How inevitable are driver-unfriendly loads at a typical dry van company?

For the past year I've been running OTR for a rapidly-growing dry van company that currently has about 350 trucks. By far, most of the loads we haul are good ones that everyone wants, for example, ones that are drop-and-hook at both ends. But we are also occasionally assigned the type of load that goes a long way toward explaining the high rate of driver turnover in the industry.

Our owner wants drivers not to leave. He also knows the difference between driver-friendly and driver-unfriendly loads.

So why is it that about 10%-15% of our loads are bad ones? Does competition in the truckload market force our company to accept them? Or is it just that driver-unfriendly loads are so much more profitable than driver-friendly ones, the owner can't resist hauling them? I've never owned a truck, so I don't know what keeps a company from hauling nothing but good loads. Can anyone please explain?

I know there are various ways a company driver can solve the problem described above. One of them is to only do dedicated. Another is to haul flatbed. I've never seen a flatbed back into a dock at a grocery warehouse.

 

Sometimes it’s just a simple matter of there being nothing good available to get that truck into a better lane.

 

And if the owner actually wanted to retain the drivers, he'd pay more for those types of loads.
No, all he is doing is lip service, and doesn't want to actually pay the price to keep them.

Proper detention, lay over, multi-drop, low miles bonus, etc. for pay will go a long way to making those run less driver unfriendly.

 

Depends on what you mean driver unfriendly, is it because you have to unload,
I used to request the baby food loads out of Springfield caves, It had to be down stacked no more than 4 different products to a pallet. So 26 pallets of baby food would down stack into maybe 80 to 100 pallets. Would take most of the day, which I would log as off duty, So I would have the hours to hotfoot it from San Diego to Salinas to load tomorrow. This load back in 2000 would put $250 to $350 in lumper fees in my pocket, I would never let a lumper get near it.

Drivers now would refuse to fingerprint one of these loads, 2 of these a week would equal a pretty fair chuck of change in the pocket

 

Opus' #3 rule of freight:
There's a reason why it pays what it pays.

Your employer needs to share the wealth.

 

Now I like the loads I'm not even allowed to see, best yet.

 

I used to do the same thing w Jiffy baking mixes out of MI.
Big money on the back end...

 

i was a driver for 48 years, before i retired...what the heck are bad loads?

1) one where you actually have to get off your butt and fingerprint a few boxes?

2) one where you have to stand on the dock and count the boxes?

3) one where you have to hand load each pallet and then use a fork lift and put them into the trailer yourself?

4) one in which you get there, back up to the dock, and are told you have to sit for several hours, cuz the load ain't ready yet?

well first.....

1) you're a company EMPLOYEE, you GO WHERE the freight is

2) you are lucky to HAVE a job

3) if the freight is with-in YOUR area of where you dropped off your last load, YOU GO WHERE you are told to go.

4) some companies decline cheaper, or working the trailer freight, but SOME ACCEPT that freight, as it pays to get the truck OUT of the area where you are at presently.

5) some drivers actually like some sort of diversion from the yawning job they have.

6) JUST do as you are told, you're a COMPANY DRIVER

i ran the road, LONG HAUL as it was called back in my day, but too many griped about the terminology, so it was renamed...OTR or OVER THE ROAD, and i can assure you it was not for the namby-pamby's, gotta be drivin' an automatic, be home weekly crowd,

then i did regional, home every few days.

then i did dedicated till the day i retired, (many years worth of dedicated)

and ya know what..??

every now and then, I HAD TO DO a load that was out of the ordinary..

and ya know what..???

I DID IT, with NO complaints.....

why...??

CUZ IT WAS MY JOB

 

One where I don't get paid to do work.

I'll do everything on your list, as long as I get paid. And don't give me "that's part of the job" b.s. If the company is unwilling to pay anything but milage, then miles is all the effort they get.

 

i always got paid the miles to get there. pick ups and deliveries were standard paying, as if they were an ordinary load i did. so in other words, no special premium pay.

and yes, IT IS PART OF THE JOB, you get PAID to be a driver. YOU GO where you are told to go, otherwise, BUY YOUR OWN TRUCK.