Standby Time....

standby mean just that, that you are to answer the phone and respond. Of course the load went to another driver who did answer his phone.

It is company policy you are dealing with, and there are no federal laws requirement for standby time.

 

With ACME once you declare you want to be "on the board" the policy is that when you get the call you answer the phone or return the call within two minutes, otherwise the load goes to the next driver down the line. If you don't call back within 30 minutes you are taken off the board and placed on "Will Call", meaning you "will call" to let them know you want to be available for a load and this also means you will be placed last on the list... which can blow a day or more if you've waited to be #1 on the list and suddenly find you are #8 or more.

Once you receive the call for a load you are expected to arrive to local customers within an hour. For drivers that live a ways from the terminal and don't have truck parking near their house this can be quite a challenge.

 

I used to dispatch and push sand and water trucks in the oil patch in ND so maybe I can give you some perspective on the other side of things.

I have a stable of trucks. Let's say 30 available sand cans. I have a list that I adhere to. Whether I'm dispatching my own sand (one frac company had me do that) or wait for a call-out on loads from the frac coordinator (most companies did that), when I make the call to the driver I need the sand in a certain amount of time that I have determined based on load out location, frac location, and weather n traffic conditions. SO...i get a call from the frac that they need 4 loads of sand. They know it will take x amount of time to get it there. Now I, as dispatcher, call driver 1 on my list. He answers, I text him load info, and move on to driver 2. Same thing. Driver 3 no answer. I call driver 4, send him load info, and try driver 3 again. Still no answer. He then moves down on my list and I call driver 5, there's my four loads. All I care about as dispatch is that the ordered loads are covered. Hate to be harsh but I really don't care if you were sleeping or in the can or hangin out in the truck stop. The only thing I care about is covering my own tush.

As a driver I can tell you that stinks. But that's the way it is in the patch. Not everyone can do it. On duty is on duty. I used to HATE being on call, waiting all day for a load, and then getting loads at 11pm. But I liked the money, so I did it. I was there for my dispatch, I never complained, and answered the phone every time, I had to turn up my ringer and use a horribly obnoxious ring time so I wouldn't miss a call.

And back on the dispatcher side of things...I LOVED guys that worked that way. Out of 30 trucks I had probably 8-10 guys that I could count on and I'll be honest...they got good loads and made good money. It's nice not to babysit trucks.

I hope this made sense. Oilfield truckin is different than other truckin jobs. Takes some getting used to. I wish you the best of luck man...anytime you have a question let me know, if I can help ya I'd be glad to give you my two cents.

\m/
Scott

 

For me it was, if I didn't answer the call I didn't get the load.no excuses.they have too many drivers waiting.I would plug my phone into the truck stereo speakers just do I would wake up when it rings.got out of oil field only a couple months ago and still scared to miss a phone call

 

basicly exactly as Scott said.

although i would not call that stand by. stand by is sitting on location or at the loading facility for a customer and because of a delay breakdown ect they don't want you to leave so you sit there on standby waiting for them to give the word go.

what you described is being on-call. where you are doing as you please but available for dispatch.

 

That's how I see it too Ez, stand by is on location waiting because of a delay. On call is not at work but available to go when needed.
Not a lot of on call for us up here but definitely a lot of stand by.
I'd think that as slow as the patch is at the moment if I was on call for work I'd be in the truck or very close by ready to rock n roll straight away, can't afford to lose any work at the moment.

 

i had similar to what the o/p describe last week finished up a big county road job was calling around trying to get some more loads everyone was saying they didn't have anything at the moment so i figured id take advantage of that time and get some trailers shuffled around and take care of a few things, had my phone on the charger in the truck. in a 15min time span i was out of my truck one customer that i had just talked to called. i called back they said sorry i had something come up but already got it covered now. that's what sucks at times with high truck availability. if your not johnny on the spot they call the next truck. cant blame them for it.

iv had it go the other way many times too place some phone calls telling people i have a available truck then a hr later im turning down loads because im already on another load.