Systems Transport

Looks like a sweet ride... but maybe you should govern her down to 63 for a few weeks just to be safe

 

Well here's something prospective drivers ought to be aware of.

System's gives you paperwork with your pay before you hire on stating for instance you will recieve a .5cpm raise at the end of each year of service. I finished my first year with Systems about 3 weeks ago. I inquired with my dispatcher as to how i may ensure the raise goes smoothly. He lets me know i need to have a review and if i pass the review then i will get the .5cpm raise. I informed him that the paperwork said nothing of a review. He comes back with "I don't know what paperwork your looking at, but we've been doing reviews longer than you've been here".

It's clear at that point nothing i do is going to change anything. I've talked with several other drivers i trust who have had their raise held up for as long as 5 months in one drivers case and not a penny of back pay was ever reimbursed to said driver. With this information in hand I've informed the company they will receive the paperwork for my finished work when they send me the results of the review and enact my raise. It seems that things go much better for me when the company has an equal stake in the problem at hand.

Like I've said in previous posts i always maintain a minimum of 6 months expenses in cash so if i have to sit on a couple months trips before they cave it makes no difference to me. Having to pull these kind of stunts just to get them to do what they promised they would when i started working here is starting to get old though.

I'm hoping they get my review done next week and enact my raise so i can turn my paperwork in giving this story a happy ending.

 

So they did not give me the raise that was promised when i hired on. My on time % is 99%. My fuel mileage is at the top of the fleet. Their reason for holding the raise was poor compliance with the fuel solution, but offered me 90 days to get it up to the required level if i was interested. They stated if i did get it up to the required level in 90 days they would give me the .5 cpm bringing me up to 35cpm from 34.5cpm however no backpay will be offered for the 6 months they held my raise.

Needless to say I let them know that I would be looking for other Employment Opportunities internally and externally. I'll be calling our recruiter and getting in contact with the manager for the Spokane JJW facility to see if i can't transfer over to tanker work. If that goes through I'll be living in Spokane. If that doesn't go through I'll probably just move onto another company, but i really want some tanker exp. before i leave.

 

Would you expand on that, please? What is the difference between the two?

 

Fuel mileage is the mpg the truck is getting

Fuel compliance... When you work for a large company they will give you what is called a "fuel Solution". This fuel solution tells you where you are supposed to fuel and how many gallons you are supposed to put on. They do not pay you for fueling here and the fuel solution always requires you to stop in the biggest cities with the longest lines and most congestion because the fuel is cheapest there as the transportation costs are cheaper since all the fuel trucks are in the big cities already. I prefer to fuel in the boondocks because you can get in/out faster than the big cities and you deal with a better class of people. I save on average 2-5 hours per week minimum by not following their fuel solution. This is all time they want me to spend working, but refuse to pay me...

They don't like that but as they do not pay me to fuel They really don't have a leg to stand on IMO.

 

Have you done any math in an attempt to compare the cost difference of fuel + time waiting/idling + city mileage to pump + time in traffic vs. cost of boondocks fuel + wait time/idling + mileage to pump + OTR mileage gained as result of saved time fueling? Perhaps after you figure it all out, if you care to, that the ends will justify the means and they will accept it as such? Or they simply will not give a rats hind end, which I suspect, like so many companies, will be the result.

 

Most companies I've worked for have some sort of review process tied to raises. Raises weren't handed out automatically. Only if you received a favorable review were you given a raise. Eventhough you were complaint in most areas the fuel solution question seems to add a lot of weight to their review process. I am not aware of any company that pays the driver to fuel the vehicle unless they are payed by the hour. It's their truck, I think they have the right to say where it gets fueled since it effects how much each fill costs them.

 

Packing up to leave for Spokane tomorrow a.m. Nervous and excited at the same time.

 

Your getting into the Gray area of trucking here talking about logbooks. I'm on E-logs. If you want to make money in this business OTR with E-logs here's what your going to do. I'm not saying i am or am not doing any of these things.
-log 5 minutes for pre/post trips and fueling
-log 15 minutes for loading or unloading

Get stuck waiting at a customer for 6 hours and then they take 4 to load you. You can log 15 minutes on duty and then get rolling because if you want to make money in this industry you will have spent that whole time off-duty. Not saying i do or anyone should...

It comes down to the same thing with fueling. If you get stuck sitting in a fuel line for 30 minutes. Are you going to log it and lose 30 minutes of driving time or essentially $10 out of your pocket if your being paid what i'm being paid or are you going to log it as off duty and count that as your 30 minute break.

The point I'm trying to get at here is if i followed their fuel solution i would be losing personal time to rest,sleep,eat,sit here browsing the interwebs or whatever else i feel like doing during my off time because I'm losing off time. If i follow their fuel solution i will still make just about the same miles, but i will just be doing more work for free which takes me to my next point. If your getting into OTR trucking prepare to do alot of work for free.

Here's a short list of things that is in no way all inclusive of work you will be doing for free if you get into OTR trucking.
-Pre-Trips
-Post trips
-load/tire checks
-Loading/unloading
-Waiting in fuel lines
-Sitting in traffic (your paid by the mile remember)
-Miles 5-10% of all miles you drive will be done for free thanks to the zipcode to zipcode billing system (I've lost $1090.38 in mileage pay for the YTD in 2014 and we are just over halfway through the year)
-Talking on the phone with Dispatch,customers(you can spend well over an hour on the phone talking with customers if you have a load with 5+ drops and you have to call each one),Road work and Gov. agencies when you have hazmat/oversize loads (hope you like the hold music)
-Trip Planning (15 minutes minimum per load if you are OTR like me and never go to the same places and you plan it right)
-Waiting for your truck to be fixed (mine was in the shop for an hour last night,You think i logged on duty to restart my 10 hr break...)

That's just what's off the top of my head. Theirs much more.

My not following the fuel solution is not because following it would cost me so many miles. It's because at some point you have to say enough free labor is enough and that is where i personally draw the line. Other people draw it elsewhere. It's a personal decision.

I have no problem with them putting my .5cpm raise (not even worth talking about) as dependent on a review. However not listing that on their paperwork given to me before i decided to hire on with them makes them forgetful at best and thieving liars at worst. Given that this is a for profit business I'm going to lean towards the latter, but you make your own call.

As listed above. Everyone draws their line at how much free labor they are willing to give away. If you draw your line at different point then you should probably call our recruiting office LOL.

 

Very cool,Their is no better place to start out IMO and the Denver fleet is paid by the % instead of the mile. The guys over there claim to be making pretty good money and seem pretty happy beside some personal issues with the terminal manager there micromanaging I've heard no complaints.