Please help me make sense of this...

It's been awhile since I've worked in the truckload sector, but doubt much has changed. That said, it's not so much "sloppy dispatching" as it is poor load planning. Most of wdst I've seen griped about is the 400Mile Friday to Monday load. From the companies standpoint, this is a productive use of resources. The truck was close to load, the load is covered, the truck is taken care of for the weekend, everybody wins! Except of course, the driver. Who more than likely gets no layover pay because he's under a load! As long as the truck turns a certain minimum number of miles every month, cost per mile rules. And to that company, that was a good, efficient dispatch. If they had to pay the driver layover or a minimum miles per day, the economics change and that load becomes unprofitable.
Also remember that unless they're a home-every-weekend trucker, they need the slow days for their logbook to catch up. But that doesn't stop em from griping about it!

 

Driver's do enjoy sitting ONLY when they are the ones that choose when and where they sit. Hope that helps. There are plenty of drivers out there and plenty of freight just that everyone's fighting over the same freight lol.

 

Hammer166 appropriately hit the nail on the head. From my point of view, the problem lies largely with lie about time at shippers/receivers. Delivery times in/out, 6:30 to 10:30 am. Drive 250 miles. Reload times in/out, 2:30 to 5:30 pm. Deliver on Monday, reload, deliver again 1850 miles away at 4 am Thursday. At the dispatchers desk the load is 700 miles per day for three days, busy and profitable. For the driver, it is trying to log 1600+ miles in two days with a 65 mph truck. The three way disconnect between shipper/receiver, dispatcher and driver makes things bass ackwards often times.

At the end of a couple of 800+ miles days, a driver will start griping. If the driver is late, the shipper/receiver will complain that their aren't enough drivers on the road. Dispatch will complain no matter what. Either the load is on time with heavily suspect log book pages or, the load is late and legal. This happens to a greater or lessor degree all the time. The driver catches most of the flak because he is perceived as being either fast or slow.

"No one ever made money running a legal log." The saying has been around longer than I have, for sure. It was true, it is true and it will forever be true. Companies and drivers trying to run a picture perfect log are going to end up sitting around because of the half-day loading and unloading situations. Long time liars like myself and others around here make their 4am appointments with good looking logs. At least the logs we cross the scales with look good. The logs we turn into the company also look good. They may or may not look alike.

 

Unproductive layovers are the result of unbalanced lanes. The extreme example is reefers going to NYC, with no backhaul. Carrier mergers are often an attempt to balance the freight lanes. Freight lanes change with the seasons, with the economy, and with long-term decline or development of various industries. Since deregulation, the trucking industry has been more flexible, but it is not perfect.

Some of the driver shortage in TL is caused by "churn". Drivers are often looking for better working conditions and pay, so turnover is high. The trucking industry is most concerned about the demographic trends that could increase the shortage of TL drivers to 111,000 by 2014. One of the solutions predicted by in a Transport Topics article is that retired drivers will be enticed back into the workforce for part-time assignments. The article is on page 9 of the June 9, 2008, issue, but I cannot link to it.

 

Hi Hammer!

I think you've hit the nail -- right on the head.
There are good lanes and not so good lanes, -- and a GOOD dispatcher should know which is which. And probably has the ability to work with a driver who COMMUNICATES with said dispatcher, what kind of runs are available to help THEM help Y'ALL have a more pleasant experience.
Believe me, GOOD dispatchers CAN and DO, do that.
ALWAYS stay on the good side of y'all's dispatcher(s).

When a BIG Big truckin' company has, ..... ohh, ...say 15,000 Big trucks and twice as many trailers, and let's say 20,000 drivers counting team operations..............

and,.....................

If 25% of those Big trucks failed to break even on any given day -- 75% of them did better than that ...... and will reflect as a successful day. And they profit.
The "bigger picture" I think they call it.
I say follow the Money Trail.

Drivers don't always come out on top.

When I first started out, I ran into a few of those situations -- didn't like it, --- didn't agree with it. But I agreed TO it when I signed the dotted line.
Momma told me there'd be daze like that.

What to do?
Complain?
To whom, --- who hasn't heard it a thousand times?

Better yet, "work" the system.
Get to know your dispatcher(s).
Y'all just MIGHT be amazed what their jobs consist of.
Mention which lanes would work best for you, do a good job on what whatever run y'all are being dispatched on, -- and your chances of being pleased are increased.

NewBees!
Take NOTES along the way.
It's a learning experience

I "learned" there was a dedicated OTR position open --- actually a few. The reason most wouldn't consider the routes, it because of the very tight schedule. That left door stayed CLOSED -- team run.
And I mean RUN -- and legally too!
MOSTLY drop&hook.
That didn't sound attractive to many -- up it was right up my alley.

My dispatcher informed me of the opening, and although I was a tad shy on the requirements, with her say-so, I'd get the position. Guaranteed!
I didn't ask her to put it in writing.

It seems there was a main plant near my home-20 where the "tour" could originate from, --- goin' to ANY of their other facilities ALL over the country.

Usually started in Fullerton, SoCal, and went to Utah -- and from there, it could come back south -- or where ever.
Talk about handy and the miles were GREAT. VERY little waitin' time at the facilities either.
Open 24/7 drop&hook&go.
And the tour ended back in Fullerton.
Budda-Bing --- Budda-Bang
Imagine that.

Dispatching techniques may vary, but they should be able to most effectively utilize everything at their disposal.
But surprises DO happen.
And a dispatcher MAY ask y'all to help bail 'em out.
Question is,
how are you gonna answer?

Squarely!

YeAH!
And some of 'em think y'all don't notice.
I just ask 'em if they normally do thangs that-a-way.

Man-0-MaN!
Who do you drive for?

But that's NOT true.
And that's a fact!

That can, and does, happen to many drivers.
But not ALL "legal logging" drivers are "sitting around".

Is creative logging actually the same as lying?
Hmmmmmmmmmm
No WONDER my nose grew!

 

AfterShock, your comments are certainly valid. I feel the need to clarify, if I had told my dispatcher to simmer down and add a day to the trip, he would have. I made the call to run harder than usual because the problem did not originate with my dispatcher. In the long run, it'll come back to me in home time/choice routing etc. It is the give and take of the job. Other things were generalities of course, it is wise of you to point out that every point of view is skewed to some degree. I have to admit, I may have spent too many years running a little free and loose. Things are better now, but I can still be goaded into running like a kid once in a while.

 

ALL I WANT TO DO IS COME OUT HERE RUN 2600 MILES A WEEK AVERAGE 2.00 PER MILE AND BE HOME SATURDAY BY NOON TAKE MY DAUGHTER TO CHURCH SUNDAY MORNING SLEEP NEXT TO MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE SUNDAY NIGHT AND LEAVE 5 AM MONDAY AND DO IT AGAIN IM HAPPY SHES HAPPY LIFE IS GOOD HERES WHERE REALITY COMES IN IF IM EMPTY ON A WEDNSDAY NIGHT I TAKE MY TEN OFF IM READY UNFORTUNATELY THE INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE IS NOT THEY DO NOT WANT TO LOAD A MONDAY DELIVERING LOAD FROM ATLANTA TO MINNEAPOLIS WHERE I RELOAD ON MONDAYS BUT ICAN RELOAD ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON WHERES THE HOME TIME IN THE LAWS WE HAVE NOW ITS NOT THE BIG TRUCKS THAT ARE DANGEROUS 80% OF US ITS THE HIGH SPEED 4 WHEELER WITH A 45 MINUTE COMMUTE OR THE FATHER WITH 2 KIDS JUMPING UP AND DOWN IN THE BACK SEAT PASSING ME ON THE RIGHT BECAUSE IM INCONVENIENCING HIS TRIP TO DISNEYLAND! THIS INDUSTRY IS DUMB BUT I CANT CHANGE IT

 

Aftershock, what you point out illustrates what's wrong with trucking. The good people who come in do the things you talked about, and it is noticed, and within a few years move up to something nicer. Dedicated, out and back, regional, lubehaul, etc. This has the unfortunate effect of leaving irregular route OTR to the vermin you'll see if you're brave enough to visit the local TA. These are the morons responsible for the churn that's got truckload so screwed up. That's not to say the companies are blameless, but the bed was mostly made by those lying on it. And it's a social problem, really. They don't have (or seem to desire) the skills to communicate their issues. Their poison drives the lousy treatment drivers receive in their jobs. Ya don't have to deal with dwellers long to get a bad attitude bout all truckers.




And you're sure right about seeing the other side of the phone. Just as the office needs to sit in the truck for a bit, every driver needs to sit in dispatch to see the dumb stuff drivers bother the office about (I'm 400 lbs overweight and full of fuel and don't cross a scale for a 1000 miles, what should I do?) and this at a fairly exclusive O/O meat hauler. Can't even imagine life as Swift or Werner dispatcher. And still having to do the rest of their job.






Back to the grindstone.....