OK, What Do You Make Of This

2 days could be another 600 to 800 miles. I know when it's time for my home time they might get me in the area a few days early but then I go and make pickups and relay the loads off.

Yeah, I've had weeks where I thought I'd be short and they turned out good just from the short relays I had on the last day. I guess I'm just still upset over last week.

It's funny, the load I have right now is bottled water from Maine, I'm delivering it today then picking up a load from a place down the street, and it's more bottled water. If people would just drink what they had near them I'd be out of a job.

OK, more paranoia: yesterday went OK, I showed up early everywhere and no one said anything. Came back toward home today and delivered my load. Got a message from my manager saying I had 2 new loads, the first one was short but the 2nd one would be longer. I only see one on the qualcomm so I messaged back "sounds good but I only see one". No response. So I finally call and say hey, what's up, I only see one. After a couple of tries at changing the subject, I press the point and he finally says "oh, it looks like they haven't been finalized yet". So I ask what that means and get some BS about customer service, blah blah. I think my manager just isn't showing them to me yet and I don't know why. He also made a big deal about delivering this short load on time tomorrow morning (and I've been to that place, they don't care if you make your appointment so I think it's an artificial deadline). So I think what's happening is that if I don't make it on time tomorrow I won't ever see those loads. He already said something about them being "high priority" so I'm guessing I'll be told that they had to give them to someone else because I couldn't do them on time, and I'll sit. None of that would bother me too much except that I think it's going to be close tomorrow and I'm not sure if I'll make it on time.

Anyway, I know you guys all think I'm paranoid but I'm sure there's something going on that I'm not being told. I don't think I have a bad record of delivering on time, and I've asked straight out if there is some problem, so I don't know. Maybe I've just been a PITA so they want to harass me in to quitting or changing to another job. And it will work, because if I end up sitting I'll have my worst week ever, and it just isn't worth working for as little as I made last week.

Freight isn't slow. It might be a bit cheap but not slow. Definitely take the advice a few have given in regards to seeing what you can do to deliver early, it will only help you get more miles and show that you're thinking ahead. In regards to you being punished, that's really hard to say because we only know one side of the story and it may well be that your driver manager / dispatcher just sucks. There are plenty of drivers out there who won't cut it in the long run and plenty of office personnel who won't either.

Yeah, and maybe it's going to be close tomorrow because I didn't try hard enough today. I try not to stop any more than I have to, but a few minutes here and there to send messages (on the qualcomm) or use the bathroom seem to add up. And I've had a lot of trouble with getting stuck in traffic or having the route I follow be a lot slower than i planned for. Maybe I really just am not up to the job.

I don't think it's that my DM or dispatcher sucks. I feel lie I'm being set up, like my manager wants to give me low miles but wants to make it seem like he's trying but can't do anything for me. Or maybe it really is just my fault, but I'd prefer that someone say "hey, you need to do better if you want more miles" than to play games.

Kurt, frankly your mind and your self conceived scenarios are the primary thing that's working against you. You are going to have a ridiculously difficult time in this career if you can't seperate the thoughts in your head from the reality of the fact that sometimes your dispatcher is working on the fly and can't give you the details you think he should.

You are going to have to relax and take things as they come - that's trucking, it's constantly a moving target.

One more thing - "trust" has to be the main ingredient in your relationship with your dispatcher. He needs to be able to trust you and know that you'll get things accomplished, but if you don't trust him, it is a totally one sided relationship that will never work right.

Your company makes money by keeping you busy - if they can't work with you in a way that makes that possible they will not need you for very long.

I find that if I call my customers and say "I can be there by xyz time with abc amount of product, can you take me early???" and so far my customers take me early when I call..... an remember, its all about how you approach the shipper/receivers as well.... they ultimately control when and how fast we get loaded and unloaded....

One more thing - "trust" has to be the main ingredient in your relationship with your dispatcher. He needs to be able to trust you and know that you'll get things accomplished, but if you don't trust him, it is a totally one sided relationship that will never work right.

Your company makes money by keeping you busy - if they can't work with you in a way that makes that possible they will not need you for very long.

Amen!

Kurt, to say you're over-thinking it is the understatement of the year.

Listen, trucking companies make money hauling freight. Drivers make money hauling freight. When your wheels are turning, you and your company are both making money together. When your wheels are not turning, neither of you are making any money.

So why would you constantly keep thinking that your company is conspiring against you when you win or lose together? You really are part of a team. They need you, you need them.

Give me an example of a scenario where you think your company will win by making you lose. If there's really a conspiracy against you then there must be something they will gain by making your life miserable. What do you think it could be?

Kurt wants to live a simple life, but:

I know you guys all think I'm paranoid but I'm sure there's something going on that I'm not being told

Puh-leeze, Kurt! You claim your not acting paranoid, but you are sure someone wants to get you!

Paranoia is related to one's self-perceived size of one's ego. In other words, your own self importance.

Regardless of anything else, your relationship with your DM is what will make you money. Your DM can get you 1000 mile loads or make you sit at a truck stop for 18 hours.

Driver Managers usually handle maybe 20 - 30 drivers. There is no time for playing games, "testing" a driver or purposely setting up any driver for failure.

One of the mantras here is that trucking is a performance based business. That goes for us drivers, and it goes for DMs too. They have 20 times more freight to get moved, or they need a new job.

So your DM has no time to waste in "testing" you or anything. Your DM can test you just by sending you a load and seeing if you can do it. Ba-da-bing! That's all the "test" time he has for you.

As for the "not finalized" thing, no gaming here. DM sees an order coming, does you a favor and let's you know, before it's a done deal. But then you read all kinds of story into this. The biggest danger you face here is the DM forgets he promised it to you.

Others have given you good advice about this episode. I won't repeat that. Here is my advice to you:

Snap out of it!