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

lol. Exactly. And of course it's the reverse to some degree after spending the greater part of a week on hometime and adjusting to driving a car or riding my motorcycle. The truck feels huge for those first few hours when I return although it definitely feels the most natural at this point.

I go a little nuts too driving an automatic car on my hometime. I find myself wanting to shift it like the truck and I resent having to hit my brakes constantly just to scruff off some speed.

I will say that I have become a more truck friendly car driver though since having this job. I definitely give more space when passing in front of a rig now.

 

So it's Friday and I'm at a Pilot in Channahon, Illinois near Joliet.

I'm a little worried that I may be parked here for the weekend since I turned down a load earlier this morning. Not sure if the DM/DL's punish us for turning down loads but I'm hoping not. I can only imagine the secret inner workings within the circle of Driver Managers/Driver Leaders and what they say about us drivers. I don't want to be the problem child but I also need to stand up for myself a little.

I have been getting nothing but short to shorter medium runs for the past couple of months. The days of those 1500-2000 mile loads seem so far behind me. I know they are not that common but I guess I assumed I would get one of these loads, at least 1000+ miles, every once in a while interspersed with the shorter loads.

When I did have those longer loads I would average from high 500's to 600+ miles in a long day. Now, with these shorter loads it seems I do a lot less than that in one day with traffic and/or scaling and/or redistributing overweight loads.

I've had a few medium length runs since then. I consider medium length about 600-800 miles. Not sure if this is what you seasoned drivers consider medium. Any input would be appreciated.

I've been roughly going back and forth between the near south and Midwest ever since, doing these medium length runs. No complaints really with these but I have been asking to move out west when possible. I also understand that I need to be where the freight is. Understood. This is the nature of the business and I'm actually pretty happy to drive in different parts of the country although I do prefer not to stay in one place too long. And I prefer, if possible, to not get stuck in the Northeast/MidAtlantic/DC/Pennsylvania areas any longer than necessary.

So, as a new driver I'm trying to find the balance between meeting the company's needs, meeting my own personal financial needs, not accruing any unnecessary and additional stress and the needs of the customer. It's a work in progress. I'm doing my best to learn and get that balance.

This morning I dropped my load a few miles away in Joliet. Yesterday I was sent preplans for a short load picking up near Joliet going out to Missouri (about 230 miles) followed by a load piggybacked on that from a location near the drop in Missouri going down to Arlington, TX (about 750 miles). Sounds great to me since it's a total of approximately 1000 miles. When I stopped to check out the preplans, the Texas load was removed. It was odd because it was within a very short amount of time from being sent to me and dropped while I was still checking it out. I was left with the short run to consider. I denied the load asking for more miles. I've been promised a long run now for weeks, even prior to the last hometime.

Upon dropping my Joliet load I was resent the short load again. I refused it again asking for more miles. It was resent to me. I refused again stating the same. I need miles. I looked at the load more carefully this time looking not at just the miles but the weight and the comments. The weight was 44,980 lbs. The comments stated that it needed to be picked up with less than 1/2 tank of fuel. It was top heavy. If late the company would be charged $500 per hour. That my chains may need to be dropped (whatever that means specifically....drop them in the parking lot at the shipper? Sell them? Bury them in a little, secret hole to be dug up later like a squirrels pre-winter nuts?!?). I would have to create my own Bill of Lading since customer no longer provided them. And it was 230 miles.

Immediately I got a flashback to the Aberdeen/Baltimore fiasco from last week. I could foresee problems with that load since it was (almost) as heavy as this one, it was in the Baltimore metro area and I had more fuel than the preplan recommended. That load took 7 times to be scaled times at the closest scale, the T/A in Baltimore which is packed with trucks and under renovation. It took the load getting reworked at the shipper to make it scale correctly, which involved traveling 30 miles in each direction between the shipper to the scales, back to the shipper to get reworked and then back to the scales. Those 30 miles in each direction were unpaid miles and they took 1:45 in each direction, each time due to traffic and rain. My day was killed with that load just getting it to scale correctly. So, I had a flashback to that situation when I saw this load. I denied it and it was resent to me with the DM/DL asking me to please take it. This was the same conversation as last week and when I gave in last week I regretted it.

I checked my available hours and I only had 7 hours left on my 14 for today. Load was already late to be picked up and it was due later today. Not very likely, if impossible considering the weight and the fact that it probably wouldn't scale right requiring a trip back to wait at the shipper while it got reworked. And then I would still have to scale and adjust my axles again to make it work. So, either way, it didn't look possible within the hours I had available.

I hate to second guess myself but I'm wondering if I should just take these low mile loads that I foresee as a problem and just grin and bear it or should I stick up for myself and demand more miles when I haven't had a long run in a very long time. I'm company loyal but I also feel I need to look out for myself and my paycheck some. These little headache loads are killing me financially and they cause me to get a tight feeling in my chest from the stress. This is something I don't yet know because I don't have the experience in this field to know whether to man up and take the load or stick up for myself like I did.

And yes, if it was a choice between sitting here at the Pilot and not making any money, versus the potential $60-75 I would make on this load under that stress, I would choose to sit. My health is not worth that little bit of money. My feeling is that there needs to be a little more give and take. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Give me a decent run every now and then and I'll run the crap runs that don't pay. I dont know what to make of this situation but I feel like I did the right thing by standing my ground and refusing the load.

I don't think I'm a problem child. I know I need to earn my stripes and get my lumps, especially this first year, but overall I think I do pretty well. Other than the trailer getting stuck a while back down on that onion field delivery down in Georgia (this was deemed "non preventable", incidentally, and would not go on my record or require the Close Quarters Training), I have never delivered or picked up late, never had an accident, always accepted loads regardless, no violations, complete all my training as requested, send safety messages and ideas back to my DM/DL as she requests, etc. Not a huge feat by any means, considering my tenure in this position, but I don't think I'm a problem child or difficult. I'm wondering if they will consider me one after this load refusal today.

Any thoughts?

Also, in the same vein, what is it with shippers and these 45,000 lb. loads that require being reworked because they won't scale out as originally loaded? Doesn't it cost them more money and manpower to rework these loads? And now we have to create our own bill of lading? It sucks to not get paid for the additional miles and/or time required to get these loads scaled. I must be missing something.

For now I will sit here and make the best of a cool Illinois breeze and debate the merits of my decision.