock boys were showing me how the thing has been hit many many times before. They use the insurance money to host company barbeques, never bothering to fix or rebuild the roof out of range of the dock area. Still, that's no excuse, cannot deny I hit it and have to take responsibility for it.

I'm right on the edge of having my contract cancelled by Swift because this backing crash did not have a GOAL message accompanying it.

Anyway, I'm under a load again now, in Weed CA on the way to Seattle area. Take care and be extra careful out there and learn from my mistakes hopefully.

 

You're better off getting out and lookin' everytime - no matter how ridiculous that may seem. But with a blindside, its really manditory.

 

Hindsight always seems to be the best sight..

 

Shelby Township, MI @ costco parking lot.

Delivered my load here and was @ 10mins left on my 11. #### swift runs us freaking close on our times. Well I did do a delivery first thing this morning in Chicago then drove 98mi to p/u this beast of a load. Heaviest I've ever been, 79k n change, ran with 4/8ths tank, flew past all chicken coups, sweet. Detroit drivers are bad, I mean real bad, all im saying.

The wind today sucked. I was just happy to be heavy as hell.

P/U load @ 0600 15mi away then blast out to SCarolina by the 9th.

 

Iowa 80 then to Milwaukee then down to Tennessee.

 

It's that 'Plus 1' garbage.

I adjust the times, usually, to more match reality.
Sometimes it gets kicked back to me with those times, and sometimes the load is taken off me.

In my last monthly review I brought this up to my DM, because I had a high turndown rate.
I asked if adjusting the times and accepting the load the second time counted as a turndown, and he didn't know.
I know - it does.

But, it shouldn't.

Nor should turning down a load that is clearly not doable.

Like this last day.
I had 7.25 hours left on my 70, with no hours coming in the next day.
I turned down 2 loads of 500+ miles.
Will that count against me?
Probably.

I finally got on a 34 reset, and have a fairly tight load back to AZ tomorrow morning.

I hate Plus-1.
We can't see the actual windows of time provided by the customers, because Swift wants us to run flat out with no breaks.

The last load I turned down, I went in to the terminal first.
I was asked, well couldn't you just drive all the way in one shot? Then you could make it.

What???!!! Over 500 miles with no breaks or meals?
She looked at me like I was being unreasonable.

I said no way, it would be unsafe, and turned down the load.


I am through worrying about this.
I will take the loads that seem reasonable, and adjust/turn down the loads that don't.

If they don't like it, they can fire me.

I am not going to kill myself trying to make overly tight delivery times.
Period.

 

yep! Plus1! bites.......told my pod leader as much today too over it....

 

The Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1986 forbids a carrier from coercing you to run illegally. It provides for civil penalties, and protects the driver. The labor laws prevent an employer from forcing you to work without breaks or meals. Just because your workplace is on wheels, doesn't mean that the laws don't apply. Now I'm not suggesting you pull out your big guns - talking with management is always preferable to fighting. But there is something to backup your position.

 

Same here, departed Weed CA and made it to Seattle in one shot. Luckily it was a drop, and I didn't even bother asking for an empty, too tired to deal with trying to find a parking spot at 0030 (drop was 0001 not before, not after-- guaranteed service failure )?

Searched on the RM GPS for truck stops and rest areas, all too far away for truck parking, searched out casinos lol, 1.4 miles away. Bobtailing through some residential here, just following the stupid GPS, and it has me roll right past a sheriff substation lol. It will be nice to sleep without being surrounded by high idling trucks all night.

Things have sure changed since 2 years ago when I started. Back then it wasn't a problem to take a 34 hour break, I never asked permission, I just did it. I never had a load forced on me, I turned down loads at will, no repercussions. If I ever called with a question or a doubt about a load, the DM would just say, "Oh just turn it down, don't worry about it" as if loads are like unlimited candy to be handed out to children. The atmosphere seems to have changed; they will fit every last little load on every driver according to their hours like some kind of tetris game.

Seattle.