Stevens Transport aviary

Dang Tlea, I hate that for you! But id also like to thank you for the heads up.

 

Remember, meat loads are determined by customer's orders. Stevens anticipates according to historical demands for each week. (i.e., week before Easter brings lot's of ham orders, so Stevens stages trucks at the right plants, two weeks ahead).
Trouble is, meat consumption is down in the last 30 days and it's bucking the trend. This is an indication of the economy.
No politics here. I remember in my Business Classes (many years ago) how we were taught to watch certain items to forcast the economic trends.
Meat was one. Shoes were another, and believe it or not...french fries!
(fast food is an indication of economic trends)
I suspect Stevens staged trucks at the plants, but the orders never materialized.
Kind of like the fresh berries ordered a week in advance, then being rejected for 'bruised' because they didn't sell their inventory over the weekend. (no one ever saw Safeway do that, now did they!)
Refrigerated loads are down more than 18% over previous years for the last two weeks.
Another consideration on the spending habits is we just passed April 15.
Traditional for people to cut back on food around then.
Don't worry, tho...people will get hungry again!

 

OK guys, since most of the 'frequent flyers' on here are men I have a question for you. What's with all the sissy male truck drivers that are afraid of a little rain?? We were in Dallas earlier today and are now headed for Louisiana, been in rain all day. Stopped at a ts for fuel, another for a wash-out, and a 3rd because the GPS on the QC froze up and we had to call tech support. At all 3 ts, at least 75% of the truckers refused to pull forward after fueling because they would have to walk thru the rain instead of under the canopy!!

 

Obviously they never lived in Seattle or Portland!

or maybe they're bald. You know, all that rain hitting the chrome dome gets pretty loud...like rain on a tin roof.

Or maybe they figured they already had a shower this week.

or, or, or....
yea, I know. But look at it this way. They're the same people that don't pull forward on a sunny day because they have their heads stuck so far up where the sun don't shine, they can't see anyone but themselves.

 

Well, another great load here.
Will arrive 30 hours early, can't drop... just sit and wait.
Then another 30 hours before I can load again.
If it wasn't for the detention pay, I'd starve.
They paid me over $400 last week alone for detention.
Who's minding the bus these days?

 

As you told me it is the customers fault not stevens. Or the economy.

Nobody is minding the store, they are too busy dealing with the backlash from customers canceling accounts due to late loads.

Conversation at national beef yesterday as I was leaving with my load.
Stevens driver, I was told to hurry up and get here as you needed trailers
Guard, no we don't, nopick up # no drop trailer. We only need steven trailers if they have a load. Take your trailer and leave.

Yep another driver lied to by meat dispatch.

And the policy of asking everyday if you are ok for otd will NOT solve the problem.

 

I'm going to give this dedicated account another two weeks.
They either have too many trucks on the route (6), or just haven't gotten their ducks in a row.
This load I'm on has 60 hours.
It's 843 miles.
Even by Stevens standards that's 27 hours minimum.
I can run it in 25 hours including my break, with no sweat.
So I arrived here at the Hesperia Pilot at 0130 this morning and will leave at 1000 tomorrow for a noon delivery at Ralphs in Compton.
That's good for 6-8 hours.
Then they're telling me no load until monday evening.
So I'll head on down to San Diego and visit my wife, have lunch with some friends, then on down to the border for loading monday night.
Good thing the economy is doing so well. I'd hate to go thru 2008 again!

 

Well I have officially upset the trucking gods. Pulled out of the truck stop this morning and 7 miles down the road the fan belt fails. 3 hours later, new fan belt with a fan hub wobble. Stevens wants the truck to go to kenworth, and the nearest one 120 miles east. And it closed at noon, and so does the one in indy. So I am waiting for my repower so I can wait until monday to get a new fan hub again.

 

Geez, TL
That truck's been a PIA lately, hasn't it?
If it wasn't for bad luck, as the saying goes.

Well the stories just get better.
Got a call from dispatch:
"Have a load in Sacramento going to Indiana. I need you to run up there and get it and take off."
"I'm on this dedicated Heinz account."
"Nothing on the computer about that."
"What would you like me to do with this load I'm sitting on?"
"Oh, yea...let me call you back."
(few minutes later..)
"Lets have you go up north for that load in Sacramento."
"And this load?"
"What do you mean?"
"What do you want me to do with this load?"
"What load?"
I feel like I'm in the middle of an Abbot Costello routine.
I finally told her I need to be in San Diego on monday to visit my wife. She's there all week having tests done at Scripps Clinic.
So here I sit still. Can't drop early, can't drop at the yard.
Wanna bet I get another call asking me to go to Indiana?

 

We are like the wicked witch of the west. We melt when wet.