Refusing A Load ... A Little Guidance Please

Hi all,

Quick intro on me for context. I'm 50 yo. I have been self-employed since 1999. This means I understand business, because I've run my own for a long time. I know very very little about the trucking industry. But it seems to me it works pretty much like this: Customer calls Freight Company and places an order to haul freight. Dispatchers get that order and have to match it with a truck and driver to deliver freight so Customer pays Invoice and everybody gets Shiny Paycheck. Next, Dispatcher gives driving orders to Drivers. (Hey that's me!) At that point, Driver picks up freight that Customer is counting on to help *them* make money and drives it to its destination safely and reliably. Happy Customer. Joy all around.

Now, me being the New Driver, I get the less-than-optimal loads, but *somebody* has to deliver that freight. So I'll step up and call myself Rockload Hero or something and get on with it. That's how business gets things done.

Having said that, there are two potential situations I am worried about. First, is the unsafe truck. If something isn't DOT safe (and I don't know exactly what that means yet, but I know it's a thing), I'm thinking I will want to do something about that before I haul it, but risking violations on the road isn't one of them. Second, is I'm up against my hours. (Good God, could they have made that more complicated? Wow.)

What say you veterans about dealing with these two situations? Basically, how should a new driver handle a dispatch that he or she knows is either unsafe or will get them dinged for hours? New driver. Not you. You're cool and experienced and got invited to the dispatcher's family vacation in Bermuda. How do I, hapless New Guy who has yet to prove his worth to the company, deal with such things?

Thanks for your help. (Great site, btw - have learned a lot in just a couple hours prowling around.)

Are you asking from an owner operator stand point or company driver stand point?

Not a vet, but here is what I have experienced so far.

1. When we have something go wrong with the truck or trailer we alert road assist, then our dispatcher. I have yet to have a dispatcher push us to be unsafe. In fact if we already have s load and can't move they will get another driver to pick the load up for us and finish the delivery. That hasn't happened yet, all of our down time has either been before the load or didn't hurt our delivery timeframe.

2. They know your hours. We have asked to hold off on an assignment to get a 34 reset, or get one with a larger delivery window so we can get some hours back. I did ask this question to my trainer in the beginning of my journey. His answer: run the hours you have if it's 1 or 70. The company knows.

Lastly whenever we get dispatched a load we can't make, we just tell dispatch, they alert sakes. We generally get s new delivery time that we can make.

Again not a vet, just some experiences do far in my journey. I'm company btw.

Hey, Mike, welcome to Trucking Truth. As a new driver, it's easy to be intimidated and get signals crossed about the times​ you should "pull the stop handle" because of safety or your hours. In these situations, just remember responsibility for the whole ball of wax belongs with the person holding the steering wheel. As you said, "(Hey that's me!)".

First I have a little attitude check for you:

Driver picks up freight that Customer is counting on to help *them* make money and drives it to its destination safely and reliably. Happy Customer. Joy all around.

If you start to dwell on thinking *they* make money, probably off your back, resentment and even anger may develop, then you won't be able to do your job. Stick with the thought that your truck earns you your paycheck. Yes, everybody involved with your load is out to make money, just simply be concerned with your own part of the deal.

For your specific questions, I assume you're a company driver. Matt asked about that because company drivers deal with these situations differently​ than owners do.

First, is the unsafe truck. If something isn't DOT safe (and I don't know exactly what that means yet, but I know it's a thing), I'm thinking I will want to do something about that before I haul it, but risking violations on the road isn't one of them.

Remember who's holding the steering wheel. You, Mr Driver, are in charge of your own destiny here. The things that make a truck safe are easy to know. They are listed in your pre-trip. Once you start rolling, you had better know your rig is DOT legal from the front bumper to the rear license plate light.

I drive for Swift. If there is anything that shows up in my daily pre-trip, I get with the shop to get it fixed. Not once has any service writer or mechanic thrown shade for any little or large maintenance or safety thing I bring in.

Also, a message to your DM is in order if the maintenance job will affect your appointment times. Everybody in your list of stakeholders understands when things happen. If the load is "that hot", your DM can certainly get another tractor under the trailer if needed. In my two-plus years, that has never happened to me.

Second, is I'm up against my hours. (Good God, could they have made that more complicated? Wow.)

A constant in everyone's life: Time stops for no one. And you can take that to the bank. Trust me on this: the rules may seem crazy when you're learning them in the classroom, but after a bit of living with them on the road it isn't so bad.

You will learn to schedule the driving time to make the most of it in hitting your appointments. True, everything from those tire repairs to traffic jams to weather will get in the way, but like I said, everyone knows things will come up. Just keep in mind that such delays are not common, and mostly your appointments have a bit of slack on them. Don't go crazy with worrying about them, but be ready to handle these situations.

Remember, every truck driver on the road was a newbie once. The problem is, some just forgot that.

If you start to dwell on thinking *they* make money, probably off your back, resentment and even anger may develop, then you won't be able to do your job. Stick with the thought that your truck earns you your paycheck. Yes, everybody involved with your load is out to make money, just simply be concerned with your own part of the deal.

Good stuff, Errol. Thank you - I've seen that you're a big contributor on this site and I really like your attitude.

I do need to push back on one thing - gently. You don't know me, so my comments about helping *them* make money didn't come across the way I meant. I'm dead serious when I say I understand that my success depends on the success of my customer. That's what I mean. It is not resentment at all - it is the total opposite. My job is part of a larger solution, that ends with a delivered benefit that will keep the customer happy and submitting more orders to my company. That benefit is, *them - the customer* making money (succeeding.) They get goods delivered that they then sell and so forth, make money and give us more business as a result. That means I want to do the best job I can to get the freight delivered safely and reliably in a manner that the receiver perceives as worth the money they spent on the service. I know, it's a bold concept and one that's hard to find these days. But that's the way I see it. I do not resent paying customers; I thrive on them. I am *not* a member of Generation Entitlement. You may find this really hard to believe, but a happy customer is more important to me than my paycheck. The former invariably leads to the latter. My truck earns customer satisfaction, loyalty and return business. That's my view. Paycheck - that's just the end result of a deeper process. Of course, my *real* customer is my dispatcher , but it's all part of the same idea.

Thanks again for your help.

Mike, you have a great attitude and an excellent understanding of the big picture in the business world. Both of those will serve you very well in this industry, as it would in any industry. I'm really glad Errol pointed out the importance of avoiding the "us against them" mentality, whomever "them" may be; office personnel, the DOT , customers, or other drivers on the road.

There is, in fact, a very powerful "us versus them" mentality prevalent amongst drivers and many of them never lift their gaze high enough to see the big picture and understand how important it is to work together with "them." It's not a battle at its essence, it's cooperation. It's necessary cooperation.

As a brand new driver you will be best served to always play it extra safe and do things by the book. If you have a problem with the truck that you feel is a safety issue, don't move the truck before speaking with your company's mechanics about it. If you were to get dispatched on a load and you know it's going to be real tight on your hours or you simply don't have enough hours, communicate that with your dispatcher and ask for guidance.

Over time you'll figure this stuff out easily enough. You'll recognize the difference between a minor problem with the truck or trailer that you can safely drive with versus a safety issue that must be taken care of immediately.

You'll also come to understand how dispatch and load planning operates, and you'll know how to communicate your situation well with dispatch. For instance, it will not be uncommon to be dispatched on a load they know you can not complete yourself. They will want you to go pick up the load and get going with it, and in the meantime they'll be looking for someone that you can hand it off to so they can complete it.

Above all else, ask for guidance from the mechanics, from dispatch, and from us here anytime you're uncertain about something. It won't take you long to figure it out, and you'll find that a driver who is giving their best effort to become a safe and productive professional will never have to look far for a helping hand. You do have to be a little careful where you get advice from, because it will not all be good advice, but we're always a great source and most of the time you'll find plenty of help from dispatch and maintenance at your company.

Good stuff in this thread!

1). Brett mentioned the mechanics--they love their jobs and are eager to point things out to us that tend to break or wear absolutely ask them.

2) I second the notion I have never been told to drive anything unsafe. Whether my seat won't lock in place or my air tanks have a slow leak...my truck gets fixed. Like immediately.

3) Never never never have I been told I had to drive in bad weather or if I'm tired. That word "safe" is a period, end of discussion ...what I say goes. Will some new dispatcher try to coax me into driving in the winter with "the roads are looking better right?"---sure You handle that by saying " I'm here in PA and you are in MO. Thanks for the update. The three inches of ice on the road confused me. Let's call the safety Dept and see if they think I should venture out."

That's a joke...but I did once ask our safety Dept how I should respond if anyone did try to insist I drive. He told me to take a picture and tell dispatch to forward it to the owner of the company. If he says his equipment and freight worth hundreds of thousands of dollars is good to go in that weather...then OK. But I assure you, the owner of my company is very very active and tells us repeatedly "dispatch can't make you do anything. I trust you as my trained drivers to know what you can handle". Period.

4) I often get loads where I run from one receiver to the next customer " right away". Often not having time to stop to eat or get to the restroom. I'll then message dispatch "ETA to shipper is four hours including fueling and washout". The appointment might ha e been in two hours....but they will change it knowing the circumstances.

Don't worry about that stuff. Learn to drive safely, ask questions, and research time management. This is definitely an occupation where baby steps must come first.

Good luck!

Welcome Mike. Great thread, you got some really valuable responses.

Rainy wrote this:

I second the notion I have never been told to drive anything unsafe. Whether my seat won't lock in place or my air tanks have a slow leak...my truck gets fixed. Like immediately.

Same here...never had any issues with this. And the "dispatcher" you described in your post,...unless they are very green and inexperienced, they understand the driver has final say if they run with their equipment or not. At least this is the case for the bigger companies that most of us work for in this forum. In my situation the driver leaders/driver managers I work with are all former full-time drivers on the same Walmart account I service. They all know the ropes, because they lived the life and the process/procedures.

I like your attitude Mike, the positivity you have will serve you well, including your customer centric mindset. Don't expect accolades or admiration from them though. Usually when we show up it means they need to interrupt their break and work to unload us. LOL. My approach to the customer has always been respect and courtesy. Since I have been delivering to the same stores for years, my rapport with them is positive, proactive with an understanding we both have a job to do and ultimately the American Consumer is our customer.

When you have a chance you might want to take a look at the following links we call the Trucking Truth Starter Kit:

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road Training Program

Good luck!

A d just cause you ate a rookie does not.mean you get the crappy loads. You get loads according to where you are...yes. You also get loads according to how good you are, regardless of whether you have been driving a month or 10 years.

My FM said he usually knows in the first month how good the drivers will be. He can tell by attitudes and whether they ask questions. He expects new drivers to have problems. The ones who care and take it seriously are the ones who are determined to improve. They ask him how to improve. But my guy just throws miles at drivers until they can't handle it. You never get more than you can handle. So whether you run 2000 miles a week or 2900.….its really up to you. Not the dispatcher.

Rainy wrote:

And just cause you ate a rookie does not mean you get the crappy loads

Priceless...