Stevens Transport aviary

I remember why hubby and I hate doing repowers!!! Had a load going into Stockton, CA for delivery at 11:00 today (Wednesday). Spent Monday night in Kingman, AZ, got a message Tuesday morning from Produce asking us to repower a load at Bakersfield that was at his last pick and is due in Austin, TX Thursday @ 06:00-08:00. We agreed and headed for Bakersfield. About 90 miles out we got another call asking us to go on up to Tulare because he was still loading, repower set for 21:00. Going to make it quite a push, but OK. Driver shows up for repower, has no idea how much load weighs, and hasn't scaled, but has the tandems in the 4th hole. We scale, and the tandems are at 35,260. Pulling it back 4 holes to make weight below 34,000 puts us in 8th hole!!! We slid to the 7th, leaving us at 34,060 but still a little long for Cali, and call Produce. Told to go to last shipper for rework. Drive 35 miles north to Dinuba and last shipper.....who is closed. Call Produce, told to sit tight while they work on it. About an hour later, QC telling us to go to Grimmway, 2 hours away for rework. Total time spent, 7+ hours, $80 spent, and we don't have time to make delivery!!! We are now crossing Arizona on I-10, complete with dust storms, rain storms, and flash flood warnings to make the new appointment of 04:00 on Friday.

 

@TRKRSHONEY Good Grief

 

You have to wonder what some people are thinking!! Whole trailer of tomatos, so let's stick a few pallets of honeydew melons at the very back!!

 

Twice now I have picked up produce where the third and final stop is grapes. Twoce now I have told Produce there is no way that is going to scale cirrectly, can we pick the grapes up earlier. Twice now I have neen told no, and twice now the loads needed to be reworked. Even more maddening was the first time I was coming out of San Diego, first stop near Bakersfield, next two in Coachella, asked to pick the coachella loads first since it is sort of on the way to Bakersfield. Told no, loaded in Bakersfield, then backdown to Coachella, got the grapes, scales wrong, call produce, told to go back to Bakersfield for rework.

 

Produce in Cali is dispatched by Eddie and Robert. Neither have driven so they don't understand the issues of loading and weight distribution. If your load delivers to the same place (not multi drop) there should be few reasons for loading preferenec. But there are some and they usually involve mixed product transit temps.
As an example, berries and tomatoes need to kept at different temps. The air exiting at the rear and being drawn back along the bottom of the trailer (in a perfect world) is designed to keep product evenly cooled. However, tomatoes are often not thoroughly cooled. So they give off some heat as they sit in the trailer. If the grapes are in the rear, the air being dumped out of the chute will keep the temps more even than if it's passed by the tomatos first and picked up some heat.
By the way, it's the shippers that place the order of pick, not Stevens. Target and Whole Foods are the most picky.
When you call and report an overweight axle and the choice is leave some product behind or reload it, the shipper will usually agree to reworking the load. But before there is a weight ticket, they are adamant about the way the produce is placed on the truck.
Believe me...the load planners and dispatchers don't care one way or another, but a trailer that has been loaded out of order without shipper permission, then arrives with ANY OS&D begets a flurry of emails and finger pointing that would blow most people's mind!

Your point on loading is well taken. I will begin (today) in trying to pry some latitude from Eddy and Robert.

 

last day in the Bahamas.... got here on the 19th and will be headed back in the A.M....... not looking forward to it, however if i hit it big in the Casino tonight, i shall stay another week and fluff my responsabilities once more. everyone have a great day!

 

And the repower saga continues!!! Delivering at 04:00 and NO PRE-PLAN!!! Do the planners/dispatchers not realize that we can't just sit at a receiver for hours waiting on them to come in and decide to dispatch us??? And no truck stops for miles except little 'hole-in-the-wall' places that aren't likely to have spaces. Besides, whose going to run from one to the other looking for a spot to park right before rush hour?? Guess we'll flip a coin and head for one of the larger ones. Of course it will be in the wrong direction and add to our unpaid miles as usual.

 

Just because you don't see a preplan doesn't mean there isn't one. Often you are 'soft planned'. This is a preplan that hasn't been announced to the driver yet. Many times there will be changes to the soft plan before you are dispatched.
Yesterday, there were 71 changes to 19 loads from just one shipper. These are all loads that were softplanned wednesday and dispatched thursday.
Granted, this is also produce where the most changes will occur, but imagine being dispatched in Cali for a three pick load and having the pickup place and times changed two or three times before you can arrive or after. Think of those out of route miles!
Today, Safeway buys tomatos from shed A only to be told two hours later the crop did not yield enough and won't be ready until tomorrow. So they go to shed B. That changes PU times for the other two picks.
See the probelm?
I can tell you that in produce, being the most time sensitive, the planners fight constantly to garner every team available. I have sat between two planners for the last week and felt like I was the battle field as they wrestle for every team available. Doesn't work if the team isn't in the right area, but believe me, they fight for every team.
By 10am yesterday, every team in the pu areas had a soft plan or was dispatched...mostly soft planned.
Now that being said, I agree with your frustration over what appears to be lack of planning. I haven't figured a solution for it yet. For produce, which is the single largest commodity we haul, there is a very short window from order to shipping. I pulled loads off the board yesterday mid morning, built those loads and dispatched them before going home. Hard to preplan. But we have to reserve those teams or solo trucks for the expected loads to come in. So you sit wondering if we are just sitting around eating chocolate bon bons and watching the weather channel.
I don't blame you. I did too.
I'm open to suggestions. Anyone?
Now there is something one planner says over and over, to management as well as co workers that I agree with. (He's been there so long, he doesn't fear retribution) Stevens is a reactive company. We are not proactive. Therefor we look for things to react to and fix. Hence so many repowers.
Remember a year ago and it didn't seem so bad? Think what changed...we had more teams..finishing trainers. Those guys could drive all night if necessary. Now we have D&D...can't drive after midnight. Same restrictions for T-1 thru T5.
When do trailers cross the border in Laredo or San Diego? Evening and nights. Those teams pickup and can't run for hours.
Why did it change? Cheney is gone and politics have taken over as a fight for that seat ensues. I won't go into that specifically since I'll get my tallywhacker smacked!
But now we have to react to less teams to move the same freight. So we revert to solos that never should be put on these runs and rely on repowering.
Bleah!
Well, time to head to the barn and see what joy transpires!
Be safe.

 

One solution to the problem, from the trucker's side of things, is simple communication. When a driver is reserved by produce, the meat patch, and so on simply tell them that "they're on deck for produce or meat or whatever." But tell them that they're reserved for something. Sitting with no word at all is completely unnerving especially when you're out there in the middle of nowhere ... alone. Additionally, Stevens could invest in a few strategically placed drop yards and have the drivers head to one or the other depending on the loads you're building for them. It's kind of like running a cab company. Drivers need to be available as demand requires it, these small staging areas are one way to position drivers and, at the same time, give them some idea that they should be expecting a load from one shipper or another. The yards wouldn't need to be any larger than Laredo. It is also possible that some of the shippers, or receivers might help defray the costs for the piece of mind that a nearby staging yard would present. Just a thought.

 

Drop yards are a capital investment, which in Stevens case, would be a bad investment.
Better to pay a driver the few extra miles incurred when they D/H in the wrong direction looking for a place to park after unloading.
Of course it has to be done with the implied specification that you go to the clost T/S, not one 300 miles down the road.
My experience shows it is a 50/50 chance you go the right direction. With a little communication with a D/M, i would get paid for the extra miles.