Profile For John D.

Well I made nice with my dispatcher, but still didn't get a load so I'm sitting but all is not lost, I went to Mac Donalds and they have a big lot next door with truck parking and employees take their smoke breaks there and I got to talking with a lady and she is going to show me around town tonight and we're going to grab drinks.

The problem is my dispatcher only gives miles to guys that flirt with her and a few drivers dated her and she gives them all the miles and leave me sit. Then she tells me I don't run enough.

I ran a trash load out of Chicago and I kept getting more and finally I told her I am not a garbage truck and I refused any more garbage loads. After that it seems like I sit a lot. The truck only has a tag axle and I kept getting stick on the mud in the trash dump because of the raggedy tires. So that's why I refused any more.

Now I'm sitting in central Indiana hopefully I can get a box load from here.

I don't see no problem doing drinking on a 34. I just told her if she can't get me a load, tell me. That way I won't waste my time sitting and I can do drinking.

Wow, man. One month into this career and that's how you see things? Well you'll either learn to take a much different approach to things or learn to hate this industry. They don't hand anything to new guys. You have to prove yourself. You have to earn it. It doesn't sound to us like you get that at all so I would expect to do a lot of sitting with the approach you're taking and the attitude you have toward everything.

I am a professional and I need dispatch to be.

I haven't heard the first thing from you that gives any indication of that at all. How do you define being a professional?

This is the only industry that I know of that you have to "prove" yourself and beg to get work. My last job always was asking me to work extra. If I am away from home then I need to make it worth my while.

I don't see no problem doing drinking on a 34. I just told her if she can't get me a load, tell me. That way I won't waste my time sitting and I can do drinking. I am a professional and I need dispatch to be.

It don't matter I'm sitting for the weekend it seems. My dispatcher is too busy smoking and joking to find a load so she can call me by noon to let me know what's up. I've already warned her if by 7pm I don't get a load out of here I'm going to take a 34 and get some beer and get my drink on.

The Swift employee hand book says 2 weeks

That don't make it law. If you got to move on an opportunity do it.

As I have told my company "you will is me when I'm gone"

So I clicked the cb off and it's been off since.

Why? Cuz one guy said some dumb things? So you go a few miles to get out of range and turn it back on. Seems like quite the overreaction.

That is not the first time I have heard garbage talk on the cb.

That's touching. I don't keep the cb on anymore sadly. The last thing I heard on the cb was some guy drowning everyone out ranting about the Jews. He was telling everyone that the Jewish bankers are the reason freight prices are down for o/o. I don't know if there's any truth to this as I am a company driver.

So I clicked the cb off and it's been off since.

Hello, I am new to trucking and have been at it a month with no problems so far. I had one breakdown where the truck had reduced power and it was down for almost 4 days. My miles for the first month were 2000 miles and my dispatcher is telling me I am at the very low end for miles and is pushing me to "Run Harder". When I am being unloaded I stay on duty as my trainer taught me but some here say to go off duty, but I am afraid I will end up driving tired that way since I may end up having more hours to drive but no extra time to sleep.

My training was a nightmare and I was afraid to ask questions in fear of setting my trainer off as he had a hair trigger.

Some unloads are live unloads and one time I delivered and was being loaded at the same place and I was there for 20 hours start to finish. My dispatcher kept asking me when i was leaving but I don't know what to do, another driver tells me it always takes long there.

I am not sure what I can do different, I am getting many sub 300 mile runs and I feel like a regional driver. My dispatch says my truck is iffy and they do not want to send me too far from the terminal yet until they can get me in a newer truck. I am in a 2011 Freightliner cascadia with around 820k miles. I was told its the dog of the fleet and it was supposed to be retired but a guy wrecked another one and another one lost an engine so its around for a while.