I have seen it happen many times where drivers and owner-operators co-mingle their opinions about their self-importance, rights and/or power over a customer or carrier with the details of a carrier's compensation schedule (D-time, labor, lift gate, pad-wrap, additional stops, surcharge, etc.) In may cases, they do so in ways that work against their own best interests.
Diane and I have never cared what other people call it. We call it equipment, labor, time and money. We spend money to bring our equipment and labor to the task, in return for money paid to us.
If we arrive at a shipper and have to wait an hour before loading, so what?
If we arrive at a shipper and have to wait four hours while they prepare their freight (sometimes, the preparation process cannot begin until the truck is physically present), so what?
If we arrive at a shipper and they put the wrong freight on the truck such that we drive two hours before the error is caught and we must return for the right freight, so what?
If we use our lift gate at both ends of the load and spend a total of four hours loading, securing and unloading the freight (some very expensive White Glove freight comes in many pieces and odd shapes and requires great care), so what?
If we pick up a reefer load on Friday for a Saturday delivery that later bumps to Monday, which means the reefer will run over the weekend, so what?
If we have to deadhead 600 miles to load freight and haul it 300 miles, so what?
If we arrive for a delivery and only then discover it is an inside delivery of six pieces that requires us to park half on the sidewalk in the middle of the night and take each piece one at a time to the 16th floor, so what?
If we arrive at a shipper and discover that the 47 pieces of freight cannot be transported safely without first pad wrapping each one, so what?
If we provide labor at the pickup and delivery and our carrier keeps a percentage of the money billed to the customer for it, so what?
If we have a reefer load on that requires us to sit on it over a weekend and every four hours climb into the back of a -10 F reefer body to record a number off a device on the freight and report it to dispatch, so what?
If one load pays $1.00 a mile plus $0.65 fuel surcharge and another load pays $1.85 a mile with no fuel surcharge, and another pays $300 (three hundred) a mile with no fuel surcharge but includes detention time, and one of the loads includes liftgate work and an inside delivery, and another one has detention time built in, and another is a HAZMAT load that means you can't get your truck washed when the freight is on board, and another includes a side trip to a moving supplies store where you have to buy extra packaging for the freight,...
...SO WHAT?
Our business is to provide a truck, equipment and labor in return for money paid. As long as customers are willing to meet our price and safety is respected, we are happy to do the work.
We are not ones to quibble about what kind of labor, time or equipment is involved. At the end of the day, as long as we are fairly compensated for the equipment and labor we provide, we are pleased to provide it, even if it means getting our hands dirty and breaking sweat.
There are those who say, "I'm a driver, I don't get paid to do that." Or, "It's not fair that other people make money off what I do."
We say, we are solution providers, we earn a living by satisfying customers. We operate in partnership with our carrier, who also must be compensated, to provide a package of services that customers want.
That is not to say that we have found ourselves on loads we would have rather not been on. It is not to say that all loads are fun or go well. It is not to say that adverse developments do not sometimes come into play in a way that makes the load not worth doing once it is done. But that is not the norm. The norm is we are fairly compensated for the work we do, and we don't care what other people call it.
Just do the work and make the money.
