Trans Am Still

I do pay homage to our queen. I joke around on this thread so not sure how to express so you understand how much I appreciate what you do on this thread and other places to help truckers ... new and experienced.

To tie in another of our past discussions, we all know the golden age of trucking is long over. A trucking career is nothing of what it used to be. Frankly, I kind of see it as a race. A race to the bottom until no person with anything on the ball or anything going for them will want to enter into a trucking career. Commerce and the general public will want to throw up their hands ... enter the automated, driverless trucks! Problem(s) solved.

 

Not to be a party pooper but, as I continue to read this thread, all I can do is sigh. These problems are the same problems I had, when I started with TA, oh so long ago. Until the man in the front office, realizes that he's the problem, not much is going to.change.

 

Corporate machinery grinds slowly .....too many middlemen to go through before a problem is even recognized. I do think they try to be responsive, especially once it hits them in their profits, but it takes far too long when you are losing good hard-working drivers everyday. Smaller companies are able to spot problems much sooner and take steps to eliminate them. Recently the King's company lost a long time dispatcher to some health issues. They hired someone new that had come from a mega-carrier position. It didn't work out very well, remember the pumpkins?, ....that dispatcher no longer has a job. I am sure they will go back to a mega-carrier.
My basic take on TransAm has always been that they have a hiring problem .....they do not adequately screen the folks that they hire. Probably because they do not want to pay the price of having good people in all positions. They hire and maintain a few good ones and expect them to take up the slack for the unqualified ones. I believe the two dispatcher system would be a good thing had it been properly implemented. Drivers always had better communication and miles when dealing with their regular DM. The problem is that they can't work 24/7. So a system that gives you 2 dispatchers that you deal with consistently sounds like a good idea. Two people that have the opportunity to know the drivers and their work ethic and deal with them appropriately. The problem is they got cheap.....they hired secondary dispatchers that work the same hours for less pay and are just that secondary. They have no interest in maintaining good communication or a good working relationship with their drivers.....because they aren't really their drivers. I don't know if I am explaining it very well .....they really changed nothing except for the hours worked, you still have people that are responsible for a driver's needs that are just place-fillers. They really did not give you a second DM. Unfortunately by changing the hours and days that a DM is on duty they gave drivers long extended periods of time that you are dealing with the equivalent of nights/weekend people.....and it will decrease your mileage. That is my understanding after listening to what so many of you have said .....that you will have to wait until your primary DM is on duty to deal with issues.

 

Yeah, really well. Good analysis and explanation.

I think it has always perplexed us on this thread, how a large company could put such little stock in training and experience to fill roles company wide. Don't understand TransAm's game plan on this score but as it all goes down, it is clear that is their plan. Use the automated systems to get things done close enough to right, keep the cheapest payroll and hope for the best to fill in the rest. Loose personal due to frustration over the system, just get a cheap replacement.

 

I drove over night, made my delivery at 5am. Pick up here in Garden city is 7am tomorrow to drop dead of 4:30pm on Thursday. So that is 26 to 58 hours of dead time to fill up this thread with posts.

Only have to drive 277 miles to deliver that long awaited load. Minor problem with my truck so I may get some relief, looks like they will send me to Dodge City to the KW dealer, likely can get a new load lined up out of Dodge after.

 

In Kingdom City for the night. Should be near my delivery tomorrow and will be able to deliver first thing in the morning on Thursday. Hope they do not change my current preplan.

I will chime in on this conversation about TA. One main problem here is the customer service people stink. This is why we have to fax because they do not do their job very well and do not communicate different situations to the dispatch system. This company is streamlined for as much profit for TA as possible even at the expense of its drivers. I have not really witnessed too much done here that is not for the advantage of the company. On the surface it might look good for us drivers but it is only to the benefit of the company. Here is an example- recent change- the new lifestyles leasing program looks like a good program for us but lets study it for a moment. 12 weeks of payments squeezed into 11 weeks so drivers can have off 1 week payment free. Sounds great, how can TA benefit from this? Lets look at how many drivers complete a 6 month lease, probably less than 20% so if they do not complete even the first 3 months and the driver quits TA gets to keep those extra payments and then re-lease the same equipement with the same deal. Do this enough and that truck pays for itself within 5 years. That is a lot of money to the company. Not so much money out of each individual drivers pocket but when added up it is probably more than we can guesstimate. I do not know if I explained that right but if I did I am sure you get the point. We make excuses for them not paying detention pay but they make more than enough to pay us that. When they mess up they pay little but when us lease guys mess up it cost us big time. What passport just went through should have gotten him paid the office screwed up and he did what he was suppose to when he was suppose to and they just stick their head in the sand and hoped he went away. When I drove for Central I got $35 an hour for detention and when they messed up and I had to sit for any extended period of time I got $275 a day, that was fair for the responsibility of a lease. The stop pay was different also. Now how could they afford that and TA not be able to afford the same? They were not in Swifts control then so I do not know how they are today, that was in 2008. This company is unusual for a reefer company meaning we don't haul too much other reefer product besides meat( I know OJ out of Fl) there is so many loads out of the east that come back west that are reefer loads that pay well. My guess for this is they do not want to train us for this as it would cost more money. Just my 2 cents.

passport hang tough.

Be safe out there

 

Why do you guys always post when I am either driving or sleeping? I have so much reading to do when I stop but I do periodically check when I am stopped before I go to sleep and nothing. Don't worry I will be asleep soon so you guys can start to post again. My feelings aren't hurt too bad. I might just cry myself to sleep now. LOL

 

I knew it, Cranky.