Those darn complain and blame drivers

[fortwayne]

Tonight at the Marion truck stop, Marion Illinois:

Driver One: I am frustrated that my dispatchers are only calling me on these little 150-250 mile runs, then when I turn them down I sit and sit sometimes for days. I don't understand that and I barely have money to eat on.

Driver Two: Yea, my dispatch does the same thing and when I turn them down I tell them don't call me with anything less than 300 miles. A couple of days pass and they call me offering me another one of those short runs. Now I have to ask for an advance just where I can eat.

Me: Yea, I must be getting the loads both of you guys turn down, cause I have had five days of those little short 250-300 mile runs and now my dispatch gives me a long 1,000 mile weekend run - shoot for like the 3rd weekend in a row.

POINT: Simple, take the bad with the good. Take one load and make it PART of your day. Take each day and build it as PART of your week. The week as PART of your month. The month as PART of your quarter. The quarter as PART of your year.

AND ABOVE ALL STOP BLAMING OTHERS FOR YOUR FAILURES, OR YOUR IGNORANCE - WORK TO BE A SUCCESS - only complain and blame if you desire to remain in your rut!

 

[panther_art]

Don't you just love those guys, they keep the go getters busy. Maybe you should buy them lunch next time you run across them so they can sit and turn down more 150 mile loads down. I drove for over 7 years and from day one those drivers where out there complaining (not those guys but ones just like them), and 10 years from now there will still be out there, and going broke and never get what it takes to be an expediter.

 

[Dakota]

That 150 mile run might turn in to a 1000 mile run, do a dispatcher a favor and get a favor back in return

 

[nightcreacher]

If you get paid for something,is it really a favor

 

[LDB]

Are we talking vans who aren't very restricted so taking the 150 miler doesn't affect much or trucks whose clock starts with that 150 miler and may end the day with just that 150 miler? And favors? Dispatch is great at asking/calling it a favor when you are taking their load but very poor about remembering and reciprocating it, in most cases.

 

[Vinnie T]

Sometimes that 150-200 mile run puts you in an area where there is less competition for loads with your own fleet and other carriers. Also IMO dispatchers don't want to call a "turn down" specialist just to hear him moan and groan all the time on the phone. They want to move frht, and get it moved fast and when a good load pops up they usually call the people that will not turn loads down and will do a good job for a good customer. First in first out doesnr happen all the time. Turn Downers get less load offers, Load accepters get more load offers. We seem all like load accepters around here, unless it's a 1.00 a mile D unit load ...LOL

 

[Dreamer]

Gimme, gimme lol.... I've been runnin a lot of short runs, but as long as I'm busy, who cares...they add up. I cant tell you how many times I've been 5th or lower in line, and got that lil 150 miler nobody wanted, then got one on the tail... in fact, today's "short run" ended up 25 miles from another.... about 600 together...

Keep turnin 'em down, I got bills to pay lol.

Dale

 

[Deville]

That 150 mile run might turn in to a 1000 mile run, do a dispatcher a favor and get a favor back in return

There is no such thing.

I don't care who you are, some of those 150 mile runs are being offered for any where from $116 TO $165, DO 4 OR 5 LIKE THAT IN a row & show me how your benifiting from it. Sure you may get the thousand mile run, but at the end of the week you have lost money on fuel, tolls & wear & tear on the truck & more importantly your time.

I'm a local regional guy. Roughly 80% of my runs are less than 150 miles & I have diffrent rates for diffrent areas depending on my location, tolls & time. I've been fairly successful operating like this for 7 years now, but I can't & won't work for free. If they need it done badly enough they will up the pay to my minimum requirements. Don't get me wrong, i'm flexable I'm not going to let a few dollars get in the way of making $200, i'm not that short sighted but at the end of the day i gotta make some money too.

 

[Bruno]

As John Elliott always says " it's not what you make, it's what you keep"

 

[pjjjjj]

Sure you may get the thousand mile run, but at the end of the week you have lost money on fuel, tolls & wear & tear on the truck & more importantly your time.

I'm not advocating either way, in fact it seems to me that if you take a shorty, you can end up disqualifying yourself from the better one that comes up, either because you're now under load, or won't have enough hours to do the longer one on time, or because dispatch now thinks they've served you for the day and now, to be fair, have to move onto someone who hasn't had anything yet.. luck of the draw.
I was just going to comment on the 'time' factor.. time seems to be worth a whole lot less while sitting in a vehicle, probably expending money in some form, and waiting.. one can imagine their time is worth truckloads of money all day long and therefore not take the shorties.. but if it's between sumpin and nuttin, what's worth more?

 

[garebel]

hi,,i have to say after reading, thinking,and trying to decide wheather or not to go back driving,,if i knew i could stay busy with 200-300 mile runs in a sprinter,,i would be truck shopping today!!!thanks

 

[greg334]

because dispatch now thinks they've served you for the day and now, to be fair, have to move onto someone who hasn't had anything yet..

Actually that's why I like the system I work under now, I don't have to deal with a dispatch system that passes me over because of an hours issue but with an individual who sees a capacity that can be used. It is my judgment and the agreement between us that matter, not the judgment of someone who only learned to spell truck a few month prior to getting the job.

As John Elliott always says " it's not what you make, it's what you keep"

Not necessarily true. it matters a lot what you make, especially under limited cash flow or not knowing what your net is or if it is near the industry average. If you have a $4.65 a mile run and it costs you $4.23 a mile to run it, what you made is not the issue, it is how you spent the $4.23.

 

[CharlesD]

We have a few rules regarding shorties. For one, I won't bid cheap on any of them. I'll ask for riduculous money and then if I get it, the driver is going to make as much on that shorty as he would have made on a slightly longer run. If I can get a guy a couple hundred dollars for a 75 miler, then that's not so bad, and if you run enough of them, you can make a pretty good rate per mile.

Other than the money, here are a few of the rules I use regarding shorties.

1. It's 8:00 pm and there's not much freight listed. There's a 50 miler picking up at 4:00 am and it can deliver by 7:00. If you're in a straight, no way you should start your clock for that junk, but if you're in a van and you can knock that one out and make some money before your day starts, why not? You'll be empty again before there's much of a chance of another load showing up and you'll have some money in your pocket.

2. It's noon and that run comes up. No way am I taking it and I'm probably not even going to bid on it for one of my drivers. I don't want to tie that vehicle down and miss a good one, especially if things are going busy, and especially not if it's a Friday when I'm trying to book long weekend runs.

3. Sometimes a driver needs to stay close to home for personal reasons and those loads show up. I have a couple guys who do shorties all the time because of needing to stay close to the house. Also, if you're in a very competitive area and other drivers are turning down shorties like crazy, you can sometimes grab more than one in a day and do pretty well. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

 

[Oilerman1957]

I agree with Charles, made some really good money on some shorties, we bid on em and if we get it the driver does very well and alot of time if it was a early run there is another one to follow, but it depends on who you work for. Sometimes the guy I work for is pretty smart, hahaa

 

[Turtle]

Short loads are a very different animal when you have your own authority and are bidding on them yourself, as compared to someone leased on to a carrier where the pay is in direct proportion to the miles, long or short. It's one thing to bid on, and get, a 150 mile run for $300, but it's quite another to get the same load offered to you at 77 cents a mile plus a 20 cent FSC where you'll deliver the load and then be 27th on the board, only to sit there for three days and get another load offer just like it, ad nauseum.

But that's what it's like in "Midwеst Hell", where most of the loads are short and all the vans and trucks are sitting and waiting for a load.

The other day I was offered a load deadheading 65 miles for 5 loaded. No way was I gonna do that for a $50 mini. But I wasn't in "Midwеst Hell", either, and was the only van in the area, and know what that load would have to be brokered out for, so I asked for, and got, $350. You've got no chance of that happening if you're sitting in "Midwеst Hell".

 

[layoutshooter]

Short loads are a very different animal when you have your own authority and are bidding on them yourself, as compared to someone leased on to a carrier where the pay is in direct proportion to the miles, long or short. It's one thing to bid on, and get, a 150 mile run for $300, but it's quite another to get the same load offered to you at 77 cents a mile plus a 20 cent FSC where you'll deliver the load and then be 27th on the board, only to sit there for three days and get another load offer just like it, ad nauseum.

But that's what it's like in "Midwеst Hell", where most of the loads are short and all the vans and trucks are sitting and waiting for a load.

The other day I was offered a load deadheading 65 miles for 5 loaded. No way was I gonna do that for a $50 mini. But I wasn't in "Midwеst Hell", either, and was the only van in the area, and know what that load would have to be brokered out for, so I asked for, and got, $350. You've got no chance of that happening if you're sitting in "Midwеst Hell".

What wrong with a 65 mile DH for 5 loaded miles? We did a 200 mile deadhead last year for a 3 loaded mile run!! We DID get a less than 75! OH yeah, it paid almost $2000 too. Wonder if that had any bearing on things?

 

[Turtle]

What wrong with a 65 mile DH for 5 loaded miles?

Not a thing, if you're a Panther dispatcher who can get someone in a cargo van to run it as offered, which is for $50 because it's a mini. Hey, you get a First Out at delivery! carrot. <snort>

We did a 200 mile deadhead last year for a 3 loaded mile run!! We DID get a less than 75! OH yeah, it paid almost $2000 too. Wonder if that had any bearing on things?

Well, you aren't likely to see anything like that in a van, but I've negotiated much higher rates for that kind of stuff. I've only had one load where it was very little miles and paid a truly ridiculous rate because it required special handling, but vans don't get those kinds of loads very often.

 

[Dakota]

Gimme, gimme lol.... I've been runnin a lot of short runs, but as long as I'm busy, who cares...they add up. I cant tell you how many times I've been 5th or lower in line, and got that lil 150 miler nobody wanted, then got one on the tail... in fact, today's "short run" ended up 25 miles from another.... about 600 together...

Keep turnin 'em down, I got bills to pay lol.

Dale

There is no such thing.

I don't care who you are, some of those 150 mile runs are being offered for any where from $116 TO $165, DO 4 OR 5 LIKE THAT IN a row & show me how your benifiting from it. Sure you may get the thousand mile run, but at the end of the week you have lost money on fuel, tolls & wear & tear on the truck & more importantly your time.

I'm a local regional guy. Roughly 80% of my runs are less than 150 miles & I have diffrent rates for diffrent areas depending on my location, tolls & time. I've been fairly successful operating like this for 7 years now, but I can't & won't work for free. If they need it done badly enough they will up the pay to my minimum requirements. Don't get me wrong, i'm flexable I'm not going to let a few dollars get in the way of making $200, i'm not that short sighted but at the end of the day i gotta make some money too.

I'm not talking about working for free, but that 150 miler might get you into an area that sets you up for a nice run, then again maybe not, but I'd rather run then sit.

 

[Deville]

I'm not talking about working for free, but that 150 miler might get you into an area that sets you up for a nice run, then again maybe not, but I'd rather run then sit.

I agree, but you can't a load & not make money, or lose money.

Most guys not from the tri-state area wanna get out of the city ASAP, they dont wanna mess around within the city limits. I've seen guys turn down 130 mile runs that paid $290 because there was too much time sitting in NYC traffic & tolls, Which is fine by me.

 

[fortwayne]

I agree, but you can't a load & not make money, or lose money.

Most guys not from the tri-state area wanna get out of the city ASAP, they dont wanna mess around within the city limits. I've seen guys turn down 130 mile runs that paid $290 because there was too much time sitting in NYC traffic & tolls, Which is fine by me.

And that is the kind of nonsense I am talking about. I have talked to guys that will not do Chicago, Detroit and the entire state of New York, along with New Jersey and then they ***** cause they are sitting and going broke.

Well, heck, I hate New York City and New Jersey is the dirtest, dumbest and laziest state in the nation, but if the money is there I go.

Excuses, excuses, excuses for personal failures. If you can't correct yourself - you shouldn't expect someone else to do it for you and then have the nerve to complain that they tried to correct your failures.