Refusing to bring home, answers?

Well when you have trucks running through the night on every day of the week, it is hard to put time limits on what a driver can or can't communicate with.

I mean if you are running a two truck business, great, you can have them operate like that, but when you get above 40, it is hard.

AND many of us don't expect the truck to stop because no one is in the office, being on call doesn't hurt anyone, it is to me a basic common courtesy.

See my drivers don't call to have their hands held, they call if they have an accident, or if a broker can't be found or if there are other serious issue.

Example - I had a driver who hit a deer the other night and the other car who was in the lane next to him swerved into the truck to avoid hitting the same deer. It was pretty screwed up, the truck may be considered totaled (it has 60k on the clock). So he had to be towed, no two ways about it and we had to deal with some of the details to help him out - hotel arrangements, transportation and getting the load onto another truck. He shouldn't have to deal with that because he is already stressed with the accident but it should be someone who can do it for him.

Then a couple weeks ago, I had a driver who was supposed to make a drop at a 24/7 site, but it was locked up tight when he got there on a Friday night. He tried to call the broker, and left ten messages for her but he could not stay there and the nearest truck stop was 35 miles away, so as I tell them, call us and let us take the heat from the company or broker. And he did just that, my manager told him to go to the truck stop and we will deal with the broker later on. My manager finally got a hold of someone in the morning - she said "oh I made a mistake, they are not open on the weekends" so he told her detent time started at the time he arrived, we will expect to be compensated for the wasted time you caused.

 

I hope you charged the hell out of that broker. That's plain not paying attention.

 

We will, I think it was 38 hours total which it tied up the truck for 28 of those 38 but we are counting all hours.

So he had to bump a load that he was scheduled for a Sunday afternoon pickup then lost that load because he could not make the delivery when they needed it.

He got a distressed load right after delivery from one of the other brokers we deal with, good pay for that one.

By the way, this broker is being charged $75 an hour for the detent. I wanted to do $100 but was talked out of it - I was pissed off because she knew and all of her emails said "24/7 delivery" even after the driver asked her to confirm it with the consignee.

 

If they haul loads for a loss. That's their problem. Bringing truck west shouldn't be a loss.

Park truck. Fly driver home. That's a loss. Truck already losing driver. Why add to the loss. Bring him home with a load. Park truck.

Companies that are only concerned with making money. Aren't companies worth working for. If company can't carry a bank roll to afford parked truck for whatever reason.

 

If they bring him back loaded, it will take a week. Truck will be down a week while he's home, then take another week to load it back to the northeast. So that's two extra weeks with the truck out of the money making area. The profit lost will be more than the cost of the flights to get him home and back to the truck.

News flash: All companies are only concerned with making money. If they're not, then they aren't going to be in business for very long.

 

Was going on a big holiday. Had it planned months ahead. Dispatch, head office all knew about it, on the board, in the computer system , everything covered. Running team.
In Toronto with a load to Vancouver and a drop first in Calgary. Lived in Edmonton. Reminded them that we could only go as far as Calgary, no problem just drop trailer there someone else will take it to Vancouver.
Get to Calgary, local dispatch/manager said we had to take it to Vancouver, not a chance, we had a flight to the Caribbean the next day. Plus he knew all about the previously booked plans.
So we just said “see you in two weeks “, dropped it in the yard and went home.
When we got back, everything was perfectly fine.
So just stand your ground, they’ll work around it.

 

If they bring him back loaded. That's money made and only 4 days to drive. I don't know how you consider it a loss just because it's not within the 5 states area. It's not the only freight area. YOu know?

News Flash: EVERYBODY is concerned about making money. But if you or the company can't afford to take time out or be without a truck. You're not handing your finances very well.

It don't hurt my bank account to take a week off. And it certainly didn't hurt my feelings to take a week off for repairs when i was actually buying a truck.

If the truck has to roll 24/7. The owner isn't financially stable. ANd that's talked about ALL the time on this forum. Being able to handle downtime.

If the company don't want to be sending their drivers home because the rates suck where they live. They shouldn't be hiring them in the first place. And that's not meant to be an A--. Cuz we all need jobs and they all need drivers.

 

I've seen this term before. Does "distressed load" mean one that is already late, or refused by the consignee and reconsigned, or something else entirely?

 

Yeah, 4 days if you get one load going straight through. You'll be lucky to find a load like that that pays more than fuel and driver pay and empty miles to the pick and from the drop. So no, it's just using the truck as a taxi, and no money made by the company. Cheaper to fly the driver from the truck and back in the end.

edit: I just checked the rates, and the best I found was a load picking in NJ on the 11th going to Phoenix, paying $1.52/mile. You can't make money on a load like that, even as an O/O.

 

He charged Broker a bunch of hours detention time.

He DUE to the yard lot being not open 24/7 LOST the ability to or BUMPED another revenue load that had nothing to do with this one. The lost profits on that bumped load can only be imagined... 5000? 10000? who knows.

The root problem is 24/7 should MEAN 24 rock solid 7 #### 365 all year long every year. Not closed on friday night.

whoops. Someone did not get the memo. Oh it's the brokers fault. Pay me. (Ridgeline)

Distress certainly.

The blackest of days I ever have in trucking are for me personally is when dispatch says I have a load waiting for me later in the afternoon, make sure you get empty this AM so you can load there.

Yessir. (Me...)

If for any reason I cannot get unloaded that morning because someone says something or forgot something or the stupid customer is CLOSED. guess what there is hell to pay because that shipper not far away waiting on me is told sorry we cannot get the truck to you today. And so on down the line. NO one is happy.

As a driver I knew nothing. And value very much information that I can use that has to be accurate. if not? Guess what. Ima calling da boss. Let him get up and do the yelling on my behalf. We'll talk later.

Example.

Grab empty container go to St Marys load parts for europe. In the morning 8 sharp. They better have those parts ready when I get there with that box. Because the ship literally sails down the bay from Baltimore in 8 hours that day LATER ON. They have a hour to load the #### thing and hand me BOL etc. correct.

My job is to get to Seagirt and have that box off me on the ship before it leaves.

Once it leaves and I dawdled. Guess what it just became a Norfolk problem at a bigger loss expense and potentially firing of me.