Do The Cooperative Drivers Get Shafted In This Industry?

I find that if you take stuff it will pay later. I am also finding with Swift that when I run nights I sit less, because a lot of people refuse to run nights as an otr driver I don't know how they do, but I know quite a few that do. I usually take everything within reason and my dispatcher helps keep me away from the Pacific Northwest, I just don't like it up there, but they know I'll run it if they need me to.

I agree with the concensus here. This week I got a load going from Omaha to Newark NJ. Nice miles and pretty much all interstate. My comment to my dispatcher was "you're killing me smalls!" And I said he was really breaking me in. He knew I was kidding, even over the qc. Load wasn't ready, and wouldn't be for at least a day. Less than 5 hours later I had a different load going to Seattle.

My point is if I was a complainer he probably would have let me sit on the first load. As things worked out, I'm sitting anyway, but I ain't going nowhere without heat this time of year. I bet when my truck is fixed I'll have a load within about hour. Now I've only been solo for a little over a month, but I've driven across L.A. during rush hour to make an appointment. I've not been late or complained about anything. I got 11k miles my first month. And you can ask rainy what kind of miles she gets, we have the same dispatcher. Miles are what counts in this game, for most of us.

I have to agree with Rainy. I'm sitting at the terminal right now, and have learned a valuable lesson. Long story short: New truck in Nov. They didn't have the ability to install my chain / tool box on the new truck so I was told that it was ok to run a load out to the eastern U.S. and they'd get me back to get the box and chains installed on the new truck.

Here it is December, and I'm in Tyler, Texas, when I get a dispatch to Salt Lake City.

I remind my FM about my chains situation. He tells me on the phone to come out of route to Springfield, where R/A said they had me set up in the shop for the box install. ( THEY DIDNT) So after getting some butt chewing for 400 miles out of route, I call night dispatch and explain what happened.

I was told "well, I don't see your name in red, you have no service issues, you've made yourself available for all of December, so I'd chalk it up to miscommunication."

At 5:30 this morning, I got a message on the QC. "I received a message from Rob (FM) and he said he did in fact know you were coming here. "

Now I fully believe that if I was indeed one of the "not taking that load" "Always at the terminal" people, my FM would have denied the whole thing.

And a side note: Freightliner moved the air dryer on the 17' models, so a box will not fit on the lightweight trucks. I had to exchange my box for a rack

The reason I say this is, in order to accommodate the drivers who will not run anywhere, they have to give those loads to people who will, which means all the good loads are taken up by those who refuse to drive in some of the less desired areas, and the other drivers end up having to run those loads.

Does that seem about right?

No Sambo, that does not seem about right.

You and I work for a company that is not force dispatched. I personally have found this to create opportunities for me. To say that "all the good loads are taken up by those who refuse to drive in some of the less desired areas," and then come to the assumption that they have to "accommodate the drivers who will not run anywhere," is a total misunderstanding of how a dispatcher thinks and operates. We have several drivers on this dedicated account I'm serving who refuse to run certain areas, or even refuse to drive at night. My dispatcher says they are the most frustrating people for him to deal with, and they are the last persons he considers for a load when he has other drivers available to run in those areas that they insist on. I was once dispatched on a certain load (we all pick up our loads at the same plant) and a driver came over to me rather distraught over the fact that I was dispatched with "his load." He seemed to think that all the loads going to a certain area had his name on them because that is where he insisted on going. Turns out that anytime the dispatcher has another driver available he will give that load to someone else. You can't believe everything you read Sambo, and in this business it is best to be careful what you read.

I was just explaining in another thread about how this creates opportunities for me. I will run loads from Louisiana up into the Northeast, and I pretty much get the chance to do that each week. Other drivers here refuse those loads - they don't like the Northeast. I don't happen to love the Northeast myself, but I am capable of doing what it takes to make it work, and that is where these other drivers have fallen short. We can get a pretty much 1700 mile run up there each week - sounds good doesn't it? The problem is that most of them don't know how to get up there and then get back with their back-haul load so that they can turn it all in on the same pay period. By the time they get back they have only got 1700 miles on their paycheck, then if they get another Northeast load they can only seem to get 1700 mile weeks, so they all refuse to do it.

This is where your abilities to outperform the other drivers can set you up for success. I do these runs all the time because the other drivers don't want them. Some of them even think I have done something wrong and gotten myself on the s**t-list! I have figured out how to get up there, make my deliveries, and get back all in the same pay period. I'm averaging 3,400 miles each week by doing this. Drivers dream of having consistent weeks like that, but they are not willing to do what it takes to make it happen. Sambo, you are still new at this and the learning curve takes some time. Keep pushing yourself to be the best there is, and you will find opportunities where others see only problems. Being cooperative is only one piece in this puzzle. Being a top performer involves many critical components. Keep at it and you will get it all figured out in due course.

I will say that dealing with your regular FM and dealing with night/weekend dispatch is too different things. My guy knows me. His replacements want to help their own drivers. That has been the only issue with me.

For example, customer loaded me a day late. I knew I wouldn't make the whole run and was planning on telling dispatch I'd drop it at the terminal for someone else to pick up. That would give me 500 more miles on my pay than if I had it repowered in TX. The weekend guy told me I would sit at the terminal due to lack of freight out. My FM wouldn't let me sit and would be in by the time I got my hours back.

Before I knew it, I'm swapping loads in TX...for a Mon 1500 delivery. That puts me 2hrs short of a 34 reset and cut my pay by 500 miles :(

But tomorrow my FM will make it up to me and run me good. No doubt.

I will say that dealing with your regular FM and dealing with night/weekend dispatch is too different things. My guy knows me. His replacements want to help their own drivers. That has been the only issue with me.

For example, customer loaded me a day late. I knew I wouldn't make the whole run and was planning on telling dispatch I'd drop it at the terminal for someone else to pick up. That would give me 500 more miles on my pay than if I had it repowered in TX. The weekend guy told me I would sit at the terminal due to lack of freight out. My FM wouldn't let me sit and would be in by the time I got my hours back.

Before I knew it, I'm swapping loads in TX...for a Mon 1500 delivery. That puts me 2hrs short of a 34 reset and cut my pay by 500 miles :(

But tomorrow my FM will make it up to me and run me good. No doubt.

I feel your pain, Rainy. I finished a really tight load, then ran up to Sioux Falls to pick up a load going to Laredo. The load was delayed.

And delayed.

And delayed.

4 hours before I would have finished my 34, I get the call. "Your load is ready."

I had already looked at the timing and miles of the load the night before, to see when it would become hard to manage OTD

December 11, leaving plant at 0500. Destination @1280 miles. Delivery appointment December 13, 0700

A pretty easy run for me, if the roads stayed good, and the weather forecasts the night before said they would. However, if I stayed for my 34, then the load looked a LOT tighter. Conceivable, but zero wriggle room.

So I grumbled, and rolled after 30 hours at the shipper , with 31 hours on my 70.

Today I ran 648 miles, ending my PTI at 1851. Tomorrow I'll roll a bit before 0500 and try to run to final, since they have parking. If I run into any nasty delays, I'll stop at the truck stops north of Laredo after @620 miles, and run the rest of the way in on the early AM of the 13th.

But it does irk me that I missed the 34. I'm heading back to the Dallas yard with a trailer out of Laredo after this load, so I can do my next 90 day review, so there wasn't an option to swap loads.

To sum up what everyone is saying, you want to take a "pay it forward" approach to dispatch. Do whatever they ask without complaining, be friendly with them, be safe out there, and make all of your appointments on time. If you'll do that then you will have all the leverage you need to request better opportunities down the line. I used to to use the expression "throw a dog a bone" with dispatch. I'd tell em, "Hey man, three out of the last four runs were under 600 miles and I've been in the Northeast for four days. Throw a dog a bone how about it? I paid my dues. You're killin me. Is Texas still part of the U.S.? I hear it's wonderful this time of year"

......and before you know it you have an 1,100 mile run out of there. You might not be going to Texas, and it might not even be the very next load that gets you out of there, but you can be sure that dispatch will take care of their best drivers. And being one of the best does indeed require that you take the bad with the good. No one is allowed to cherry pick all the best loads.

Look at Old School. If any driver on the planet has earned the right to haul only the loads of his choosing it would be him. But he goes out of his way to take tougher loads that the other guys don't want. He doesn't avoid the toughest jobs, he requests them. And he averages well over 3,000 miles per week. Not only that, but he's had some recent medical issues that required him to take some extended time off and based on his updates the company was completely accommodating in every way. That's obviously no coincidence. The way Old School approaches the job is the blueprint for how to make your way in this industry. And in fact there are quite a number of drivers in this forum who really understand how to make their way in this industry and have put themselves in outstanding positions with their company.