Plus One

I'm just kinda guessing here but from a few things that have been said to me and checking out some of the stuff on Swift University that is supposed to be for the office people there will be no more windows with plus one. There will still be a window as far as the customer is concerned but we will be dispatched with the time the computer thinks we should be able to get there as a set apt time. From what I can tell the computer thinks we should be able to average 60 mph or so, has no consideration for where you are or what time of day it is or that you need to maybe stop early because of parking and gives almost no time for breaks besides your 10.

I also had it confirmed that it assumes 30 min for a drop and 1 hour for live unload/load, check what you pta is being set at when dispatched and you can see this.

I don't know about you guys but if I have a window I always want to get there right when it starts if I can, sooner I get there sooner I'm mt sooner I get a new load. Apparently Swift thinks we just take our sweet time because we are lazy.

Overall I do like elogs a lot, and I think the idea with plus one of using the logs to plan us better is a good idea, many times a trip does have way too much time on it. I think way they are implementing it however is a little flawed. They tested this with a Sears dedicated fleet out of Columbus where traffic and parking are not near as much of a problem compared to otr out east and you are delivering to malls where you can probably get away with staying there for a 10.

It needs to be a little more leinant on timing especially on the east coast and needs to assume at least 1 hour for drops and 2 hours for live like they always have. I'm going to call my dm when he comes in at 8 and see if I can get any more info out of him about this, he has a CDL and used to drive so I'm sure he will understand where I'm coming from. If I find anything out I'll be sure to pass it on.

 

somehow I think all this weirdness is related, I have had loads like that too recently, and about 3 that showed me 1201 apt times on the next load but then dispatched differently.

 

Ok next plus one trip goes like this -

pick up near Baltimore,MD 10/19 1000, live load need to be in Bolingbrook,IL by 1300 on 10/20. 730 miles dispatched, pretty close to that on gps if I take the Penn Turnpike but of course they don't want that, they want me to run I68 instead. This makes it 779 miles and some really steep climbs with a heavy load down I68, them tolls must be killer if they think that is cheaper. If I average 58mph it would take 13.43 hours driving, plus a 10 hour break so lets just say 24 hours total. If I leave at noon, that is 11 CST I would have 26 hours to do the trip in.

Tight but doable only problem is that if anything comes up I'll be late. One wreck or hitting a major city at rush hour and now I don't even have time to eat. I guess I'm glad I know how to use the split sleeper because that will buy me an extra two hours (make that 2 hours loading time into part of my 10) to get there and I can take a 2 hour lunch and then 8 to sleep later and not lose time. I'm just glad the trip has some miles and is actually possible to do. To me it looks like every load will have to be run like a jit load from here on out.

 

From what I can tell there is no more making an appointment time comfortably.Out of my last 5 loads I have made 2 on time, one was only 90 miles so easy the other one I was able to pick up way early. One of the late loads I was 45 minutes late but it took 3 hours to load me so oh well, one was dispatched late and was told just get it there asap no service failure and the most recent I killed 2 1/2 hours in the morning waiting for a different customer to open to get an empty so again oh well.

None of these loads except the one dispatched late was late as far as the customer was concerned, they had a window, just late as far as the evil plus one computer is concerned. I talked to my DM about this the other day and I am told I'm not the only one having these problems and hopefully they will adjust it.

I don't mind working hard and driving all day but if I do not have time to grab a bite to eat (quick not an hour in a sit down joint), or pull over to use the bathroom a couple times a day thats just not acceptable to me. To me its simply not safe to drive 10-11 hours non stop without any breaks or if I'm distracted because I'm hungry.

My time so far with Swift has been good but if every day, every load is going to be like this then I will have to start considering other options.

 

This didn't kick in for me until I was fully on elogs.