Stevens Transport aviary

You were lucky to have a DM that wasn't afraid to fight for you, ours not so much.

Emul, we have actually been dispatched on a produce load that was exactly what you described. We arrived a shipper, sat all day, got a call from Produce telling us 'product will not be available til next day, go to truck stop if you want'. Go to truck stop, go back to shipper in a.m., sat for a couple of hours, told to go to their other location several miles away. Arrive at 2nd location, sit til after midnight, told they don't have product, plus 'we are locking gates, you have to leave'. Back to T/S. Sit at T/S all day while Produce scurries trying to find shipper, get call about 19:00 to go to a 3rd supplier about an hour away, 'they will load you when you arrive'. Arrive at shipper, told 'it will be awhile, we have all these other trucks ahead of you'. Call Produce, who calls shipper, who immediately assigns us a dock, LOL. 15 minutes after we finish loading, get a call from original shipper telling us they will have product ready the next a.m., "Thanks, but it's been taken care of'"

Our complaint in the whole 'Pre-plan' scenario is, sitting in downtown Austin, Houston, Chicago, wherever at 0600, empty, and trying to decide which way to go for a truck stop. Just a message saying 'head north, south, east, west when empty' would help.

 

i actually prefer produce to meat heres my situation. i did a 34 in cheyenne deadhead to tyson in nebraska sat for a day took that load to tyson in emporia expecting a drop and hook. get here and im told loads not ready your taking another 34. so ive got 55 hours on my clock just to take a 33 hour and 45 minute break with no pay until the dld time. trying to get out of this run to daytona now and get back west.

 

That's always fun. Unfortunately, it occaissionally happens to us as well, and we are a full team, no need to ever take a 34, but we have had 2 in one week before.

 

I can't remember in all the posts in this thread if there were any mentions of dedicated runs? I thought someone in here was on dedicated at some time. Anyways, a friend that I went to school with is on the Perdue east coast dedicated and I ran into another driver who ran Kraft east coast dedicated. They both say that they are busy as S h I t and run their A S S 's off.

Frustrations with DM vs planner/load assignment issues has got me looking into the dedicated as a serious option. Sure they have their own issues, but I feel that I can be better utilized. Eliminating the extra step of a planner because your DM will also plan your assignments, dealing with just one person will help with establishing a real relationship and generate more trust in one another...

So, I'm on the waiting list...

Thoughts???

 

Guess it's all about who you talk to and where they run. Some seem to be running more than they want, others way under. Hubby and I know some drivers on both ends of the spectrum.

 

The chances of Stevens opening a drop yard are slim, dim and none. I helped secure the RTX yard in San Diego and we nearly got one in Ontario, OR, but that fell thru.
I know exactly what you're saying on the subject of emptying out and not knowing which way to go.
The number of times I emptied out in Long Beach CA and trying to decide if I go 75 miles to Ontario, then dispatch 100 miles south to San Diego, or go the 85 miles to San Diego and spend time with my friends and family, only to get dispatched to Salinas!
I almost never won.
Often, we don't know. Take tonight for an example. When I left, every load for every truck was dispatched except 4. And had those drivers responded to QC messages or called back, they would have been dispatched too.
But the loads for tomorrow's and sunday's dispatch will come in tonight.
Now a truck that emptied out at 4 this afternoon in LA won't know what's going on and has to gamble which way to go. Plus no preplan because there are no loads (at that moment) available. But we'll get 30 or so overnight.
There is nothing more frustrating for a driver than to empty out in a market like LA on a friday afternoon and not know if they're spending the weekend fending off lot lizards at the TA or if there will be a load the next morning.
Every load planner and dispatcher was there late tonight clearing up as much as possible.
Tomorrow the repowers will begin. Those that decided they'd hold out for better loads and don't pick up and those that we dispatched that don't have the hours.
I introduced a different concept today. I don't know if it will catch on, but we have a driver that will finish his third pick tonight but will only have 10 hours tomorrow to run and nothing the next day. We had hoped the sheds would not have product and he'd get a 34 in.
So I set up a repower for tomorrow. I found a truck scheduled to do his final pick tomorrow afternoon at the same shed this first driver is at. I'm having the first driver just sit and tomorrow they'll swap loads. This will give him time to get his 34 (albeit in a Salinas parking lot) and start running sunday morning. It's a win win for everyone.
I had some static about it until finally they saw it benefited everyone. No hunting for a repower in Lovelock, NV!
Another driver completed his final pick, but his truck broke down. We repowered that one at the Peterbilt dealer in Fontana, but I made dispatch agree that when he's ready to roll (probably tuesday) he should get a one pick load that's ready to roll. Obviously the driver that got his load today was thrilled...a three pick and he didn't have to do anything!
It's a matter of changing some people's perspectives on how to do things. But it's like the old description of mating elephants...only done at high places, with lots of noise and it takes 15 months to get results.
I start my regular shift monday. It's saturday thru tuesday from 2pm to 1am.
So I'll be a full fledged member of the most useless group of people at Stevens....the night and weekend crew!
cheers!

 

if i ever get back to produce i will call you at least once emul. of course where im headed i expect to get back in the meat patch rut that ive been trying to avoid.

 

It depends if you came into the industry for the OTR lifestyle or just to make money and you don't mind driving the same roads seeing the same things all the time. I think most dedicated drivers come back to OTR because they are bored.

 

I posted this on another Stevens thread, but I know some of you tend to read this one the most, so I figured I'd post it here too.

Let me try and explain in simple terms how freight gets allocated at Stevens.
There is a load planner for each region of the country. One planner for each freight type: Produce, Meat and General.
Not each region of each product is the same. For instance, the Produce planner does the entire country except the Left coast. The second planner does California and a third one does WA, OR, ID.
Meat is divided up amongst several planners.
There is a hierarchy. Meat is at the top, Produce in the middle and GF at the bottom.
So, as an example, when planning S Texas, there isn't any meat, (GF covers the processed meat coming from Mexico) so produce gets first pick of trucks available. Produce really only ships from Laredo and Houston (bananas from the port). A lot of produce from Laredo is very time sensitive, so the Produce planner gets first dibs at any teams that have emptied out there. The second planner then handles everything else. Frozen, dry, processed meats...whatever.
If there are 12 teams available on tuesday and produce needs 6, he gets first dibs and GF will get the other 6.
The planners make their choice of any truck based on history of that driver and experience. If a truck has burned that planner before, he'll get picked only if there is no one else available. If that driver has done well by that planner, the planner will give them the best loads based on hours available and the critical needs of a load.
This same pattern of choosing is used by all the planners all over the country.
If the truck is a grad student, they'll use you but only for loads that have extra time or are non critical. If a planner has used a grad student and they've done a good job, they remember and tend to start running them more.
Planners get to know the good runners...the ones that 'git er done.'

Now once a planner has one of these trucks in their area, they try and keep them in their area or snag them as they pass thru.
So let's suppose you are one of those trucks and get a load from Laredo to Raleigh. A different planner, probably meat, will plan you from one of the meat plants such as smithfield and send you west.
As you pass thru Texas, on your way to where ever, the produce planner may spot you and try and use you for a repower that ends up back in Laredo, but the whole time knowing he'll get to use you for a new load out of Laredo.
You can get into a 'regional rut' just because the planners recognize you and tend to hoard you to themselves.
For some drivers, they love it. Others will get bored and ask to go elsewhere.
Now while all this goes on, the repower boards (I'm one of them) grab whomever they can and send them where ever the load needs to go, so you can find yourself suddenly off to another direction.
Also, DMs will physically wander over to our area and start 'begging' for a particular load for a particular driver. The planners will often accomodate the DM. This is where your DM is trying to get you home or to Aunt Sissy's 80th birthday party in Oceala, MO.
Drivers that learn the system and develop relationships with the repower people and the load planners, learn how to game the system to their advantage and keep running more.
Even in my short time at the boards, I have a list of trucks that I look at when I first log on and figure out who is where and whether they are a candidate for a repower. Then I look at which loads are in trouble and if one of these drivers can help me.
Often these drivers keep running, but all over the place. No rhyme or reason...but they keep running.

So the first thing a grad student has to do to be successful is prove he/she is willing to run. If you have a 1500 mile load spread over 5 days, don't average 300 miles a day. That doesn't impress anyone. Run your 500-600 miles per day and send in a repower request the second day. Then follow it up with calls to the repower boards and your DM and the planners.
You'll get known and you'll get more miles that way.

 

Stories from the night crew...
Driver calls looking for his Lumper money. He's a bit upset and rightfully so. He's been sitting there 15 minutes and nothing comes back. All the requests come across the QC to your DM and a night desk. Since your DM is gone, it depends on the night desk person to read the QC msgs and get it out. This person also answers the phone and works on repowers. From 1700 until 2200, it can be pretty busy at times. Keep that in mind when sending in a message. You may need to call if nothing comes back quickly enough.
Back to the story.
Driver is a bit upset, I ask him how much the lumper fee is. $45.00. I send it out immediately, I'm not looking for his message. Things are busy. But all this gets written down.
A few minutes later he's back on the phone, really irate. "It's suppose to be ONE hundered forty five." I'm sure I heard it right, but I'll take the hit. Note to self, from now on, find the message before sending money.
BTW, his request was right.

Driver calls. Been waiting for his repower to arrive. The other driver is 4 hours late. He's really mad. "Where is this guy??"
I look it up. Other driver is across the bridge at the Pilot...been there 4 1/2 hours. This driver calling is at the Petro. The repower was set at the Pilot.
My first question is, "Why did he wait so long to call?" Oh well.

Third driver calls. His shipper is shut up tight as a board and dark as can be. Why aren't they open? He's really mad. Only a short time left on his 14. I look it up. It's now 2300, his load was to be picked up btn 1300 and 1600. The shipper closes at 2100.
But I'm the bad guy because he now has to go to the truck stop, do his 10 and come back.
His parting remark? "Now that you guys made this late, I suppose I'm going to have to be repowered and lose it!"
Load was dispatched correctly at 1100. He was empty at 1300, 40 miles from the shipper.
But it's our fault.
My thoughts...where was he from 1300 to 2300?
Quien sabe?!

Best one of the night. Driver arrives at shipper to pick up trailer. His load assignment clearly states to bobtail over. He just dropped his trailer at a Walmart DC. But he scrounged around, found another trailer and headed to the shipper.
They won't accept the empty. No room.
Now he's mad because no one told him.
But it's clearly in the load assignment, as well as a freeform QC sent by the DM: Drop your trailer at Walmart and bobtail over to XXX where you'll pick up a preloaded trailer.
But it's all Stevens' fault because....are you ready?....."I have to READ the assignment TOO?! Why didn't someone just TELL me!"

Hope I don't get dizzy from shaking my head at some of these people.