Tri-state's new rates

Wingnut · Jan 15, 2009

What do all of you tri-state drivers & owners think about the new pay and bonus rates that go into effect Mon Jan 19? How will this affect you and how many of you will try to ride out the storm?
As for me, I have several straight trucks on with tri-state and I'm doing some serious pencil pushing to see if I'm going to be able to stay or not.

SWTexas1 · Jan 16, 2009

Im going to ride it out I hope. What else can we do? Im not seing where anybody is braging about there rates, Or there loads counts. At least with TS I know what I have and who they are.

Wolfeman68 · Jan 16, 2009

I have 3 Sprinters and 2 straight trucks on with Tri-State. Am I happy with the new system? No, but it's not a surprise. Given the fact that brokers and other carriers are undercutting rates and driving the rates down, T/S had to do something to keep themselves competitive and us moving. I would rather take a cut than have T/S go down and end up with no revenue.

I see no need to jump ship to another carrier since most will be in the same situation or worse and as SWTexas1 says, I know what I have and I know who they are. T/S has done right by me, and I'll be staying.

That said, I agree with you Wingnut. The pencil needs to be pushed but until a couple of weeks, or even a month, goes by, we won't have the numbers to get an accurate picture. If I'm understanding the new rate, T/S no longer will be paying by mileage. We will receive 65% of the load revenue plus 100% of the FSC. The mileage rates they list are the minimum revenue you would receive on a load. You could receive more than the minimum on some loads, the minimum on others. I never considered the bonus miles to be a factor on any level since it was always low.

As I see it, the make or break factor will be in what loads to accept and what ones to refuse. That's always been important but now, even more so. I know what each of my trucks CPM is, and I will be providing my drivers with a chart guideline so they will know at a glance whether to accept a load offer or not. The exceptions would be accepting a low paying load to get to a better freight lane, or refusing said low paying load that takes you out of a busy freight lane. Up to this point, they would accept the low paying load to stay off 8 hour refusal. T/S needs to eliminate this penalty. In my mind, T/S is asking us to accept lower rates so they can compete and stay in business. Why should we be penalized for making the same decision?

In this economy, anything can happen and nothing can be predicted since we haven't been here before. If fuel prices top $4. again, we'll all be in trouble. As T/S's CEO, and others, have said, "We all have to work together to get through this." I agree, but I would like to hear a couple of things from T/S:

Suspend the 8 hour refusal penalty.
Are these new rates temporary until the economy recovers?
At what point in that recovery would the rates revert back to the rates of today?

Hopefully, we will have a two way information highway so everyone can make the right decisions.

Gesika · Jan 17, 2009

Hopefully, these new rates will at least get us moving again. I don't know about anybody else, but my husband and I pulled a mere 600 miles last week, 1,500 the week before, have been sitting here in Georgia for 3 days and probably won't move for another 2 days. We also had 2 dead runs last week, which Tristate is refusing to compensate us for with vague reasons. We had several load offers, only to be cancelled before dispatch.

I understand the whole industry is slow right now and we are only a year into it. Has anybody seen this before?

Wolfeman68 · Jan 19, 2009

Gesika said:
Hopefully, these new rates will at least get us moving again. I don't know about anybody else, but my husband and I pulled a mere 600 miles last week, 1,500 the week before, have been sitting here in Georgia for 3 days and probably won't move for another 2 days. We also had 2 dead runs last week, which Tristate is refusing to compensate us for with vague reasons. We had several load offers, only to be cancelled before dispatch.

I understand the whole industry is slow right now and we are only a year into it. Has anybody seen this before?

This is the worst January I've seen and it's a shipper's market right now. The new rates may bring in some loads, at least I would assume that is the idea behind them.

If you were dispatched on the two "dead" loads you mentioned you still should be able to get paid for a Dry Run. Submit a BOL with the pro # on it filled out with the shipper and consignee's name and address with "Dry Run" written in the body of the BOL where you would normally put the freight description. The load offers you have had cancelled are not a surprise. The shipper or consignee probably booked the load with T/S to hold the truck until they could see if they received a better rate from another carrier. Once they did, they just cancel the load with T/S. Sometimes they don't even bother to cancel.

No one has seen this situation before. Maybe things will improve after the inauguration, but I'm not holding my breath. You mentioned that you're sitting in Georgia. Depending on what type of unit you drive and your board position, I would suggest you don't sit that long in the future. Move to a busier board or a transfer point. If you like, you can PM me and I'll be glad to help anyway I can.

Gesika · Jan 19, 2009

Wolfeman,

We've been #2-D down here in Albany since Thursday evening and we figured deadheading would be pointless. Though, looking at the boards, we could have pulled out of Atlanta if we had transfered there right after our drop. Pulling out today would probably be a bad idea.

I submitted both dry run forms, and did receive compensation for one today. The other was refused because we refused a 270 mile run after the cancelled load and was put into refusal status (and was offered our 900 run to GA soon after).

I spoke with Settlements today and was told that they are only working 4 days a week now, due to cuts. Also, TS hasn't lowered their rates; however, they are now working hard to underbid loads.

My husband and I will hang on for as long as we can. As if we had any other option.

dhalltoyo · Jan 23, 2009

I have calculated the load offers since the change and they are still higher than most other major carriers.

Some have posted comments about load offers being sent without a FSC. I have yet to receive any of those and I sincerely hope that is not the case.

I agree with previous comment regarding 8 hour refusal rule. If we are willing to make concessions, then I would hope corporate would eliminate a rule that restricts an owner from making a business decision in his/her best interest. Considering the current economic climate, I am certain that someone will run a load that another decides is not in his/her best interest.

Additionally, if we are doubling the number of miles that must be traveled before the "Bonus Miles" take effect and they have eliminated the empty move "Bonus Miles" to a more lucrative board, that concession should be offset by allowing us to carry our idle time into any board. If we have been sitting in Atlanta for 2 days and we are willing to make an investment in fuel and mileage costs to move to a better board; they should permit us to retain our idle time...as do many other carriers. That will help those owners who want to work as opposed to the "Snowbirds" who are content to sit on the Charlotte board for 5 days and grill steaks in the Flying J parking lot.

Wolfeman68 · Jan 23, 2009

dhalltoyo said:
I have calculated the load offers since the change and they are still higher than most other major carriers.

Some have posted comments about load offers being sent without a FSC. I have yet to receive any of those and I sincerely hope that is not the case.

I agree with previous comment regarding 8 hour refusal rule. If we are willing to make concessions, then I would hope corporate would eliminate a rule that restricts an owner from making a business decision in his/her best interest. Considering the current economic climate, I am certain that someone will run a load that another decides is not in his/her best interest.

Additionally, if we are doubling the number of miles that must be traveled before the "Bonus Miles" take effect and they have eliminated the empty move "Bonus Miles" to a more lucrative board, that concession should be offset by allowing us to carry our idle time into any board. If we have been sitting in Atlanta for 2 days and we are willing to make an investment in fuel and mileage costs to move to a better board; they should permit us to retain our idle time...as do many other carriers. That will help those owners who want to work as opposed to the "Snowbirds" who are content to sit on the Charlotte board for 5 days and grill steaks in the Flying J parking lot.

I saw my first lower rate Wednesday when my D unit got a load for $.85, with the FSC it worked out to $.96 CPM. $.24 less than what it would have paid before, but since the load originated in FL, I can live with it. I'm sure it was a load they bid on but it did get the truck out of the FL dead zone.

I have seen offers with 0.00 as the FSC, but found it listed farther down in the body of the message on the QC. However,on the load offers screen on the Portal it still shows 0.00 Don't know why they did it that way.

No question about it, the 8 hour refusal has to go. I doubt that they will ever let you keep your idle time if you move from one board to another unless they went to system wide idle time. I would like to see them allow those of us that want to access to the bid boards do so and broker our own loads like Panther allows it's owners to do. Don't know what they would want to charge for handling the billing paperwork and such, but it would sure beat sitting around doing nothing.

Never grilled a steak at a Flying J, so I can't comment on that but I'll take mine medium rare.

SWTexas1 · Jan 25, 2009

I had 2 load offfers under the new rates both with good miles. One payed 1.05 and the other 1.14 per loaded mile. FSC where ok on both and the DH wasnt bad. If we can keep this up Jan. might work out ok. SO have I lost anything by going to the new rates Yes, it should have payed 100 dollars more for the 2 runs, and No with out the new rates I could be still sitting in Memphis. By the end of March we should now if this is going to work out or not.

As to FSC over the last 2.5 years I have many load offers with the FSC listed somewhere else in the Offer, Or had to call and Ask about. Sometimes they have too many things going on, If you have ever seen all the Differnt Screen they have to but Info on for just one load offer, I can see how they may miss something here or there.

EagleRiverWI · Feb 3, 2009

I had 2 loads since the new pay went into effect. The first was a cargo van load of 200 miles for .90 a mile in a straight truck. The second was another 200 mile load a week later. I looks like I will be going back to driving semi out of Wisconsin, that way I can get home every 5 days instead of every 5 weeks. I have a 2003 Frt. Alumibunk 400000 miles and a Tri Pac to unload.