Trucksitter

[guest]

I have stumbled across a large vein of bad luck getting loads and I am trying to just work through it. Anyone ever spent so much time sitting in your truck that you start thinking of yourself as a truck sitter instead of a truck driver?

This is sort of ultra-optimism, I suppose, but at least I've got my full 70 hours at my disposal at all times--I've been going at least 34 hours between loads since last week.

Anyone remember the Chris Farley sketch on Saturday Night Live where he says "I live in a van...down by the river", well I live in a truck, down at the truck stop.

I feel like I've moved into an efficiency apartment in a rough neighborhood.

The best load offer I've gotten this month was a couple of Fridays ago. It went from Toledo to Houston, $1800. I got out of my truck and walked into the truck stop and walked back to my truck. The round trip was about 30 minutes. I had my cell phone with me but when I got the call with the offer for some reason it went straight to voice mail. When I got back to the truck I saw the offer on the QC. Too late, load was gone. I wound up sitting there until Monday. Down at the truck stop. Very upsetting.

I am learning that patience is, indeed, a virtue. Next challenge: explaining this to my creditors.

 

[bryan]

HI
Know how you feel.It gets like this every year sometimes in January and usually in Febuary.In really bad years I've seen it go into March.The good news is (at least in my humble opinion) the slower it gets in the first quarter the busier it gets in the second quarter.
I think these are a few of the reasons for this.
1.Alot of people buy new vehicles the first of the year for tax purposes and stay in service more to earn back their down payment.
2.The general public doesn't buy as much until after tax season.Businesses will be making large purchases such as trucks ,vans
and computers to get full depreciation but these have been planned for.Not much impulse buying.
3.Alot of new people get into this business in the first quarter for tax reasons or because quitting what they were doing before is easier over the Christmas holiday.
I have seen years where freight was steady,but this is more the norm.I said awhile back to not make double payments on a truck and this is why.We never know what is going to happen from day to day let alone year to year.I've found its better to just bank that extra payment and then make a large payment when freight is running well and you know you can get that money back into the bank.
Enjoy the down time hopefully we'll be screaming for time off later on.Good luck.

 

[LDB]

I can identify. I do a fair amount of sitting although some is by choice of turning down something I just don't want to run. I've had similar cell phone problems at times and recently got a second phone with a different carrier. The message on the first phone says call the second number. Once in a while I still drive through an area that both of them go dead but that's far more rare than the dead zones when I had just one. Hopefully things will pick up soon.

Leo Bricker, owner trucks 3034, 4958
OOIDA 677319
73's K5LDB
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator 1+ Years of Service
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Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[RDC]

Sitting is terrible. I know this may sound out of the ordinary but i used to drive back to my home and wait there. Its alot of DH miles but I lived in an area where i wouldnt sit for more than 2 days and would always get a load that was over 500 miles. I realized I was better off returning to my home location rather than sitting in a truck stop for days on end bored out of my mind and not making any money.

 

[The Gibster]

Even with our carrier, we've been sitting and getting 2-3 runs (albeit big ones) a week this month. We run with Epes Express and their business model and smaller overhead usually works well to our advantage.

But today we're in Detroit and sitting, and dispatch is dropping the gross bids by .20/mile just to keep us rolling.

Our only saving grace at this point is that back in April we opted for a new engine rather than a new truck, and in October hung a generator. Now we may not be making bunches of money, but at least it's costing us next to nothing to hang around this rough neighborhood!

Making sure all the side boxes are locked and no tools are out!
The Gibster

 

[cheri1122]

Along with the missed income, the hardest thing about the long waits is the feeling that you're not getting snything accomplished at all, I think. So, I have a couple "projects" to work on, like recreating the notebook for load information that's nearly full. A few pages at a time, I'm making my own. A thorough cleaning of the vehicle is time well spent, and when I get really bored. I work on my goal of "A place for everything, & Velcro to keep it there!" :7 Better days are ahead, & in the meantime, reading the mail & magazines you usually don't have time for can suck up a lot of hours, too. It could be worse, you know - you could be living in a van instead!

 

[TeamDrivers2]

Sorry to hear you're experiencing the dreaded down-time.

I've just come home for my 1st time in 39 days.I did NOT have any sitting time but one's i demanded just to catch up on sleep. Yes, I worked all through the holidays including being under a load Christmas day.

With FECC , my offer's have seen ZERO decline. As a matter of FACT, i'm as bizzy now as i've ever been. As I was DH'ing home i even recieved 2-3 offers.

I hear all these stories, but i'm confused as to why. My discussions with dispatch seem to indicate the amount of freight in their system is at high season levels. Possibly being a C-UNIT has somthing to do with our percentage's ??

On an even more positive note, i've just ordered an 06 FL Century from the fellers @ FL of Knoxville. I've come to the conclusion that running the "C's" are serious money-makers. I'll be looking to fill the seats in my 03 and i'll move into the new one.

 

[chetjester]

I was complaining to my boss last night that it seemed we weren't running that much. I suppose I got spoiled by the 4th quarter business that kept coming and coming. After he sent me some stats, I found I really didn't have any need to complain. What threw me off was delivering in Laredo on a Monday and not getting another load until Friday!!

In almost 2 years of expediting, that has never happened to me before. Laredo was always where I wanted to go for a guaranteed load. Looks like things have changed now.

When we got our load offer Friday, we drove from Laredo to Canton, MS stopping at home all day Saturday as our delivery wasn't until late Sunday night. After delivering, we went straight to New Orleans for a temp controlled load to Brampton, ON and a few hours after delivering had a pickup in Woodbridge, ON going to Canton, MS. Spent the night in MS and got a load going to Arlington, TX.

So, I'm sitting in Arlington, TX in my recliner. I delivered here Thursday night to GM. It's nice living here near Dallas because we travel through all the time. I got really antsy yesterday and then, there it was! A load offer!!! Pick up at Alliance Airport in Ft. Worth Saturday afternoon and take it to........ LAREDO!!! Yee Haw!!!!

But, being the optimists that we are, we'll deliver Sunday AM and expect to sleep at Wal-Mart Sunday night with great expectations of a load out Monday.

Wish us luck.

 

[davekc]

Without a doubt Laredo doesn't have the freight it did six months ago. With Ford and GM idling so many plants, it is more competitive than ever trying to find a load out of there. Being there on the MLK holiday didn't help either. It was a expediter convention there to say the least. At least the NC to Laredo trip made it somewhat worth while.
Freight this week should be alittle better, as long as folks aren't taking loads out of there for .60 cent per mile.
Overall we have been running pretty steady but not quite the volumes of the last quarter of 05.




Davekc
owner
21 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[ATeam]

>I hear all these stories, but i'm confused as to why. My
>discussions with dispatch seem to indicate the amount of
>freight in their system is at high season levels. Possibly
>being a C-UNIT has somthing to do with our percentage's ??

Not sure about C-unit percentage. In 2005, 28% of our loads were true D loads (by weight or by size, not just C loads upgraded to D rates). That's a significant increase from 2004 where we ran a lot more C loads in our D-unit.

 

[geo]

you should find something to do on the side when i was with fedexcc
did a few things on side to pass the time away sold laptops, mary kay
mason shoes, new and used trucks , proheat gen, electric windshield heater for the blades and mirco heat for window washer, and couple of other things, look at each layover as business opp, so made couple extra bucks on the side, before fedec took over roberts express had ad
on back door that paid .20 cent a mile for all miles , than fedex came along and that went by way side

should ask your carries to if possible for you to put a paid ad on side of your truck , pay's any where from 200 dollars and up
and egl doesn't allow it that is why we pay 65 percent

 

[RichM]

George was a master on selling items at truck stops. While the rest of would sit around drinking coffee and complaining,GEO was turning a buck.

 

[guest]

Maybe I'll get some 4" by 4" lumber and start whittling a chain. That ought to keep me busy.

Since I posted I've been moving a little better. Got a load from Greenville SC to Detroit on Friday and got a load offer Saturday for Sunday pickup out of Detroit to Wisconsin. I always feel fortunate to get load offers on Saturdays or Sundays.

Intellectually, I understand this is the slow time of year and I understand that you can be with a great company and still sit this time of year. Emotionally, however, I still HATE SITTING IN MY TRUCK BY MYSELF FOR DAYS ON END. It's probably just not a healthy thing to do. I love to read, surf the Internet, drink coffee, etc. There just comes a point where you are READY TO MOVE. I think we've probably all been there.

 

[woobergoober]

I hear ya Frisco. January was quite good, overall, but all of a sudden, it seemed that things came to a screeching halt. Does not seem to be any rhyme or reason.

Last weekend, I got stuck out in Wisconsin. I spent Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and all day Monday, picking up a load going 300 miles to Milwaukee. Four days for a three hundred mile load.

Thank goodness for wireless internet service. I surfed a good portion of the time; did a little shopping; listened to lots of satellite radio, and for the most part, sat around ticked off for four days, in a 5 foot deep, Aerodyne sleeper.

I just take comfort in knowing that sooner or later, we will probably be running our butts off, just begging for a day off.

Later.

WG

 

[DannyD]

>Intellectually, I understand this is the slow time of year
>and I understand that you can be with a great company and
>still sit this time of year. Emotionally, however, I still
>HATE SITTING IN MY TRUCK BY MYSELF FOR DAYS ON END. It's
>probably just not a healthy thing to do. I love to read,
>surf the Internet, drink coffee, etc. There just comes a
>point where you are READY TO MOVE. I think we've probably
>all been there.

I can totally relate to this comment. To add to this a lil bit, there's also a mindset ya get when ya finally do decide to head on home. Like ya just wanna get home & relax for a day or 2. Mow your lawn, do some laundry, catch up w/ some friends, etc.

My memory might inflate the facts a little bit here, but I seem to recall quite a few times of sitting for a few days waiting for a run. Then after getting home, they call ya w/ a run an hour later. That was always a tough situation. You've just bugged em silly wanting a run for 3 days, & now they offer you one & ya don't want it.

That would be another case of where there's no logical explanation for something, but there's definately an emotional one.

I realize everyone's situation is different. More recently though, I've taken what I call the 12 hour approach. My feeling is if I haven't been given a run in 12 hours, what is going to make me think that the next 12 hours will bring something? That wasn't a law I had set in stone, because there's always different situations. It was a rule of thumb I went by though.

Good luck to ya,
Danny