You probably won't like this advice, but...

It all depends on whether you're OTR or not, but there are certain things you can do with either to make you become a DM's favorite driver:

OTR:

1) Don't refuse any loads. Even if you can't legally run a load from point A to point B, pick the load up anyway and work out a swap option or get the delivery window rescheduled. DM's hate drivers who won't work with them.

2) When at a company terminal, talk to your DM. Make small talk with him/her so they remember you when they talk to you on the QC.

3) Don't be late on any load. If you are running late, ask your DM to reschedule the window.

4) Give constant ETA's and PTA's every day.

5) Drive safely. This falls in leau with line 1. If you take a hot load, don't drive it outside of your HOS. Believe it or not, DM's like a driver that will stand up and say no sometimes when the driver knows it isn't legal or safe to run.


Local/Line haul

1) Show up to work 30-45 minutes early everyday ready to clock in.

2) Don't complain about a task given to you. Do the job you get paid to do and keep your mouth shut.

3) Talk to your DM/boss and other drivers. Be friendly.

4) Learn as much about the job as you can. Most bosses love a driver that takes the initiative to learn about the company and it's operations.

 

Hell every time I stop in our terminal I see my dm he knows me by name and keeps me moving. Don't complain about your loads get it on time.

 

To reiterate Ghost Ryder's great response ... at most larger carriers, driver's are literally "graded" on a weekly basis. They have a variety of methods to analyze overall driver's performance and reliability factor, some of these methods are simple computer analysis and grading within a given fleet looking at time efficiency, miles driven, fuel costs, OOR miles, etc, but others are implemented when a driver "gripes" about this that or the other on a regular basis, either on the phone or on the qualcomm. These little complaints often do get noted. DM's don't need or have time to deal with chronic complainers. And it's not DM's who can make or break a driver, it's planners at corporate ... who pay close attetntion to a driver's "score" when a hot or long load with a critical deliver window comes up.

But a driver has to learn to balance a can-do attitude with a "I'm not your fix-it driver" so some DM's don't constantly put you in difficult positions because you've demonstrated you can get them out of a jam of their own (or some other driver's) creations.

Also, if an opportunity to get a restart presents itself to get a restart (say over a weekend out), even if it means being very creative with time, and breaking for 10 then hoofing it for 12, repeat, cross country to arrive in time to get a restart before delivery Monday morning, do it. A load planner wants to put the longer loads on drivers with a full allotment of hours rather then deal with a bunch of load swaps, while up against a tight "solo schedule".

 

that type of dispatch has been around since the Greeks moved there armies. when i dispatched back in the 70s hated some driver hanging around my desk telling me everywhere he has been sitting for the last 30 days. i am trying to do a job also, so let me do my job and get you moving. there is nothing wrong with just doing your job in a safe manner and making deliveries on time. most good dispatchers with take note of that and dispatch in your favor on most loads.

 

That's why I said to make small talk.

 

Ghost Ryder hit it spot on with both types really. And you can do all of those things without kissing rear.

Some of these things need to be bent around where you work though as well and some of them bent by applying multiple points he made together. When I was OTR I would refuse any load a weekend dispatcher tried to give us. Being a team, our dispatcher pretty much had a plan for the week that just wasn't set into the computer yet and taking something from them would screw that up. He was glad whenever we refused. One of Ghost Ryder's points of understanding operations and knowing patterns was what allowed us to make those decisions. The weekend dispatchers only go off what's in the computer and I knew when Monday morning came around, shipper X would call in the morning and want three loads picked up that day and that would be part of a 6,000 to 7,000 mile loop for the week that always ran the same way. We knew that, our dispatcher knew that, but to weekend it wasn't in the computer so there's no way that was going to happen in their eyes.

 

This is what your daily QC communications with your DM should look like, in my opinion:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good morning/afternoon/evening sir (or ma'am),

Todays date is 06/17/2013 and time is 1400

D01 (first delivery) delivers to City of Industry, CA on 06/24/13 @ 0630

ETA to D01 is 0615-0645 on 06/24/13

PTA is TBD (To Be Determined if you are unsure of your Projected Time of Availability)

D02 (second delivery) delivers to SLC on 06/26/13 @ 2045

ETA to D02 is 2030-2100 on 06/26/13

PTA is 1300 on 06/27/13 (this tells your DM that you want to park after you deliver the load and get your 10 hr break in)

Truck number is XYZ and driver number is 12345

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Short, sweet, and to the point. Don't have your DM spend a bunch a time reading a long winded QC message. This will tell him/her everything they need to know.

 

If you have to kiss butt your already a loser, I see brown noser all the time at my company and they make me sick..Just a discusting horriblie way to to get in good graces..Thats how the office girl gets the office managers job.....Blow your way to top.?? ....sorry but if they know you kiss butt they will clown you and laugh behind your back....