is it unreasonable to WANT to know where i am going?

things have gotten a little better at work, but i still have 1 issue. my boss likes to send me off on a what i call a wild goose chase. he likes to give me verbal directions WHILE i am driving over the cell phone. i really dont care for this method. this only happens with odd loads, that is loads that might get assigned after the regular run for the day is over. usually i will haul stone all day, load at the quarry take it to the job site, then back to the quarry. i really enjoy that because i know where i am going. i dont have to 2nd guess myself.

there is something called trip planning, it takes 5 minutes on a local job. get the address, program it into the GPS and then take a look to see where it is sending you. my boss doesnt believe in doing that, it makes life much more difficult and creates a disorganized mess.

is known where you are going BEFORE you leave seem like logic course of action.

 

I would probably pull the safety card on that one. You shouldn't be on the phone while driving. You're the one responsible. So it's up to you to make the call. I would demand he do away with the on-the-fly directions. It's absolutely reasonable to expect you to know where you're going before you turn the key. You have to know road weight limits, where low clearances are, where the no truck routes are all ahead of time.

 

he doesnt believe in GPS or technology. i have a trucking GPS on my phone that actually works fairly well (sygic truck). it has low clearance bridges and weight restrictions. for some reason he doesnt really like me using it, but he doesn't forbid it either. i have a suction cup mount for my phone, and normally when im driving i have the GPS loaded and i dont like to use the phone for anything else.

frankly i would rather stay off the phone while i am driving. i dont like having conversations while i am driving. PERIOD. my focus needs to be on driving the vehicle that weights 25,000 lbs empty and 68,000 lbs loaded.

i have a hands free, but i would rather concentrate on the task of driving. i want to tell him that i DO NOT feel comfortable driving while on the phone unless a dire emergency. just because he can do it, doesnt mean that i would like to do it.

today i had finished the stone hauling route i was on for the day, the guys at the construction site wanted to go home early. i called dispatch (boss's wife) on the company radio. she said he might have a load for me. i waited for more information and heard nothing. i tried calling them on the radio and got an error message. i had to reset the thing. i reset the thing and called the dispatch. he got annoyed because i had not responded. i explained the radio difficulties and he asked me if i was moving yet. i told him that i wasnt going to move until i knew where i was going. he wasnt a complete jerk, but instead of sending me for that load he sent me back to the shop.i think im just going to have to tell him im not moving until i have a plan of where i am going.

i cannot function without having a good idea where my destination is. you will spend 5 minutes doing some planning but you will waste 1/2 an hour when you neglect to do basic trip planning. i know these are not 400 mile treks but you still need to trip plan.

 

Find another place to work, this is too much crap to put up with.

I would have told him just give them to me or an address and I will find it - and I would add this "I am not a moron or stupid".

 

The other two members have hit the nail on the head. There is absolutely no reason as to why he has to tell you turn by turn directions. Not only is it unsafe being on the phone, but if he messed up and you go down the wrong road, he's not in trouble "other than with you" but you will be soully responsible for the operation of that truck. If I was to be placed into your shoes id be looking for another company.

 

I see the bosses point, he might be sending the OP to a job with no street names. So he is trying to give him step by step so he does go on a wild goose chase. Some gps's don't have that info. Back in the day when we used(I still use them) "map books", I did a lot of my fair share of job sites, still do, but lots of new construction have no street names nor pave roads.
The OP is green as you get and probably was taught in school pre planning, well as you see, that theory doesn't always plan out, depending on the type of job you have. If you can't adjust, give your boss your 2 week noticed and move on to something of your better liking.

 

Maybe the boss is trying to throw some OT your way. Don't bite the hand that feeds you, unless you got a better job lined up.

If the equipment is good and the work is steady, that's about all you can expect driving a dump truck!

You could tell him you'll call him back, when you find a place to pull over.

 

Makes it more DIFFICULT FOR HIM. The boss.

he does not trust you.

Make him give you all the information on the load before MOVING a inch. Get the physical address of shipper, what is going to be loaded, where it is going, get the physical address of the reciever and the appointment time and date.

Once you have this basic information you have enough now to plan a full trip in a few moments with support of a internet source like google maps etc. It will nail down absolutely where the shipper is, and you can use google street view to confirm that indeed it is a shipper that takes big trucks.

DO NOT move a inch until you have a full and complete battle plan intelligence on what the next load will be all about. DO NOT talk to your boss on the cell anymore especially when moving somewhere. That's BS.

SIt and STAY in your spot until you have the FULL information to do your next load yourself without anyone holding your hand like your Boss is doing or has been doing.

I never move a inch on anything until the complete information is in my mind, thought over, checked against time schedules miles, fuel, weather etc etc etc. And only then after all the questions are answered where possible. I never move until I know everything the dispatcher knows. If not also what the broker also knows. (And don't think I wont call that broker too...)

NEVER move your 18 wheeler towards a shipper that you know nothing about, don't know where you are going yet and have no idea of the fuel you will need or the time you have left until delivery. Stay put until you take care of the details in hand first and only then get going.

You are truly the captian of a ship. You have a mission to get a load.

But I will be damed if you are to be treated like a 10 year old by a nervous hand holding cell phone yakking dispatcher who keeps you STUPID and DUMB knowing nothing until you somehow managed to get close to the shipper before you find out anything about where it is. That is a BS powerplay game using you, your time and your energy as hostage to this stupid dispatcher's handholding and spoon feeding you tiny bits of infromation like take I-80 go east for 450 miles until I tell you to turn off in some city. You don't drive like that come on....

You ask, who is the shipper. Where is he, what is going on your truck, when do you need to load and why etc. Then you ask the same for the customer. What, Where, when and why. If not also the how.

Then you deal with your trucks fuel status, weather pending and trip plan against your given appointment. Make a new one if you will be late.

This spoon feeding to you from dispatcher as you go ends NOW. Are you or are you not a professional trucker? You are not because no one is giving you the complete mission before you go anywhere.

Do you understand? I can rant and rave about how stupid it is to have you and your big truck wander the united states at 3.00 a mile empty as you fumble from town to town is this the place, is that the place is that one back there where I need to go etc? blah blah blah blah come on. Stop it.

You probably have that qualcomm in that truck, it takes maybe two pages MAX on that dam thing for your lazy dispatcher to text you everything on a load.

If your dispatcher wont make changes and treat you better, find another company. This BS stops tonight. Do you not understand?

 

fuel is NO issue. i fill the truck everyday and it carries 100 gallons of fuel. typical good day is 330 miles and usually a day like that i will put 50-60 gallons in the tank when i return, so i always have around 40 gallons to spare.

i will give him one huge plus, the equipment is not junk..... while its not new its extremely well maintained. decent tires, grease jobs every 2k miles, oil changes every 12K, and little things here and there have broken (like the strap on my battery box) as soon as i mention it, its repaired. the truck is a 2006 peterbuilt 357 8 speed with low reduction, 355K miles on the clock.

i have heard them give other drivers directions over the company radio while they are driving. i know its stupid. i already asked him if he could give me information before i move, he says it doesn't always work that way..... to not work that way is disorganized i think.

unfortunately he doesnt really appear to put safety on a high list of priorities. i usually just roll it off and ignore some of the B.S. i will drive the truck in a safe manner that will not get me a ticket or an accident. he once said to me the driver with the most loads wins. whatever i said nothing, im not in a competition. speed limit +5 mph is what i usually drive, no more. he once complained that i fastened my seatbelt before leaving the scale. absurd. i still fasten my seatbelt. he claimed i was wasting time buckling up. NOPE. the people at the quarry call him "mr. safety" sarcastically. he does not have the best rep.

i have looked at other jobs and locally allot of them are the same thing, 2 years of experience required. one of the companies that had a job listing that stated 2 years required is zolads construction. the other day i had a zolads truck running the same route as myself. i asked the driver about the company. this driver said he only got his CDL in march, and that he worked for TMC for 1 month and hung it up. they are paying him $18 per hour and the truck is a peterbuilt dump truck like mine but newer. the truck was an automatic. i might call them and if they say they require 2 years im going to ask them about the driver that only has 4 months. i was consistently 10-15 minutes ahead of this guy. he made a wrong turn, loaded with the gate open on his truck and spread stone all the way to the scale....... so its apparent he could barely drive. he is getting $2.50 per hour more then me.

as far as a qualcom, not in a local truck. the job is hourly and no log book is required, therefore no e-log. qualcom and peoplenet are only found in trucks that keep you on the road for multiple days at a time.