No Loads

I've been sitting around in Lubbock since Saturday afternoon. Been sending my macros and calling DMs daily. "Light on loads" is the response everytime. Finally get a message today that there are no loads for the area until Wednesday. What sucks about that is that I have to do a Cal Bit service on my truck in 2 days. And an A and B service. But I guess the Cal Bit takes care of those.

Just venting I guess. After every other load I end up sitting for a 1-3 days. Not like I'm turning down loads. I'm not getting them. I just end up in areas with nada. Or my DM isn't taking the time to stack my loads or find them. I dunno. What really sucks is that they mentioned last week that my weekly average miles are low and made it seem like it was me...yeah I know my miles are low. Get me some loads DM. I want to make money...SMFH

I hear this from people even at certain mega carriers. I just left Lubbock with a meat load going to Oregon.

Can you ask your DM for preplans? i told mine i couldnt sleep without them. Been preplanned 90% of time since. I would still maessage every morning "any chance we can get a load today please? what about a relay?"

Some.companies seem to be using shuttle drivers as locals to pay less. So say on a 1200 mile load the local from shipper to OTR driver does 400 miles, then the OTR does 400, then the next shuttle driver does 400. So for only 33% of the load, the OTR driver got paid a higher rate. Way to save money but bad for OTR drivers.

i hear your frustration. sorry

That must be frustrating. I got lucky recently. I had just returned to my truck after taking some hometime. This was in South Jersey, near the Delaware Memorial Bridge. My FM said that there was nothing for me and that I might have to wait until the following morning for a load. A couple hours later I got a msg telling me to head to the Cleveland area and give an ETA so they could assign me a load. This was rather vague and it felt strange not having a specific destination. I just went for the nearest travel plaza on I-80, East of Cleveland. Now that's a long deadhead trip. Great for fuel mileage though.

Talk with other drivers from your division and see what they're saying. You may find that most drivers are having the same problem; you may find otherwise. That was always my first move when things were slow, find out if it's just you or if everyone is slow.

Regardless, a company that size always has enough freight to keep its top drivers moving. Unfortunately when things slow down the bulk of the freight tends to go to their more experienced drivers. That's one of the many reasons it pays off to stay with a company for a long time.

I would stay on dispatch and ask for pre-loads as Kearsey said. You might also ask your dispatcher if they would mind if you made a few phone calls higher up to see if you could shake the tree a little bit and get some freight coming your way. That was something I would do once in a while. I'd call the dispatcher's boss or the operations manager and just let them know that I'm starving out here and I can't pay my bills. Tell them this is unsustainable and that you have to get more miles or you can't pay your bills. Don't threaten them or get angry or anything like that. Just plead your case and let them know it's urgent.

Everyone in the office understands that we all need to make a living. When a driver isn't getting good miles their paychecks suffer and for most people that's unacceptable. Most people can't pay their bills on 2,000 miles per week. Be persistent, keep making phone calls, keep sending messages. No one is happy when drivers aren't turning miles. So be persistent and let them know that someone has to figure out something quickly. One time I told my dispatcher if he doesn't start coming up with miles I'm going to lose my house and I'll be moving in with him. It was funny, but it also got the point across.

Hang in there. Keep working at it. You know the freight is there. You just have to figure out how to get more of it for yourself. Remember, trucking is a competition, especially amongst the drivers within the same company. Right now other drivers are getting more freight than you are. Go figure out why that's happening and what you can do about it.

Read Old School's article as a reminder:

Trucking Is A Competition Between Drivers. Can You Hang With The Big Dogs?

Kinda in the same boat out here....last delivery was last Thursday to Fed Ex Frt..Denver..Then had to sit and wait for a relay load outta Dallas....Stayed overnight @FedEx then moved to a TA in morning. Sat and waited 2 more days with constant checks on his current location.....Finally we go grab that load at a dump lot Sunday and head out to SLC Monday morning at 5 am, with a8am til 4pm delivery window......We arrive at 2:05 pm only to be told 2 pm is cut off for any deliveries, so he we are Tuesday ready to go get unloaded and still Do Not have another load set up after grrrr.......Now I dunno if this has anything to do with my trainer being a lease op or not. But since I been with him the past 4 weeks we have been on time or early for every load....Except seems every weekend we sit waiting for loads......Talking to some of my classmates otf they kept busy.....hmmmmm ......Guy that handles us newbs is already wanting me to finish up and return to terminal to get set up with a truck and my team mate lol......So we'll see how this next week pans out.....

We slowed down going on 3 months ago now. It hurts the bottom line. I worked with my DM as long as I could, then spoke with the terminal manager. That worked for about 1 week. The next week I spoke to the regional coordinator. That worked for a few weeks. Last thursday I finally contacted coporate and had a nice conversation. It worked for this week, so we will see what happens.

I’m sure it was pure coinidence but an hour after I spoke with coporate office I was given a very good paying load. The 8 hours prior it was nothing yet.

Not too long ago, my miles were too lite. I discussed it with my DM and our ops manager who both told me that this has been the worst year ever in West Side's history. Bluntly, freight is crazy in certain sectors.

I told him I couldn't really afford this and he asked me if there was anything he could do to help more lol. He also said the load planners thought I wanted to take it easy after the rough summer I had with Michael getting so sick and almost dying in July, then my 2nd daughter did pass away in August, and my youngest is due with her first child in November.. actually on my deceased daughter's birthday. I told him that for those reasons and the fact that I had to take so much time off work I needed to stay busier. I'm still not getting my 3k+ mile weeks but it has gotten better. I'm doing lots of Florida forklift runs (on one now) and lots of shorter broker loads to get me home, rinse and repeat.

The plus side is as soon as I get my forklift loads I'm immediately preplanned up for my backhaul. I got this load Saturday, took it home and am planned up through Thursday. I'll do another short haul and they'll send me home late Friday or early Saturday.

Just let them know you really need more miles, that you can't afford this and see what happens.

Typically at our company freight gets light between Thanksgiving and new year's because our largest customers will generally close for extended days to do plant maintenance, inventory, etc. In fact toyota industrial lifts will close for just over 2 weeks for maintenance. . They do this every year, so I'm sure I'll be doing more broker loads.

Right now trucking is at over capacity so it's a bit rough unless you're dedicated on reefer , hauling groceries etc.

With the holidays coming up hopefully things will start to pick up

I read that earnings for large companies are down and are expected to stay down until the second quarter next year...

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/16/ceo-of-the-largest-us-trucking-company-predicts-difficult-quarter-for-transport-industry.html

With the holidays coming up hopefully things will start to pick up

Unfortunately, I think they should have already. The lead up to the holidays is a long process. There isn't a flurry of activity at the last minute. Factories have to get in supplies to build items, the shipping ports have to receive containers of items from overseas, the warehouses have to be stocked, and then the stores need to be stocked. All of this has to be done way before the major holiday shopping rush which will start just before Thanksgiving. So the ramp-up usually starts in September/October and kind of peaks just after thanksgiving. Normally about mid-December, everything grinds to a halt because the stores have already been stocked and the overwhelming majority of major Christmas shopping is done.

If things are slow now, that's a really bad sign. This should be the hot and heavy season right now.