Stevens Transport aviary

I think you're correct TLH, the attitude of the driver with planners, shippers and receivers makes all the difference. This group of people are used to dealing with loud mouth truckers with bad attitudes and react accordingly. Handle yourself as a professional, calm and courteous and you will be amazed at what happens. Pre-plans, early drops, faster into a door, good loads out of a bad area etc. Maybe not every time but enough that you will notice. I too handle my own conversation with receivers to get an earlier appointment and not trust the planners to do it, If the load is going to be on time they don't care if you sit an extra day.

 

I am in a door and waiting to get loaded so being bored I took a good hard look at what I am making here at Stevens as a Grad Fleet Company Driver and thought I would share this for the new and prospective drivers to give them a realistic example of what they can expect...

These are the settlement totals I have received in the past two weeks... a thirteen day period from 11/14 - 11/27 and these cover all the trips in a thirteen day period from 11/7 - 11/20.

Take home amounts-

139.41
197.25
70.50
185.31
231.90

Total take home- $824.39

I went through Stevens School and did the sleep study and cpap through them plus insurance so i have about the max being deducted that one could... those deductions totaled $363.93 during that same period. So in reality after tax I made a little under $1200 net for the two week period.

Am I getting rich at that rate? Not even a little bit and it is less than I made on the job I walked away from to come here. However, I am far from starving and this is still part of the training period.

Bottom line, I am getting miles and making money while a solo company grad fleet driver at $.26 a mile. It can be done if you are willing to run the miles.

 

KMac, yes, that load was fubared by the csr from the beginning and running an extra 150 that first day and then having to hunt down a parking spot was contraindicated. I have stated several times that that was the ONE load that got repowered and there was never anything that could be done to save it other than a repower. Then people start posting about my "Attitude" like they know anything about me. I'm sorry I brought it up. Apparently it rubs some people the wrong way for someone to have a sense of self worth that is higher than theirs. I make rational decisions based on facts. I do not let my emotions or attitudes make my decisions. I have great respect for most people that post here, including those that have been trying to make me look like some kind of lazy truck driver because they do not know me. They are simply under a misapprehension as to my motivations, and jumped to a wrong conclusion based on insufficient information and incorrect assumptions. I would simply ask for a little respect back in the other direction. When I tell you it's not an attitude, that's what I mean, if you don't understand that, ask me to explain, don't just contradict me, it's not constructive. I find myself wanting to get combative and defensive about it because it feels like I am being attacked. I'm probably wrong about that.

On another note, the batteries I told the shop needed to be replaced yesterday were once again dead this morning, so as of an hour ago I am #20 on the priority list. I got the truck detailed and was able to convince them not to Armor all the floor. This thing still stinks to high heaven of cigarettes. Does anybody know of a product that will actually remove the odor? Will Febreeze help?

 

Most detail shops and car dealers use an ozone machine for smells. It's about the size of a shoe box and they run it for an hour or two and it works great. BUT, I bet they don't have one in the Steven's shop. Next time you are in a Walmart buy some charcoal granules, put some in a cup and just leave it somewhere in the cab and after a week or two you will notice a difference. Also buy a couple of bottles of 409 citrus and wipe down everything, walls, ceiling and cabinets in the cab to get that smoke residue off and If you have an inverter use a fabreeze plug-in. My wife smokes so every time we sell a car I go through this mess.

 

Sense of worth has nothing to do with that other than you didnt want bto run hard because the load was going to be repowered.Might have made the job a lot easier and less stressful for the person doing the repower on the other end.Dont you think.If thats the attitude I need to have self worth,then I quess Im going to be worthless.So the csr screwed it up.That means lets not run it hard because its not my fault.Que?So now lets hear your explanation on your cavalier attitude and why that gives you such a sense of self worth.You posted your thoughts on what your Dm said for everyone to see.It wasnt really hard to make a judgement on your attitude based on what you said.

 

I'm done wasting time trying to explain simple facts to someone who is just trying to argue. have a nice life.

 

fozzy, you are the one that stated your DM wants you to run close to 700 miles a day, and that you had refused to do that as a trainee trainee team, and your reason, you are only being paid $50 per day. That is the attitude you are being called on.

Now look at that choice you made, to not run 700 miles as a t&t... that choice will follow you to your solo, and you will be given loads with too much time on them, as you can not be trusted to run hard.

 

Got my truck in and out of the shop. Looking forward to getting off the yard tomorrow. Off to bed now so I'll be well rested for whatever they throw at me.

 

Well, we didn't hit the Powerball, so I guess our time-off will be coming to an end tomorrow. We were originally supposed to come back out on Tues, but it's just too hard to get everything done in a week, plus we really hate leaving the grandkids not knowing how long it will be until we get back. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and safe travels.

 

Well, I made it all the way to the final, well I'm 1.5 miles from there at a TS that neither the Qualcom or my own CoPilot software will admit exists. Delivery appointment is at 1530 tomorrow. That's what I get for volunteering to take any load that will get me off the yard. I am going to call and see if I can deliver early. I let my DM know I want to get home around the 10th, since I haven't had any official time off since beginning school, I have 7 days coming. I may not use them all, it depends how many miles I can run between now and then. I wonder how they will get me home, I don't think we have a whole lot of places we deliver to in my neck of the woods, we go by there a lot though it's usually on a meat load headed to the east coast. I currently live in Davenport, Iowa, although we are officially moved out of our apartment, my wife is staying with friends. I know there is a Kraft facility in town, I have seen our trailers there, but I've never been dispatched into or out of it. I've gotten a load out of West Branch, but the last time I went on home time they had me dead head from New Ulm, which is quite a drive, and I was Alliance at the time.