Fuel for Thought

Rolling On The Load

These are the processes I’ve used across three expedite carriers when it comes to accepting a load and heading out to the shipper.

Accepting the load. At my current carrier pay is rarely a topic. The phone call from dispatch covers pickup and delivery locations and times, and deadhead and loaded miles for the load. After this confirmation call if I accept the load, the details for the load arrive at my qualcomm. At another carrier, load offer and load acceptance were automated through the qualcomm system. If the pay numbers met my requirements, I accepted the load through an automated form. The third carrier required special attention, because pay was always borderline on whether it was acceptable. Each dispatcher presented the vital information differently, so I tried to streamline any call to the minimum by requesting only one number…

Dispatch: The load picks up in Detroit (I’m in Grand Rapids) and delivers to Mackinaw City.   It pays 75 cents a mile.

Me: What is the rate for all miles?

Dispatch: What’s that? (same response every time for two years, except for one dispatcher who learned and usually had the number ready for me.)

Me: Divide the total pay by deadhead and loaded miles added together.

Dispatch: (clackety, clackety, clack, clack…)(pause) 50 cents a mile.

Me: No, not today, thank you.

Some drivers would try to counter offer. My counter offer was simply—No, thank you. I would consider a modified offer from them, but it was up to them to offer it. If they asked what I would want I kept that simple too--the loaded mile pay for all miles. I had a two point objective. I didn’t want to be taken advantage of, and I wanted the dispatchers to see that everything that I invested in a load cost me something and that I was aware of it.

Launch.   If I get a call when I’m not in the vehicle, regardless of the time to pick up, I head straight to the van to review the load details as they arrive on the qualcomm. I do a quick scan of all the load information to make sure there are no mistakes that need to be resolved with dispatch. The very next thing I do every time is enter the shippers address in the gps to check that I have a valid address that the gps recognizes and to see how tight the schedule is. If the arrival time is tight, I depart immediately.   If I have a suitable time cushion, I spend about five minutes organizing my notes, so when I arrive at the shipper I’m ready to present myself. Below is a form that I fill out for each load. All the information that comes in over the qualcomm has a place on the form, so when I arrive at the customer I have all the information about the load on my clipboard. Even non-English speaking warehouse workers can understand the information. It saves time, because many times all I have to do is hand someone the form, and they’re off to find my load. And there was the deaf man last week…

Everything about the load goes on the form, so that after delivery I have a hard copy record to include pay and any changes that occurred to the load, then I file them in monthly folders.

Rolling.   Having all my notes organized, all I have to worry about is driving. I try to communicate any issues as they come up. If traffic comes to a standstill I send in a message like—"gridlock." At the point I can’t make delivery on time according to my gps, I send a qualcomm message that resembles—"load late, please adjust arrival." Dispatch will call if they need additional information. For the occasional load that is tight from the start I’m adding a new note to my list—"tight dispatch." The main point is to keep dispatch aware of progress. I keep correspondence to a minimum, because they’ll call if they need more information.

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