Home Time Didn't Work - DH 2200 miles UT to NC

[greg334]

I have to agree with Broom, when I have to go home, I do not wait for a load, I go out of service and go home.

I do not worry about what FedEx can do for me to get me home, actually I never asked and don't care to after the mess I had with my CC over backhauls.

If they call me with a load offer, and they have, make it clear to them what I want to turn around to pick up a load. Sounds stupid but I am on a schedule to go home to take care of something, it is not a pleasure trip to visit the wife and cats.

 

[FAMILYEXPDT]

Pel,

Sorry to see you leave expediting. It really CAN work well for you. I also have a fleet so my drivers do not own their trucks...BUT I look at their situation as if I were the one on that load. Would I be happy with the money made that day or the money on a load. I recently deadheaded one of my teams from hutchins, tx to Prescott< mi because they needed to be home. I buy the fuel and we worked out what they would pay to go home...I also have the time to get paid because I have other trucks running.....home time is always a touchy subject no matter what company you run for. You would have thought these guys could have gotten a load from texas to michigan but....time of month, end of quarter, week b4 easter...it all adds up.


-charlotte

 

[cheri1122]

It has been my experience as well, you may as well accept the fact that you will DH from wherever you are, when you need to head home. My experience, of course, is in a B unit, which pretty much rules out the possibility of backhauls. I have requested 'Home time' 3 times in the 8 months with Panther, and have DH at least 600 miles each time. I was not aware until I read it here, that dispatch will offer loads going the wrong way, and not charge you with a refusal - that explains why, when I sent a message last week that I needed to be in Ohio by Thursday for a doctor appt, they offered a load delivering Thursday in Mississippi...
My lack of awareness of the policies may be because I came to Panther from ConWay, and didn't go through orientation, but it's also because dispatchers seem to have different ideas of "policy" as well. Example: I was told by a supervisor, last Wednesday, that "Panther doesn't pay for empty moves for cargo vans." I took that to be a change in policy, as I had been paid for an empty move once before, and I DH on my own dime. On Friday, I delivered a load in Michigan, and the suggested layover was an empty move - 160 miles, paying about $15.
Good drivers will follow company policy, but need to know what exactly the policy is, no?

 

[FAMILYEXPDT]

Sure you need to know...and if I were coming into a company I would make it a point to go thru the orientation whether it was required of me or not. You may get a different "policy" answer from a different dispatche whether they have been there 5 years or 5 minutes....so ask to talk to your team lead and he/she will tell you the right policy. Personally I would take the time to go thru orientation.



-Charlotte

 

[davekc]

I am always amazed when I read these kinds of posts. Like everyone else, I wouldn't have taken the load out west, and if so, took the load to Barstow. Alot more eastbound loads out of LA.
Secondly, but not mentioned, is the "D" unit is a 16' reefer, that can only carry 5,000lbs. Correct me Pel if I am wrong on that.
That is a major restriction with what you were trying to do out west.

As far as the hometime program, we have been around 50 percent on it. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Most of the time we just book our own loads going in the direction that we need.










Davekc
owner
22 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[tonymcc]

Thanks, Charlotte. Yes, I have been considering InternetTruckStop ... getloaded is usually no help. It was a Gov't load we took to Utah ... and we now know we should have taken the Barstow from Tooele ... since we stayed 2nd out the entire time we stayed on the SLC board. We don't usually drive a lot of unpaid miles and usually average pretty good. Looking at all truck miles, after we paid the fuel, we averaged $1.17. Now, notice, that's all truck miles after fuel for the whole month. Certainly our loaded miles is much higher. So, this round trip load at $.61 was not usual. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Tony

 

[tonymcc]

Thank you for sharing your experience. Sorry about your empty miles, too.

Tony

 

[tonymcc]

LOL ... really!

 

[tonymcc]

That's one way to do it, but we do look at pay per mile, loaded miles, and also miles including dh, and then also over all truck miles ... and then we consider fuel, fixed expenses, and moving expenses. But yours is one way to look at it. We were only offered one load that we had time to do ... Tooele, UT to Barstow, CA. Hindsight - we should have taken the Barstow. But we've been to Barstow before ... and we've sat in SLC before. At the time, it seemed that we'd have a better chance of getting east out of SLC. But sometimes you don't have long to decide and think about all the different aspects. I'm not as quick on my feet maybe <g>. We should have gone to Barstow. It would have been another $1000 or so and maybe 200 more miles of DH.

Tony

 

[tonymcc]

Yep ... good advice. We did make money for the round trip, but was it enough to justify leaving home ... where we are so seldom and have much to do <g>? I think now it was a mistake to leave home for this pro and dh 2200 miles back ..., but it did pay us something over all.

Tony

 

[tonymcc]

One must consider the time constraints. It's a D truck, no reefer, we like to stay under 10,000 lbs. We were in SLC Wed. and had to be in NC Sat. The Barstow load delivered Thurs. around noon. The last time we were in LA, we sat for 5 days having arrived as 5th out. We've been to LA several times and have gotten good loads, but we've also gotten loads in SLC. The Special Services Team Leader thought he could get us a load, and he tried. But at the time, Barstow probably wouldn't have given us a load within hours of our POD. I wish we had two days of cushion, but a POD Thursday meant it's time to get rolling ... and not to LA. We left home on a Monday knowing we had to be back Sat. We've only used Home Time one other time and it worked, so this was a new experience. I appreciate your comments.

Tony

 

[nightcreacher]

Tony,I dont think heading to Ca. would have helped your cause,you would not have made it home by saturday.As i stated before,if you made any money over your out of pocket expenses,for that load,you did ok,but it will take a little while for you to get even with the extra dead head miles,as in the short term makes your money per mile lower,but if your careful,it will come back up,oh forgot,you run mileage,thats why I run percentage,I can do a load like that,and get enough money going one way that I can afford to dead head back

 

[davekc]

Percentage of what? Milage or percentage means little. It depends on whether you turned a profit or not.
I run on both systems and one doesn't win over the other. It depends on what it costs to do a run and what your profit is upon completion.






Davekc
owner
22 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[catshavestaff]

Wayne and I had a similar bad experience with the Panther Home Time Program. On a load from GA to Edwards AFB in CA, I called Panther to put us on the Home Time Board. When I told the Dispatcher where we lived (Lubbock, TX) she said, "Well, you'd better just head on home now." Tone of voice was sarcastic. And that was it. No suggestions, not even a polite "I'm sorry".

We know that Edwards AFB is zilch for freight opportunities. We also know that the chances were slim to none that we'd get routed back in the Lubbock direction under load, or even to swap in Amarillo. That wasn't what made us so angry and disgusted. It was her manner and tone of voice. Kind of a "Good Luck, Sucker" sort of response. Not even an attempt at "Customer Service" as described to us in orientation...you remember: "Panther has two customers-the folks we ship freight for and the drivers who get it there". Hah!

There was absolutely no attempt at trying to find us a load, or even pretending they'd try to find us a load. Not even an "I'll do my best to get you routed home under load." Just a "Well, you'd better just head on home now."

So, we headed on home, on our own dime. Now, we're doing our best to recoup the money we spent on fuel from Edwards to Lubbock. And, wouldn't recommend Panther for it's customer service x( .

Edited to add:

I took the OP to be asking for feedback on the Home Time Program, not his/her business acumen. In the Panther manual the Home Time is described in very positive terms, leading the reader to believe (hah!) that Panther is serious about helping drivers get home, and that they really care (Double HAH!) We used it for the first time and found it to be a scam, a lie, a sop to foolish newbies, and basically a waste of the paper and ink it was printed on. Tony, we had the same sort of experience, and our business acumen/experience is NO WHERE near yours. So, newbie or veteran driver, the Home Time Program is a farce.

I think I have exhausted the thesaurus for synonyms for the moment

 

[tonymcc]

Yep ... that's about how I see it, too. Good advice.

Thanks,

Tony

 

[tonymcc]

Yeah ... we keep a close eye on our expenses ... and we made enough to make expenses and pocket some money. Not enough to do every week, but I remind myself that this was opposed to staying home all week with no income at all. So, a little is better than nothing if the income is all that's considered. We were home and had stuff to do, but if we had stayed, there would have been no income. Our fuel this trip, since the west costs more, was 33 cents a mile ... and 4450 miles is about half a PM ... and other moving expenses, etc. You get the picture. But we still made money. The load was about $2.00 a mile ... and we considered it might be a DH home, but worst case, we'd still make money ... and the chance we might get a load made it more attractive.

Mainly we wanted to know if not getting a Home Time load was typical ... and even with other carriers.

Thanks,

Tony

 

[tonymcc]

Thanks for your comments, Wayne and Chrissie. I'm sorry for your experience. That's what I was after ... other's experiences.

Tony

 

[davekc]

What is the problem? She told you to head home. I would rather have that than some sugar coated bs about "maybe we will find you a load"
People have to be alittle more self reliant and look at these areas PRIOR to going to them. Forget about hometime and all that other bs. Either figure out how to find your own freight or don't go to these areas if you need to be home at a certain time.








Davekc
owner
22 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[nightcreacher]

Dave,every milegae contract I've been on has lost me money,mileage is fine if you get the miles,but most of the time the companies want to save their money by wanting you to wait for them to load you without dead heading you if they can,plus when running mileage,it is never as high as you will get on percentage.When I take a load,I already have an Idea what will happen when I get empty,either I layover or the load pays enough that I pick where I want to layover.Since I'm lazy,i dont like to work anymore than I have to,that is less mi;es,and less days away from home.Last year i only worked 220 days,and there were three different months that I ran solo.I ran 112000 miles for the year,but I made 187000 bucks,show me how I can do that running for flat rate mileage.

 

[davekc]

Steve, if a tractor runs 100,000 at 1.65 milage or higher, plus 20 percent FSC, they are at your numbers or higher. I think you have proved my point. I don't see a huge difference.
Either one can be "right". It just depends on several other factors.
As mentioned earlier, we do both, so I get a chance to look at both scenerios.






Davekc
owner
22 years
PantherII
EO moderator