Service Failure?

Was told to bobtail to the shipper , by the planner and a night dispatcher , due to the terminal not having any empty trailers. I get to the shipper, they won't allow me to take my preloaded trailer unless I bring in an empty. No problem, right?

I was only able to use 9hrs 6min of drive time for the day. Planners used up 1hr 48min of my drive time looking for an empty trailer, and nearly 2hrs of sitting around waiting to hear where an empty trailer is located. That's nearly 4hrs of drive time that I didn't even get to put toward delivering the freight to the customer. I drove nearly 11hrs the next day, landed 2.5hrs from final destination.

Did I communicate the load would be late?

I sent my fleet manager a qualcomm message on the day all of this happened (one day prior to scheduled delivery) @ 1134, explaining the reason why this load would be late. Again, at 1148 on the same day, I sent a message to the drive managers, informing them what I had just sent to the feet manager, and telling them this load would not deliver on time.

Note: I didn't just send a message directly to the fleet manager, skipping my chain-of-command. The fleet manager sent me a direct message about the freight I was hauling, and asked me if I would be able to deliver on time. This is when I informed the fleet manager that I would be late, along with reasons why.

Sent ETA information on the same day @ 1629 & 1630 to the fleet manager, as requested. Fleet manager then told me I would receive a service failure.

I gave this information to my drive manager the following day, and his reasoning was that I didn't communicate this load would be late, even though I did.

Thoughts?

What company do you drive for?

Well you have no concerns if you did indeed communicate that it would be late, especially considering it was done over Qualcomm. That's one important reason why you want everything on Qualcomm and not over the phone. That Qualcomm will protect you in cases like this. They save all of those messages so they can go back and see what was said.

If your driver manager gives you a service failure for not communicating then ask for clarification. If what he claims is contrary to what you actually did then take it up the chain of command. Go to the fleet manager , the operations manager, and the terminal manager if need be and get it straightened out. It's not that your job is on the line or anything but your reputation is. You should protect your service record the same way you would protect your CDL.

And remember, remain calm and professional with everyone you speak with about this. Getting angry, making threats, or anything of the sort will hurt you in a big way. Office people "turn off" when someone starts getting nasty with them. So just remain calm and talk it through.

Oh, and before you make any calls, make a list of points you want to make. Write down the times you sent messages and who you sent them to. Write down what you were told to do and how everything played out. That way when you get someone important on the line you have a well organized and coherent set of points to make. That's the way to get important people to listen closely and consider what you're saying. Speak to them professionally and make your points in a logical, well organized manner.

How often does this happen? I ask because my FM messed up a couple times...he's human.. but he has overlooked far more of my screw ups. I had a situation where the load I got assigned picked up before I got my recap back and I had no hours at all. I made the mistake of not checking the date thinking it was the next days load.

Yeah I took a hit. But I didn't go ratting him out to his boss. I didn't want to ruin a good relationship over one mistake. Although..my FM would never say I didn't tell him ahead of time. That sorta sounds deceitful if they know it or lazy of they didn't read thru the messages

Like Brett said you have proof, no need to stress over it. I was once a day and a half late to a delivery but I wasn't service failed because I kept dispatch upadated.

Did you send your Mac 22's or just freeforms? Anytime you are going to be late for any reason at Swift, you must send the Mac 22 even if you also sent freeforms.

[To non-Swifties, Mac 22 is our "running late" macro, if that wasn't obvious]

Well you have no concerns if you did indeed communicate that it would be late, especially considering it was done over Qualcomm. That's one important reason why you want everything on Qualcomm and not over the phone. That Qualcomm will protect you in cases like this. They save all of those messages so they can go back and see what was said.

If your driver manager gives you a service failure for not communicating then ask for clarification. If what he claims is contrary to what you actually did then take it up the chain of command. Go to the fleet manager , the operations manager, and the terminal manager if need be and get it straightened out. It's not that your job is on the line or anything but your reputation is. You should protect your service record the same way you would protect your CDL.

And remember, remain calm and professional with everyone you speak with about this. Getting angry, making threats, or anything of the sort will hurt you in a big way. Office people "turn off" when someone starts getting nasty with them. So just remain calm and talk it through.

Oh, and before you make any calls, make a list of points you want to make. Write down the times you sent messages and who you sent them to. Write down what you were told to do and how everything played out. That way when you get someone important on the line you have a well organized and coherent set of points to make. That's the way to get important people to listen closely and consider what you're saying. Speak to them professionally and make your points in a logical, well organized manner.

Thanks, Brett. I have kept up with the times and the messages received, and who they were received from, as I have the whole thing documented. Now, I am not sure if I will actually get the service failure, or if that's just the fleet manager's way of flipping out on me over the qualcomm. Either way, I will find out next week for sure.

Now, this service failure will be a write-up. Do I sign the write-up, or reject signing it until everything is thoroughly "investigated" by someone in the company?

How often does this happen? I ask because my FM messed up a couple times...he's human.. but he has overlooked far more of my screw ups. I had a situation where the load I got assigned picked up before I got my recap back and I had no hours at all. I made the mistake of not checking the date thinking it was the next days load.

Yeah I took a hit. But I didn't go ratting him out to his boss. I didn't want to ruin a good relationship over one mistake. Although..my FM would never say I didn't tell him ahead of time. That sorta sounds deceitful if they know it or lazy of they didn't read thru the messages

This is the first time this has ever happened to me, personally. Now, when I was teaming, my co-driver has caused us to received two service failures because he wanted to drag his tail instead of getting on down the road, but that's a completely different story.

This situation that I have been involved in, is the first and only time this has ever happened to me. And I'm a little upset about being threatened with a service failure even though I communicated everything 20hrs prior to the delivery time.

Like Brett said you have proof, no need to stress over it. I was once a day and a half late to a delivery but I wasn't service failed because I kept dispatch upadated.

Thanks, Devan. I might be alright. I've not heard anything more about it since that day (08/09/16).

Did you send your Mac 22's or just freeforms? Anytime you are going to be late for any reason at Swift, you must send the Mac 22 even if you also sent freeforms.

[To non-Swifties, Mac 22 is our "running late" macro, if that wasn't obvious]

I did send the Mac22, as well as freeforms and direct replies.