What do you do when your company hits you with a bait and switch

What a lot of dispatchers don't seem to understand is that there is a human being driving the truck they are communicating with, and that human being needs rest.

How many hours did you have left? You still ended up being able to deliver the load on time? I'm having a hard time following the progression of the events here, so I need some clarification. What time of day did you start?

As for sleeping on the ramp, how long before that did you pass a rest area or truck stop? Stopping your day 30-40 minutes earlier means you can start your next day that much sooner and get a jump on traffic. You don't always have to max out your hours every day to still stay on time, especially if your delivery is less than 11 hours away.

 

We are terminated for stopping on a ramp like that.

DAX trucking is a state of mind. It's not difficult, but there is almost always something that needs to be done.

You have to adapt, with exceptional decision making, to situations like this sometimes.

You are no longer DAX. Your name is DRIVER. Understand?
They will refer to you by your new name at the scale house, just watch.

Think about where you want to be in 2 years at times like this, and keep that focus. And if you say it's going to be driving with Swift, well to each his own. But there is a whole world out here. Just keep your eye on where you want to be. Driver.

 

Quickly lease a truck - and show them who the boss is.

 

I don't do New Jersey.

 

Don't sell yourself short. Everybody is hiring.

 

So I don't see the issue, I would have picked up the load, planned on stopping for a 10 hour reset and delivered when I could deliver, no big deal. If it is late, that's their problem, not mine.

 

Swift is a forced dispatch company. Activities like this against drivers is why they are the worst rated driver satisfactioned certified company amongst their peers.

But there are ways to protect yourself using their very own rules. One is, never touch a message unless you know what it says in its entirety. Soon as you touch or open a message, no matter for how short a period of time they qualify that message read and understood by the driver. So you knew you were to be dispatched to Richmond in the morning, sent your MT call and got dispatched on the next load. Simply do not touch any new messages and go to your preferred rest stop in Skippers VA. Do your 10 and when you wake up now touch your messages and discover they bait and switched you, but it is all on them and the load will be late. That will teach the planners not to play stupid games.

 

I went there. Once -

 

Scotty is right.

The shysters at Swift (other megas too) do this #### all the time. Most drivers are too new recognize the scam. Some are too dumb. Some planner just wants to dump a stale load off his computer and get some fool to take responsibility for it. They will change pick-up and delivery times, pre-loaded/drop to live load/unload, number of stops, paid miles, lie about dead head miles, lie about loaded miles, or even change pick-up and final destinations between pre-plans and dispatch. A lot of drivers fall for it and take service failures that should be going to the planner.

As an example; one time I was given a load that had just enough time on it to go from VA to MI if the truck traveled 62mph, had no fuel stop, and the "pre-loaded" light loaded trailer was in a deserted lot with the paperwork in it. This was at a time before Swift allowed drivers to reply with adjusted pick-up and delivery times. It was either take it or leave it. Since the pick-up was an appointed time, I knew it wasn't a pre-loaded; and I left it.

The next day I am still in the same area and I get the exact same plan. Dates are different, but times are the same. Despite what the plan says, this planner clearly has a customer that wants to load at one time and deliver to consignee at a specific time. I turn it down again.

This time, just as I suspect, I get a phone call from the planner. He clearly has a sales pitch going for this load, and just about begs me to take it. I tell him, "Come up with some times that make sense and I will take it."

He says, "Well if I give you a 1/2 more for delivery can I count on you to take it." I will tell you now, it would have been a huge mistake for me to say yes in any form to that question.

I say, "Your the planner here, you need to do your job and come up with a trip plan with times a solo driver can do or put a team on the load." "I will agree to do any load a solo driver can do."

So, he says, "I can count on you to take this load."

I say, "No, do your job and come back at me with a load that can be done."

He, "Half-hour?"

Me, "No, I need a pre-plan that can be done. You need to do your job and don't call me when you can't."
He, acts cordial but he clearly wants to hang up on me. After going around in this way a couple more time we end the call.

As soon as I hang up, I get a pre-plan with the delivery 1/2 hour later. At the same time my new dispatcher calls from the other side of the country. He says, "Hey, I got this planner that says he needs this load moved and needs your help." So, I tell him the story. Now, this dispatcher is a total tool, but he has driven before so I can trip plan this thing over the phone with him and he gets it. My dispatcher says, "Your right, their is no way you can humanly do this load even though he has added 1/2 hour to the load."

I said, " And watch this."

Dispatcher says, "Watch what?"

I say, "While were on the phone here he will resend the pre-plan with the 1/2hour he just added eliminated."

Dispatcher, "No way."

I, "Wait for it." Boom, there it is, in less time then it took you to read this that slimy shyster of a planner took back the 1/2 more he just promised in yet another pre-plan and then went ahead and dispatched the load on me without me ever approving it. He was expecting me to approve the load with pressure from my dispatcher and get this flaming piece of crap load on me. It didn't happen. I just kept my new dispatcher on the phone for one minute longer to show him the crap that happens in OTR Swift.

My dispatcher had been with Swift for 5-6 years at the time but only on a dedicated account. He was new to dispatching, like his first month in. He exclaimed, "How did you know that. I have never seen that."

I said, "Welcome to Swift OTR. Deadhead me out of here. This guy has no intention of planning me after that." So, I got 600 empty miles out of the deal and taught my dispatcher a leason that he wouldn't have believed otherwise.

 

So what did you do?