Stevens Transport A year in review

this extension is for Alliance recruiting. A salesman, and he talks like a salesman too. Nice to know that you take the time to read, but you are not A DM (driver manager).

Any one that wants to talk to this recruiter, that is your choice, but remember, recruiters tell you what they think you want to here.

This thread is about actual life, actual events that happen, and what comes of those events. Want to be a success, know yourself, your own goals and your own limits.

 

April 12 to 18

A tuff week....
Miles ran 2570

Miles paid 2111
transflowed yet to be paid 1713

Helped out my new DM, and recovered a Los Lunas load Monday morning, from a scale in Iowa Park TX. Ran hard, and made the 6:30 pm appointment.
Went up to the TA in Albuquerque and shut down for the night. Tuesday Morning get a dispatch to head to liberal KS, and minutes later to sit tight, Have a repower coming. Call my DM, tell her I only have 10 hours today, and 0 Wednesday and that I would like to head to liberal drop this trailer, do my reset in comfort. The repower is going to Denver, so I have the hours, and the other truck will be to me in 8 to 9 hours, as their break is up in Avondale AZ. Okay I will do it. 8 hours later, I call to find out where the other truck is at, they are still 5 hours away. This means an overnight drive for me, which I am not going to do.

She does not think she has wasted my time by having me sit all day in Albuquerque waiting on another truck. I could have already been in Liberal, and started my reset in a Hotel Room.

she cancels the repower, sends me the load assignment for Liberal and goes home. I acknowledge the load, and get a phone call from Dispatch, what happened, am I still doing the repower? I told them to bring it up with her, as she lied to me about when the other truck would be there, and that I was headed for liberal. Finished a 34 hour reset, at 6am and headed up to Liberal, dropped my trailer, and enjoyed a rainy day.

The load DLD was 11:15 on Saturday. So 1500 miles, 2 34 hour resets. Bad week. The load is not ready at 11:15. Notify Stevens, that I will be running late, this load is tight, and my DM says she has a repower set up for sunday in Barstow, and sends me the message to meet, but not the hard repower message.

Load and paperwork is finally ready at 1:30. Scale the load, and it is NOT california legal. I am over on the trailer by 180 #'s. 6th hole I am legal, send the QC message and call Stevens. Saturday Afternoon, there are 19 calls ahead of me. Takes 30 minutes to finally get thru, and get told to put it in the 6th hole, 6" over 40', and roll. Please send that over the QC. They do. I send in my running late, and repower request. Run plan on making Holbrock AZ, but can't keep my eyes open, and stop in Milan NM. I can still make Barstow Sunday, so everything is good for the repower.

Sunday dawns, get a message across the QC, are you rolling yet? I have not seen this message in a year. I answer it, stating when legal I will roll.
roll out, will be in Barstow early Evening, hope there is parking. Stop for my midday lunch, and call stevens to see what is going on with the repower, the dispatcher sends the hard repower thru, and in minutes it is canceled. I ask what is up, am told to continue on to barstow. I do.

At 4pm Dallas time meat calls me, asking me my ETA to first drop. I tell him, 9am, and he argues with me, saying I can be there earlier. I tell him, I can guarantee 9am, no sooner. Will try, but that is what my ETA is. He tells me he used to drive truck for 17 years, and I can be there at 7am. I tell him that is nice, but you now drive a desk, and I drive this truck, I said 9am, and you need to stop pushing it. He hangs up. Get a QC message about 30 minutes later, National Beef wants to know your ETA so they can reset your appointments, since it is their fault you are running late. My answer, "as stated on the phone 9am."

Pull into Barstow, find a place to park, and call it a night.

A little late with this post, but had to clean it up some.

 

Good questions, and they are the same ones I have been asking myself for this year. My lease is up in July, and I am investigating my options, and what i may do. This is not a purchase program. Net pay for the first Quarter of 2010, is $8,073.

Rewards are I will have 2 years with a clean driving record. Other than that, none/

 

The strange thing about it all, in January, even though it was a rough month economical for me, I was planning on staying reaping the rewards of the bonus check, and the reduced truck payments. Then I was forced to change driver managers to a DM who thinks she runs the truck. Talking with many other drivers about their DM, and have run into some that LOVE having the DM do all their thinking for them.

I don't, I think for myself, and there in is the problem, I had the unusual DM before that liked his drivers to think for themselves, and not need their hand held. The culture at stevens is to hand hold, to micro manage, and panic, we got to get that load picked up, slam a truck under it, we will repower it later. Not the way I like to work. I plan ahead, look ahead, and expect the same out of the company I work for.

To all you Stevens employees looking in, Yea I know you do, and I know that what I post here is public. It is how I see it, and the only long term drivers you have are not self motivated. I have met many of them. You also allow them to violate the federal laws to get loads delivered on time. Yet you will hammer me for doing the same things.

 

April 19 to 25

Miles ran 2187 no freight in California
Miles Paid 3445

Miles Transflowed yet to be paid 0 (zero) next week will suck pay wise.

Get up in Barstow CA, and head for my first stop in LA...I have promised to be there by 9am. Traffic is flowing good, and I pull up the narrow street just south of downtown LA and find the receiver. It is 8:05am. Check in, am told when box truck pulls out, to put it in that dock. Okay, this will be fun, as stepping off the distance from the dock to the wall for a normal back yields 80 ft, not enough room, and it is 85 feet from dock to wall across from dock. So Blind side back from the street, and never get the tractor straight. They go on Break from 8:15 to 8:30, so I have and undisturbed 15 minutes to put it in. Takes me about 10 minutes. They pull their 6 bins of meat pieces off, and I am off to Sysco in Walnut CA. Still have a 9am appointment there. It is 16 miles away.

Pull up to the gate at 9:20, the guard checks me in, I go check in, get a door, and they start unloading me. The lumper finishes quickly, but the receiver, takes longer. Talk with a Stevens Student who is in his 4th week, but is not getting along with his trainer. Lumper finally brings him his bills, 4 hours after he bumped the dock. I decide to walk in and see what is taking so long. Find the receiver, tell him which door, he signs the bills, and hands them to me. Good now I am off to my third drop for the day, scheduled for 5pm, in Anaheim, about 30 miles away.

Pull into Restaurant depot at 2:30 pm, but they don't start until 4pm. oh well plenty of room for me to hang out, so I do. 2 guys sitting in a pickup are the lumpers at this place, and they are drinking beer while waiting.
My turn comes, they pull the 5 pallets off, and have it sorted in 15 minutes. They work quickly for their beer money. Gives me a valid receipt for their services, now decision time...Drop in the morning in Santa Barbara CA, but there is no place to park around the receiver that I can find, and Santa Barbara does not allow street parking. Head to Castaic Pilot, which will be full, or to Ontario TA. Adds 20 miles, but I can get a shower. Over to Ontario West I go....

Get up Tuesday morning, head out a 4am to beat LA traffic, which I do manage to do, and pull into Santa Barbara in a down poor at 9am. They won't take me until the appt time of 10am, but I can wait in their drop lot. 10 am rolls around, still raining, back in, get unloaded, and I have a broken seal on a package of tenderloin. The buyer wants the case minus the 6.6# tenderloin. I agree, Talk with OSD, National beef agrees, and everyone is happy. This trailer is a bloody mess, wonder if National beef slaughtered the cattle inside the trailer.

Pull around into their drop yard, finish up my paperwork, and get the NO freight message. I need to get this trailer washed out, so I head over to Castaic, where I know I will get a good washout for $30, and a tip (the beef tenderloin). When they got done with that trailer, in the rain, it sparkled inside. Across the street to the pilot, to hand out for a day or 2. Have to wait around for a parking spot to open up, but finally one does, and I settle in for the day.

Late on Wednesday, I get a load, 3 picks, first pick 11 miles from my drop, which is 60 miles away. Oh well 120 miles unpaid. First pick 8am, flowers, then up to Salinas for the other 2 going to Los Lunas Wal Mart. Go eat dinner, will have a 34 hr reset in, then head over to the first pick. Get back to my truck, message from the CSR, first pick has been moved to the Watsonville, (Moss Landing) area. Call this number for directions. Call the number, it goes straight to a mail box, no option to get to a human. No address, No company Name. Call Produce, they are no help, tells me to drive to Moss Landing, and wait for further instructions. I tell him no, this truck does not move without a Company Name and Address. About an hour later I get the company name and Address on the QC. Well that is a 350 mile deadhead, I will get there sometime in the morning, but not by 8am.

Wake up before my alarm clock, grab me some coffee, and head north for my nice deadhead. The address I have puts me in an area with many warehouses.. find a place to park, and am going to go and check in with the company name I have, when the QC beeps, saying I am to pick up at Calico, same phone # as last night, and the address is one of these warehouse. Coming in I saw the name Calla Co. Address matches, so turn around in the Dead end road, and the 5 acres, head up the street, and turn into Calla Co. find the shipping desk, they don't want a pickup #, they want the name, wal mart. Nice and friendly people once I got the correct name and address.

90 minutes later I have my product, and head over to Mann Packing in Salinas, appointment 1pm. check in at 12:45, get a door, am loaded by 1:30, and head over to T&A packing, for a Midnight appointment. Check in, am told they don't have to product at this time, and probably won't have it all by midnight, but check back in at 11pm. Okay, get my break in, get loaded and then roll out of California is my plan.

Talk with an independent that hauls from California to Florida, who has been waiting 2 days for his product. He also gets paid $2.40 per mile for the load, and does it in 3 days solo, not legally either. He admits it, and says he knows his way around all the scales. Interesting conversation.

Get some sleep, check back in at 11pm, get a door, and am loaded at 12:30. They cut 80 cases from the load, as the product just was not available. pull back into the staging area, this load is light, do my paperwork, head over to the pilot for some coffee...mistake, but I needed some.

Roll hard, want to make Kingman AZ today. Stop at Kramer JCT Pilot and catch me a quick nap. an hour nap can be so refreshing. As I pass by Newberry Springs CA, I notice a Stevens truck parked funny, over by the "Truck Stop", but not in. My phone rings about 15 miles later, produce wants my help with a load from Newberry Springs to Los Lunas, delivers Sat at 2am. The driver has run out of hours on his 70, and just notified Stevens. Sorry I can't make that, as I have already drove 300+ miles today. Drivers need to communicate early and often when they are running late to not be charged with the service failure. My opti Stop fuel was Pilot in Barstow, at $3.39. I went to the loves in Lake Havasua, and paid $3.09. Pulled into the Petro in Kingman and called it a day/night.

Get up early, as I have a sunday 2am appt in Los Lunas, and want to fit a break in before the delivery. My DM asks me to do a repower after I am empty, going to Phoenix. He should be in Albuquerque by noon sunday. She asked, and I can make that work, so I accept. I plan on stopping at the Route 66 casino, but Baracuda calls, he is at the TA, so I head over there and have lunch with him, and take my break there.

Arrive at Walmart at 12:50, the guard will not check me in until 1am, as nobody comes to work until then. Wait the 10 minutes, watch the supervisors come to work, check in, get my door, at 4am my paperwork is ready, and I head back to the TA for my repower. Other Truck is in OK City, rolling my way. He won't be here by noon, but I cant move until 2pm anyway with a split sleeper.

At 2 pm phone rings, where am I, he is in the area but can't find the TA. DM has given him the wrong exit number, as she put it as TA x225 ALB NM.
Correct for I25, not for I40. So he has to drive another 65 miles to get to me. He is a senior driver that does NOT do the west, but thinks "C" our driver manager is the best ever. Oh and by the way, he has been driving for 2 hours, past his 70 to save this Kraft load that he was dispatched on 2 days late.

I pull out at 4pm, it is about an 8 hour drive, but I won't stay at any of the Phoenix Truck stops over night if I can help it. I know of this nice little one on I17, about 60 miles north, and plan on stopping there. Pull in, see another stevens truck there, and settle in for 8 1/2 hours.

Will need to do another split to make the delivery time on Monday.

So concludes another fun filled week. At least this time it was not me that got screwed up by my wonderful DM.

 

You use the Stevens fuel card...that way i get the stevens discount, which is unknown until i get my statement. Stevens does charge me $3.00 for everytime i use their fuel card, but the discounts more than offset that amount. And if I choose to use the opti stops they send me, I get an even bigger discount. My choice to change from Barstow to Lake Havasua last week was the 30 cent per gallon difference, and both are Stevens opti stops, so I saved money.

Example: Pump says $3.099, 5 cents for cash or fuel card $3.049. Statement comes next week, I bought 100 gallons, so $304.90, minus discount for this stop of $29.00 plus the $3.00 service charge equals $278.90 for that fuel up.

I also get a fuel surcharge on loaded miles of 31 cents a mile this week. I average 7 miles/gallon so those 100 gallons will get me 700 miles down the road. 700 times .31 equals $217.00. Net cost of fuel for 700 miles is $61.90, or 8.8 cents per mile.

No fuel surcharge on empty miles, or out of route miles, only on paid loaded miles.

hope this makes it as clear as mud for you.