Magnum ltd - fargo, nd

I will be in Fargo tomorrow have a noon delivery appt at the Magnum warehouse. GPS on peoplenet somehow fixed itself. Worked fine all day. So no shop time tomorrow.

 

In the 6 months I've been here, it's only the second time I've used split sleeper.

 

Welcome to reefers, it's how we roll...

 

I'll stick with the dry Van, and the easy schedule, although I do have a dry load in a Shaffer Trailer for now. (I hope it's dry freight)

 

Never done a split.

Got time to stop for 8, got time to stop for 10.

 

Your navigation works on the people net?

 

Not mine.

 

I have to split 2 or 3 times a month. I guess they figure that after doing it a few times, I must like it so I keep getting loads that are only possible with splits. But if I didn't split and had to get them to constantly change appointments or switch loads, can you imagine how much more screwed up my mileage average would be?

 

Got my service done, but since my inverter isn't choosing now to act up, be couldn't find anything wrong. But the good news...nothing else was needing fixed. That's right Poly Boys...a truck can go more than 50k without breaking...take that International/Navistar!!!!!!

 

I'd rather take one bad load that has to be reschuled or I'm an hour late, etc. due to poor dispatch planning and then get a good one, then get stuck in the insane short-haul, multiple live-load/unload nightmare over and over again.

I got stuck in that land a LOT the first three months I was here, then on Chad's advice started saying "no."

I'm totally down with taking a short load to get back into one of our main freight lanes from BFE. But HELL NO, I'm not going to do a live unload in sturtevant, off the books, a live- load in Romeoville and then drive 60 miles to do a live UNload. Not unless they're gonna pay me for the load/unload time. (That's actually a specific example of the kind of crap Joey usually asks me to do).

Because that's usually about 6 hours of unpaid time for the day, not including the scaling time, and basically an entire day blown for 150 miles mileage pay. Kid's working 8 hours at McDonald's get paid about what I'd make on that for less work, zero skills and no personal responsibility/liability.

And the specific I mentioned, were for regular, fairly substantial customers. I have no issues taking that load, but I'm not going to to LTL work for OTR mileage pay. You want me to do LTL, that's fine. Just pay me for the time, since the miles aren't there.

And I think that is a lot of the disconnect. And it's far from a Magnum specific thing. Because I know a lot of people in another very large, regional reefer company. Every driver I know there says they deal with this, with the same disconnect over the LTL vs the OTR guys. Companies need to either do what a few do, and guarantee a minimum weekly wage, or start paying us hourly for short-haul, live-load/unload.

That load I mentioned paid me $55 for about a 10-hour day. The crappiest local driving job I can think of pays $137.50 for 10 hours. and you go home every night.

I understand hauls to get back in the freight lanes. I don't even mind a layover day because freight is slow. But if you want me to do an LTL job for you, pay me LTL wages, not mileage pay. I don't think that's a lot to ask for.

And yes, I'm going to talk to chad about this very thing in the AM, because I honestly think it would make a lot of drivers a lot happier about working here, helping retention and not costing magnum much in terms of additional payroll. It certainly would make me a lot more willing to take loads with 1600 miles over 4 days,(which is three days driving in winter) followed by 2 days of local deliveries within 50 miles of my 1600 stopping point. I did that ONCE, I will never take another. because I worked for 2 full days for $90 in stop pay and about $20 in mileage pay. And then was denied any layover time.

Those are two specific loads I actually did. And frankly, I'll start "taking one for the team," when the dispatcher takes a corresponding cut in pay on a percentage basis for the same days I'm expected to.

This isn't about whining, or hating on Magnum. For the most part, I like working here.
It's an issue of basic equity. Magnum makes money on these loads. I just expect to be compensated for making them money, not asked to take a pay cut, while Magnum cashes a nice check, because their payroll metric doesn't match the profit on the load.