down hill spiral

[miguy1957]

They just keep tighting the noose, Up it to 73% , Whats next? Well they are paying you deadhead so what if its over 40% to pick up the load take it or they will hit you with a refuseal, Then extend the 8hr rule to 24hrs? So what you already ran 2 Minis take this one or they will ding you with another one. When will it stop?

 

[Moot]

No, I didn't get the message. It was apparently sent out in a fleet message a week or two ago, but it certainly should have gone out in an e-mail and been posted to the Website.

And exactly why didn't you get the message? I guess I didn't get the message either. But I did get a really cool QC message and E-mail from some dude at Panther that mentioned something about the price of fuel at TA's and then quoted a piece Ronald Reagan wrote in 1981 entitled: What July Fourth Means To Me. Very moving! Maybe you should quit thinking about yourself and Panther and concentrate on more important things like America, freedom, fireworks, England, global warming and world peace.

By the way; is Panther still in business or did they just close down for the long weekend?

 

[Turtle]

A storm took 'em down over the weekend, knocked out power and messed up the computers and the network. I called in yesterday and someone, a real live person, answered the phone on the second ring. They answered, "Thank you for calling Panther. How may I help you?" That's just wrong. I was so flummoxed I nearly hung up in a panic.

 

[ttruck]

Got my info from dispatch because i did not see the memo last month

 

[ttruck]

no, i didn't get the message. It was apparently sent out in a fleet message a week or two ago, but it certainly should have gone out in an e-mail and been posted to the website. Because of how it is calculated, it should have gone out prior to june 1, actually, since decisions made in june based on the old formula are now ex post facto part of the new formula. It's like putting up a stop sign today and giving you a ticket for running it last week.

I'll call on tuesday to get a clarification, and maybe to get someone to send it out in an e-mail, hopefully they'll have the phones and computer fixed by then.

A few minutes ago someone in driver relations read me the e-mail that they got, which didn't say much, other than as of july 2, 2011 the cut-off for the acceptance rate is raised from 67% to 73%, and that driver relations should expect a lot of calls about it. The e-mail does not provide driver relations with any kind of explanation to offer the callers who have questions, however, which seems rather typical ("we've made this change, you're going to get a lot of calls about it. We're not going to explain to you why we've made these changes, so good luck with the calls. <snort>").

Doesn't take much to figure out why, tho. They started paying deadhead as an incentive to take more loads, which didn't help, so now they have to raise the acceptance rate to get more people to accept more loads, and so they can more concentrate the load offers to people who are most likely to accept them.

But it honestly doesn't affect me much. Even the girl in driver relations asked me why i was even concerned with it, seeing as how i don't turn much down ("you only turned down one load in june, and one in may!") it's a very rare thing for me to drop below 90%. But i was asking not because i'm concerned about it, but rather you can't play the game if you don't know the rules, especially if they change the rules without letting you know about it.

But it is, for sure, 73% now, and not 67%.

Again, it's calculated by using all of the days of the current month, and the previous calendar month. It's july 3, so you're dealing with the 3 days in july and all of june, with anything that happened before june 1 being out of the equation. It's loads accepted divided by loads offered. Legitimate refusals are not in the equation (e.g., more than 8 hours in advance is not counted as a load offered).

but if your only being offered the good loads you only turn down one here one there your an owner you get the whole pie nas a contractor you get a piece of the pie and when its a short run to a bad board what are your choices like i said when i started the conversation on this subject refuse 1 in 4 and your at that 73% mark, they will lose drivers , trks and orientation will go on weeek after week, new trks , drivers and there is a shortage of drivers its going to get tough .
Ive called several other comps. That dont have percentages its going to make them driver friendly.

 

[ttruck]

they just keep tighting the noose, up it to 73% , whats next? Well they are paying you deadhead so what if its over 40% to pick up the load take it or they will hit you with a refuseal, then extend the 8hr rule to 24hrs? So what you already ran 2 minis take this one or they will ding you with another one. When will it stop?

yes it is strangling isnt it this will cost them ive spoke to my owner hes looking to get his own authority and maby moving on if the back haul bords only worked cant seem to get a repl from any of them or im in the wrong place all the time.i guess every one got the message today infact those last to from company were pretty quick they must have been flooded w/ calls about there percentages illn bet everyone is looking at them at least every 4 load refused or not.

 

[Turtle]

but if your only being offered the good loads you only turn down one here one there your an owner you get the whole pie nas a contractor you get a piece of the pie and when its a short run to a bad board what are your choices like i said when i started the conversation on this subject refuse 1 in 4 and your at that 73% mark, they will lose drivers , trks and orientation will go on weeek after week, new trks , drivers and there is a shortage of drivers its going to get tough .
Ive called several other comps. That dont have percentages its going to make them driver friendly.

Well, if you refuse 1 in 4 you are at the 75% mark so you're OK. You can't turn down more than that, tho. If you're offered 5 loads a week and turn down one per week, that's 20 in a month with 16 accepted, which puts you at 80%.

But as I said earlier in this and several other threads, a lot of this problem is Panther's own doing by catering to fleet owners instead of catering to drivers. If you drive a truck for a fleet owner, giving up 40% of the load can make a huge difference between a profitable and an unprofitable load. And if you think it's bad in a truck, try splitting 77 cents per mile (or less with the new contracts) in a van.

It's nothing more than a case of a carrier not being a good fit for one reason or another. If it doesn't fit, you must not submit, and you should leave lickety split, otherwise you won't be happy, not one bit, Sam I am.

What is likely to happen is that they will lose fleet owners rather than owner/operators, because owner/operators can afford to take shorter runs because they are still profitable.

But maybe not, according to the fleet message and e-mail that went out today, as apparently fleet-wide Panther is at 85% acceptance, which is why they decided to raise the rate from 67% to 73% (which, frankly, makes no sense to me). "This is being done in an effort to cover freight in a timely manner and better Service our customers." If acceptance is so high, then the baseline of 67% isn't a problem.

What it sounds like to me is they are trying to get rid of everyone who isn't at that fleet-wide 85% mark, and they're (attempting) to use this Gold-Silver-Bronze thing as an incentive to get people to take crappy loads.

But, if you are at or below the 73% or 67%, not to worry, as they will be resetting everyone to 100% sometime next week, so you're good to go, at least for a few more turn-downs.

 

[Fr8 Shaker]

But maybe not, according to the fleet message and e-mail that went out today, as apparently fleet-wide Panther is at 85% acceptance, which is why they decided to raise the rate from 67% to 73% (which, frankly, makes no sense to me). "This is being done in an effort to cover freight in a timely manner and better Service our customers." If acceptance is so high, then the baseline of 67% isn't a problem.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well if the plan is to cover freight in a timely manner, then they need to get rid of the STUPID virtual terminals, what a joke. and go back to the old board system so you don't have all the trucks sitting in a general area 100+ miles from the shippers.

I still do not see how these virtual terminals are in any way beneficial to panther.

 

[Turtle]

I wrote an e-mail to Sean the other day asking to go back to the old boards. Maybe if we all sent him e-mails, it'll get their attention.

 

[Fr8 Shaker]

Possible but I doubt it. When I talk with contractor relations (another oxymoron) And mention they need to go back to the old boards so we know where the freight is coming out of. They say they hear that all the time from the other drivers too.


Another problem, It was mentioned in the fleet msg. we got saying how this new 73% crap was discussed extensively with the drivers counsel and the only time we hear about anything is after the fact. I was understanding that the drivers counsel was supposed to represent the drivers not just make decisions for us.

I still stand by what I said when this driver counsel was first mentioned, It is nothing but a joke, There will be nothing done that will actually help drivers let alone make it possible for them to make more money. It's just panthers way of making changes and saying it was done through the driver counsel. You know for our best interest. B.S.

 

[Turtle]

Well, they do represent us, but they do not make decisions for us. If Panther wants to do something and the entire Driver Council is against it, the Driver Council's opinion carries zero weight. If the Driver Council brings up an idea for a change, no matter how great of an idea it might be, if the idea doesn't benefit Panther, it won't be implemented. Like, unless Panther can see a real benefit to going back to the old boards, they probably will leave things just the way they are. It doesn't matter that it would greatly benefit the drivers out here. As long as Panther can cover loads sufficiently with the current board system, they won't expend any time or effort changing things.

The Driver Council is a joke? Surely you jest.
If you still have it, take a look at that original Action Items List and see how many of those have been acted upon, and in particular which ones have been.

 

[Fr8 Shaker]

Where do I find this action items list ?

 

[Turtle]

It used to be online under the Driver Council, but since the Web site revamp it's not there, nor are any of the meeting minutes. Maybe Sean will send it to ya.

 

[Fr8 Shaker]

I don't really need to see the minutes. All I know is I have never seen anything implemented that was in anyway an advantage to me. I take that back, there was the status change of available sleeping but that is about it.

Board position means nothing especially with the new and unimproved virtual terminals.
Oh and not to forget teams get loaded first regardless if a single driver can do the load.
But if that single driver is the only one around and no one to transfer to then by all means take the load all the way. Just do the best you can and be safe.

I used to run loads anywhere between 900 and 1700 miles as a single now your lucky to get a 400 to 700 mile load as long as there are no teams available.

I've sat at home with a first out and watched 11 vans behind me get out starting with teams first, then be the only one left and now they want me to d/h to the west side of the state to pickup a load.

When I inquire about this I just get the standard "I don't know" probably because customer need it picked up quick. B.S. I've been expediting for 16 plus years. Every load doesn't need to be picked up right now. More loads have a 2 to 3 hour window for a pickup then not. I'm just tired of the lies and B.S.

100% on time, 100% safety 100% acceptance. And not just on time, always early.
Well dressed, clean van, very personable always professional. WTF ?

How long was Con-Ways non compete claus for ?

 

[Turtle]

I think the non-compete agreement was for 3 years. It might have been five. I don't have that PDF anymore and can't remember for sure. I seriously doubt that Con-Way will ever get back into the expedited sector.

 

[Fr8 Shaker]

Yeah I don't believe they will either. If they did I'd be the first one to jump ship and you'd have to race me to get to the front of the line.

 

[jmlaber]

That's also when you dropped to the bottom of the board when you turned down a load. Talk about yer forced dispatch, that was it.

So what happens now when you turn down a load? If I were to turn one down that counted against my acceptance rate, would I get to keep my board position, or would I drop to the bottom?

 

[jmlaber]

What do you means by "Panther caters to fleet owners"? What benefits do they get over the independent O/O's? I'm wondering because right now I drive for a fleet owner, but if this job seems profitable enough, I'd like to go O/O so I can customize my van the way I want it. But if Panther does cater to fleet owners, I'm forced to wonder if it's worth it, or if I should continue to trade some comforts for the benefits of being with a fleet owner.

 

[miguy1957]

So what happens now when you turn down a load? If I were to turn one down that counted against my acceptance rate, would I get to keep my board position, or would I drop to the bottom?

You stay at where ever you were at on the board.

 

[miguy1957]

What do you means by "Panther caters to fleet owners"? What benefits do they get over the independent O/O's? I'm wondering because right now I drive for a fleet owner, but if this job seems profitable enough, I'd like to go O/O so I can customize my van the way I want it. But if Panther does cater to fleet owners, I'm forced to wonder if it's worth it, or if I should continue to trade some comforts for the benefits of being with a fleet owner.

Do the math, 1000 miles@ .77/mi = $770.00 60%of .77/mi =46.2/mi x1000= $462.00, 770-462= $308.00 Is it worth $308.00 for the use of someone elses van on a 1000 mile week?? Or 308x 50 weeks / year = $15,400 / year. I think you would be better off in your own van, If you plan on staying with it.