Let Us Know If You're Struggling To Get Miles

Ok, so it seems we have at least a couple of long time members who are working for a large carrier and are doing an awesome job but for some reason are not getting the miles they should be. I can tell you with full confidence that there is only a small percentage of drivers out there who are consistently ambitious, safe, and reliable over a long period of time. I'd say maybe 10%. And my standards would be someone who can turn 3,000 miles per week consistently and make all of their deliveries safely and on time. No excuses, no exceptions.

If you're one of these drivers and you're not getting great miles then let us know right here and we'll see if we can get to the bottom of it. Fill us in on the situation the best you can:

• How many miles are you averaging a week?
• How many miles are other drivers you've spoken with averaging a week?
• What division are you in?
• How long have you guys been solo?
• What conversations have you had with dispatch?
• How long has this been going on?

That kind of stuff. We'll dig in and figure out what's going on. Major carriers have all of the necessary resources to keep great drivers moving, and believe me, they want to make sure they keep their best drivers happy.

If you're great drivers and you're not moving then we'll help you guys get to the bottom of it and get it fixed. Learning how to work through situations with the office staff is one of the most important parts of learning this job in my opinion and it's one of the key factors that separates the top performers from the rest.

The top performers have proven themselves over time and rightfully expect fantastic miles and very fair treatment in return for their stellar performance. If you stop performing, the company is going to let you know about it. If they stop performing, you have to let them know about it.

But you have to let the right people know, the ones who can do something about it, and you have to approach them in the right way. It took me some time to figure this out when I was new to the industry, but once I did I was always able to get all the miles I could stand at any company I worked for.

And anyone who responds here has the option of listing the carrier, or not. Personally I really don't care beyond basic curiosity. They're all perfectly capable of keeping great drivers moving and the conversation we'll be having here will apply to all major carriers.

So let us know what you can and we'll dig into it with you. In my opinion:

• There's never a good reason for a great driver to be sitting around when there are so few great drivers out there
• I don't believe for a moment that the operations staff at a major carrier would sit back and do nothing if they knew a great driver was unhappy with their situation

Those are the basic premises we'll be working from.

Hey Brett, my situation is a bit different but I'll just throw this out there. I'm working for Swift on the Target dedicated fleet and don't even drive most of the time since I'm also a yard hostler, but I know freight is really slow over here. Alot of our dedicated local drivers are doing only one run a day, 5 days a week, down to Denver or Ft. Collins and back. A round trip down to Denver and back is 200 miles, and about 320 or so for a round trip to northern Colorado. Those guys don't get paid mileage anyway. They make a daily salary, so it's in Swift and Target's best interest to run them harder than that.

I can't speak for otr freight though, since I'm in a super secluded division over here.

I've been kept busy though. I don't run loads that often, but I'm working 55 hours a week in the yard plus an occasional store run. And I make hourly, so I'm actually making more money than alot of the dedicated guys doing store runs exclusively. Again, my situation is different down here, but I keep myself in a position where I'm my boss's "ace in the hole" as a fellow hostler put it. It's not too hard to be one of her go-to guys when the night guys don't want to come in on their days off or do more than their one required store run each month or work days, the day guys don't want to come in at night, and most of her dedicated guys aren't cross-trained in the yard. When she tries to cross-train guys, half the time they don't work out. They think it's a piece of cake gig sitting around all night and they quit as soon as it gets busy and they find out it wasn't as easy as they thought.

So again, different situation over here, but the key is to go where the work is, even if it's the work other people don't want to do. I live in Colorado Springs, an hour away from the DC, so I originally wanted to do the local store runs so I could park my truck in Colorado Springs each night. But after I was cross trained in the yard, I found out I could get more hours and make better money working the yard. There's also more turn-over in the yard (translation: job security). So I stayed in the yard, but I have to drive my personal vehicle 2 hrs a day to do it. It's not the job everyone wants, but it's work.

I think the overwhelming answer you're going to find is that 2016 was a rough year in the trucking industry. Freight was down, rates were a race to the bottom and every company was fighting for loads. It's common in an election year and with last year being so volatile, it didn't help. Combine that with the country still very slowly crawling out of the recession and you had a culmination of bad things that effected all parts of the industry. On a positive note, 2017 is starting out a bit better and the energy companies are getting slowly back into gear out in west Texas and up in North Dakota. People don't realize the overall impact to the economy in a positive manner when the oil and natural gas industries are doing well. We've also been told from the higher ups that wind energy is slated to do well this year, they've been scheduling blade loads and have a bunch of the transmissions sitting at our yard in Channelview Texas.

16 was a hard year, like dragon said I turned 81k last year, part of that was do to my injury begining of last year. But on a positive note, freight is up compared to last year. I have been doing between 2700 and 3300 sense the beginning of the year.