What to do when a dispatcher tries to force a load on you?

Does that information take into account the hours that have been spent under the current load? For instance, if a person had 20 hours remaining, drove 10 hours off that clock today and had 2 hours to do a drop and hook the following morning, does that computer take this into account, or does it not update and get itself up to speed until the empty call?

 

To further add a trick to your growing bag of tricks, if a dispatcher says you will run 1200 miles from Mayberry to lands end or wherever that 1200 pay miles end up.

Take the 1200 divide by 35 as you stand right there on the phone or satellite with dispatcher. You come up with a figure of about 34 hours. Meaning it might take that long to get loaded, run over to the delivery and unload it. You already know you will need two days to do this straight through. Drive the 11, stop for your 10 sleep, take the next 11. and drive that. Day three requires 11 more hours and then 4 you are there.

Remember fleets calculate 45 and 50 to help detect late drivers. Moving along at a slower average gives you a little bit of extra time anything that might come up during the next load you are taking.

What about all of that? Get to point? It's very simple If dispatcher says load has to be there tomorrow at this time, tell him no. And get a team to do it. They should make it... maybe. Today is sunday, if dispatcher said it has to be there wed you will be able to make it ok.

Any way I better shut. up. for myself before I ruin anything here. There has been too many times in my trucking Dispatch slips a load that is already late and then yell when Im late. I started calculate from the moment dispatcher says the words Mayberry to Lands end, 1200 miles due tomorrow, can you do it? Using the conservative 35 mph dividing, you already know you cant. And should not take this load Unless they whistle up a team to absolutely snatch your trailer anf vanish with it.

 

If you keep up the recap on the paper logs, you know what you did or did not do on the 8th day previous to today, thus whatever it is on the 8th day you pick up at the stroke of midnight barring other considerations for the coming new day.

 

Running on recap is actually pretty easy when you learn the formula for calculating it... It's very simple.

1. Think back to 8 days ago.
2. Do what you did 8 days ago, no more, no less.

 

There was an aggressive travel agent at the company. He'd beat the bushes looking for loads, looking for money. Drivers not on his board hated him, but drivers on his board loved their pay checks. Had a driver ask to get put on this dispatcher's board because he heard the money stories.
First load out, he was to go to a shipper and load on a Thursday, run 650 miles drop that load ASAP and reload a stupid money load that delivered Monday 1200 miles away. The first shipper was slow by 12 hours. Driver didn't get out until late Thursday. He went to a truckstop and parked. He got up Friday, but didn't get the load delivered until Monday. Of course, they had to pull the money load from him. Travel agent was extremely pissed.

I asked him why didn't he make that run and he tells me it was because he sat around all day in the truck on Thursday. I then told him the bad news, every other driver on that dispatcher's board could have made that run. You are the weakest link.

Lots of people have this idea in their head about getting their own truck, so no one can make them do what they don't want, or force them to drive or anything like that. It doesn't work like that. Being an owner operator is a performance based driving. Swift figures their runs at what...50 mph? Why is there ever a late load at Swift? 50 mph average and someone can't figure out how to make the big play? But if you're an owner operator, paid by the load, and the load is paying 5 figures for an overnighter, you're going to be able to pull out all the stops and deliver this load on time. Yeah, benchwarmer all season, but if the coach gives you the opportunity to play during the playoffs, the planets will align and miracles will happen and you will win game MVP. Only in the movies. In real life, the fighter who they copied Apollo Creed after gave Rocky a Hebrew slave arse whipping and KOed him in the 15th round. There wasn't ever a need for a RockyII because of the knockout. How's that for reality?

Bottom line, a slacker at a bottomfeeder will definitely be a slacker at any other company.

 

I'm getting ready to go train with Swift and hopefully be hired on after training(sad to see myself saying those words, but I created the hole I am in). I'm doing a lot of trip planning practice and things like that, to calculate how long I could make certain trips and what certain loads would pay etc in order to get a decent idea of my earning potential.

Swift really do calculate their load plans at 50mph. That has been confirmed to me by speaking to a few different drivers now. I can't imagine driving that slow, so unless you are stuck bumper to bumper, you should be early to every single delivery. The low pay may make it difficult for you to earn a big check, but there is absolutely no reason that anyone should get service failures if they calculate your average speed at 13mph below the floor.

 

Find out what the highest paid Swift driver makes. Usually, the top guys will do 1.5x to 2x average. I wouldn't bother starting the truck if I wanted average.

 

Two comments.

One. Motivating. Awesome.

Two. Swift is slow out there on the big road, who are they to average 50 when it's closer to 40? Do you understand my thinking? Same with all other slow companies who are slow. Now 50 is not slow, but really hard to maintain unless you have NO traffic no blocks no construction etc.,

Finally, I enjoyed the previous posts. If I was a company man looking for good drivers, I fire the lazy and have you two (Three) in the trucks and loading by end of day.

 

I would ideally prefer 3500-4000 miles each week, with no resets if possible lol. I want as much money as I can possibly make and for the dispatch to be like nah don't give him the ####ty 100 mile load, plug him in a 2500+ mile prep plan.

 

Yes, their system takes into account real time hours. THAT being said the planners working during the day shift during the week are the A team. By the time you get to weekend graveyard you have less than the A team.

I spent 30 years between stints driving, working in large and small businesses in sales, marketing, sourcing, and as a small business owner. Therefore I have an affinity for computer systems and software and how they impact operations. That's why I could speak the language of what planners were up against.

Get this fact:

The AVERAGE miles per week on a typical Driver Manager's fleet is about 1900 miles at Swift.

What does that tell you? There are a LOT of Swift drivers hanging around Swift terminals complaining about not getting miles and in the same breath telling you WHY. They don't run at night, refuse to go to New York, don't run west of the Rockies, play video games all day when they should be sleeping and getting ready for the possibility of getting a last minute night run, or park it if they see a single snowflake.

In a 62 mph truck I averaged 2500 miles a week. All but one of my trainees did at least that much.

Therefore, to get to a 1900 mile fleet average you have the majority of drivers looking for any excuse NOT to run.

Here's another thought for Swift drivers to help your driver score. DON'T use Mac 9 (load acceptance macro) to adjust times on a load offer if you think the pickup or delivery times are weird. Instead, when you get a weird load offer call your DM and ask what the ACTUAL pickup and delivery windows are. The computer generated load offer won't give those. The load offer might calculate you CAN deliver next Friday at 8:00 am, but won't tell you the customer is okay delivering by 11:00 pm. The system simply tells you you HAVE to deliver at 8:00 am.

Once you have called the DM and determine you can meet the CUSTOMER requirements, just accept the load on Mac 9 "AS IS". Don't alter the times. Use the Loaded Call to adjust times.

It works BOTH ways. Sometimes you get a load that might require you sit on it a day or two before a live unload at a receiver. In those cases I would call my DM as soon as I have loaded and start asking to T-call the load at a terminal along the route. Don't just sit back, take your time and dawdle on that run. Try to get it to a terminal along your route for another driver to pick up a day or two later, then get yourself on another load. Planners and DM's love having proactive drivers to help increase THEIR bonuses for fleet efficiency.

Another hint: if you are sitting at a terminal with a BUNCH of other drivers waiting for a load, walk in and introduce yourself to the planners. Ask them if they have any local deliveries they need covered. After they fall to the floor in shock and pick themselves up again, be prepared to work hard for a day doing loads the daycabs can't cover. It's amazing how you can pull in at least a couple hundred bucks for a day's work, come back to the terminal and see the SAME group of drivers pissing and moaning about how they aren't getting any work. It's also amazing suddenly the planner will thank you with a sweet 1500 mile run.