Stevens Transport aviary

yeah, because everyone loves Archie....... Lmao!!

 

QUESTION BOUT THE E-LOGS:

Just say you have drove to your final and the delivery time is in the morning and they let you park at the receiver for the night. You had like 6 hours of drive time left when you pulled in there. So you put yourself in the sleeper when you got there. Now you wake up get unloaded and your done get a load assignment. Do you still have those 6 hours to drive or do they go away while you were in the sleeper?

 

You would run out your 14 most likely and get a whole new drive time after your break. You don't lose the 6hours though.

 

provided they actually look at the blasted thing

 

This is one of the holes in the system as it now sits.
The planners will 'soft plan' you before you're at the final. Usually the day before. You don't see this. Often, due to circumstances that no one can predict, that soft plan may go away.
For instance, suppose you have a load delivering at 0700. You've spent the night nearby at a TS, then head to the receiver.
You're soft planned on a pickup at 1300 only 10 miles away, but your receiver takes forever to unload you. About 1100 your still not in the dock, so the soft plan goes elsewhere.
They'll look for a load for you when you're finally unloaded. If it's like Safeway or Target, that could be at 1400.
But this time, often there are no more loads left for today.
Guess what? You'll be first in line for a load tomorrow.
Now your DM was suppose to check your hours to tell the planner, however, since you're leaving the TS at 0600 with a full break, he figures you'll have a pretty full book of hours when you're unloaded.
The planner will have figured the same thing when you were soft planned the day before.
No one could see the problem at the dock.
And it could be an OS&D problem or any one of several others.
The point is, they may look at your hours and figure you're fine, but the previous receiver may gum up those plans.

Yes, the DM is suppose to look at your hours and tell the planner. The planner is suppose to look. But the reality is they often do not.
Some DMs are very good, but others are poor.
That's why it's good for you to get to know the planners in the different areas and develop a relationship.

This morning there were 239 trucks loaded with produce. About 120 were scheduled to deliver. Some didn't due to late loading. Some didn't due to poor trip planning. 8 were planned to deliver to a Walmart DC, however WM overbooked so it arbitrarily canceled all loads scheduled after 0800 and require the planners to rebook them.
No time available until wednesday. So those 8 trucks are sitting. All are gathering detention pay courtosy of WM, but all had soft plans.
Guess who was scrambling all day.
The game goes on.

 

Oh yea...and those late loaded trucks?
Can you say repower?

 

Oh don't get me wrong, i have a very good idea of what the whole system is capable of. and all the stupid things that can happen on account of the 3 sides of the equation having humans involved. doesnt make it any less aggravating when you put all pertinent info in the circle of service and then..... Everyone completely ignores it. SMH

 

since were on the topic of dm sort of i just got out of grad fleet and dont have one assigned yet. any good ones still looking for another driver lol i liked the one i just had he kept me moving but he told me he cant keep me which means i get to go through the same old thimg again with a new one

 

We all go thru that task.
One DM does not fit all. Remember, it is to your advantage to learn all you can from your DM, but develop them as a tool in your arsonal. Don't wait for them to do things, be proactive so that you are more in control.
It is especially important that you become familiar with and know the different load planners. You will always take that relationship with you from DM to DM.
Load planners are the ones who get you your loads. They are the ones who learn to trust you with certain kinds of dispatches.
Every load planner that works meat for instance becomes gunshy of even the thought of a Tyson load being late. Learn to keep a positive attitude when hauling these and the planner will notice. There is actually a 'late factor' built into every driver's profile that shows up on the front screen. Planners notice this.
If you move their loads without complaint, and do it timely, they remember. After a while, you get the better loads.
Nothing is perfect and they won't always do you right, but if you get to know them, they will be more helpful to you than just depending on your DM.

 

I've got a question that I have not seen talked about on here yet. On the newer trucks with the regeneration systems (DPF) Have you guys experienced any problems with them yet?

On the buses we have they have cat engines on some and cummins on others but they all have the Regen system on them and we have been having nothing but problems out of them. The regen system will put codes on the dashboard to signal it needs to be regened and when we try to do a manual regen it works it allows the manual regen but after going down the road the same codes will come back up and sometimes you can do another manual but most times the check engine light comes on and a few minutes after that the stop engine light is coming on. Once that happens it's game over and you have to get the bus towed to the cat dealer to get fixed. The regen systems for these buses is horrible.