Stevens Transport A year in review

Not yet on the new DM, but I will let her know that I am not happy, and that she needs to communicate with realistic times, and loads. And that I do NOT like to do repowers. Repowers are caused by lack of planning and looking ahead, and just putting out fires. It is the culture of Stevens and something I doubt I can change.

Saw a new trailer on the road. Pulls nice according to the driver too. Price on pre-pass went down for Alliance drivers, so now I will get it.

 

better frame of mind today...

april 5 to 11

Miles ran 2769

Miles paid 2752

Miles transfloed yet to be paid 2156

lots of miles so good paychecks in a row.

Started my week off setting in the Staging area for Affiliated Grocers in Amarillo Texas for my 3am appointment. At 2:30 am I get the knock on the door, door 5 is mine. Yipeeee.....a tight ### back, had to reset 4 times to get it where I was comfortable to back it in. Walked around took my meat lock off the trailer and laid it on the DOT bumber. opened the doors and backed in. Checked in and went back to sleep. At 5:30 knock on the door, I am done, this is good, as at 6am my 10 hour break is done too!!!. Pull out to the staging area, close my doors, do my paperwork and head over to the petro for a shower, and to wait for a load assignment at Tyson.

Get done with my shower and breakfast, walk back out to my truck, check my side box, and yup I did not have my meat lock...I had left it on the bumper of the trailer...QC is beeping, can I repower a meat load that should have been moving sunday that delivers in compton CA tuesday am. I am willing to help, but this needs a team. they assure me they will find a repower, just get it moving. The other truck is either at the petro or the peterbilt dealer...I see him just a few trucks away, go over grab his trailer, and head back over to Affiliated...need my lock.

The guards laugh, but let me drive back to the loading docks, and there it lays right under the door I was in. Jump out, grab my lock, and put in on the trailer, as the yard jockey asks me what I am doing, and i told him that I had left my lock. He says they have many of those locks sitting in the junk pile as drivers leave them all the time, but don't come back for them.

My DM sends me the repower infor, moriarty NM, but she sets the time as 6pm. I will be in Moriarty at 1pm.. The other driver, a trainer with a T2 student( 2nd week student) does not want to have to drive all night to get the load to compton, and is refusing to do the repower. I don't blame him. When he finds out I will be there at 1pm, he waits for me. I pulled up at 12:45. I get a load going to Ontario CA Kraft, right behind the TA's due wednesday. That works with my hours too, as I will only have 2 hours for wednesday.

For the other driver being in a hurry for me to get there, after i got my load assignment, pulled around fueled, and grabbed me a burger, he was still setting inside eating. His problem now, not mine.

shut down early for the night, as the wind was vicious, and I40 was closed in arizona due to dust storms. so I spent the night in gallup NM, and talked with a stevens driver that had just went back to company side after 3 months as he could not make the alliance work for him.

Pulled into Ontario TA with no problems, and met one of my orientation 1 and 2 class mates. He is also doing the Alliance side now. We had a good evening getting caught up, and he told me about his cluster load of bananas that he never got. Next morning I get up at 4am cally time, make my deliver 1/4 mile away, and drive back to the TA. On my empty call I warned Dallas that I only had 2 hours for the day.

Got the truck serviced, and I am due for a new air cleaner, but TA does not carry one for this engine, and the local KW and cummins shops also don't have them. the only place that does is NAPA and the cost is $250. No thanks I will get it at the yard.

Tom, my class mate gets a loaded trailer from the drop yard, and heads for indiana. Lucky him.

that Evening I get a load assignment for produce, call in to get dispatched, it is 6 picks, 2 in Oxnard, 4 in LA... And one of the picks is juice with a hard appointment of Friday 8am. that sucks. And no load out sheet tonight, he can't find it. I wasn't going anywhere at 5pm cally time anyway.

Wednesday morning, call produce, get hung up on, call back, no load sheets yet, he will call me when they get this target load organized.
Noon and my phone rings, load sheet has been faxed, first pick appointment for strawberries in Oxnard is 3pm...I head out, get to Oxnard at 2pm, and go to the other pick, and they have the product, 3 pallets, load me, and I head over the 2 miles to Driscoll. check in, they put me in a door, and start loading me at 3pm...this is going good...

Produce sets my appointment a VersaCold in Carson for 7pm...####, now I have to drive in rush hour traffic...takes me 3 hours to do 100 miles. Pull in, just before 7pm, back in, get my one pallet of kiwi. Okay two picks left for the day, Melissa's produce, and Prime tropical, up in vernon. Prime is only open 1am to noon, so off to Melissas, a quick phone call, they are open until 10pm. Pull in at 9pm, not a truck in the docks...

They have 5 po's for the load, I have 3. Dallas is no help. call back in the morning. Nope, the shipper agrees, and we load the 3 po's I have, and I ask if I may park for the night on their property. He says yes that will be $10...I reach for my wallet, saying "TA wants $12"..he was joking, but advises me to park around the corner out of the way, as they start receiving product at 1am, and I could be blocked in. Pull around and park, get some sleep, wake up at 3am, 8 hour break just about done, see what he ment about being blocked in, and drive around the block to prime, check in, back in, pick up one pallet of mangos...and I am ready to head over to Walnut to pick up Naked Juice at 8am. Produce calls saying he needs to set my appointments for melissa and prime, and I tell him they are loaded, I am headed for walnut. Awesome..

Pull into Dura Freight, at 5:45, hoping to get loaded early. Nope they won't let me in until 7:45...oh well, pull out, park in the left turn lane, where it is not needed, and get my 2 hour break in.

Get my 5 pallets of juice, and it is 9:30....time to head east. Takes me 2 hours to make 40 miles...#### LA traffic, Then hit construction in Bastow that has traffic backed up...so spend the night at Parawon UT. Get up on Saturday, send in my running late message, my repower request with times of where I will be...and head out.

DM sets up a repower for Rawlins WY, sunday morning 8am....not good... I can be in Nebraska by then. She tells me the time is just something she throws in, and don't pay any attention to it.
repowered gets cancelled, and then resent, Evanston WY, for 2pm. Now that makes sense, but messes up my plans of visiting with friends in Laramie. The teams DM knows how to set up a repower. I pulled in at 1:50 and they pulled in right after me. Swap loads, This sucks...delivers in Pocatello ID, 160 miles away on Tuesday. I send in a repower request, don't really expect anything, go eat, call the reciever in pocatello to see if they will take it early, and get a kinda yes answer.

Get back to my truck, repower set for Sunday Morning 11am, in tremount UT. that is better than nothing. Load going to Garland TX for Tuesday. Drive up and shut down for the night. sunday the other truck arrives about 9am, but there is no way I can now make the Garland delivery time. I will run 600 miles on Sunday, make Milan NM, and send in my repower request and running late on monday. That way I can get some miles, and they can still cover the load.

so a busy week, a frustrating week trying to get my DM to communicate better, to clarify, and to be honest about times.

Now today, Tueday the 13 she did better after we talked on the phone, and I covered a load to Los Lunas that the driver really messed up on...
He ran from Temple TX walmart going to Los Lunas, up 35 to 287, and then did not have the hours to make the delivery.

 

Last DM planned ahead, looked ahead, and kept me moving. This DM thinks repowers are the best thing to keep a driver moving. Neither is true, but a mix works best. Are most of these repowers required? I don't know...a little more planning, and I think not. And I do know that it can be done the other way, as Kelly my previous DM did.

I tried to explain to Christy today the short run repowers actually cost me drive time, in logging the required post trip for the day. If I run 6 days hard, 10 to 11 hours each day, that is 3 hours for post trips and 3000+ miles. When she chooses to run me when I have less than 8 hours for the day, that is less then 450 miles, and a 30 minute post trip. Not as profitable. Let me run hard, do a 34 hour reset, and then run hard again. This moving every day with limited hours actually costs me money. She does not see it.

I am glad someone enjoys reading my adventures. It is a catharsis for me to put it in writing and share it. Keeps the think straight.

 

As a truck driver attention to detail is very important. Times, traffic, weather, speed, truck maintenance, paperwork.....

She chooses to not pay attention to details, like times, distance, breaks, hours.....

Today was a peaceful day, not one message from her on the QC. Pulled into liberal, dropped my trailer, bobtailed out to a hotel, got a room, and now I am going to eat a good dinner, and get a good nights sleep. As normal National Beef has not even assigned a trailer to my load yet, so no chance of getting it early.

And thanks to all that enjoy my adventures, my #######, and the good stuff.