Good Escort Loads

[TeamCaffee]

After reading Pelicn’s post on escort loads gone badly I thought I might bring up the other side.
We have done very short escort loads to over 2000 mile escort loads and overall I would say they have gone pretty well. We have been lucky enough to do escort loads with friends and still be friends after they were over! We have done these runs with people that like to chat constantly on the CB and others that just want to get on down the road. Usually we learn new ideas on these loads as we share ideas back and forth and we have found that invaluable to helping us with our business. When we receive a load offer that is an escort load we do not look at it with dread but a chance to get to know another truck out here doing what we love to do.
When we get to our pickup we discuss with the other truck how fast we are going to run and that we will not drive above the speed limit. Even though we prefer to run slow we will run the speed limit when doing as escort as we feel it is not fair to ask the other truck to run as slow as we normally do. We set up how we will go in and out of scales, rest areas, and where we will get fuel. We pick our CB channel and we exchange cards with phone numbers. We have found that patience helps us greatly with the escort loads as we have followed trucks that have got very very lost just trying to get out of town and we have followed trucks that have to stop often to use the restroom or to get a snack.
I think we are pretty clear on the requirements of an escort load and we will not tolerate an illegal truck and we make that clear. We are being paid well for duel driver protection and when we accepted that load we accepted that responsibility. If the other truck is not willing to follow those rules we will make a phone call to FedEx Custom Critical.
Just because you see two or more trucks of one company running together does not mean they are on an escort load. They can be chatting on the CB while going the same direction or as we have been lucky enough to do a few times we just picked up and were going to the same place and so made the decision to run together.

 

[LDB]

I think we are pretty clear on the requirements of an escort load and we will not tolerate an illegal truck and we make that clear. We are being paid well for duel driver protection and when we accepted that load we accepted that responsibility. If the other truck is not willing to follow those rules we will make a phone call to FedEx Custom Critical.

The most important part of what I read in a good post. As a ham radio operator I'm very familiar with self policing. It is one of the tenets of ham radio that improper and illegal operation will not be tolerated or participated in. If the very members of any organization condone or ignore improper behavior it won't be long before the rules are meaningless. One of the key things I saw and appreciated at Fedex at the very beginning was how high the bar is placed. I don't expect to participate in escort loads unless they are very short and have no other option but me. If I do I will follow the wise counsel given above.

 

[layoutshooter]

We run a lot of escort loads and for the most part enjoy them. We do as Team Caffee does. We have only ever had problems on two loads. One we worked it out and the other we called dispatch and informed them that we could not run at 75 mph in a 55 zone. They told us to drive the speed limit and not to worry about running with the other truck. It is funny, most likely just a wierd thing, but both times we had problems they were with T/T drivers that had just came into expediting from normal trucking. Layoutshooter

 

[nightcreacher]

As said,before leaving shipper,both parties need to talk about where they are stopping,directions they are going,and most of all the speed they will drive.At $4.00 per gallon,when I do an escort load,if the other party cant agree on the speed,then I call dispatch and either find another escort,or if i'm the escort I get taken off the run.Not going to loose my profit up the exhaust pipes of my truck

 

[XCountryTeam]

Just a quick note on the subject. We have had good runs when we have escorted a truck. We still keep in touch with a few drivers. Only once we had a team when one driver drove slower then up to speed and then slower then a bit faster. The other driver was a bit faster. but over all no problems at all. To me it makes the trip go by faster!