Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

yeah, I agree. I woke up this morning and the Falcon is no longer on CL, so probably sold. I've left a message for the Mustang owner. I haven't driven a 289 in a long time. Something to look forward to. Hopefully this guy calls back...

 

I'm currently sitting at the Pilot in Monee, Illinois across the street from the Petro. Waiting on a load. I'm hoping to actually get some miles since I haven't had a long run in a long time.

It seems all my runs in the past couple of months have been, at longest, about 600 miles. On average they are between 250-400 miles. When I talk to one of my mentors he tells me he likes those runs the best since they pay a little more and you can knock out a couple in a day sometimes. However, in my experience on the east coast, these runs take me much longer due to shipper/receiver issues and traffic. Lately these 250-300 miles runs have been taking me a day or greater due to shipper/receiver issues and traffic. I remember on my best days back out west running 600+ mile days. Out here that seems impossible almost, at least in the Northeast.

I feel like I've been getting the worst runs lately compared to those runs I was getting a couple of months ago back out west. Nothing lately seems to go smoothly as far as shippers/receivers go. Once I'm on the road and driving things seem to go much more smoothly but it is everything outside of driving that seems to be slowing me down.

Recently I was stuck after my hometime running on the east coast. I was in Maryland, north of Baltimore waiting on a load. I had just got off a headache of a load nearby and was waiting for something different. They sent me a load just under 45,000 lbs. from Aberdeen, MD (north of Baltimore about 30 miles) down to Virginia. I understand that the first year, especially, that I need to pay my dues, take my lumps and get the ###### runs. I understand that. But it seems the crap runs lately are unrelenting. There's just no break from these short, headache runs whereby I'm not making any money. My checks have been terrible for months.

So this load stated in the comments that I should not fuel up prior to picking up the load since it was near 45,000 lbs. Unfortunately, before receiving this preplan, I had already fueled up. It wasn't until after I had full tanks that I received this preplan for this load. I went back and forth for hours, literally, on the Qualcomm with one of the driver managers about the fact that I had a full tank of fuel contrary to what the comments suggested and that this load would undoubtedly not scale right.

I asked him whether I would get paid for the miles running between the scale and the shipper if/when this load didn't scale right. He said I would not get paid for those miles. Just north of the pickup in Aberdeen, MD there is a scalehouse. The closest scale house to get this load weighed was down in Baltimore at the T/A off of I-95. That was 30+ miles away. So if this load was not to scale out I would have to drive the 30 miles south to scale then 30 miles north to get it readjusted. He insisted I take the load and so I said, screw it, ok I'll take it.

Sure enough, I picked up the load the next morning and headed down a congested I-95 South to the T/A in Baltimore.

** Now, a hint about this T/A...they are doing some kind of construction lately so the fuel islands and scale area are a hot mess. **

I pulled into the T/A and it was packed. Trucks everywhere, parked haphazardly. I scaled and parked somewhat sketchy along the curb and went inside. My drives were over. I had a couple of holes to play with on the tandems so I moved them forward and rescaled. Parked again and went inside to get my 2nd scale ticket. Still over by about 40 lbs on the drives. ####!!! I dropped my landing gear and roughhoused the 5th wheel to move up a hole. Now I was over by nearly 1,000 lbs on my steers. ####! That won't work. There was no other way to get this to work. I considered how far I had to drive south towards the drop before I would hit a scale house. From what I understand each 1 gallon of fuel weights about 8 lbs. so if I could burn off some fuel before hitting the first scale house then I would be ok. I considered it, looking at the distance to travel. I can't risk getting another overweight ticked (re: the unfortunate newbie mistake I made way back when back in S. Dakota) so I decided I would have to go back up to Aberdeen and get the load adjusted. Not a happy morning. It was raining as well, torrentially and there were two accidents on I-95 between Aberdeen and Baltimore. One just happened before I slowed down and met it whereby there was a guy walking around somewhat dazed with a bloody head. He was already being attended to by some passerbys and those others involved in the 4 car collision. I slowly made my way back up to Aberdeen from the T/A, it taking almost 2 hours each way due to very slow traffic and the rain. I got up there, waited another 1.5 hours (not enough time for layover pay) and headed back south to rescale again at the T/A Baltimore.

I got it to scale out finally. All in all it I had scaled this load a total of 7 times to get it right. In the rain. At the T/A with no parking and packed with trucks. To say the least I was unhappy.

I chugged my way down to South Boston, Virginia to drop the load. It was a slow trip due to the heavy weight but it turned out ok. I waited another day or so and got this load from Amherst, VA up here to University Park, IL. I parked down the road here in Monee, IL and have been waiting since.

I try to learn something everyday I drive. There are not many days that pass whereby I do not learn something. As I always say, I'm happiest when I'm doing what I was trained to do - driving. I love the challenges of new docks to bump. I love the challenges of driving, even in traffic sometimes. I love the technical aspect of new backs. It's seems that the part I dislike the most is dealing with fighting to get paid for things with the company and the issues at shippers.

I'm guessing that the negative aspects of this job are universal with all the companies and probably even worse with some of the smaller companies.

I was thinking the other day about how nice it is to pick up a preloaded trailer. When I was down on this last load picking up in Amherst, VA I was prepared to get live loaded. I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the shipper that it was a preloaded trailer. No waiting. I'm thinking that since Swift is so large and the fact that we have so many trailers out there that we have the convenience to pick up preloaded trailers whereby the smaller companies would not have this benefit. Am I correct in this? I try to look to the positive side of things.

There's a lot more I understand now that I get out on the road. I'm still on the fence concerning some aspects of this job. I'm kind of on the fence about whether to park at some of the truckstops where there is no spot provided when that truckstop is full. To date, I have not done this but when the lot is full I'm tempted to start doing so when my hours are close to being up. I see other truckers doing this all the time - parking near the scales, making their own parking spots, causing additional congestion, etc. Not sure if I should just give in and do it as well. I'm reluctant because sometimes it seems to make things worse and I don't want to contribute to that. But the selfish side of me keeps thinking, hey, if these guys do it when there is no parking then why should I? I'm still reluctant to do it but becoming less so over time.

 

That's good to hear. I try to take everything with a grain of salt. I was much happier when I first went solo back in March. I was driving back west then.

My biggest issues with Swift have been issues with pay. I had a total of 13 days layover during training and paid $55 for a taxi out of my pocket per their request that I do so. So far I am still going back and forth with them over the other remaining 10 days of layover pay (I got paid for 3 thus far) and for the $55 taxi receipt. This issue has less to do with Swift as a company and more to do with a particular person at my terminal (not my DM/DL) that is supposed to be taking care of this. It sucks to be owed money for work done or expenses paid out of pocket and to still be fighting for this pay in August - 6 months later! That is my biggest gripe. It's not so much the process being slow, although it shouldn't take 6 months to get reimbursed for this, but the gripe is with the fact that it seems certain people just don't give a ####. It's not their pay. It's not their money they worked for or paid out of pocket so why would they care. That's what bothers me.

The other issue, although more minor, is the attitude of some of the planners. There have been times where they are as snide as can be. When I was trying to get my last hometime all I could think about was my mom being sick with cancer and not eating. I needed to get there. The attitude I got from some was just do this load, make us more money, screw your mom and your family situation. Left me with a bad taste in my mouth that I've been trying to get out ever since.

Overall it's been a good experience but this pay issue has me a little soured at the moment.

 

Regarding purchasing the car during my last hometime, neither seller ever got back to me. I reconsidered it and it didn't seem financially responsible to purchase a car out there anyway, paying insurance etc. while I don't spend much time out there. But, being as I now spend more time with my family out in Virginia and less time out in Washington, my technical home address, I'm going to ship my motorcycle out to Virginia after my next hometime out in Washington State.

I have a hometime scheduled for 8/25 out in Tacoma. I'll use my bike during that time, run some errands and after I leave and get back on the road I will make arrangements to have the bike picked up and shipped out to Virginia so I can use it there. Problem solved.

 

Good info. I appreciate it. I hadn't thought about not fueling more than 1/2 tank before pickups. I will keep that in mind.

With that last nightmare load, I went back and forth via Qualcomm with the DM that was filling in for mine. It seemed like he was relaying the messages between me and the planner. This particular DM had been pretty understanding in the past so I considered it doing him a favor. Initially I sent back a Mac 9 with adjusted times considering roughly what it would take for me to get the load scaled and then adjusted and then rescaled but from that point forward me and the DM went back and forth for the greater portion of the day with me rejecting the load and him pushing for me to take it. It sounded like the planners were giving him a lot of crap to have me take it. I did my best with Mac 9s and the messages to reject it but they were pretty persistent. I ran out of hours that day due to my 14 being up. It was a wasted day with all the back and forth for this overweight load. Then it took me the whole next day to pick it up, scale it, adjust my tandems and 5th wheel, have it readjusted at the shipper + travel time, go back down to the Baltimore T/A and rescale it multiple times and then deliver it the following morning. Overall a 287 mile load took more than 2 days from the time of the original back and forth messages, to the pickup and scaling to the delivery. Out west I could have done that load in 1/2 day.

I use my QC, my Rand McNally GPS and my atlas when planning my routes. I don't always go by the one they route me on the QC so I do take that into consideration.

Good advice though.

 

I like those runs too down to Laredo. I don't mind driving in Texas as long as I stay out of Austin, Dallas and the other bigger cities during rush hour. Texas = miles in my experience.

I am not fond of driving in the northeast either. Supposedly we are paid more in the NYC metro area for driving but I haven't found out exactly where it is that we get paid more C.P.M.

In the past when I complained to my DM about driving out in the Northeast and getting more runs out west, what I have been told is that once you are positioned out in the northeast you are kept out there due to freight opportunities. The only way you can get moved out of the northeast at that point is to put a hometime request in somewhere else. So now what I TRY to do is after I do a hometime out in the Richmond, VA area I immediately try to put a hometime request in back west in Washington State. It kind of works although you are not necessarily moved out of the Northeast until it is closer to your hometime.

Something for your husband to consider in regards to getting those loads outside of the Northeast. If you put a hometime request in, from what I understand and from my limited experience, is that you can adjust your hometime via your DM as you get closer to your hometime or just cancel it altogether once you are out of the northeast.