On being dispatched on already late loads

Sounds like there taken advantage of you, I'd keep a record of all the time your waiting around and bring it to your dispatcher's attention and raise cain if need be!

 

Are you "forced dispatch"? Meaning you can not refuse a load.

While the company can not claim detention from the receiver for their On-Time failure, they should not put the loss of time on you without compensation.

Mikeeee

 

Make sure dispatch sends you the 'correct' arrival time. The one you can legally make. That way you do not have to worry about detention pay. Company policy is in effect.
If they refuse to give you an arrival time that is legal, refuse the load. Send it up the chain of command, be it terminal manager, safety, or whatever it takes.
While the appointment time and arrival time tend to be the same, it's cases like this where the driver needs to make the distinction to the load planner.

 

Here how it happens with me usually. Broker calls at 12.30pm desperately needing a truck at 1pm and offers a good rate. I book it, confirmation comes with 12pm appointment for the pick up and let's say 8am delivery appt. Since I know I am going to be a "work in", since it's already late, it also means that I am going to be a "work in" at the receiver too.
If that rate confirmation gets accepted, you will not see a penny for detention.
I call the broker back and ask to change times on the rate confirmation. He refuses, cause he already gave you everything he had in the load and knows that he will have to pay a lot in detention charges.
I cancel, thank him for wasting my time and move on.
Now, dispatcher does not have time to deal with all that crap, he has other work to do. He just sends you on your way and starts doing other things, he did his job, got you a good cpm load.

 

From one company I get a call from a dispatcher who asks me to tell the driver to do a load for them or something like that. I tell them right from the start - I back my driver's decision 100%.

Now sometimes with those calls, I discover that the dispatcher will not change the pick and delivery times and the driver will not take it until those are changed and confirmed over the QC or what ever. So I tell the dispatcher that they have to be changed, sometimes I will tell the dispatcher I will deal with it later but the driver said no, so it is no.

We work off a list of approved brokers and once in a while we go though what Dune goes through, waste of time for the driver and I hear about it at the end of the week. I hate wasting time, they need to make money, not bust ##* to make an impossible delivery time.

I also have a policy that no matter what the delivery time is, time for detention pay actually starts when the truck hits their property unless they are there earlier then it starts at the delivery time. If the truck is late, then it is late, but detent time is claimed when tying up the truck.

 

Need to go above that dispatcher....

 

This subject is one of those subjects that has become the bane of the trucking industry. There are no easy answers no matter what some would have you believe. I have seen this one from both sides. First most companies will NOT attempt to get a new delivery appointment until the load has been assigned first. In 99% of the carriers the fleet managers DO NOT have any control over these appointment times. Most of the time all they can do is send an email to the person that handles that account. Over my years on the road it has been my experience that these excrement sandwiches come from a fellow driver for whatever reason. I have said this in more threads then I can remember now. You really need as a driver to develop a good working relationship with your fleet manager. I can't remember how many times mine have called me over the years and tell me they have a problem and ask for my help. Anything from a load that needs fixing because it was either not loaded correctly or over loaded. I was in Dallas Texas once when my FM called me and wanted to know if I would help him through a problem with a badly loaded load. When I got to the load the driver had just dumped it and picked up an empty. I had to wait (this was a Friday afternoon) till Monday to get back to the company to get it fixed. That morning I was talking to my FM and had asked for time to do a 34 reset. I did not get paid for the time but the company paid for the hotel I stayed in. I got my reset got that load fixed FM while en route got another delivery appointment. I also got plenty of detention pay and other things as well. I also sometimes while helping my FM took a hit on my miles that week. I would trade this for all the times I got loaded in an area even taking pre-loads from other drivers because I asked for them! I got home time when I asked for it and my FM always watched over me as to keep me in the company traffic lanes so I stayed out of dry areas and kept my waiting to a minimum. However as for as a load that is already late this is not your fault and make sure you have a QC message in the system saying as much.

 

My company pays the driver 100% of the billed detention time. It starts getting billed 2 hours after arrival/appointment time assuming on time. And they do this regardless of they get paid for detention or not.


I know of a few companies like that, but most only pay detention if they can collect on it