Stevens Transport Aviary . . cont'

Keep your chin and spirits up. You have the whole good weather period to get "good" before you have to deal with...well, the rest of the year.

 

Good job. We just finished orientation. Waiting on a trainer.

 

Omg Mr. Aardvark, i spit coffee all over my phone! Ive gotten in the habit of randomly saying that to Stevens trucks as i wave at them. It makes me giggle.
On the same page, i get a major kick out of it when other drivers mention the lack of speed and power, then when they hear sarcastic girl in reply they get all quiet and apologetic.

Ive not yet seen a driver wearing Speedo, but i have unfortunately been passed by naked drivers. I would think it would chafe to do that, especially in the summer. Thats something i didnt really expect when starting this job... the sheer volume of things that get wagged at me as folks go by.

 

Drove 5.5 hours today...learning to float...a little trouble timing gear changes coming off the interstate...but thoroughly enjoyed driving today.

 

No driving today...unloaded a load of meat at 13:00...now doing the wait game for another meat load...then out to California.

 

Found out tonight that being in the berth is slightly...uncomfortable...when being loaded. 26,000# load to Cali will get me my first mountain.

 

A bit homesick today, but pushing through. Drove 5 hours from Texas to New Mexico. Wind was a bit rough. Hoping we don't get repowered. California or bust. Night all.

 

There are two major reasons you will be repowered:
First, you are running late for OTD, especially for priority loads such as meat or produce (perishable)
Second, your repowering someone else running late will ensure OTD of their load (and not jeopardize your load).
The fastest way to end up on the crap end of dispatches is to burn a load (fail to run when you can, fail to notify dispatch you are running late).
People learn (and remember) very quickly who performs and who doesn't.
I don't want to sound crass, but the fact of the matter is the dispatch/operations primary duty is to move freight safely, and in a timely fashion, to it's destination.
We cannot control shippers/receivers and their (lack) of caring.
That's dictated by market driven factors, for which we have little or no control. The fact of the matter is, there is far more capacity (trucks available) than there is freight. Shippers know they can abuse the trucking concerns because there are dozens more out there just waiting for loads. Receivers can abuse truckers because...well, quite frankly, you have a trailer full of goods. You're not going anywhere until they finally get you unloaded.
We all (inside operations and drivers) have to suck it up often, just to continue working.
Drivers put up with incredible abuse by what seems just about everyone. Some is inexcusable (in my view), but other is brought on by the drivers.
Let me give you a few examples from Friday night alone...
I had a driver refuse a 1600 mile load because it had a drop in Brooklyn.
I had a driver refuse a 1800 mile load because it included a 340 mile deadhead. He believed his trainer when he was told that drivers are paying the company when they deadhead so refuse any load with a deadhead over 100 miles. (he's a contractor). I explained that deadheads don't make you money, but they don't lose money either. Virtually ALL deadheads are paid by the company. Very few are paid by a shipper.
But he refused it anyway.
Now his name goes to the bottom of the pile and when everyone else gets dispatched, he'll get a new load. That may be another day or two.
I had a contractor with 1666 miles left on his load, but two days to do it. It was produce, so there was not doubt it would be repowered. I offered a 990 mile single drop load with three days on it in exchange. (other truck was a team).
He refused, even tho I warned him he was approaching Amarillo and it would be forced repowered, with him heading to the meat patch.
He stated, "I don't care if this load is late. It's my load. I won't give it up."
Before I left Saturday morning, I checked (out of curiosity). He was sitting in Amarillo with a load that delivers at 0300 sunday in Amarillo, then a backup meat load from Tyson with a DLD of Monday evening, and 1100 miles back to LA and three drops.
Now he's screaming he was 'screwed'.
Really? I tried to help him. He refused,, but now he'll be telling everyone how dispatch 'stole' his load and gave him a crap load.
Do you think anyone on the inside will go to any effort to help this guy next time he's asking for something?
I had a G-1 driver...first load as a solo...come to the window and DEMAND we find her a different load. The one she had took her within 20 miles of her home, and she would get her 7 days home time on her first dispatch. The problem? The load had two drops... one Saturday morning in Dallas, the other Monday morning close to her home. She didn't want to sit on this load because it only had 430 miles on it.
I won't give you the details, but the load she ended up with took her the opposite direction to Las Lunas.
Now I know the common complaints (and uncommon) of the drivers. I lived them.
Some are justified.
But it's the industry. I have friends in several different companies around the country (drivers) that complain the same way.
It's the industry.
Get some experience so you're hirable by a company you think you'll like and go for it!
In the meantime, learn how the freight lanes work, where you want to be and where you don't want to be at what time of year. (for instance, emptying out on a Saturday in MA on a thee day weekend is a virtual guaranteed reset.) Shippers shut down for holiday weekends in that region.
Develop good relationships with inside persons such as the load planners. Most will bust their butts for drivers that will bust theirs for them. I see it all the time. I have had load planners, dispatch people and DMs come to me with a common line, "We gotta take care of this driver. He helped me on a load and I promised him/her we'd return the favor. We HAVE to find a good repower or make sure he doesn't get shafted on a repower."
I see drivers in this company who's attitude is, "I'll run anything anywhere." They all get more miles (on the average) than anyone else.
Yes, they get some crappy loads, but when you add everything up at the end of the month...they have 12-13,000 miles...solo.
The secret is, they don't care if they go to the vegi patch, the meat patch or the Bronx.
They drive.
Do they have favorites?
Of course! We all do.
But they do what they were hired to do....DRIVE!
And somehow, they've risen to the top of the dispatch food chain. (gee, I wonder why?!)
I've probably ranted a bit here (probably?!!), but it's not against any particular driver.
It's for everyone that reads these posts.
This is a HARD business. For those that came out of industries that mollycoddle their workers, it's a shock that is too much for most.
We are at the base of the new worker paradigm... and it isn't fun sometimes. it requires hard work and very few persons will 'give you a break'. You have to earn your place and that usually means taking a lot of crap as you move along.
For those of us that have spent 20, 30, 40 years or more around this industry, it's a slap in the face when a 20 something year old driver with 6 months experience is demanding a load with 2,000 miles, down on I-10 and "it better not mean 3 picks, either!" Then call us every dirty name in the book when we don't deliver.
And one more bit of advice to EVERY driver out there...
You can rant and insult the industry, you can insult Stevens, you can insult Operations in general.
But NEVER insult the person on the phone personally. I don't care how much they deserve it.
Most of us bust our butts for the drivers most of the time. Personal insults will only move your issue to the bottom of the pile.
Ok, rant over for now.

 

Emu,

steps up on the soap box, and delivers again...



I will add that learn the freight lanes that will keep you moving, that are around your home. Now saying that, I lived OFF the stevens freight lanes, so I always knew when I came off home time, it would be a repowered load down on I80, or a trip to Lexington NE, Tyson, or Greeley JBS, ugh. And coming off home time on Monday, would result in waiting until Monday afternoon for a dispatch, for a load that picked up on wed or Thursday... great for more home time, but terrible for the pocketbook.

So Tuesday became my start day, with a phone call on Monday to my DM, and a message to the meat planner... Most of the time that got me a load from Lexington NE, which is a 6 to 7 hour drive away, that the DLD was for wed, going to Ottawa, IL, a drop arrive anytime... can be done in an 11 hour drive shift, and the meat planner knew, that I would do the multidrops around NJ and NYC... so I would get a load that is ready for deliver to the east coast... take my ten, and run hard...Worked great for 3 years... I ran a triangle from the meat patch, to the east coast, to Texas, to Colorado, WY, and back to the meat patch. I helped out the planner for the east coast, and would take those 200 mile loads, to move me to the freight, and many times that would get me a run to Utah with candy... another drop anytime...

The meat patch was my friend, as after 2 weeks of running hard, my log book would be a mess of short days, and long days, and I needed a day of rest, so dropping the trailer at a shipper and bobtailing out was a blessing.. to get out of the truck, have a nice meal at a restaurant, go to a laundry mat, cheaper than the truck stops, spend the day in the sun at a park....

When the economy crashed, and the freight started drying up on the east coast, my comfortable triangle became a nightmare, of waiting, short runs after short run on the east coast.. I had to adapt, and started running the JBS loads to LA Commiefornia... which meant produce out... and the produce shippers do not care how long you wait for your load.

Now for my negative rant about STevens...... produce, we were required to be on the dock counting and temping the produce, which means we are responsible for the load, and therefor should be logging that time as on duty... but if a solo driver does that, when the load is finally loaded, his 14 hour clock is shot, by the 5 to 6 hours on the dock, or totally shot after 2 or 3 picks, that have went over 14 hours... and You are expected to leave the shipper quickly and get on the road... so log legal, or not, and run that load so you get paid for all that time you just spent watching concrete get wet...

for If you log it legal, then you know as a solo driver, you will be repowered just outside of commiefornia, and sent right back in, to rinse and repeat... and this is the one place the compliance department looks the other way, and lets you log off duty while in commiefornia, picking produce.

It is a catch 22 situation for the solo driver, and for Stevens.

Rant over....

The choice is yours, as you are he captain of the truck, and it is your CDL and life on the line, not stevens... Never drive fatigued...

 

The Solution many drivers will find out, some sooner-some later....is that pulling a reefer is the Most uncompensated type of work. It would take no less than 58cpm for me to deal with everything involved with a reefer again. I am comfortable at 46cpm pulling a dry van.