Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

It's a little different, but amounted to free labor and time, retroactively imparted. I agree that a great work environment is a benefit, that was my situation also.

From here it seems like with your experience you could visit the nearby docks and find a good barn, or find a food service transfer run, but maybe I'm wrong. It's never perfect.

One thing I wondered about the boss's advice, which is that losing you might bring changes, you might be the lever he needs to make things better, and if you leave on a good note you might get invited back when he fixes them.

Having multiple good options is not a bad thing in any case.

 

Oh stop being a baby

 

Came to this one place in Wilkes Barre with a fully loaded 48' trailer and not only did they lock the brake airline, but also told me to stay inside the building and I had to give them my keys to the tractor. Rules, rules, rules man

 

I've been to places like that, but no one gets my keys. I always carried an old Volvo key that I picked up somewhere, and they got that instead.

 

I got my tractor back from the shop today. They did some work on it. New Skins, I think new clutch or major clutch adjustment. I know they did a couple shocks and I think they even did some breaks the truck needed all those things, It's running good now it feels like almost new.

 

This is a different line of haulage, but at one time I worked for a company well-known throughout AZ for hauling bulk, its trucks are all over the state and they are the oldest bulk company here by a good margin.

They run ancient equipment well past death (trailers from the 70's, multi-million mile cabs), have driver turnover on the order of one per weekday (when I was there, going by driver ID numbers and hire dates of co-workers), and have had an increasing amount of bureaucracy in the main office. The turnover and faulty patched equipment meant service failures.

A cutthroat culture emerged in the office and dispatchers left the office before doing a turnover with the incoming dispatcher, this in a company with shops all over the state that never closed, some don't even have doors. Any hour of the day I could pull in and get something fixed by a wrench making a whopping 11/hour to start.

The dispatcher issues meant that I used to be called two hours after the delivery time to go pick up a load. Customers would have lines of mix trucks or an empty yard because they pulled the pin on a pour. Either way they'd be angry.

This company recently announced at a trade convention that they are getting out of bulk and reinventing. Meanwhile little guys with new equipment are opening parallel yards to the older company. Some of those only had a few trucks earlier this year and now are hiring drivers.

It took decades and likely a new generation of the family running it for it to implode, but it is slowly collapsing. The yard I ran out of, used to have 4-5 tractors there, had none when I went by last night, just some trailers.

If I had stayed there because there are such nice people in that division --which they are, great to work with-- I'd be dead in the water right now. When it's cheap the only thing they have to offer is nice. That, and giving out your number was not nice at all.

 

Reddaway should be a reporting company to DAC. Sweet. No history, time to impress some local companies. The megas report to DAC. Haven't dealt with since ABF. The smaller companies don't care or never heard of it. I wouldn't worry about the DAC ( it's a bs report anyway ) your future employer knows if you have experience from personal interaction.

 

most companies don't actually report to DAC

your verifiable experience, they'll call or write reddeway and be GTG. Give them the main corporate number/address not your crappy old barn.