Stevens Transport aviary

Emu... do you feel like you have stepped through the looking glass?

 

Wow, you just can't please some people. Hubby and I would be thrilled to just get an occaissional pre-plan. We are a full team and can't get pre-planned. Plus most of our deadheads are 20-25% of the miles for the trip. And the solo that is 'just' getting 2800-3000 miles per week??? We are lucky to get 3700-4200 as a team.

Anyway, looks like we'll be talking to you from time to time because they love to send us to Cali to run produce. Hope things are going well .

 

Ok, not thrillednwith this trainee trainee phase... assigned truck last thursday, inspect it write it up, shop can't find it for two days. (LTI numbee changed, they have old number), truck gets put in shop on Saturday, finally out on Monday. Dispatch tells us run a loaded trailer to the TA and repower it with a trailer coming back to the yard, and then get a load to California. Leave the yadd for an hour, get back and truck is deadlined again. Truck goes.back in shop, Tuesday truck is out, told to get empty trailer and.head to Hawkins TX for a load to Plainview TX... not exactly.Cali, but ok. Hook up to trailer, do PTI and notice coolant leaking.from engine. Take it to maintenance, they say it's.just the.overflow. OK... leave yard, get 50 miles from Dallas and check engine light comes on, low coolant. Call road rescue, they say add some coolant, I do, I then call them back and say I am watching it leak out. They send someone out and pull the load. We get fixed and afe reassigned the same load but pick ip and delivery moved back a day. Sit at loves for 16hrs then go pick up load, srive it to Plainview, drop it this morning, have pre plan for Dodge City to North Carolina run. OK, decent miles, that will help... just have to drop the loaxed trailer and grab an empty. Oh wait, no empty, none till tomorrow... so now we.sit at Walmart in Plainview waiting for an empty.

Grand total in first four days of trainee trainee run is a little over 600 miles. Have to get 7000... not at this rate. If this is supposed to be my introduction to Stevens I am not overly impressed at the moment.

 

That all really sucks dude. Sorry its starting out so screwed up. But things will get better.

 

LMAO...they kind of have to don't they? Not.much room to go in the other direction!

 

This is the time of year when Stevens is lowest on truck inventory. There are people standing in line waiting for a new(er) truck, but there are none to be had. The new 680's are suppose to be starting to roll in around in about two weeks. This will free up inventory. Poop runs downhill.
Trainers will turn in their trucks with 150-200,000 miles for new ones. Those used trucks will go out to company and first time Alliance drivers. The trucks they turn in (300-400,000 miles) go to the TtoT and Grad fleet.
In the meantime, they are cobbling together anything they can and as soon as the new trucks start rolling in, those older ones will be retired and sold.
I notice they are using my old truck (9346) for runs right now and it had 469,000 miles on it when I turned it in. Normally it would have been sold. But in fairness, it was in great shape.
Just be patient, grasshopper.

 

So here's today's story. I only post it to give you an insight into what goes on in the thinking process of people that have control of your life.
We were faced with a need to repower a load that needs 12 hours drive time to get to it's destination on time tomorrow. The shipper loaded late, was not the planners or dispatch's shortfall.
Since I'm training, it was first given to me to find a solution. Kind of like handing the T-1 student an atlas and tell him to trip plan.
First thing I do is sort trucks within 300 miles that are teams. We'll need a training or full team to pull this off.
I find a couple 'prospects' and then ask, "How can I tell how many hours are available to this truck to run?"
"Why do you care?"
"There's no sense in giving it to a truck that doesn't have the hours. You'll just need to repower it again later to make delivery."
"Don't worry. Let the night team worry about that."
???????
They honestly don't understand the concept of doing it right to begin with. After some discussion, and the group looking like deer in the headlights, I explained the concept of HOS and how drivers run their day.
They honestly were at a complete loss to understand.
The section supervisor sat down with me later in the day and asked me to explain the whole process all over, while he took notes.
I hope that wasn't to placate me.
No one in that section has driven a truck. They are completely innocent of any understanding of how it works. And they found it incredulous to believe the drivers would actually refuse repowers because they thought they were getting the short end of the stick.
I explained a solution was easy. Offer a good preplan (and stick with it) to the driver taking the load.
Again, that seemed foreign to them.
Be patient...It's going to take a while for me to train these people.

 

Is Stevens a good company? Gotta love those trucks and I dont hear any crap bout them, but those that are on the inside, how are they? Comparing Crete - Schneider - Hunt and Stevens. Yall have the nicer looking trucks

 

Based on the post directly above your's by a new office employee I would suggest you RUN the other way! Imagine having incompetent people like that controlling your ability to put food on the table.

 

and you think it's any different at any other larger company?
surely you jest!