Profile For Larry E.

It was a rookie mistake. something I read, before I got the job was to give feedback to your dispatch about the places we go and what's good and not good. on paper that maybe makes sense, in the real world it's not good

Hey everybody. I got my cdl last year and I've been with the same otr company about a year and a half. it's a smaller outfit, a white volvo mafia type. but it's pretty cool. I make decent money and get decent home time.

I noticed something odd, though. we have a contract with a larger company, pulling freight for them. they have about 20 destinations on this particular contract, and they spread the loads around to us drivers. here's where it gets weird.

if I get a run that I like, I'll tell dispatch that was a great lane. "that is a great run, unloaded fast and there's an awesome diner on the way" if it's a funky run, I'll tell him that was a difficult lane. I do it in a factual way. "that run was tough, they took 6 hours to unload me but I got it done" or "that is a hard run and the shipper is very small.

someone backed into my truck while i was on the dock" (yeah, that happened) and I leave it at that. I take everything, I don't refuse loads. I thought it was a good idea to provide basic feedback to dispatch, about the places we go. I was wrong. here's where it gets weird. if I tell them I like a lane, they never give it to me again. the ones I let them know i had difficulty with, I get sent those over and over again. I decided to test this theory. they had started including a particular run on my schedule, week in and week out.

it's a small receiver, so backing is pretty difficult and they take a good while to unload you. after about the sixth week of going there, sometimes multiple times a week, I told dispatch that I love that run. it's awesome, thanks so much for sending me here! they never sent me there again. I don't give feedback to him any more, but the damage is done. my friend works there and he has experienced the same thing. He gets sent on the runs i enjoy, i get fed the ones he likes. Even if we are on the yard at the same time, with the same hours. its weird.

I've had some problems with this dispatcher. he calls at 630 every morning, waking me up, asking where I am, my eta. he won't stop. he can see that I didn't get shut down until midnight, nevermind. he calls anyway. does it to everyone. we've had words over it. it does no good, so I turn my phone off at night. he made me miss family vacation over the 4th and I had to cancel our hotel rooms. not the end of the world, but there is obviously some animosity there.

He told me I was going to get a 34 on the yard, so i stayed up late the night before talking to the wife and kids, only to get woken up to knocks on my door at 8:30 am, being told i have recap hours i have to go now! I did it, but i told him we have to work on our communication better, because i stayed up all night and now im exhausted. that conversation didn't go well. He got an attitude and so did I. I try to be factual and professional, when i talk to people. but if they get a nasty attitude, i have a habit of matching their energy. When I put in for home time, I have learned to tell him that I need to be in several days before I really need or want to be home. he micromanages a lot, which is annoying. but I've never been late or had a failure on a load. is this normal? I've been thinking about switching jobs over it.