Miles, Miles...miles?

Every company with only a few rare exceptions are the same. The load planners setup the loads and give them to the drivers. Your DMs job is in the name. They manage the drivers only. The have nothing to do with planning or giving out the loads. That's pretty much the way it is industry wide. If you are a company driver you rarely ever get a say about the loads.

More and more companies are gearing towards what is known as Super Regional. Now there will always be OTR. But companies are realizing the short runs also can pay pretty well and someone has to do it. Pretty much the OTR fleets are shirking and becoming known as the "Do All" group. Basically companies always need help for a few days with different account and they pull the OTR guys in to do it. Dedicated accounts have tight schedules to keep and cant spare their people so they get the OTR people in the area to the extra stuff like move trailers or do the short hauls to another terminal. Its been like that with the past three companies I have worked at. And the reason why I like being in the JIT fleet I am in. Only teams can move as fast as they need the freight to move. Companies only have a few things they can promise a customer and one of those things happen to be faster delivery times hence the tight schedules.

I've seen the average goals that the dispatchers are supposed to be shooting for and it's more like 2300 to 2500 miles per truck.

Interesting you should bring this up. A while back my DM called me up and said she had to start calling people up who were grossing less than $500 a week and discuss with them what they could be doing to make more miles and more money. (And keep in mind I highly doubt that planners have any mileage goals for drivers, since they don't know anything about the drivers.) Guess how many miles $500 works out to for drivers with 3 months to a year in with the company. 1500 to 1800 miles a week. Obviously less miles per week as your pay increases. What does that suggest the goal is at this company if they feel anyone getting that many miles is OK? How many miles are people complaining about getting?

@Woody - I live in Fort Wayne and I'm working out of the Gary terminal. Was dating a girl for a bit who lives in Fishers. I've taken a few loads in and out of Indy recently.

The last part.....being On Duty while waiting in line...waiting for anything including check in you should be throwing yourself either to off duty or sleeper berth. Your not moving and no one knows what you are doing except you.

What i do is when i first get to a receiver i do an arrival call then go off duty. Then go and drop my trailer and send empty call and do 15 minutes on duty then go back off duty. Sitting in line waiting for fuel or scaling a load would be off duty.

If your sitting and waiting anywhere then go off duty or sleeper berth. Never be on duty unless its something that requires it.

Basically driving you have to log as driving. No choice but the rest....

Pre trip...15 minutes on duty.

Fueling...15 minutes while filing on duty. I don't care if it take 5 hours

Arrival at shipper...15 minutes on duty

Drop trailer... Including getting paperwork signed 15 minutes on duty.

Waiting inline for something or nothing....always sleeper berth or off duty.

Scaling out...off duty.

So basically with all the time you said your wasting being on duty not driving and only going by what you said in the last few lines you should have only used 1(one) hour total. Nothing more . nothing less.

I know you are on elogs. I am to. But seriously you have to learn your Elogs and what you can or can't do on them.

Case in point I drove all over Wal-Mart just the other day looking for an empty trailer. Did this for 30 minutes. Guess how much on duty i used during that time including on duty driving while looking for a trailer.... None. I did not use any time while driving around looking for a trailer. Stayed off duty the entire time.

There are certain time limits at which the elog starts a permanent record. About the 3 to 4 minute mark of any status change. Some are more and some less. As long as you change it back t off duty before it hits that limit it does not record the driving.

Those are ways to maximize your time. You just need to learn them. Its not hard. Just have to pay attention to the timers is all. And let's not forget about the almighty edit feature that you can legally use.

Basically except for the drive line which can not be edited I treat my Elog the same way i treated my paper logs....with loving attention and adoring looks. :D

DISCLAIMER!!!!!!!! I am not telling you to do this. I am just telling you that time can be saved and you can legally do it cause we all know Elogs can't be cheated.

Wow, It does sound like your hands are tied, and I'm sorry to hear it because it takes out the pleasures of this job. I drive a flat-bed and I don't have to deal with a lot of the stuff you mention. Almost all my pick-ups and deliveries have a large window, and I'm free to call and set it up the way I want. I can hustle and get in their early so that I can set myself up for another load and I do this all the time. That's the kind of stuff I mean by making things happen.

I had a 1700 mile load recently in which my DM messaged me saying that it was a firm appointment time. Well I managed to get there two days ahead of schedule. When I went to check in there was a cute little Spanish girl behind the counter arguing with the driver ahead of me and telling him that they will not unload him early, he will have to come back tomorrow. As he stomps out the door, I just smiled at the girl and sheepishly said well, I guess there's no chance for me to get in early is there? She said "no our appointment times are firm, let me see your paper work". I spoke very kindly and respectfully with her and said "Well I guess I'll just have to wait, but I had another load that I could pick up this afternoon, so I was just hoping you might be able to work a miracle for me". She starts looking at her computer screen and says "I wouldn't have let that other guy in early if he'd bribed me with 500 dollars, but since you are being so nice, if you don't mind waiting about an hour I think we can work you in." That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about when I say making things happen, but it sounds like your hands are completely tied.

I don't know what to tell you, and that's odd for me, I usually try and tell people something that will help them move forward in their situation.

I actually have started doing a few of the things you say. Off duty waiting in line for fuel. Off duty waiting in line at a customer (when I can, I'll explain that in a moment). And when I said it's a lot of wasted time, I didn't mean wasting my 70 necessarily. I mean wasting time. There are still only 14 hours you can work and you have to take a break. 7 hours from shipper to receiver is still 7 hours, whether it counts against your 70 or not. If I waste 2 hours today, it's 2 more hours of driving against my 14 tomorrow than I should have had, etc. I think you get the idea. And honestly, I've tried really milking my hours these past couple of weeks and I've run longer without needing a 34 than normal. This company seriously wants you to try to use all 14 of your hours every day. I've gotten in trouble for trying to shut down after working "only" 11 1/2 hours because "That's still plenty of time to take a load if they have one." They didn't. I wasted 2 1/2 hours of my personal time waiting around for that load that was sure to come in and never did.

I wish I could use all of your suggestions, and I've actually tried most of them before. But around here they stress "100% Legal, 100% Safe, 100% On time." (So the drivers are expected to be perfect, but everyone else can seemingly mess things up all over and it's OK. LOL.) Apparently they audit logs quite a bit. I get messages every week talking about the things they keep catching drivers doing wrong.

Fuel stops have to be on duty. (I go off duty while waiting.) Scaling loads has to be on duty. Pre trip has to be on duty. And they expect it to be 15-30 minutes. So you have to mix it up because they say they know you're not doing it right if it's always 15 minutes. Post trip has to be on duty and I think they want that to be 15 minutes. Any time at a customer has to be on duty unless you are free to leave. Which means that I can't do an arrival call and then go off duty and I can't go off duty before my loaded or empty calls. Otherwise I'm screwed if they audit me and I also void any claims for detention pay.

And trust me, I've been all over my e-logs looking for wiggle room. I know how to edit my logs. (Of course you can't edit on duty driving.) And knowing that you can change your status within 3 to 4 minutes has come in handy a few times. I also am well aware that our Qualcomms don't change you to driving status until you drive hit 20 mph, are in gear for 5 minutes, or drive 1.5 miles. According to my logs I always teleport from Costco to the TA down the street. I've also teleported from customers to nearby truck stops when I ran out my 14 before.

I haven't been audited yet, so I don't know how much trouble you get in if you get caught using all of the tricks. It might be worth the risk to save some of my hours, but I am not sure if it's worth the tradeoff yet.

Still, even if you're only talking 1 hour on duty not driving per load, if you're only taking 2 loads a week, that's 2 hours. When you're taking 9 loads per week, that's 7 hours more right there. See what I mean by the overhead on short loads?

Old School, you bring up another good point. I don't know how it is at other companies, but Swift does not seem to want drivers to have much control over appointment times. Like I said, they don't tell you the window. Even if it's someplace that is first come first serve, they make the appointment time seem firm. Also I've figured out that most of the DCs will take loads any time the day of the appointment but will refuse anything a day or more early. (So, even if it says 1800 delivery, I'll show up at 3am if I can get there. Never had a problem with that.) JIT loads are the same way. And on top of that, the comments in a large percentage of our loads say, "Do not deliver early, you will get a service failure!!!" and/or "Do not contact the customer about appointment times!!!" And yes they really do put in a lot of exclamation marks. Which is why I've been afraid to try to deliver early at these places. It seems like Swift really means it. I haven't had the nerve yet to try delivering early at the places with those comments.

And don't feel bad, Old School. I appreciate all of the suggestions. I've learned so much from this site and people like you on it who are willing to help out. Unfortunately, it just seems like so much of it won't work at this company. Which is really baffling. Why is Swift so worried about giving drivers any leeway that they discourage people from working hard and maximizing their time? It seems like they would want to reward people who drive hard and get places as quickly as possible, but honestly, there are cases where charging hard actually works against you. I don't get that.

RookieTrucker let me ask you this....what would you do if you had a kid the constantly walked out into the street into traffic? I know what I would do. Either hold his hand every time we walked outside or restrict him from outside without you being there.

Well as bad as it sounds that is what Swift is doing. They had some much trouble with drivers running late or changing appointments and THEN being late they would rather not have to worry about it. It sucks for those drivers that are actually responsible enough to do their job but in trucking one bad apple really does spoil the entire barrel.

Here is what i am thinking is that trucking is about 90% a mental game and if your are thinking now that things won't change then even if the do change IN YOUR MIND they will still be the same so once your year is up might as well start looking for another company.

But honestly if the over the road fleet is truly ran like you say it is then I am not sure it can be fixed unless there is a complete overhaul.

Since so much of this discussion comes back to logging, what would you guys do? Go off duty as often as possible and hope you don't get audited or that they don't do much to you? Seems like they audit a lot because I'm always hearing about it and my terminal manager has mentioned firing people who keep logging off duty when they aren't supposed to.

What else do I need to work on? I'm not pulling off to the side of the road taking pictures and sunbathing. And I'm well past the point that I'm doing a drop and hook and thinking, "OK, what do I do next? Oh yeah, lower the landing gear."

OK, for those of you who are still skeptical about what I've been saying about things around here, go ahead and skip over this reply because you aren't going to believe any of it, either.

I took you guys' advice and talked to my DL today. (Actually, I sent a message to my fleet manager saying I wanted to talk about the miles I'm getting and what I need to do to improve things and apparently he told my DL to talk to me.) I've actually talked to her about a lot of these issues before, but not really in the sense of having "The Talk." She's telling me the same things today that she has told me before.

"What am I doing wrong? What can I change to get better loads and more miles?" She said I'm not doing anything wrong. That's just how the freight is. They have no control over the customers and their needs and we get the loads and plans they have. Company drivers don't get to choose the loads they get. You take what they give you. She even confirmed what I've been saying when she told me that teams and O/Os get the long miles. She says that's because customers don't want to wait 5 days for a cross country delivery and only teams can get there on time. (And remember, mentors and students run as teams.)

I told her ever since I started looking into trucking people have told me that OTR I should expect to average a lot more miles than I'm getting. She strongly suggested that I had unrealistic expectations and that I'm not getting low miles. (But then she kind of contradicted that later. I'll get to that in a moment.) She also said basically that I can't believe what you guys are telling me about miles because truckers lie about how much they are making. Especially O/Os. She said as a solo driver it's unrealistic to expect anything even close to 2500 miles a week. I asked her if the planners or the company in general has any goals for how many miles a driver averages a week. She said planners don't have goals because that's none of their concern. She then said the company doesn't necessarily have any firm goals that they have to reach. I pressed her on it and said "This is a performance based job and trucks only make money while they are rolling. Surely you guys have marks you're trying to reach." Finally she admitted that they do try to get their solo drivers in the 1800-1900 mile range. (This is the contradiction. She said I'm not getting low miles with 1700, but that's below the 1800-1900 range.) So I wasn't too far off on that guess.

(Side note: Good grief. I turned down a load tomorrow because I can't do an 8pm Eastern delivery. So they just turned around and sent me a load going somewhere closer...with an 8pm Central delivery time...which is 1 hour later...)

She went on and on giving me all the reasons why we can't control freight and how the customer's needs come first and sometimes you get stuck doing trailer moves and doing loads with too much time on them and everything else that I've already heard and that I totally get. But you guys are telling me that 1700 miles a week OTR is way too low and she's telling me that I'm not doing anything wrong and Swift isn't doing anything wrong and this is exactly what I should be expecting in trucking. So, yeah, something is not meshing right here.

She also wanted to yell at me a bit for turning down that load earlier because I put in the notes that I didn't have the hours to do it and I was expecting home time tomorrow. She told me I have to put in times I can pickup and deliver the load. I said, well, I don't know when I can deliver it if I have to take it home with me tomorrow. And she said, "You aren't going home tomorrow. GLR works Mon-Fri." I said, yeah, I'm planning on working all of my hours tomorrow and then going home. She said, "That's not how it works. You work Mon-Fri and go home for the weekend." I said, "If I don't go home Friday night, how do I get home on Saturday." She said "you bring a load back close to here on Saturday and then go home." I said, "If I'm expected to pickup and deliver loads on Saturday, that's not working Mon-Fri. That's working Mon-Sat." She said, "No, you're going home on Saturday, taking a 34 and coming home Monday." I said, "Now, wait. You're going home tonight. Are you saying you're not working today?" She said, "Well, no, but..." I said, "Then how is my working up to 14 hours on Saturday NOT working, but your 8 hours today IS working?" She said, "Well, this is how it goes. You don't get 2 days off. You work Monday-Friday and go home Saturday." I finally gave up. This is just another example of life at Swift. They promise you one thing and it ends up being something else. They say on regional you work Monday-Friday. It's really Monday-Saturday, but that's not how they see it.

(Cont)