A Question About Patience.

Several of you have read my last post about my first few weeks on the job. The issues I have been having with Load Planners and such having so much down time between loads.

I have a very serious question too all the experienced truckers out there.

How do you keep from killing your load planners?

Just joking. I know I have read all the responses about calling the shipper or receiver and checking with them first hand.

Well, I was in Indy over the weekend and went to "complain" about all the down time I have been having. The response I got, sorry man, but it happens.

I didn't mention anything about calling anyone myself. But the senior dispatcher made it a point to bring it up. The driver is never to call anyone except for better directions. Some companies fine "us" for calling them.

I know, I know. I am a little peon, on the large scale. But even peon's need a decent paycheck.

When I am setting like this, all I see is money floating out the window.

I was at my drop off at 0700 this morning. Finally got unloaded at 1137am. My next load doesn't pick up till noon tomorrow. The first thing I did was request an earlier pickup. From noon till 6am. No answer.

Then I requested a pickup for today. I still had 7 hours drive time. Well I did at 11am.

It is now 1730. I never heard back from either one of my requests. The least they could have done was told me NO. Not just left me hanging.

Well then again, maybe they don't think it is leaving someone hanging. Maybe to them, no answers means NO.

But seriously. My question. How do you just set by, time after time after time, knowing you could be making money and you can't get one ounce of help from your load planners? The ones that are suppose to help you.

My current DM even told me the other day. I am one of his best drivers. He loves finding me work to do. He knows I will bust my ass to get it done. The problem I am having isn't with him. It is the load planners and the evening/weekend dispatching.

I am almost to the point of calling these companies myself and facing the outcome. I have had one good week since working. I know I haven't been working long. But still.

I have worked 3 FULL weeks since starting. My first week I got just over 1500 miles. My second week I got just over 1600 miles. My third week, a good week, I got 3100 miles.

My first two weeks I had so much down time, I couldn't get anywhere.

I am really trying to be patient. But when you only make 27 cents a mile, weeks of 1500 and 1600 miles don't make for a very good paycheck. Shoot with all the deductions they have been taking out of my pay, I made less than 350 my first week and just over 350 my second week.

I am sorry, but that is chump change to me.

Do all companies do this? Is this something every new guy in trucking faces?

As with most other working men and women out there. I have a family to help support. I can't just set back and see paychecks like this week after week.

Shoot half of what I make goes back into expenses on the road.

I really am trying to be patient. But it is hard to do when your wife at home keep looking at my checks and asking, when is the good money going to start. And I don't have an answer.

Keep it safe out here, the life you save might be your own. Joe S.

I hear ya joe but think we aren't experienced drivers and haven't proved ourselves yet. Being rookies just starting out they aren't going to throw us on long loads with lots of miles and a quick turn around with another pick up as soon as we drop a load. Shoot I've been at it just a few weeks longer than you and I just got my first long run but I'm in a different boat I'm running Sears dedicated for swift. But that's how I'm looking at it is I gotta bust my tail and prove that I can be on time to my deliveries before they start trusting me with the longer loads

Every rookie goes through that. It takes times you build a relationship and get the good loads. They don't know you right now, you're just a truck #. But give it some time and your miles will steadily be increasing.

I make twice more right now than I did in my first few months. Back then, I got the local loads and short runs nonstop. Now, I get the good, right scheduled runs. They give the good runs to drivers they trust.

So give it some time. You're still very new to all of this. You could politely ask for more miles but honestly, the longer you're out there the better and better you'll do. Never miss any delivery appointments, if you do, you're just setting yourself back.

One thing you have to remember about trucking....this is the SLOW part of the year. No businesses want "stuff" on their shelves to inventory...its tax time...its the holidays...So its the slow time of year. If you are draggin' a fridge, then its not as bad. but a shoe box or skateboard...its gonna be slow.

The way you handle yourself now will mean everything later. This job requires alot of patience and "the glass is half full attitude". It sucks that your miles suck but youll find most times you have a great week followed by a short one. Pay your dues and you will find it will be worth it. I was fortunate I came out the gate at .33/cpm and 3000 miles a week. But I work for a smaller outfit. I wasn't just a truck. Just focus. It will get better

Hey Joe, welcome to the reality of trucking!

The responses you've gotten are spot on. I know the frustration you're feeling, but you know how much we talk about how hard it is to break into this business. Well, you are experiencing some of the difficulties we are talking about.

You have got several things working against you right now. It's best to recognize them and learn to accept them as just what they are - difficulties. You are new to trucking (sort of) and you are definitely new to Celadon. It just takes a good while to break in and be a part of the program. It's not just that they don't trust you, it's more like you aren't even really on their (the load planner's) radar yet. These guys see so many new drivers come and go that a new driver doesn't really mean anything to them. They just consider you as someone who will probably quit or else tear something up within the next three or four months. When they have loads available in an area where you are sitting, they are going to make sure there's not another more experienced driver available that they can give it to before they risk it with you. I know you are a competent and committed driver, but they don't have anything to base that on yet. All you can do about your situation is keep doing an awesome job with what they give you without complaining, and that is exactly the formula for conquering this difficulty. You may have to bite your tongue at times, but try not to get yourself labeled as a complainer this early in the game - it only hurts your future success.

You're kind of getting the double whammy right now too because this really is the slow season for freight. There's not a whole lot you can do about that, but here's something to think about. I'm always trying to stay two steps ahead of my dispatcher in my thinking and my management of the precious time the D.O.T. allots me. This is how I managed part of my work week this week: My DM told me they were struggling for freight and gave me a short load with about 300 miles on it. When I got it delivered, and sent in my empty message I got myself off duty and laid down to take a nap. I figured if they were struggling for freight I might be sitting for a while. Three and a half hours later he calls me to tell me about the load he is assigning me, and then the qualcomm starts going off with all the details. This load has 264 dead-head miles and they can load me that night if I can get there. I can get there, but it's only going to leave me about thirty minutes on my fourteen hour clock. I know that when I get there I will probably have to wait on other flat-bed trucks getting loaded before I can get loaded and then I've got another hour and a half of securing and tarping to do. So, as I'm getting close to this shipper I start taking notes about possible places I might be able to park and sleep at. There are no truck stops within about fifty miles of this place and I'm out of time. I take notes down about several businesses that I see with large parking areas, including a Wal-Mart. Once I check into the shipper I put myself on the sleeper berth line and start looking up the phone numbers of the businesses that I had made notes about, and call them until I get an OK from a Furniture store to sleep in their parking lot. By the time I'm loaded and made my load look like a nice rolling Christmas present, I've been on the sleeper berth line for a little more than three hours. All I've got to do is roll right over to the furniture store and go to sleep and in about six and a half hours I can get rolling again so that I'm making money.

Joe, not everybody is willing to do stuff like that, but the way I see it is that I've got to figure out how to overcome the challenges that I'm dealing with. Most drivers would be another day behind in that scenario and complaining about how the load planners handled it. The truth is that sometimes their hands are tied by circumstances that you as a driver will never know about. But as long as you take the initiative to figure out how to make some really good lemonade with all those lemons your getting dealt then things will turn around for you. The load planners will start to realize that you are creative and resourceful, and that's when you start showing up on their radar screen. They will start wondering "Hey where is Joe right now? We've got something here that we need some help on."

I hope I've triggered your creative juices by sharing with you the kind of things I do. Joe, if you can hang in there and do great things with what they are giving you now, I can assure you that in about three months you'll be tempted to complain that they are expecting too much out of you now. Hang in there Joe, and tell your wife that you have it on good authority that better times are coming.

I totally understand where you are coming from Old School. And like you I am always keeping an eye out where to bed down.

There are some loads we have where we are limited on truck stops or a Celadon yard only.

And I also hit the sleeper as soon as I hit the dock. I don't understand your statement about carrying over your dock sleep time to when you bed down.

As soon as we move 5/8ths of a mile or go over 5mph, our system puts us driving automatically.

So no matter how much sleep time we have at a dock, it starts all over again when we move.

I am really trying to be patient. I put too much time into this to give up this soon.

Keep it safe out here, the life you save might be your own. Joe S.

Everyone's qualcomm is set up differently, I can put myself on off duty driving which doesn't reset your clock.