Stevens Transport aviary

Have a 1900 local delivery at Sygma in Lancaster. ca. Being on a trainee team, I am hoping there is after paking there or somewhere close by. I'm at the Pilot in Boron at the moment as we are way early. Tried to call but they are closed during the afternoons it seems. Any input on hopw fast they unload or places to park?

 

Sygma is normally fairly fast.
I don't recall if there is parking there.

 

What's up with the 13'7" trailers? Is that accurate, or are they putting those stickers on 13'6" trailers in hopes to curb the toppings we've been having?

 

There is a dirt last lot on your left outside as you pull in. It is where you will wait also until you get a door... but as Emul.said, they are pretty quick.

 

Good God... are you one of the recruiters?

 

Yes saw and parked in the lot. It will do. Now we need a load so we know where to go tomorrow.

 

Good luck with that, we haven't had a pre-plan in weeks!!

 

I had my first one in a while earlier this week but it ended up not mattering... My delivery to New York late so my
Preplan out of New Jersey was cancelled..all was scheduled on Monday along with Sandy

 

Ummm. . . Nice to have a representative from the Stevens Alliance recruiting dept on the Aviary.

 

It's funny how preplans go. I don't know what to say that may encourage anyone. But this is the system:
A truck is dispatched to an area. Each area, usually defined by states, is assigned to a load planner. So let's take the PNW as an example.
Clay is the load planner. His area includes WA, OR, ID, MT, UT.
Any truck that is dispatched to his area, becomes 'his'.
When that truck enters the '24 hr' zone, where it will empty out within 24 hours, Clay will begin assigning loads.
To those that are empty first (Load Assignments) , then to those that will become empty (Preplans).
As the loads are tendered to us, Clay will 'build' the load. This means making sure all the details are in the load such as pu/del times/dates, destinations, addresses and all the other details of the load.
Normally a load is tendered to us thru the internet. It is up to us to 'grab' that load before the offer expires and is placed on a general load board for everyone. In other words, we get first dibs.
Usually, this process of accepting loads and building them is done in the morning.
Then loads are assigned, but during the day more loads are tendered.
There is a priority to assigning these loads that is largely defined by the dipatcher. The priority can dictated by the load. So as an example, he has a 1600 mile load that picks up tuesday and delivers thursday. That's 32 hours transit to fit into a 48 hour window. So it will go to a team. At the same time, he has an identical load that picks up on tuesday but delivers on friday. The same 32 hours transit time, but it has 72 hours to get there. This can be done by a solo driver.
The trouble is there may not be enough team loads for what is emptying out in his area on tuesday so he'll dispatch that team on a solo load, thereby guaranteeing a request for repower due to 'too much time on load'.
Again, the opposite may happen.
And to complicate things, he may have 10 trucks emptying out on tuesday, but 8 loads. Then tuesday, another 6 trucks empty out, but he has 12 loads.
Now the planner will assign loads to the trucks as he sees fit. So if you have burned him previously, you'll be sucking wind before he assigns a load. But if you run well, he'll get you right out as the loads provide.
In addition, there are cost constraints associated with loads that Clay must be conscience. Deadheading a truck cost the company money. It doesn't matter if that deadhead is 5 miles or 250 miles. There is a cost associated with it. So if he has loads available in Pasco WA and empty trucks in Portland or Seattle, he may figure on waiting another day before deadheading them there, prefering to fill those loads with trucks that empty out in Grandview or Ontario. Also the hours available to run vary from truck to truck and more often than we care to admit, DMs fail to change a driver's PTA (Projected Time Available).
When a load is dispatched, the dispatcher assigns a PTA of two hours after your delivery appointment. If you decide to stay in that town for an extra day to visit a cousin, go golfing or any other reason, the dispatcher doesn't know this, assigns a load only to have an irate driver refuse a load because "I told my DM I wouldn't be available".
See how complex this can be?
Now consider that the loads at the end of the day may be built, but not dispatched. Now that task goes to the night dispatcher who will assign as they see fit.
Load planners make decisions on your hours available, load needs, trucks available and far more.
Often there is a load that has to be picked up, but there isn't a suitable truck available. So it gets assigned to another truck with the hope we can repower it along the way.
Most loads are tendered to us days in advance, depending on the product. Frozen loads can be tendered as much as a week in advance, while produce loads are immediate. It is not uncommon for a buyer such as Safeway to be calling at 10PM wanting to change a pick or even asking if we can 'do just one more' load.
Now this part is hard for many drivers to accept, but we can't turn down loads from regular customers. That forces them to go elsewhere and we just taught them a new trick...how to buy from our competitor. So when things are slower, the competitor is whispering in their ears, "remember who got you out of THAT jam?".
Many times load are assigned to a truck but you don't know it. There are missing details such as delivery appointments or pickup numbers. This is called 'soft planned'. Once a truck is soft planned, it is no longer showing available.
Let's say Clay soft plans a truck on monday for a tuesday load. However, the missing data doesn't come in and tuesday comes without being dispatched. In a perfect world, he would know this and change load assignments, but trust me...the chaos that can be evident due to natual occurances such as truck breakdows, snow storms or receivers that take too long often times distracts the planner and they miss it.
Now keep in mind, freight comes in waves. An area ships according to orders. Most produce loads empty out on monday and tuesday. Buyers wait until monday to see how much of certain items was purchased over the weekend and the retailer's needs.
Consider they bought tons of watermelon last week figuring on many back yard barbeques but the weather was cold and now they have way too much watermellon. They may have had a tennative order in for 4 truckloads of watermelon, but now they cancel those loads.
Guess who was preplanned?
Orders for meat come in on mondays and tuesdays most of the time as well.
See how complicated this can be?
Now add in drivers that are lazy and don't run their loads on time, drivers that refuse loads or repowers (leaving the planning department scrambling to take care of a customer), trucks that break down and all the other incidentals...
There are planners that do an excellent job. I can honestly say that most do extremely good jobs and work hard.
But the nature of trucking and logistics makes it all very complicated.
But I hope this gives you a better insight into the dispatching process.