Has detention got you down?

detention pay makes a big difference, while I hate sitting longer than need be, knowing that after two hours they are getting charged $75.00 an hr and I get 29% of that makes it bearable. When a customer asks how much time that have, I tell them 2 hrs then we charge detention of $75 an hr, and if they want me to help load then there is no free time. Usually, those customers get things done super fast and I get a nap.

 

I thought sleeping was a good idea, too... but don't a lot of shippers/receivers communicate via CB? When the CB comes to life, does it waken you... and are you able to distinguish whether or not the message was for you when in that half-sleep/half-awake fog? Can you really get restorative sleep that way keeping one ear open for your call... and only your call?

IP, I'm not being confrontational. Honest. It just seems like one of those "easier said than done" things.

 

The system Swift uses is that once at customer a macro is sent.
After 2 hrs past appointment time driver will receive a macro for them to send information about reason for delay. Another one will come at the 5 hr mark as well.
The only time it fustrates me is when I'm being unloaded,,with another load I need to pick up X miles away.
Other than that not a big deal for me.
I figure if shipper holds me up..and it's going to make the load late..I send my
"delayed at shipper msg"
Which is sent to customer service rep.. and they hash it out.
This is all the "readers digest" version..
But companies have people in place to call other companies and give the old "what for" and who am I to deny them that pleasure...LLLLLOOOOOLLLLL

 

No, it's company policy and either the broker/forwarder pays it or they fight it out. My employer has a strict detention policy, local (within Denver) any loads longer than 90 minutes we drop the trailer/container and we'll come back (there are some exceptions). ANything outside the Denver area it's 2 hrs free, then $75.00 an hr(within 150 mile radius we are paid hourly so we don't get part of the money), anything beyond 150 radius of Denver, it's $75.00 an hr and I get 29% of. Customers who balk at this, we don't deal with again.

I've also taken it to extremes, few years back I was at a customer in Grand Junction, after 2 hrs he was only 50% done unloading. I advised him that he was now on detention/driver standby and was being billed $65.00 an hr, he balked and said he wouldn't pay it. He had two guys in the container unloading onto pallets, I went to my tractor, grabbed my gloves and a padlock and told them to get out of my ##### trailer that I was closing the doors and padlocking it. Once they realized I was serious the guy relented and said he'd pay. When it was all done, he was supposed to write me COD for the delivery and standby charges, as he was writing the check he threatened to put a stop payment on it. When I called it in to my boss, he called the guy and told him that if he put a stop payment on the check, we would sue him out of business, and that the driver was heading to the bank to cash the check (I wasn't). The check cleared just fine, but we've never done work for him again.

 

You are exactly right! You can not get restful sleep if you're waiting for someone to call you with the cb radio. I usually tell people like that that my radio does not work and i will be happy to provide them with my cell phone number and i will gladly accept a collect call from them if they do not wish to pay for a call. Most of the time that works just fine and i am able to get some restful sleep while waiting.
Another equally effective tactic is to just go to bed in the dock door. Eventually they want me to the move so they can unload another truck and send someone out to wake me up. Of course if you do that be prepared to listen to them complain and possibly call your company to complain about your actions as well. But if they just did their #### job, there would be no problems! ( And if frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their ### every time they hopped either!)

 

"Restful, restorative (REM) sleep is not what you're going to get in a loading dock anyway. That being said, a couple of hours of nap time is going to help you be alert and refreshed when you do get going. Napping with the CB on does take some getting used to, but so does napping through repeated ventures of a forklift driver into the back of your trailer.

For me its not a big deal to ignore all of that, and even filter the CB chatter from the shipping/receiving office... its an old trick I picked up in the Air Force. I learned to ignore F4s on training missions, but pay some serious attention when the afterburners didn't cut out when launching the alert 5 aircraft on an intercept. Not much of a stretch to trucking, and picking up an old habit.

Restful, restorative sleep is for when you get the heck out of the dock and down the street to a truckstop, rest area or a quiet side street.