Pick up and delivery appointments

I need to know if I'm in the wrong here or if I'm being lied to.

I recently made the mistake of switching to van freight from flatbed and for the immediate future Im stuck running it. I've run van freight in the past and had a much different experience, thus this thread.

The carrier Im leased to keeps telling me that my pick up/delivery appointments are pretty much set in stone and cannot be changed. I have never run into this in the past. I get hard delivery appointments that Im being told I need to run 700mi/day to be able to hit my delivery time. To me in this market of freight rates being in the toilet, how the hell can anyone demand white glove service yet pay bottom barrel prices, especially on junk freight that doesn't seem to be a high priority? Im trying to figure out if this is a broker/shipper/receiver issue or if this is my carrier lying to me, which I have already caught them doing with some made up appointment times that didn't actually exist.

In the past, running van freight when I've taken a load, I or my dispatcher was the one to set the delivery appointment, which I was consistently early for, from hours to a full day. Now Im being given hard appointments and being told if Im late at all there are late fees. I've also been in contact with brokers and they have had zero issues with my delivery schedule because of my hours, yet my carrier will tell me "they have already emailed us about being late and charging a late fee", when we're talking about a matter of hours.

If I'm wrong and the market has changed then I'll admit I'm wrong. But I need some outside confirmation.

 

I know in reefer we do have appointments. For both pick up and delivery. However, they can sometimes take you early. They hate late. They were also set up far enough out to run at 50 MPH or lower, trip planning. I suspect you are running in to tighter times due to supply issues. They are needing it now and are putting the crunch on you guys.

 

Give the key to whoever demands to run "that" and offer him to show you "how it is done right", so "you'd know". See the reaction.

 

I've delivered a couple loads to small businesses that didn't even have me scheduled for a delivery, yet I was being told I had a strict appt time.

I dont screw around. I try to maximize my time every day, yet every one else tries to waste it by having me sit around.

 

Don't see how you can run 700 miles a day unless less driving very fast. I did 650 yesterday that was hight since truck is limited to 70 MPH. Maybe if out west more with less traffic.

I try and get my company dispatch to no more then 550 miles a day or 50MPH average speed. Most days are less because I run regional.

When I had my own truck I noticed most shipper were pretty open to different pickup and delivery times . As company driver again dispatch likes to push the drivers to get the miles up. Some customers have hard appointments and other are more open pulling dry van. I have load of insulation I took to TX and they want us at delivery 7am Monday a load was not ready till noon on Saturday. So had 1.5 days to go 1,100 miles. Not my fault load was not preload on Saturday like dispatch said. I could have more time but customer in Tx really like use to be their at 7am so they can hand unload trailer before it gets to hot.

My company is getting bigger and dispatch is now kinda forced to slow down or get better. In past I had to call them because I was at 70 hour limit and they keep dispatching loads on my truck. They would not even check to see if drivers had hours because they would get hooked on this 14 hour day we have and just figured the driver can keep going.

Then I asked how they dispatch and they say at 50MPH. So that 550 mile a day basically. Then we have live loads and unload and drop and hooks. Come to find out they did not include that time in their planning. So I would have like live load and unload. Then a drop and hook maybe that took 4 hours from our 14 hour day. Now at 50MPH if we never stopped we could drive 500 miles in their minds. That a problem because we have traffic plus bathroom and stopped to eat. Now I'm busting butt to drive 400-450 a day and dispatch is like, what the problem how come you can't drive 550 a day. That's when I found out they were not including or keeping track of the real world live load and unload and drop and hook times. Because with the ELDs all the stuff counts now.

 

Having appointments is the norm. But like I've said. usually they are not that tight, and at some places you can pickup or deliver early.

Last year I ran into an issue where my pickup was set before my delivery for my current load. I got to the delivery early and they did unload me early. But sadly not in time for me to get to the other appt before they closed. The fun part. It was Memorial Day weekend. So I sat from Sunday afternoon till they came back in on Tuesday for that load.

 

Call your delivery ahead of time and ask about the appointment. Ask them if it’s a big deal to change it if you need to.

 

It all depends. Some have strict appointment times and some don't. Some will have an appointment time listed but don't follow it, whoever gets there 1st.

 

Its all bs, the only person who can make an appointment for a truck is the one driving it. Back when I started if you needed an appointment you were at the bank of phones under the big red ball a day or two out making it. Now most of the chaos starts when a couple of skirts and their computers get together and plan this stuff with a $6 software program 3 months ago. Already there’s a good chance the wheels will come off when someone goes outside and tries to do it with a truck and trailer. Throw in a little reality along the road and it all goes sideways fast. Have faith though, they’re all hiring a couple more suits and skirts each to run computer models to see if they can find where the problem is. Expect things to get better any minute now.

 

I deal with this crap from these dispatchers who think a truck can fly. This mornings crap was a 1400 mile run in two days after the driver accepted the load on the need to run it for 3 days drive time.

The broker called her after she was loaded to tell her they made a mistake and the customer needs it there in 28 hours so she had to drive like hell to get it there.

it was worked out, won’t get into the details but I was willing to eat the money if the broker would not stick to the original agreement.

 

Demand 700 per day. Eff off.