TMC

got a 05 freightliner columbia small sleeper. don't know if u would be willing, but what about trying like ABF or something and working the dock for a while and then getting into a truck....i did that with yellow and the experience i got there was so valuable. just a thought

 

hey thanx for the advise i may check that out

 

Blanket TMC thread seems like a good place to vent. For the third time in two weeks I've been dispatched a load I cannot deliver on time. There is no reason for this, they know when I start my clock and it creates a problem that has to be dealt with on the dispatcher side. In and of itself not the end of the world, but it is a ridiculous pain in the rear trying to contact a dispatcher or safety by phone. I spent ten minutes with a ringing phone and nobody picking up. This seems to be more the norm than the exception and that is totally unsatisfactory. When we are out on the road we need to be able to talk to our dispatcher if there is a problem.

My other gripe right now is that I was just dispatched a hazmat load. I specifically told my dispatcher that I was not interested in pulling any hazmat. From what I understand the hazmat bonus is a penny a mile, and that is not nearly enough. I've paid to ship hazmat before and I have a handle on the value, I've got enough self respect to not haul it for a penny a mile. My dispatcher did not tell me this was a hazmat load and I didn't have a chance to check the QC before I got there because my dispatcher called and told me to hurry up and get there on account of the pickup time being an hour before I could actually get there. Basically I feel I was tricked into picking up this load, a load that I would not have accepted. A load that had a pickup time earlier than I could meet, and a load with a delivery time 5 hours earlier than I can make. My frustration level right now is as high as it's been since I started with TMC.


I'm seriously considering firing my dispatcher, I think when I see him tomorrow we are going to have a talk. My passport card should be in the mail by now and as far as I'm concerned that was a courtesy on my part, a courtesy that at this point I may choose not to extend. If I can't trust my dispatcher he is a liability and without value to me. Working for 30/cpm and 10 bucks tarp pay is bad enough, I'm not throwing in hazmat for a penny which on this run adds up to a grand total of $4.62. A buddy of mine who owns a small trucking company out in California made a good point telling me that it's not really about the money with hazmat at first, getting the experience is valuable. That was a solid point and I don't disagree, but getting duped into it on an undeliverable time table is more than I can swallow.

/rant
I forgot to mention something a couple of weeks ago totally unrelated to this rant, I had to stop at a tire shop in Phoenix with a drop and hook trailer and the tire shop pulled a .22 slug out of one of my drives. You know, it's reassuring to know they can take a round and still keep moving on down the road.... Honestly that was a real shock to me, I've been through some neighborhoods in the truck but I've never suspected that I may have been shot at.

 

Might have been a former TMC driver taking a shot at the truck,,lol.

Seriously sorry to hear about your troubles with the company. I too had a few loads that were impossible to get to on time, but I did. I hear more bad than good about them now. Makes me feel better about my decision to leave.

 

It gets better, I was pulled over in IL because the driver side placard came off while wheeling down the road with this hazmat load I wanted NOTHING to do with. They checked my truck reg. trailer reg, wanted the emergency response sheet, shipping papers, my license and of course my last 7 days of logs. The trooper said he was going to give me a warning if everything checked out which it did. My logs were in order and so was the rest of the paperwork, he printed out a sheet that as of yet I cannot decipher. I'm hoping it's a warning. Just a super week so far. Also it turns out it's $25 flat rate to pull hazmat for mileage or percentage, no per mile bonus. It's better than a penny a mile, but not by much.

 

First off, if you get kicked a load and cant make your appt time, call your FM asap and let him know. YOU are the driver, it is YOUR log book. It is YOUR responsibility to know when YOU started YOUR 14 hour clock and how far YOU can go in a day and YOUR responsibilty to communicate that with YOUR FM. Im not saying there isn't crappy FMs at TMC, everytime my guy goes on vacation or takes a lunch it seems like he gets crappy FMs to cover for him.

Second, YOU are the driver hauling the load, YOU are responsible for knowing what YOU have on your wagon. YOU are responsible to check YOUR bills for accuracy (i.e. destination, type of cargo,etc). I have been here over a year, and i have NEVER got to a shipper, got loaded that second, and had no time to look back on my qualcomm if needbe or ask the shipper what i was hauling if i didnt already know.

Finally, freight is SLOW right now. S L O W! If you told your FM you prefer to not haul HM, but that was all there was being offered in the area where you where empty, which would you prefer; no load and no money for a day or a HM load?

Truckin aint easy, somedays are good, somedays suck. Some weeks i get over 5000 to the truck, some weeks i get 1200. Some weeks i get home for a 3 day weekend, sometime i have to stay out for 2 or 3 weeks. TMC is like any other service based company out there you can either learn to roll with it or it is gonna roll over you.

Just my 2 cents,
Thanks.

 

I'm not sure if this is the level you feel compelled to talk at or obligated, but I'm not an idiot. I'm aware of what freight looks like right now, I'm aware it's a responsibility of mine to make sure my FM knows when my hours are low even though they are posted on his computer screen, and the computer screen of the load planner when they assign the load. What it looks like to me is that I'm not going to be able to just hurry up and get somewhere when my FM asks me to from now on. I simply cannot rely on his judgement to ensure that I'm getting a load within my windows. It's aggravating because I don't want an adversarial relationship with my immediate company contact, and the way I will have to treat loads I receive is going to come off that way. Perfect example, today I spent some time on the phone with my FM and his boss giving the run down on what exactly happened with that load. Despite it being a pretty serious meeting I was put in the EXACT same situation again today minus the HM. I'm sitting waiting to get loaded with a load I will have to cheat to get delivered on time. I don't get it, this is a new problem for me here, the first month all of my loads had plenty of time to deliver on time. I appreciate your attempt to belittle and pontificate, but that's not exactly why I was posting. Just because you've grown comfortable being dumped on is no excuse for me to just shrug and accept it for myself. Maybe you'll pick something up from the way my issue shakes out?

 

Take that information (load times, etc) that's in the qualcomm with a very fine grain of salt, it's rarely ever accurate. The load planners are lazy scumbags, who just push off everything to your FM to deal with.

This includes the pickup time. After a while, i just ignored it and 10 times out of 10 i was loaded anyway, even if i wasn't there at the time TMC claimed i was supposed to be.

Don't sweat the small stuff, man. If they call you out on it, just point the finger right back at them, don't let the little things stress you out so much, if you don't feel comfortable taking something, call him and tell him that. Be bluntly honest in the fact that "You'd rather sit." I did it plenty of times, and still talk to my FM to this day, and i don't even work for them anymore.

If they're worth a #### they'll understand the issues that you're having, and if they're not you should take the advice that i gave you in that PM and tell them that you want Justin H. His phone doesn't ring more than once, and he calls you back if he misses the call, he's a good kid, and takes great care of his drivers, i pushed hard for everyone i trained to get him, and he takes good care of them, too.

 

Thanks eckz, I'm going to look into that. I would love to be able to contact the company when I need to and we all know that the need arises plenty frequently enough. The load they sent me on after our meetings in Des Moines, loaded in Bettendorf IA at 1530, was actually loaded and ready to move down the road at 1815, and had to be in St. Joseph MO at 0700. It is not possible to make that delivery no matter what your hours look like. My dispatcher says don't worry just take it I'll stand behind you, but that doesn't make me sleep any easier if my logs get audited. I got to St. Joseph at 0100 this morning, went to sleep and drove to the consignee who had no parking at 0630. I've been going over it in my head and there just is no way to deliver this load legally without having it repowered somewhere. I picked up a nasty cold in Des Moines which is probably making me much more of a grump than normal.

 

I just hopped on here to see the TMC threads to see what is happening in their world and don't know your history or background. With that said you really need to work on letting this small stuff roll off your shoulders. I fully agree with eckz. You have to take those times with a grain of salt. You are in control. That's it and any FM knows that. If you say you can't do then that is the end of it. Anything else on their part is against the law. They know this and will never (at least should never) push you to do something you say you are not able to accomplish. I have 6 years driving and I have never been given the "do this or else" speech. If your in that position for some reason, you need to get proof for one and legal assistance next. Going back to what eckz said, when they give you a load. If the times don't fly then tell them (which you said you did. Good for you) and then drive when legally possible to both the pick up and drop. I have always went the extra mile with a second courtesy call post pick up to say "I want to make sure you understand I can't get the load there by the delivery time. I can however get it there by XXXX." That's my take on it. From the posts of yours that I read it seems to like your job well enough and I commend your dedication to doing the job right. If more driver stuck to the rules, and did things the right way then the industry would have a better reputation.

Just my two cents.

Keep trucking brother and good luck on keeping the deck full!