Memphis Terminal Illness

Don't feel real bad. Yesterday I was actually sent a pplan to spot a trailer 70 miles from the terminal and then B/T back. B4 I even had a real chance to catch it, my DM caught it and declined it and just before that, troutdale sent me a pplan to move a tin can up to Spokane, 110 miles away, and then sit again.

 

even as a company driver there are ppln's i look at and laugh and i will come up with a reason not to do that load. It's alot easier to decline it even with a fake reason then to argue how a forced dispatch works. I love the line your going to take this load followed by the quick response of that's literally the best joke I've heard today.Set my pta out id rather do another 10 then that load.

 

C'mon, folks, you are professional drivers. Your job is to haul freight whether it is going 50 miles or 2000 miles. Quit thinking you are too good for certain loads, because you are not. Nobody likes the short runs, but they gotta be done.

 

Hubby has been in the same spot now for 2 days. They sent him a load yesterday at 5:38 and removed it at 5:38. The messages came in back to back. I hope they plan on paying him layover pay but since they didn't pay him for 2 loads on this upcoming check and layover he was promised for a "favor" not going to hold our breath. Sorry. Had to vent!

 

I have no issues with short runs. But when my pplns are not even scheduled for times and they send you a message like " Go get this load and we will send you further instructions later" Bad things are about to happen. Swift has repeatedly hung myself and other drivers out to dry on deal's like this and i have been threatened with service failure's because of load's being rescheduled or scheduled at all.
"Why did you accept it if you couldnt make the delivery on time. Because when you told me to go pick up the load there was no delivery time."
These things are a hassle and in the end your made out to be the bad guy or an idiot. Those are the loads i avoid.

But if your going to get stuck doing one try to bargain for some extra pay out of the planner.

 

Deleted post: Realized we were talking about Memphis terminal. Fred is Atlanta.

 

I know what you are saying but it's nothing communication can't fix.
That's when you say I'll go get the load but I have to get a 10 hour break in there before delivery. They'll probably come back and say "forget it".

Those type conversations you do over the satellite and not on the phone if you can help it. You'll notice they'll call when they want no record.

No matter how bad things might seem, keep it professional and paint a picture opposite of your feelings. Comments like "when hell freezes over" and "shove it dude" might feel good at the time but will get you on a problem driver list real quick. Companies rate drivers and keep notes on them. It's kind of like an internal DAC and what they write you have no clue or no say. All you know is the good runs start getting further apart and company relationship slowly gets worse. You don't want to go there.

There's nothing wrong with negotiating. Like Fred's case I would of said this is going to take all day and you want me to do it for a couple bucks? I think $150 is fair for a day of local work. Stuff like that you have a right to speak up. But keep it professional and don't cause any headaches.


For example shippers will award loads like we'll give you these 15 good runs but you have to do these 3 short ones for us. They exist and have to be done. It's part of the job. If three drivers are in one area, they might look at a drivers ranking to see who gets what. The better your ranking the better treatment you will get. We've all done the crap runs. Do them with a smile and life is easier. It's that yearly W-2 that matters.

 

Well said Condo Cruiser. Well said. There are times we aall have been burnt by planners/shippers/receivers. It's not what happenes to you rather how you react to it that matters.

 

Memphis plans a wide area. All the way north to Michigan. I'm out of Columbus terminal and Memphis does the planning for us.

Holiday weekends stink. I'm not sure why I choose to come out today. I did enjoy the weekend. had a family reunion yesterday.

I was dispatched N.E. 110 miles out of Columbus to pick up loaded trailer going to N.C 467 miles. Then my DM was able to preplan a load back to Columbus for tomorrow. I arrived at the shipper only to find them closed until 5 tomorrow morning. DM was still at the terminal and I called him. He checked the order and it was set for pickup today. Now I'm sitting collecting detention pay for 8 hours. Being an L/O I hate starting my week only to work 2 hours to come to a halt. Lost my return load so will have to wait to see what happens with this one.

I can't blame the company but can blame the Holiday weekend. A lot of stupid dispatching gets done around the holiday.