Home daily-ish? I think I live at the shipper now…

I have a question that I feel insane asking. I’m in a home daily route. My dispatcher is new to trucking and a bit…. He has publicly accused us of living on our trucks. Our dispatches never stay dispatched long enough for us to get home and sleep. We get them with no notice at random intervals after our ten based on…IDK. Like I had planned with him doing an evening run with no info other than that. I signed out my truck from the shop and went home to avoid starting my clock and sleep. He assigned a load 8 hours early. A lot of us have been exhausted because he texts constantly when we should be asleep and he delays loads for no under stable reason. I have shown up to work as asked and waited 3 days for a load regularly, just sitting on my truck close to home. Is this normal for trucking, to be on call and need to be within 20 feet of your truck 24/7 or often just not run? How do you actually go about doing home daily and getting enough rest?

 

Sounds like your dispatcher is an idiot (there’s a shocker).

Are you getting paid while you sit? If not hand in your keys and wave goodbye.

 

Move on, if youre not salaried and basically running emergency stuff, no call for that crap

 

Dispatcher doesn't know his ### from a hole in the ground. Find a different local job. There's plenty out there to where you can have a daily set run...or semi regular

 

sounds illegal, too.

no full 10 hr break?

 

click the quarter moon symbol to silence phone, go home, go to bed, return at normal hours, do your job, go home, I used to have a terminal manager/dispatcher (same guy) that it took 4.5 years, but he understands No, now.

 

I talked to one of the guys I trained in the past, he's working for a hazmat company in Fort Worth. He's home most days, but not all of the time. It's like 70+ hours a week. And so far he's averaging between 2-3k a week. The training period you don't make very much, but after that, it's sounding like the pay is excellent. It's not just hauling fuel, he hauls chemicals.

 

You have some choices.

A. Keep doing what your doing.

B. Start looking for a better job.

There are other things you could do.
Get all the drivers that are being affected together and go to management with a complaint and a possible solution.

Have all the drivers affected refuse any loads that dispatch person offered.

Go into the work location at 6:00 AM ready to go.
Ask for the days assignment. If nothing available, wait 2 hours, ask again. Still nothing, say OK, see you at 6:00 AM tomorrow. Go anywhere but do not answer calls or texts until 6:00 AM.

Do a work stop. When that dispatch person is on shift, no one works.

The bottom line is you have to decide what you want to do about it, and do that.

Find a new place to work, that treats the employees with a bit of dignity.

 

I've never had those kinds of problems. Regardless, out of principle I pretty much always turn my phone off during my 10 when I'm going to bed. To me, it is also a safety thing. If I don't get restful, uninterrupted sleep, I'm not going to be safe to drive. That said, I also have a tablet and my significant family folks know how to get ahold of me on that should a personal emergency occur. Having my phone off has never been a problem with my company. In general, they won't try to call or message you when you are on your 10. They'll wait till I've gone on duty for my pretrip and usually within half an hour I'll get a call or messages if they need anything or have anything for me.

 

No way I’d tolerate those conditions. I rip my dispatcher a new one if he texts me too late in the day lol. And my fone goes on silent when I hit the sack -
I’d kick that job to tge curb.