Stevens Transport aviary

Yeah the driver that just got off my truck was the same way.Only he really didnt drink coffee.It seemed like every 100 miles we were having to pull over for him to go to the restroom.He would get out and be back in the truck in like fifteen seconds.Im looking at him like,thats it.Young guy to.I was like dude,you need to get that checked out.His restroom breaks were like four to one of mine.OOPS, GOTTA go tinkle.BRB

 

Exactly why I teach my drivers to think and take the easiest spot in the truckstop.You cant fix stupid.

 

Was sitting in Limon yesterday morn and had a load assignment out of Holcomb going to National City.Decent load except that the delivery date showed Sunday April 8th.Hmmmmm,Im not the smartest guy in the world.But a delivery on Easter Sunday is probably not going to happen.Called the receiver,we are not open on any Sunday,lol.How difficult is it to put the proper info on a load assignment.Tell my new Dm to route me to the yard asap.He sends me the message back,why.You dont know me very well do you.I inform him that I dont need a ########## reason why.The last time I checked I was a contractor.Then I informed him not to dick around with me,Im not a grad driver thats going to accept shoveled sh-t.Quess what shows up on my q.c. about fifteen minutes later.You quessed it a repower back to the house,lol.Man I hate breaking in new Dms.Ran Limon to Fort Worth yesterday,sitting here bugging you guys.I had already asked a few other times to be routed to the yard.This last why set me off.I think he might have got the idea on this last one.

 

had an interesting good friday. Got up at my normal start time of 0500, had breakfast, sent in my daily check call, since I am still on paper logs, and then rolled out. Just after 0700 get a message from DM, don't move, send in a repower request, need you to repower a load going to NY.

My reply, sorry rolled over an hour ago. Besides the load I had was a Kraft to Kraft, fort worth, drop and hook... Why would I want to give that up to spend easter on the east coast?

Newer DM did not understand Kraft loads.... oh well love training the staff in Dallas ** not **

Then just before Memphis TN on 40 a flat bed long nose pete decided the truck in front of him was not going fast enough, they had been arguing over the CB for the last 10 miles, the box truck slowed in the right lane, and the pete went right under the trailer, all the way to the windshield.... Right where the speed limit drops to 55, and all those drug enforcements vehicles set...
So 30 minutes later, we snake our way around, and down the road to the west side of memphis where 2 trucks and a mini van tangled together... had to wait for life flight to take off....

Then my phone rings, "see you are stopped in west memphis, need to repower this load to hunts point." NO was my quick response... and he asked why, and I said you need to ask first, not assume I will just jump when you call....

phone rings again as I approach texarkana, "this is ____ need you to stop at the flying J to repower a load going to san anotnio for an 8am delivery." again my answer was NO, they did not ask....

Then a dump truck took out a penske truck on the 635 in dallas... another cluster....
finally made it to Kraft, dropped my load, and bobtailed over to the Stevens West terminal (pilot)... place was not even close to full....

well got the green light here at kraft, headed to denver, to spend easter with friends, and then deliver on tuesday am.

 

Life. Some days it sucks. Got my paperwork, pull around to leave and my serpantine belt comes apart. Shut it down just outside the gate not blocking traffic and now waiting on a service truck.

 

Amazing how they don't understand that as lease operators we don't have to ask how high when they say "jump". We had to be in MI this past week for an appointment that our DM had known about for several weeks, appt was prepaid, could not be rescheduled, etc. We had a load delivering in San Antonio and we called JP and asked for a load to get to MI. He sent us to Austin for a load headed to Canada with the statement that it would be an easy repower. As soon as we sent the L&R in, we got a QC from "Red" telling us that we were to repower with his driver in Dallas, no call, no explanation, etc. And we were going to trade a load for an empty and no pre-plan, Nope. Our DM says, You really need to do this repower, he's the Canadian fleet DM and he has a driver that needs to get back to Canada. We (not so) politely reminded him that we HAD to get to MI and we had arranged our load!! Of course, people being the way they are and 'holding grudges' when they don't get their way, we ended up sitting on the load for 2 days when we got to MI, but we still got where we needed to be, when we needed to be there.
Good luck with the repairs, and Happy Easter!!

 

Thanks, repairs took an hour and a half from start to finish. Actual time working on the truck 5 minutes. The old belt just gave out. Did no other damage. Stopped in amarillo tonight, short on hours today. Only 7 hours from denver.

Have to remind them at times we are not employees to be pushed and ordered around. And I am positive I got this crap load, 760 miles and 3 1/2 days to get there due to my refusals. But it works for me.

 

Thanks, repairs took an hour and a half from start to finish. Actual time working on the truck 5 minutes. The old belt just gave out. Did no other damage. Stopped in amarillo tonight, short on hours today. Only 7 hours from denver.

Have to remind them at times we are not employees to be pushed and ordered around. And I am positive I got this crap load, 760 miles and 3 1/2 days to get there due to my refusals. But it works for me.

 

ok, so i try not to post all my little begrudges on here. but i am at the end of my rope. i had been communicating w/ grad fleet dm for several weeks about the importance of me getting home as close to the 3rd as possible! well i spent about two weeks sitting around w/ total of 1800 mile. then 6 days on the yard to get gradded. new dm says i dont care if you put in your time off request 6 months ago! so iget load to cheyenne wy, drop n head to greeley, sit for three days pick up on the 3rd(2000 miles from home). put in repower request and call dm ask what can be done he repies nothing!!!! so i call his boss and explain that if i have to call one person at this company on a regular basis, it's not ok for them to have this kin of attitude twards me. in the next several conversations w/ this dm he pretty much tells me he is not willing to help me get a repower headed south or to help me coordinate my hometime in nc. as far as i have been informed that is his only 2 jobs he does. so i get back on the horn w/ his boss and get a new dm. seems to be really nice guy. so he calls me this morn says i owe him big... my heart starts to race... might i really be going home? he tells me he has a load delivering in florence sc at 9 am. i say great and ask about the load i just acknowlaged? hes says what do you mean thats the load you will run w/ and swap for florence load. so i ask how thats possible when my load doesn't pick up till 8pm sunday night. he cusses and says sorry. so i drive the three hours to this shipper and figure i'll take another unnessisary reset. when i arive the guard tells me they will load me tonight at midnight!!! well my dm has been at home for several hours so i wait through 16 calls and get the repower dept. they find the truck who will deliver in florence sc. and tell me it's all set up to swap this load for thier empy in the morn. i am sooo relieved!! finaly gonna get home!...... 10 min later i get a call from repower dept. saying sorry that driver refused to take this load said they have been promised a load to ca. he says the guy that promised theem that load wont even be at work tommorow and that they will be luck to even get a load on easter... but non the less they still refuse. i am 300 mile from home right now about to pick up a load that drives right by my home. not sure i am gonna cross that nc/sc border ... at this point i dont really care what the consiquences are!

 

Just like our sitting for 2 days, DM says, Hurry and get it there as soon as you can and we'll get it off you. We hustle, get it there, sit for 2 days waiting for repower, and when we ask about layover pay, he says, Oh, Canadian loads are set up different, we don't pay layover. And the repower that he arranged last Saturday (for Monday a.m.) just before walking out the door to go home, the driver's truck was in the shop. So Monday a.m. we get word that her truck won't be ready for 5 more days, load is due in Canada @ 1400, 240 miles away!! They then had to REALLY scramble because by punishing us, they almost made the load late.