Working Gratis…Again
Posted on Jan 23, 2010 - 11:15am by Marshall J. Gruskin in Trucking
I would like to pin this post on the foreheads of the wind-bags at OOIDA, the ATA, the FMCSA, CVSA and the DOT. This happened at the beginning of this week and I was going to just pass it off as another stupid incident in my life on the road, but this type of unfairness – this arrogance by both the shipper and receiver – needs to be reported by all drivers. The only way it will ever change is if we keep talking about it.
I had a 7 PM pick up appointment at a steel company in Ambridge PA. It was one of those don’t be late deals – a load of steel pipe headed to Baytown TX right off I-10. So I get there an hour ahead of time, which by the way, the shipper strongly tells a driver not to do. I have no clue why since there is plenty of truck parking outside the guard shack. I might add that this same shipper tells drivers not to “loiter” around after loading – they say to get your securement on quickly and GET OFF their property. Just how neighborly is that? They don’t even allow you to tarp there. I’m surprised this company even allows trucks inside to load the way they treat drivers. The wacky, I mean Wackenhut security clown they’ve hired to “police” truckers demands you shown her/him a photo ID before you’re allowed into the plant. From the street to the spot where they load you is less than 100 yards. That’s 100 yards of misery for the driver. This place, for the record, used to be a large ARROW TRUCKING account. That should tell you plenty.
I park the truck and walk to check in. I guess they can’t afford a CB. Just as well, since I deplore sitting in the truck hour after hour waiting on a call on the CB. Take my cell number and call me for heavens sake. But that’s asking too much for the typical rent-a-cop and a company of this kind. Why pop for a $69 CB and a $29 antenna? I see that there are about six other trucks ahead of me – TMC, Mercer, BT – Builders Transport, etc. Well, I come to find out that this place is running five to seven hours behind. Yes, I said FIVE TO SEVEN HOURS behind. When they’re ready, someone will come and get me. Great, don’t you love when you’re in a deep sleep snuggled in the bunk nice and warm – dreaming about fishing or something – and someone bangs on the side of your truck. It’s why, when I get home, I’m nervous sleeping the first few days.
No apology or excuse was offered – it’s just said very cavalierly - like it’s rainy now or do the dishes or honey, take out the garbage. The security guard you’re dealing with is clueless as to what is going on – couldn’t care less – and most likely will be working somewhere else next week. Now what if you went to the dentist and was told you had to wait five to seven hours to remove that painful tooth, or please take your seats ladies and gentlemen, but the movie tonight will start five to seven hours later – you’ll just have to wait. What about this – you go to start your car and a voice says “sorry, I’m you’re car and we will not be starting for five to seven hours.” Could you imagine that? So please understand readers, I was very angry, and if you drive a truck, I know you’ve been in the same situation many times before. And you blood pressure goes up and you have to decide how to kill the time. Some drivers live nearby. I live 1,128 miles from my front door – I guess I’m stuck here.
So just what am I suppose to do? My 14 hours are up at midnight. If I go to sleep now my 10 hours are up at 5 AM. When will they come get me – 2 AM? 3 AM – 4 AM? Who knows, but, no matter how they slice or dice it, when they load me, I will be “illegally” driving my truck and working, unless of course, I just don’t log the time. And that’s what, my faithful Life On The Road readers, happens every minute, every hour and every day in trucking. And the ATA, OOIDA, FMCSA and the DOT just doesn’t want to acknowledge that fact – and the other fact that no matter how you categorize it, we are working for free. And WHY is that not against the law in 2010?
I want you to take a close look at this photo. No, it’s not the best. Why? Because it was taken “undercover” – James Bond style. I had to take it real fast with my Blackberry. This is a union shop. When I backed up into the plant, this is what the “loaders” do while waiting for the product to come down the line. They read the newspapers hiding, I mean sitting, in a corner. They are getting paid about $25 an hour. No they are NOT on break. It wouldn’t matter – they get PAID breaks, lots of them. I’m waiting too – getting paid nothing. Would someone please tell me the difference between him and me – them and us? Yeah, their lucky, very funny. If they saw me taking this photo, the Wacky, I mean Wackenhut guards would throw me off the property. By the way, this place loads one truck at a time. It could be 1/2 hour or three hours or eight hours to get loaded. At the other end, after more waiting, it will take about 15 minutes to unload. These workers get overtime and great benefits and have 85% less responsibility and accountability than “we” do. We’re getting screwed, but apparently we’re the only ones who want the situation to change.
Ok, so “customer service” wants it delivered 1425 miles away the following morning. Someone pinch me because I think it’s 1965 and I’m in my Pete cab over. Hum, which log book shall I use for this load? I have three. Ok, the 2nd one will do – that shows me arriving here yesterday and then I’ve been off duty ever since. Yup, that’ll work. How many Mountain Dews and “little white pills” will I need to keep my eye lids open? Maybe I ‘ll drive straight through to Baytown without even stopping. That’ll make my company happy. I will need to fill somewhere along the line. Damn, too bad I have to stop. When I do, I’ll buy some more Dew, Pepsi and Hershey Bars. That’ll give me plenty of empty bottles to use, if you get my drift.
Again, this is the reality of trucking in America. The REAL story that is never covered by Pilot Challenge or Not-So, I mean NATSO Trucking News or any of the “regular” trucking media. What do you think about that Misty? What were you doing at 3 AM Lockridge? Where is the OOIDA about getting some law passed to see that this shipper is somehow fined for making trucks wait without getting paid by them or their carriers? In what other job do you work for five to seven hours and NOT get paid? And yes, I’m working. I’m in the front seat waiting for them to load me watching my company’s truck. I’m not home in my living room eating pizza and watching television with my wife. I’m working. They told me to be here at 7 PM sharp. I just didn’t drift in here with the wind. The ATA loves this – their secret membership doesn’t have to pay for anything while one of their trucks is waiting five to seven hours for a load. Not even any fuel since the APU is chugging. And what about the hours of service FMCSA and CVSA? What’s safe about this situation? What is the “government” going to do about it? Nothing, zero, zilch, nada, zippo. What a pathetic joke. New year, new decade – same old trucking BS. Yes, I’m angry and working, again, for free.
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What you described only happens if you let it.
I would have, and have , refused. I’ll get it there legal. The longer you make me sit the longer it’s going to take…and I WON’T be back here a second time.
Owner Operators can do that.
And no….I’ve never been threatened or fired by my company. The company that DID complain…well I quit them quick. No problem finding another lease.
A Clean MVR can do that.
After 15 years on the road, finding parking at night and sitting at customers for excessive periods of time were what I considered to be the two biggest problems in day to day life in the trucking industry. I think most drivers would agree.
The idea of getting paid while you’re sitting and waiting to load or unload is simply not going to happen on a large scale across the industry because profit margins are so razor thin that very, very few companies can afford to pay it and trucking companies do not have the leverage with customers to demand payment for idle time. Again, the competition is too fierce, the shipper will simply hire a different trucking company.
I wrote a blog recently about what I think can be done to help alleviate this problem a great deal – and it’s based on something that is already being done by the DOT in another industry – the airline industry. If you’ll allow me to post a link to it you find it here: Could DOT Airline Rules Be A Model For New Trucking Laws?.
Basically the DOT has passed a law stating that airlines can only hold passengers on a plane for three hours and then the passengers must be let off or the airline will be fined heavily. The airlines are also required to provide something for people to drink, restrooms, and medical attention to passengers if needed while they wait. I go into pretty good detail in the story.
I feel a similar law could rather easily be implemented in the trucking industry. You simply allow the average shipper/receiver a given amount of time to load or unload a truck, after which they will be fined or forced to pay a reasonable amount of money to the trucking company – which a portion can then go to the driver. There are certain products that by their nature will require more time to load or unload so shippers can either apply for special permits or find better ways of dealing with it like using drop and hooks instead of live loading and unloading.
With modern GPS available, and the ability to set appointment times if needed, there’s no debating what time the truck arrived and what time it should be unloaded by.
The trucking industry is one of the most competitive industries in the United States. Individual companies do not have the leverage to do anything about this or they certainly would. Their operational efficiency is getting killed because of this – there’s more trucks on the road and more drivers because of all the delays. It hurts our entire economy in a big way.
I also can’t agree at all when Everitt Mickey says above “What you describe only happens if you let it”. A lot of drivers take this stance – “we must stand up for ourselves and refuse to be treated this way”. Well, nice theory, but without leadership and acting together as a cohesive unit (like the unions) you simply can’t start a revolution one driver (out of many millions) at a time. It’s impossible. We don’t need bravado, we need a real plan that will work. If the Feds came up with a real plan for the airlines, it can certainly be done for trucking.
The biggest hurdle is getting popularity behind this. Congress loves debating logbook rules because the average American can relate to not getting enough sleep and will rally behind strict logbook rules so Congressmen get re-elected with popular causes like this. The idea of speeding up loading and unloading times at customers will never be popular publicly because the vast majority do not understand the problem or relate to it directly – so Congressmen will not find themselves getting re-elected pushing these types of agendas no matter how helpful they would be to our nation. This is the greatest hurdle to overcome with getting this type of legislation passed.
I would have to agree … 50 truck companies don’t have the leverage, the big boys do and are charging for detention, and if your not … your missing out on revenue that will help increase your razor thin margins. We only started REALLY charging 2 years ago … and there is a lot of room for improvement. it does take work … Not only do the appointments need to be made but the contracts need to have detention in them. The CSR’s need to be in touch with the shippers before hand letting them know … “Hey My truck has been there an hour … Now an hour and a half, if it goes beyond 2 hours I need your sign off that you are okaying the delay of our truck and stopping us from being able to make the deliveries”
It’s not a quick win and it goes against every bone in our sales team to go back at a customer for these when they don’t pay and the amount becomes enough to hit the CFO’s radar … but guess what … it also becomes a trade off … when we don’t make an appointment and they want to dock our performance scorecard … we trade out a detention for letting that late arrival slide …
It’s January so I KNOW our numbers for last year. We pulled in over $250,000 in detention last year … that money went straight to the bottom line … Made more than a few higher ups happy. Last year the # was closer to 100K. We are not losing customers and if we are losing them cause they are delaying our trucks and won’t pay … they aren’t the customers we want.
The competition is getting tough … trucking companies are failing *Cough* Arrow *Cough* Shippers *Cough*
The Supply chain is tightening and when you can come back to a customer and show them they are losing you money and its not worth your time and effort and there aren’t any other companies providing your level of support … you do have leverage.
Its the same leverage that gets us revenue for live unloading, for JIT deliveries, for multiple stops.
I truly hope the Feds will come in with a plan that helps like you are talking about, but that will take YEARS. convincing management and showing them the potential profit of trying to collect detention … that can be accomplished in months. Come on … The shippers/receivers we are talking about have management too … and if you go to the management ABOVE the local plant and show how they are the cause of your inefficiencies. They will provide leverage for you.
Hey but what do I know … I’m just one of the Geeks behind the scenes that is a pain in the arse of every trucker working for a company large enough to use a system to track their business ….
Just saw a posting on a topic I understand and have had some influence on at OUR company. IT WORKS …
Marshall, you gave me a new perspective on it though … cause I only think of it as a truck and an order … I have a tendency to forget … that’s one of my co-workers and they are being treated like crap and losing the chance to keep making money.
My Paycheck doesn’t change just because you got stopped or because you can’t make the run on time and legally so I can honestly say I don’t feel your pain…
All bickering aside … there are a few good suggestions on solutions to the problem … PUSH … or be pushed ….
Brett and Linda bring up good logical points and they suggest something that can be done or started.
FYI-OOIDA IS telling FMCSA this is the real fatigue creator-not the HOS. Trouble is, they’re the only voice in the wilderness on this. They need more clout. And, drivers need to be making these kind of comments to FMCSA during the comment period on HOS right now. Govt has of course made this hard to do but OOIDA has simplified the process somewhat thru a link to where the comments need to go. Look here: http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2010/Jan10/010410/010810-02.htm And remember to c/c/p the docket number into the right blank or the govt wont take the comment. Dont just tell US – tell THEM! Because they’re the only ones who can do anything about it!
There is a way to stop the shippers from doing this … but in our company the drivers still get the short end … Power Detention. We charge our shippers/consignees $75/hour for anything greater than a two hour delay and rightly so … they demand on time pickups … no delays in transit … It’s only fair that we the carriers demand and collect for delays created by the customers. Cause after all not only are the drivers not making money but the carriers aren’t making money … if the carrier enforces the contracts then collecting power detention is not easy but it is doable and sooner than later when our trucks pull up to a line of 5 units waiting to get loaded and we are on time … that Wacky guard will have orders to pull our trucks out of the line and get them in/out first.
This is one of the ways we are keeping our trucks moving and getting better use of the HOS we are given … Some companies (Not ours) will pass some of that $75/hour to the driver (I’m not proud of it but I’m being honest)
As more and more carriers enforce the detention in their contracts the customers will learn to quit playing these games …
Face it this is America and the only thing that is going to fix this kind of thing is MONEY
I’m wondering why you took a picture of a Union employee as part of the problem, but you don’t lay any of the blame on the unions?
I couldn’t agree with Bret more, trouble is this makes sense
therefore it’ll never happen. If the suits had as much down time as us, or the dollars came from their bonus checks you betcha we get some compensation for idle time.
soldier on boys eventually it has to get better..