Stevens Transport Aviary . . cont'

Smithfield is terrible for DLDs. It's one of the accounts I track and repower. The frustration isn't that they're late loading...it's that they expect us to make on time delivery anyway. The poor drivers sit there for three days and there's no compensation. Nothing like sitting around a meat plant with the wonderful aroma!
I vote with you TLea!

 

The realities of new drivers and GPS...
got a call from an upset (panic?) G1 driver last night. He was in front of a low bridge (stopped). I could hear the horns honking and felt sorry for the guy, but to his credit he's stopped, put on his flashers and had already called the local police. He was mad because the QC had directed him on this route.
Long story short, they backed him up about 200 feet to an intersection where he was able to turn around.
Then they gave him a ticket.
Yea, I had some choice thoughts about that too, until the driver told me the rest of the story...(sorry Paul)
Turns out the driver had been at this same bridge 30 minutes earlier and they backed him out. So this was his second go around.
I asked the driver 'what happened?" and he told me he was only following Jill. She told him to go this way.
"But it wasn't right the first time and you must have recognized the bridge from the intersection. Why didn't you just turn right, park and call for help?"
"Because Jill TOLD me to go straight!"
Unbelievable!
Also got a T7 team off a dirt road in central Kansas again yesterday.
"Why did you turn down this road? Didn't you see it was dirt?"
"Yes, but it (Jill) told me to."
"Didn't it occur to you that you're heading to NYC and we have asphalt all the way?"
"But it told me to!"
I swear this was the same road we've fished a couple other trainee teams off in the last few months for the same reason.
We don't give trainees cruise control before grad fleet is over. IMO, they shouldn't be given GPS either.
But I'm old school. I still believe maps.

 

Maps re good but only when used by that one most critical piece of trucker equipment, the eyeballs. The non-truck roads are marked. The bridge height is marked. The good roads are marked. I use GPS and a map and ALWAYS refer to them using the best tools I have with me in the cab, my eyes and brain.

Oh. And my sixth sense. I drive a LOT in Chicago and have developed a fairly healthy skepticism and a love of going slo-o-o-ow, no matter which 4-wheeler behind me I irritate...and Chicago drivers get very irritated very quickly. If something doesn't look or feel right about that road, I'm not going to turn down there, no matter what Jill says. I'll move on down the road and let her recompute.

 

I have never turned Jill on... use my Rand McNally GPS and Atlas. Does me just fine.

 

Trainer and i have our differences but overall he is a really standup guy who has a solid teaching style and is generally unflappable lol.

 

WOW, just WOW. I've been following along 'in the shadows' lately, thought I would drop in & say Hello. I see that very little has changed since we left, LOL. Except possibly that trainees are getting dumber from Emul's posts. I miss 'the road', but I don't miss the BS with Stevens, just like KMac sitting for 3 days with no compensation, there is NO EXCUSE!! The company that Hubby is with pays detention on BOTH ends!! If they can do it, so can Stevens!! (of course I've always suspected that Stevens gets paid when a company breaks the DLD, they just don't bother to pass any $$ to the driver}

Oh, and for those of you that know Major Logan but haven't been keeping up with him, he is now residing in Juneau, Alaska. He decided to 'go back to his roots' and is working for the radio station up there.

Guess that's all for now, every one stay safe out there & enjoy Driver's Appreciation Week on the road while all the office & garage personnel are snapping up all the freebies on the yard!

 

Good to hear from you Trkshoney !!

 

Thankfully it was only 40 hrs in Tar Heel, LOL, just made me shake my head that not only did they not make DLD... In still wasn't loaded when In was supposed to be delivering.

Good to hear from you Trkshoney!

 

Noobie question....What does "DLD" stand for? I have gathered through reading that it refers to the delivery time I think...I just have not been able to find out what the acronym stood for officially.

Thanks

 

DeadLine for Delivery. The latest a load can leave the shipper in order to make on-time delivery. (Which in KMac's situation...)