Going down?
Posted on May 29, 2009 - 7:11pm by Marshall J. Gruskin in Trucking
So drivers, how is freight for you? Until this month, things were not great, but not necessarily horrible. Right now, today, I’m here to report to you that we’ve reached the horrible stage. We’ve taken the “freight” elevator straight down to the basement.
And along with this “slow-down” of freight comes a whole set of “other” things that are bound to make any driver very angry. I’ve been “stuck” here in Minneapolis/St.Paul since Monday. I’ve been in and out of the KW dealer for an electrical fix. I had a trip to North Carolina that after I got to the shipper learned it was given by mistake to another driver. I’m bleeding money sitting around doing nada, zero, zilch, nothing. The next available load – I was supposed to be home today – is Monday morning. So I’ll be here MT for 7 days! I’m angry.
I learned my company is no longer dead-heading drivers to where the freight is. In the past, I could dead-head as many as 300 or more miles to get a load. Those days are over. We’re being told to wait until there’s freight where we are. Isn’t that special? Well, as you can imagine I’m just not in the best of spirits. I then find out that the company is cutting about 125 more drivers (we just went from 1000 to 650) and eliminated 30 more “inside” positions. That means that there’s going to be a whole lot more kissing of you know what to save jobs. It also means that everyone in safety, operations and accounting is doing their “darn” best to show management that they should be spared the termination block. Not so good for drivers.
So I’ve set the stage for you. A lot of do do going on plus no freight. Ring Ring. I chose not to answer. I was having breakfast. Message. “You’re off the board and your fuel card has been stopped until you call Mr. fuel guy.” Any enjoyment over having my first eggs Benedict in a long time instantly ended. I’ve never ever had a “pleasant” conversation with the various idiots – I mean fuel guys – that have passed through the company. And this was going to be no exception.
I took several deep breaths. No use. My blood pressure was taking the “express” elevator to the top floor. Sitting around for days with no exercise drinking lots of coffee didn’t help matters. “Hey, Marshall, how ya do in’ buddy.” I hate that. If I could have reached through the phone and choked this guy, I would have. “
Hey, bud, we gotta talk bout ur idle time – hey buddy did ya “eva “shut the truck off in April?” I was doing the best to keep myself in any kind of check knowing full well that I was about to explode. All I could remember thinking was this fool is a staff flunky – he doesn’t deal with customers, never tarps, never has to deal with any of the crap that I have to face 14+ hours a day and he’s telling me about my idle time. Just like the F15 in the picture I was soaring over the target ready to engage my weapons. I was getting in KILL mode.
“And,Marshall, you seem to be shifting too high. Ya’ll can’t do that too that big CAT. And hey your fuel stop compliance is only at 75%. If you don’t follow the fuel solution, you gotta tell your driver manager to change it. And yesterday I see you had the truck on all night.You didn’t shut it off till..That’s the last thing I heard. TURNING NOW. DESCENDING. MISSILES ARMED. TARGET ACQUIRED. WAIT WAIT – FIRE. So much for this “conversation.” I lost it. I let go a salvo of profanity and insults and whatever else I had in my pent up arsenal of “I want to completely destroy this fool and anyone else like him.” It was take no prisons time. All I heard from him “Young man, don’t you talk like that to me.” and “I was only trying to help you out.” Yeah right.
Fast forward. I’ve been trying to get an APU equipped for 5 years. A new driver who is just hired – when they were hiring – gets one. The whole idling issue would not be an issue if I had an APU. The other “issues” are nonsense and are proof to someone watching that he”s doing his job. And maybe his head shouldn’t be put on the chopping block. And do I care? Absolutely not.
So drivers, fasten your seat belts. I’m sorry to say it’s going to get worse before it gets (hopefully) better. I personally don’t operate well in this type of environment. Do you? Does anybody? I’m not a corporate “kinda guy.” I long ago stopped kissing rear ends to never get ahead. I’ve worked hard down the ladder of success to be a hard-ass SOB who will tell you what I think. I can’t sleep acting any other way. But I, unfortunately, have to watch it, because my kinda” driver just might not make it through this mess.
PS//FYI I learned that even if your engine is shut down, but you have the key in the “acc” position or “on” position to listen to the radio or raise/lower your windows – whatever – QUALCOMM will show you as sitting there with engine on IDLING.
Photo credits: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~tguo/Images/F15.jpg, http://www.dave-so2.com/chafeb3.jpg, : whatfatpeopledontlike.wordpress.com/…/ www.co.jackson.or.us/page.asp?navid=2307, http://www.peakpowertools.com/v/vspfiles/photos/APU6500DP-2T.jpg, digg.com/politics/Destructive_Power_of_a_1000…
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My God! I’d swear you were working for my former employer! I’ve heard that little self-righteous speech myself. Between that and the “new guy gets the APU” game, I always figured it was to convince you that pastures were greener elsewhere. They know when things are this bad, you probably wont quit. And, if you do, well, that’s one more driver too many they probably didnt need anyway. They’re all still whining about “over-capacity”. . .sounds like you’re their over-capacity!
I understand that you are frustrated about the freight situation. A lot of people are, however, you seem to be upset that the company is laying off. What are they supposed to do? One of the biggest reasons that you have been sitting for the last 7 days is that there are too many drivers/trucks to do the available work. If you are sitting that long, maybe they should have trimmed more, sooner.
My issue with your post is about your anger over getting a call on your fuel usage. The cost of fuel to your company is incredibly high, second only to what you as an employee cost them. Your company seems to be of a sufficient size that they even hired a guy to deal specifically with their fuel costs. He doesn’t need to know about customers or tarping or 14 hour days any more than you need to know about 2290s or filing IFTA taxes, so giving him crap about doing his job is a real asinine thing to do. If he was wrong about something, explain it to him, but on the limited information that your post gave, he seemed pretty accurate.
It was 50 degrees in Minneapolis last night, was it really necessary to idle all night?
Fueling at one truck stop vs. another and one state vs. another could be as high as 25 cents per gallon. Depending on your fuel mileage, that’s between 4 and 6 cents per mile just by choosing the right place to get fuel. That’s BIG money.
Progressive shifting, especially in a “big” Cat really does pay off. There have been studies showing that the driver can account for a 30% difference in fuel mileage.
You may not believe him that he is only trying to help you out, and maybe you’re right, maybe he is out just to make himself look better, but keep this in mind…the better he is at his job, the bigger the chance that you will get to keep yours. If my choice as a company owner is between a driver who costs me $47,000 in fuel vs. one who costs me $66,000 per year (and that’s just in fuel economy, not even considering “fuel stop compliance”), you had better believe that you would be in that first group of 350.
I also stopped kissing ass long ago, but there is a big difference between not kissing ass and just bitching about something because you don’t want to do it.
Wow. Sucks to be you. Remind me never to drive a truck that has QualCom.
Better get used to the freight situation. Good freight is the sign of a good economy. Since the democrats destroyed the economy……..well……it’s only going to get worse.
Might learn how to pucker up too.