I Start With Averitt in January 2012

I talked to Mustang today. Seems he is getting used to being back in Truckload but I sure cannot blame him for missing his dedicated run.

Left out Sunday morning and delivered this morning in Allentown, PA. Before I was unloaded I was dispatched to Warminster, PA to pick up a load going to Port Allen, LA. I will deliver that on Wednesday at 1400. That will have me at 2000 miles by midweek. Nothing to complain about for sure.

Talked to a couple drivers from outfits like Swift, Stevens Transport and Ozark. They all said freight is good and they are keeping busy. That is something I always like to hear.

 

For those who say I never have a gripe about Averitt...well here goes. I do wish the load planners would read the notes on plans before sending them to drivers. Case in point: I get a nice little 170 mile run from Port Allen, LA (where I sit right now getting unloaded) about a mile from my consignee. Pick up a pre-loaded trailer and head to Pearl, MS for an 0800-1400 delivery. Great run since I had 360 getting here and I can turn and burn to Pearl and do my 10 hour break then deliver in the morning. YES!

Wait...as I look on the load assignement under comments it says DRIVER MUST BOBTAIL TO CUSTOMER. So I send my FM a message asking if I can drop my trailer at my delivery and bobtail over to the shipper. No...it's a live unload. Just head over to our Baton Rouge yard and drop the trailer then bobtail back to the shipper. 40 miles round trip so all the more miles right? Well then I figure 2 hours to unload, forty miles round trip...I could pick up around 1700 hrs. Planners tell my FM that won't work so they take the load off of me.

Had a planner read the instructions under comments he or she would have known this would complicate the pick up. Now when I am unloaded I will creep over to the Love's and await dispatch. Now compared to my time with SWIFT this is a very minor complaint. However it did kind of stick in my craw that now I will sit rather than keep rolling. Possibly with an overnight LTL load after having been up all day after sleeping all night.

Am I pissed and ready to quit? Heck no. I still love Averitt and plan to stay a long long time. This would be about the 2nd brain fart moment I have experienced with the company. Most everything else runs pretty darn smoothly. Not much to complain about really as I have over 2000 miles on Wed afternoon.

I hope you are getting great miles and stay safe.

 

Agreed, Mustang. The tough part as you well know is when you sleep all night, make a morning delivery and then get nailed with an LTL load for that night. You cannot force yourself to sleep! However, Advil PM does help.

 

Got a load from Port Allen, LA to Paducah, KY. 540 miles. That puts me at 2600 miles on Friday with a trip home after that. Not a bad week. It's another one of those creep to the customer during my break as it's a 9 am delivery and I will get to Paducah by midnight or 1pm. My total down time between loads on this one was 20 hours. That's one of the longest waits I have had with Averitt.