My Time With Swift

OK, My first week officially on the Sears account is over and I have to say, so far I'm not impressed. I've actually lost 1000 miles over the previous weeks totals, although I account some of that to 4 days off for hometime. But, so far for this pay week I'm sitting at 700 miles with a 300 mile load in my trailer to deliver on monday, giving me a total of 1000 miles. With the pay period ending on Wednesday, that gives me 3 days to get another 1000 miles to make this worthwhile. At a typical 125 to 200 miles per trip, I just don't see that happening. I am just so frustrated right now, I don't know what to do. I was under the impression that the Sears account would keep me rolling with consistent miles, not these short little runs. I was told that to make up for the short runs, these loads have multiple stops so we get the multi stop pay. I'm sorry but $15 a stop for 1,2,or 3 stops per trip does not make up for the lost 1000 miles or the hassle of the extremely tight time frames these loads are scheduled on. There is absolutely no room for errors on these loads and it can be quite stressfull. I just can't even begin to tell all.

I just want to run with consistant solid miles with a minimum amount of hassles. Just give me the loads and let me go! If this week doesn't get any better, I'm done with the dedicated account. At least the Sears account anyway. I have delivered a few Wal-mart loads when I was otr and didn't have any problems with those. I don't know if Wal-mart dedicated has the short loads also, but I also don't know if Columbus has a Wal-mart dedicated account. I know the Sears account is their primary account and the one they fuss over the most. I'm just really considering going back otr. I just don't want all the down time waiting for a load, especially on the weekends. But even with that, I still ran more miles than I am now.

Whatever happens I will be sure to keep y'all posted.

 

No sliding pay scale on Sears since all the loads are relatively short, about 300 miles max.

One of the rules of the account is that we are required to call the planner every sunday morning to check in. When I called her this morning, I voiced some frustrations about the short miles. She explained that I should see on average 1800 to 2200 miles per week on the account plus the extra stop pay. This has only been my first week, it's hard to make a true judgement with so little time.

I just finished working on my wifes van. I had forgotten how relaxing working on cars can be. It had given me some time by myself with just my thoughts and I've come to a realization: I need to quit whining! Ever since I've started looking into this truck driving gig, I've held true to one motto: If you can do it, I can do it. There are a million truck drivers out there doing this very thing. If they can do it, I can do it. I don't know exactly how many drivers are on this Sears account, but if they can do it, there is no reason why I can't. So I'm gonna give it some more time and see how things work out. My biggest concern is getting the miles I need to make money.

 

Thanks Tach. I really appreciate the kind words. I do try to keep a good, positive attitude out on the road, but sometimes it is really difficult. Especially after weeks like this past one. The truth is, it is tough out there. Sometimes you'll have good days and everything just goes right. Sometimes you'll have bad days when nothing goes right. Keeping the positive attitude helps to deal with those bad days. In my case, I think it would be fair to say the honeymoon is over and yes, the "stardust and wonder" have dulled quite a bit. But I'm still glad I drive for Swift and it is still my opinion that this is a decent company. Much of the problems I've run into haven't been company problems, but problems of a human nature and just situations that are beyond anyones control.

When I last left y'all, I was tossing the idea of dropping the Sears account. I first considered joining the account because I had heard that they keep running and I like to keep running. Well, they don't run as much as I thought and what they do run is on such a tight schedule that you don't even have time to stop for a leak.

Guess I really didn't need to stress much over it. Last friday I had a service failure cause I got lost in Pittsburg, PA. Over the weekend, I get a Sears load going to IL. My next load after that was a non-Sears load going back to Columbus, then another non-Sears load going to Cincinnati. After my third non-Sears load in a row, I figured I was no longer on the Sears account. Just fine with me. Now I can concentrate on running and geting miles...I hope.

Sometime during the 15 minutes between dropping that second load and picking up the third load, my qual-com died. It was completely dead. Wouldn't even come on at all. So I called my DM to let her know what is going on and so that she can do my arrival and loaded calls for me. She wasn't available at the time so I talked to the guy who answered and got those taken care of for me. I also asked him which account his computer was showing me on and he said OTR, just as I thought.

Now I'm on my way to Greenboro, NC with a dead qual-com. Get to my customer and drop my load, then call my DM for the arrival and empty calls and then have her read my dispatch info to me. Then I head over to the shipper and that is where the stuff really hit the fan.

My dispatch info included a Bill of Lading and a Pick Up number, but the shipper uses trailer numbers for pre-loaded trailers. I called my DM and my load info didn't include a trailer number. So she is going to call the csr and find out what is going on. A short time later, the guard came out to my truck and let me know that he finally found the pick up number I had given him, but it was on a bill that had been voided. That's just great! Another call to my DM to let her know and the next four hours just turned into a blur of phone calls and excuses while I sit there waiting for Swift to find out if I have a load to pick up or not. At one point, I even asked my DM to remove the load from me and get me something else. She said she would try to get it authorized. Next time I talked to her, more excuses and nothing about voiding my load.

My 14 hour clock was up at 17:45 and it was fast approaching and the nearest truck stop was 30 minutes away. At 16:30 I talked to her again and she promised she would get this resolved and let me know before she went home at 17:00. Now remember, my Qual-com is dead. I cannot receive any messages at all and I've reminded her at every phone call. At 5 minutes before 5, I still haven't heard anything yet, so I called again. She wants me to go talk to some guy back at the shipper (I had to move to their drop yard a mile down the road) and I told her I can't. I have just enough time to hook up to my trailer and get to a truck stop. FINALLY, she voided the load and told me to go to the truck stop. Wasted an entire afternoon for a load that was voided hours before. I was not happy. Funny thing is, the next morning I got basically the same load, but was told to t-call it in Columbus to get my qual-com fixed.

The qual-com fix was pretty simple. Basically, the cord came unplugged from the sattelite dome on the back of the cab.

So that's been my week. A week from hell if there ever was one. Again, not really a problem with the company, but more with certain people. And I'm working on changing that. But for now, it's off to bed for me. Gotta get up early to start my next week.

Be safe