Ticked off!!!!!

[petercar]

If the shop did the work and ran tests, did the tech shut the switch off as the last thing done ?
Sounds like a shop to avoid.
Only two PM's required per year on unit. I WILL be sure to get to Carrier, Frt Wayne,twice per year. A shop I know and trust.

same here, fort wayne carrier. great service great people.

 

[ATeam]

After finding it necessary to return to various shops after repairs were made, or to find another shop a day or two down the road, Diane and I changed our approach. If it is a reefer repair or annual service, we do not go back in service right away. We run the reefer through its paces for several hours, maybe even overnight to make sure everything is good.

So too with the truck. After repairs are made, I check them. And then we test drive the truck to put it through its paces. While this takes time you would rather not spend after sitting in a shop for a day, it is best to do it.

After you sit in a shop for hours or a whole day, you are itching to get out and get moving again. Don't do it. Stay in the area. Put your truck or reefer through its paces. Make sure things are right before you leave the area.

 

[zorry]

Phil, how can you expect such a sense of reason when I bet you half the people stay in service while in the shop, hoping any load they get works with the shop departure.
We can take a two hour lunch w/o loosing our position.
If I can't be in and out in two hours I go off the board. Any load lost is just part of the cost of doing business.

 

[ATeam]

Phil, how can you expect such a sense of reason when I bet you half the people stay in service while in the shop, hoping any load they get works with the shop departure.

It has been over a year since Diane and I left FedEx Custom Critical for Landstar. I forgot about the FedEx dispatch system. So yes, depending on one's carrier, the approach to in service or out of service may differ.

At Landstar, there is no penalty for going out of service. You don't lose dwell time because there is none to lose. If you are in service, you are in service. If you are not, you are not. It's that simple. When you come back into service, your truck appears on the board, no different than if you had never gone out of service, or if you had stayed in for an hour, day, month or more. There is no such thing as dwell time at Landstar; none to build, none to lose. Consequently, we don't have to lie to our carrier about our availability status to preserve our place in a que.

So, with that dispatch system in mind, if Diane and I are not available to run when a call comes in, we go out of service. It is not fair to agents to be unavailable but to show yourself as available. You are wasting their time by forcing them to make a call.

For something like an oil change or truck wash, we stay in service. But if it is a longer repair, we go out. We risk losing a load that an agent might call on for a pick up the next day, but the freight has been busy enough so that is not an issue.

Also, as the agents have gotten to know us over the last year or so, some will call us days in advance looking to snag our truck before they look for others. They do that because they know we are reliable and because we have shown them the respect of not playing games with their time and our availability status.

You asked, "How can you expect such a sense of reason ... ?" An expediter can be as reasonable as the dispatch system he or she works under. With FedEx, a dwell-time incentive is built in to lie about your availability status. No such incentive exists at Landstar.