Planners....not looking out for o/o drivers?

if you own your truck, there are many options than pulling for a mega

many many options

 

The planners are not there to make it easy on you; they are there to get loads to the delivery on time.

Why do you think that you are special just because you lease a truck?

 

are you leasing your truck from swift, or an outside company, or do you own your truck and leasing it to swift?

 

The planners SHOULD know what an O/O needs to make money. That said some absolutely do not care. It costs Swift less money to run an O/O truck MT than it does a company truck. I'm loosing money @ $.81 per mile. A company driver makes as much for their MT miles as loaded.

I routinely turn down loads with excess MT miles. I've also taken loads with excess MT miles because I wanted the load bad enough.

You have to be proactive in order to survive. Don't be shy about calling your DM if the planners have their heads where the sun don't shine. I routinely message my DM asking about freight where I'm at with the hopes that he/she will find me something.

 

So you really expect the planners to research your costs before offering a load?

That is really funny.

 

The thought that a planner, any planner, would actually give a #### about a driver of any kind is hilarious to me.

but then again, I used to work for Crete....

 

Planners are told to figure out how to get freight from A to B within the parameters set. They are also probably told that o/o's need 2800 per week and co drivers need 2500 miles a week give or take. However the freight needing to be moved takes priority over you and your miles. Most of the mega's operate off computer systems that keep track of how many miles, hours, etc...you have left for today, the week, etc...most of the time you are a number on a board that is flashing a certain color that you are m/t with 4 drive hours left today. Planner then says what do I have within range to p/u today for the driver?

If there is one thing I notice is helpful is try calling receivers early, let them know your coming, see if they will work you in, etc....in advance of the appt time. If a receivers gets you m/t a few hours early then let dispatch / planning on know and they will hopefully find something to keep you rolling for the day all b/c you were proactive and found a few extra hours. It isnt always going to work but it definitely never hurts. Clear as mud?

 

They have their moments ... I dropped this past Saturday ... starting Friday night the only thing I was getting on mac 30 was 200- 300 mile loads with 60 to 80 miles of dead head and 2+ days to do them in. This went on all weekend.

Monday morning I woke up to 400 miles mt, 400 miles loaded, pick up Tuesday AM deliver Wednesday PM. Before I could send off a curt denial, the load was removed and I was stacked with 1850 miles of drop and hook that I could finish out by Wednesday night all but a 110 of it loaded. So somebody wised up and I wound up with a modest 2870 miles this week.

Occasionally there are bad weeks, but over 4 years I've pretty much consistently averaged over 2900 miles a week, with a 7% mt rate.