To you Fleet/Driver Managers here..

Foolish or not, ask them. Have them actually explain it you. I trained a guy that thought 19 + 2 was 31. I gave him a blank stare and he said, look that's what the calculator says. I'm sure that if he can't do simple math he doesn't understand the HOS. I've also met some drivers that didn't understand the HOS and would write my name on their logs stating "I did this because **** ***** said I could".

I've also met a dispatcher that couldn't find NYC on a map, wasn't sure where Oregon was, and complained when his driver got a load to San Francisco because he was trying to get him to Berkley. It takes all types.

 

sure i'll chime in i can say and honestly say not once have i lied to any of my drivers i am always honest with my drivers and i tell them that up front, if one of my drivers is stuck in laredo and they are the 14th driver waiting in line to get a load i tell them this. being honest and up front with your drivers is very important.
as far as trying to get driver to run over their HOS I dont know who you driver for or have driven for but being a Fleet Mgr where i am now we are all legal all the way, no way do i encourage or try to make a driver driver over his HOS in fact if i find a driver running over his HOS and sometimes i do I shut him down immediatley, if he continues to drive and some have they are terminated. I dont have the option of telling my company driver to take it or sit because we are force dispatch, but the owner ops has a choice of taking the load or refusing and i tell all my owner ops if you refuse the load you go to the bottom of the waiting list if their is a waiting list, which is only the fair thing to do.

 

hi
sure as a fleet manager i get pressure to move a load, but i never ever do anything illegal to move a load. if a driver is running out of hours and cant make his pickup on time, i advise the planner and the driver is taken off the load or the pickup time is extended. most of the time another driver found to pickup the load, if a driver has picked up his load and cant make a on time delivery and i cant get the delivery time extended a relay is set up and customer is notified all legal all the time

 

well i can tell you that if you are a company driver and you have the available hours to do the load you will do the load, owner ops can refuse
but if they do they go to the bottom of the waiting list if there is one
no one does any pushing or retaliation what the fleet mgr does is monitor the drivers and make sure they pick up and deliver on time and we have close relationships with the planners and csr's so the load does get picked up on time and delivered on time. load planners do not dispatch a load knowing that a driver cant make the pickup or make the delivery.i am sure at times load planners will cut it close maybe too close and as a fleet mgr i have to make sure my driver can do this load, if he cant my driver is taken off the load or a relay is set up. if you went over your HOS by 1.5 hrs you got very lucky that you wasnt caught because if you had been caught you would have been shut down for the full 10 hr break. i am sure alot of drivers get away with this. but we do look for this constantly.
I dont know how long you have been gone, but as far as now planners do not hold on to loads until the last possible minute. when a load comes across the planner tries to move the load, and when a driver is assigned a load the driver has 30 minutes to confirm the load or the driver is taken off the load. i get drivers who want to pick up early and deliver early all the time and sometimes i get that for them, its a matter of me going to the csr and asking if this can be done.

 

hi

the reason the drivers hate the night dispatchers is because there is lets say 5 to 7 of them handling 3500 drivers and on the day shift there is say 50 or so fleet mgr's handling 3500 drivers at night its really hard for a fleet mgr to really concentrate on a problem per se, the phones are a constant ring and its a all out war

 

now we work a 2-2-3 and thank god i do work on the day shift 6am to 6 pm i work every other fri sat and sun meaning i get two wknds off a month and in the middle of the week i will work a mon and tues and get wed thur off etc anyway they have like 5 or so fleet mgrs on nights maybe 8 and for the workload they have they seem to do a good job.

 

i totally agree a fleet mgr has to treat the driver with respect and build a relationship with the driver, i have seen fleet mgr's fired just because of the way they have treated drivers. never yell or scream at a driver even if they are screaming at you, the driver is a customer after all if it wasnt for the driver we wouldnt have a job

 

god i am so glad that i work for a company that runs legal all the way never every do anything illegal I am glad i dont have to be put i that situation where i would be asked to do this, obv i wouldnt do it but I didnt realize there are companys out there that actually do this

 

as long as theres desperate drivers.....nothing will ever change, they'll use you, abuse you and put the screws to you, all the while making it sound like you owe THEM something, i dunno.......maybe we'll get smarter. but untill
than...........BOHICA...................and chances are yer friggin boss is drivin a friggin Audi, or some other NON USA

 

The owners of the company I was with all drove American. I think there were like 2 VP's that didn't, but we had like 15 VP's so all things considered that's pretty good.