Unfrickinbelivable

[OntarioVanMan]

I am not inclined to type a 20 page essay on the big picture I see in my mind there are way too many variables to be worth discussion...and it wouldn't fit any one type of truck nor owner.
So any further comment on my part would be a MOOT point. *L*

BUT too say a burger flipper has NO expenses??? How they get to work? Do they get free laundry, maybe free lunch? You insulted many burger flippers.

 

[x06col]

Zero expenses??

If'n boff you were flippin burgers it'd be $16.

 

[davekc]

I would suggest as most have already to do your own mileage, and then decide if the run is worth taking. Most of the time we have called, the mileage has been corrected. When it isn't, we don't take it.

As far as acceptance rates, I personally think they are a waste of time and cost. We stay at certain numbers to operate and if runs don't meet those costs, then why run them?
If we don't like it, then we will find our own load. Doesn't mean we wouldn't do a short one, but it really is about profit.
If every load was good, there wouldn't be "cherry picking".
We don't operate on a "we have to take a bad one"
If it is bad, then it should be a shared cost.
If one is to lose their truck, I don't think the carrier is going to SHARE in that cost.
With the economy slowing, more questionable load offers will come. We usually stay at pretty high numbers, but many are counted as refusals that should be dispatch errors. I think those efforts and costs to administrate the program could be better used elsewhere. A program of this type only has a value if you know what loads have been turned down.
Without that, a truck could have 50 percent acceptance with the possibility that 50 percent of the offers were "luzers"
We many times have went from the 80's to the 60's while sitting in Detroit.
I don't think it is something that will change any time soon, but theirs my penny in the pond.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Col...Thank you....your one of a few minds that thinks alot like me.....scary eh?????

 

[x06col]

I'll tell you what's scary for me OVM. I don't know how i'm getting behind on this new math. Can you tell me when the lesson wuz that showed us that nuttin is better'n sumpin?

 

[FIS53]

After reading all these comments I'm glad I moved to a smaller carrier. At least dispatch here has a memory if I do a crappy one there are rewards down the road. So do some shortties even the luzer loads and later i get a gravy or two. So maybe not today or tomorrow but definitely during the half i can count on a decent one or two for the bad ones. Lately though they have me doing runs (routes) for a customer which i hate doing, but several do pay well. So job I don't like but the money can be good. Just eats time is all and the hourly part can be as good as $35/hr. Low miles, lots of stop and go and lots of running in and out of places.

Unfortunately in my case a run is a run and it has to be covered as it is a customer that wants it done. So I go do it. May not make much and maybe even more DH than paid miles, but in these times we can't afford to lose even one customer. Lose one and there is less work out there for everyone in the fleet. Lose more customers due to driver apathy and refusals and we all lose in the end. I know we have to make money and that's why we're here and dispatchers also know this as well. At least you guys can negotiate your pricing in some cases, I can't. NOw on the flip side, if there is extras or the load was quoted wrong I can usually get it fixed and right away. Few haven't due to customers hardball playing but most are.

Now IBC for example does a run to a small town in Quebec and the paid miles are a lot less than what most of us do it in. BUt the route they used to price it does work but is slower as it uses back roads and lower average speed. Using the highways is longer mileage but faster delivery time. So which do you use??? The shortest or the fastest? For most of us the fastest, sooner done sooner back for another load. Simple as that, so we eat the lost miles. Such is this wonderful business.

I agree we have to do something but to change the way a company thinks takes a united front to represent (drivers/brokers) and present the ideas and solutions. So rather than just about the problems start working to fix them. I did and it got me more income in the end. Now if I can fix the last few problems.....
Rob

 

[davekc]

With any carrier, I think it is always a job in progress.

 

[Turtle]

Moot: The miles on the load offer and on the load receipt should match the loaded miles shown online under Open Payables. It's what is showing in the Open Payables that you will be paid. There have been a couple of times when the load receipt matched the load offer, but the Open Payables showed showing something different. I got that corrected right away. Otherwise, at settlement time I'd have been shorted. So far, I've never been paid something different than was showing on the Open Payables.

Last week I did have one load that I delivered, and then 8 hours later I got a beep with a load receipt for that same load that showed a mileage reduction. Not much, maybe 15 miles or something like that, but I called to find out how the miles paid under the contract could be changed after I made the delivery. The response was something on the order of, "It doesn't show that anyone did it, looks like the computer did it." Okaaaay. They corrected it right away, though.

On Mondays or Tuesdays I try to check online to see the mileage on the payables that were to be processed (on Monday) for that week, and they'll go up as a settlement usually online on Wednesday afternoon. Just making sure nothing in the Open Payables have changed. So far I've not seen anything change in the way of mileage between what is in the Open Payables and on the settlement.

are12: Taking only profitable loads and turning down the others does not make one a cherry picker. Far from it. Turning down unprofitable loads makes good business sense. But there are, in fact, many profitable loads in the 50-300 mile range, and a cherry picker will turn these loads down more often than not. The average length of haul for an expedited load in less than 400 miles, but a cherry picker's average length of haul is usually over 400 miles. That's the litmus test, and a very effective way to keep track of that is by acceptance rate. If someone has an acceptance rate that is consistently, over time, below 50%, they're a cherry picker and are of marginal use to a carrier. And the farther below 50% you rate is, the less use you are to a carrier.

There's a big difference between "no forced dispatch" and "no consequences whatsoever".

 

[TwoMotherTrkrs]

Leo:

Just when did they slip in that change in mini rates for a D unit? Where can I find the documentation? We've been here 4 1/2 yrs and were previously paid $99/mini regardless of miles. Lately they've been talking $60/mini.

Barb

 

[Moot]

Turtle: Can you explain this one to me? Thursday morning I accept a load from Avon, Mn to Mossville, Il. It is a Caterpillar load and I know from experience the tendered mileage will be different from the actual mileage I drive. It was 67 miles to the shipper.

Load offer: 499 miles

PCMiler Practical Route: 528.7 miles

Open payables: 499 miles

Going to Panther's website and clicking on driver availability and then the load number brings up a screen Shipment Detail which lists the load at 529 miles. This leads me to believe Panther is billing the customer for 529 miles.

After delivering this load about 22:00 I was offered a paid empty move to Rockfish, Il. After accepting the E.M. I got a load offer picking up in Dyer, IN at 02:00 and delivering right back to Mossville. 135 miles deadhead for a 133 mile load. I was tired and declined the load. They kept on me to take because nobody else would. They even started throwing extra money Had I not been tired I would have gouged them good. Safety first.

I explained via QC that if I were to accept the load it would put me over 900 miles of actual driving for the day. (834 computed miles.

I went to Rockfish and crashed at Wallyworld. 3 hours later I get a call to go up to the J in South Beloit to swap with a van driver who was taking a 5 hour break. I took the load 300 miles to Shell Lake, Wi. At least I got 3 hours sleep. And of course I got charged for a refusal on the Dyer to Mossville load. I will be sticking that one to somebody come Monday morning.

 

[Turtle]

A couple of times I have caught it where the loaded miles via the QC and the Open Payables was the same, but less than the miles listed on the Shipment Detail. Both times the Shipment Detail mileage was the same mileage as the Garmin, or extremely close to it, anyway.

One time I caught it after I delivered, and I called and asked about it. "Well, the loaded miles on the Load Offer is what the load pays. Some customers get mileage discounts."

Fine, fool me once... That's nothing more than squeezing a percentage of a low paying load into my flat-rate contract. Can't reduce the pay for low paying loads, so let's reduce the paid loaded miles.

The other time (second time) I caught it after I accepted the load, but before I had rolled to the pickup. I called them up and said there was obviously a mistake in the load offer, that the miles offered was not the same what is showing on the load detail in the Load Tracking, someone must have keyed in something wrong. Was on hold for a couple of minutes, and just as they came back on the phone I got a beep with a new load receipt showing the true mileage.

I honestly don't know if it was an honest mistake on the load offer, or they got caught trying to pull a fast one and relented for whatever reason (perhaps I was the only van in the area?). I don't know.

If I have net access when I'm offered a load, I aways check that before rolling, usually before accepting the load.


I'd definitely call someone about the Mossville load. As soon as you told them you were too tired to take it they should have placed you Available-Sleeping and taken you off the load as "Driver was sleeping when load was offered" as the reason for the Dispatch Error.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

My last carrier had a few 5% mileage deduction with some customers....groaner

 

[LDB]

Now if all minis paid $99 to a van and $150 to a straight truck, plus fsc, like they should then a lot more would be accepted

I said they should pay that not that they did.

 

[cheri1122]

I'll tell you what's scary for me OVM. I don't know how i'm getting behind on this new math. Can you tell me when the lesson wuz that showed us that nuttin is better'n sumpin?

When the cost of'sumpin' outweighs the benefit, then 'nuttin' is better.

 

[cheri1122]

And that's why I don't have a tv!

 

[Tennesseahawk]

Thank you, Cheri! The arguement that we should be honored and privilaged to have a customer grace our truck with his products, regardless of the rate, is rediculous. If that's the way it is, I should go back home, get a pizza flipping job, and tell them I'll work overtime for half wages.

Instead, since we're into pleasing customers, I'm going to pull into the J, tell them I'm a CUSTOMER, and that I'll only pay $1.25 a gallon. While I'm at it, I'll write my finance company, and tell them I'll arbitrarily change our contract so I pay $500/mo for my truck payments. Since I'm a CUSTOMER, I doubt they'll have a problem.

I'll start putting cheap freight on my truck when the rest of the REAL world starts accomodating the rate they expect me to haul their commodities for by charging less for said commodities.

 

[pjjjjj]

Thank you, I thought I was missing something here, or not doing that new math correctly, or that we were the only people seeing things this way; and don't get me wrong, we are NOT 'cherry picking' and we have turned down hardly any loads; we feel we are too new to be doing that, yet we feel taken advantage of at the same time; and we wouldn't even mind doing freebie loads (ones that pay less than our costs, when all is said and done), as a 'favor', once in awhile, if the rewards were there for doing so, or even if it were appreciated or at least acknowledged, but it seems there are an awful lot of those freebie loads, in comparison to ones that actually pay.
Just wondering, where does it end?
I told the gas station this morning that I was only willing to pay $3/gallon for gas this morning, but they just laughed at me, and charged me full price anyway.. hmm, nasty way to treat their customer, guess I'll look elsewhere!

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Under Hawks example...I guess no one will be complaining about a 7.65 hamburger and fries at the J, because they have costs to cover.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

BTW I never said anything about doing runs below ones cost....I was referring to the example Turtle gave about "some" that sit and reject anything under 500 miles. Yeah I know cheri and Linda it's thier "right" and none of my business how they run thier business....But when carriers change your rights because of them don't be whining here. All the rights you have and rules of engagement were writtin by your carrier NOT you....and can be cancelled and/or changed. First rule change I'd make...weed out those under 500's and cancel contract they are bad for others and bad for business.

 

[x06col]

I guess i'd have to have an example of what is considered a freebe load. I am not a contractor soooo.. But to my way of thinking, say a load pays(for easy math) $1.20 cpm.
You will have about $.40 for fuel and IF your other costs equal that you have $.80 total invested. Leaves $.40 cpm for your troubles.

If your "other" costs equal your fuel costs, ya better check what you are piling on that category. You may be living too large.

OK lets hear it?