Indian River

@Redtwin has the most knowledge and experience with our cross-border freight up there. He’s been running in and out of Canada for several years.

 

It’s not uncommon. If I were to shoot from the hip and guess without knowing the details or what region you’re in, I would say they’re short handed and trying to ensure things get covered. Bad weather could’ve put sand in the gears with their regional trucks. It could also be that there is a time gap between when you delivered and when the next available outbound load picks up. Instead of leaving you sitting, they might be trying to keep you moving during the gap. I’m just speculating.

 

I’m getting the impression that what you’ve experienced has become an ongoing thing to the degree where it is affecting your ability to receive the miles you were expecting. You haven’t posted on here much, so I didn’t recognize your username right away. I went back and looked at the private conversations you and I had on this forum in May of 2025. I think you have a legitimate complaint, and I would probably be irritated if I were in your position, too. I say that as the man who encouraged you to come to work for us back then in those messages.

I don’t think it’s appropriate to get off in the weeds about internal business within the company on a public thread, and I don’t like to parrot hearsay or rumors, because half the time they’re false or it’s just chatter. On the other hand, your post is public, so I’m responding to it publicly. I didn’t accept your offer to help me receive a referral bonus in those messages, but I spoke highly of the miles you would receive and what a good company IRT is to work for. So, I don’t feel good about what’s going on with you. You’re also not one of those people who constantly post negative things and complain, so I’m sure what you’re saying is credible. I think you should speak to someone in Florida about it and see about getting things corrected.

I had something abnormal happen on Saturday when I was loading egg in Iowa. I received a phone call from a female dispatcher in Fair Oaks, who asked if I knew if there was a shelf life on liquid egg. I said no, and she asked me to thumb through the paperwork to see if it mentioned anything. I did, and the paperwork did not. After working here for going on 10 years and never experiencing a call like that, my curiosity got the best of me. I asked what she was scheming on or had in mind. She replied: “Well, you deliver in Monticello on Monday, but I’m trying to scramble here. I’m short on trailers and have loads I’m trying to cover. I was going to see if you could drop that egg here and run some loads here, then go to Monticello afterward.” So, that was her reason for trying to find out about the shelf life.

I explained to her that due to the fact that I had started in Florida on Monday and had been running nonstop, I had 21 hours left on my 70 with no gain back at midnight the next two days. I told her it would require most of those 21 hours to get from Iowa to New York, and if I stopped in Fair Oaks along the way, whatever she had me do would eat into that and essentially screwup my ability to deliver it. She replied to this by saying that she could put me on a few Coopersville loads back to back and that I could do a “rolling 34 hour reset on Ag Exempt.” I told her I wasn’t comfortable with that and that it would be too much. I also explained that I preferred to stay on the egg load because I had just came off home time and needed the miles. She told me to have a safe trip and that she would see me in a few days, because they are so short on trucks in Fair Oaks that they’re bouncing drivers back and forth from the Northeast, sending them there after Decatur and Murfreesboro deliveries, etc.

Point being, I think things are hectic up there right now. I’ve heard that the lady in Florida who has always managed and oversaw the Northeast is no longer doing it anymore, which might explain things being hectic now. She had always kept the trains running on time in my opinion, there were never any phone calls like what I just described under her watch, etc.

I think you should talk to someone in Florida if your miles are dropping. I would also try to stay patient and hope that it’s just a temporary thing if they’re in the process of making some changes.

 

I’m not familiar enough with the local runs to speak on it. I saw a post on the company Facebook page in December about a local position in Okeechobee, though. You might check it out or call recruiting to see what’s available.