catalinaflyer
Well-Known Member
First off I want to let you know that my companies safety director and his assisant think I would have an excellent career as a creative writer and I do in fact do some ghost writing for a well known publisher so sometimes (actuall most of the time) my posts will be longer than necessary. If you don't like long post's feel free to just click away from here now or shoot at me or whatever suites you.
So I picked up an oversized load at our yard in Washington last week and delivered it to Florida yesterday. Took an extra day or so on the way to take a day and night off with my family in Kansas City, sort of a little mini vacation. But all in all I loaded last Wednesday afternoon, delivered Tuesday morning 3300+ miles with a 34 reset thrown in for good measure and all of that with an oversized so I was only running daylight. Not a bad 7 days in my book and very happy with it. I also was given a load picking up right at the same exact spot where I delivered also oversized going right back to where the original load picked up. Again, excellent!
So yesterday morning after unloading I drop my trailer and head to Fresh Market (Pensioners Florida version of Whole Foods) to re-stock my POS Volvo fridge which I fixed last night but thats another thread all in itself. Another driver for the same company and fellow forum member had recommended going to Jensen Beach to hang out which I did however upon my arrival at the beach the "Tropical Disturbance" disturbed my plans with horizontal rain. So I head back to the customer to figure out what to do next.
Now here's where the rant begins, while sitting there catching up paperwork and scanning my trip one of the gold trucks from Iowa pulled in with a team operating it (I use that term loosely). They were there to pick up a load going to the same place I was going and they were a day early as well. The yard manager told them to park next to the outdoor ramp just like I was parked only on the other side. Now to actually get to this ramp out in the middle of an airport tarmac is tough, you pull down into the car parking lot and back straight up. More room than 90% of the places I have been in 23+ years of driving. So here they go, they are trying some sort of fancy backing around to get to the elusive acre of concrete on the south side of the ramp. I watch as they manage to take out two pedestrian crossing signs that have been in the same spot since Chance Vought was building F4U Corsairs there in World War 2. They proceeded to flatten the signs, rip a mudflap off the truck and smash the cab extender on the left side. I say "They" because one was out of the truck directing the other one but they must have spoke two completely incompatable versions of english.
Now, while doing all of this there was a FedEx truck there waiting on the ramp and he was coming up with some pretty creative new cuban names for these drivers or um seat fillers. They took the better part of an hour to get backed onto that elusive acre of open concrete but in the end they got there and even removed some obstructions other drivers have managed to work around for 70+ years. Now these two decide to unhook from the trailer so they can go get food and the fun begins. A half hour of dragging the landing gear back and forth across the acre of concrete and they finally pull the pin. Now in this half hour they both had been out next to the trailer a dozen times looking at the landing gear, looking at the slider on the trailer tandems and even looking in the side box of the sleeper but not until the "driver" made a phone call did they discover the pin release. Whomever he called forgot to tell them that the air lines and pig tail needed unhooking as well so after giving them a really good stretch before they slapped the back of the sleeper cause a panic stop and another 10 minutes looking around the truck for what had hit them they leave.
I left right after that and headed to a bookstore for the afternoon. Upon returning they are there backed in front of the trailer with the doors standing open in the horizontal rain because the company won't let them idle and they have no APU or money for a cheep room. I laugh as I fire up my APU and turn the AC down to 68. I don't think they slept all night because they were complaining about my truck running all night to which I explained my truck hadn't been running since I pulled in last night. The one guy gave me a real confused look and said well it's running now to which I tried my best to keep a straight face as I explained to him that was the APU which kept my sleeper a comfortable 68 all night as well as powered the flat screen tv, microwave, satellite receiver and everything else I felt necessary to be comfortable. He complained that it was noisy and kept them up all night to which I countered it was probably the 100% humidity and heat not my APU.
So today goes on and these two are so broke they can't get anything to eat, they set there the entire day with the doors wide open sweating in the horizontal rain and complaining about being broke. Then they get ready to load which requires hooking back up to that aweful trailer that gave them so many problems the day before. After consulting his nicely laminated instructions the "driver" begins trying to hook up. Well I watched yesterday as he cranked the gear a good inch past the point where the pads hit the ground so the trailer was already high but then I hear the air dumping out of the bags before he starts backing. I watch as he makes a half dozen attempts to get the pin to lock which was only catching the slot about an inch so it was above the locking jaws. How the hell he kept from jumping it over the 5th wheel was beyond me but I finally got my shoes on and walked over to show him why it wouldn't hook up. I had him put air in the bags and I cranked the trailer down about 3 inches and what do you know it hooked.
Now I hadn't had much contact with these tow up till this point other than first thing this morning when driver A or um Seat Filler A was complaining about my truck running all night. Anyway I get to talking to these two and the first hing that became apparent, the company form Iowa with the gold trucks gives all new driving school enrolees an frontal labotomy. Then I find that Driver A is the trainer and has been driving for, wait, wait 2 MONTHS. Driver B is the student and they are a "training team" and the "student" has already been through the first phase and now he's cleared to drive in a training team after only, wait, wait 10 DAYS.
Now throughout all of this comedy act I watched as Seat Filler/Trainer A walked around with his Captain Kirk headset on have a very animated and loud conversation with someone discussing the lack of income. Now these two are a "training team" which means they can run around the clock and they are picking up a legal load in a van thats all of 8,000# tops at exactly the same place I am and its going to the exact same building that I am. I have an oversized load which is 11' wide so I can only run during daylight hours and have numerous curfews/restrictions to deal with the next two days and I'm planning on delivering by noon on Monday. These two are telling me that they can't make it there till Monday night or Tuesday morning - HUH? I asked seat filler A twice when they were going to be there and he insisted on Monday night or Tuesday morning so then I asked what route they were taking thinking that maybe they are getting paid hub miles and are going via Bangor Maine and San Diego California. He said they are going through Oklahoma City where he's abondoning the truck and trainee/seat filler B and getting a bus ticket home because he's not making any money.
All I can say is what the HELL are these companies thinking, taking a driver who's 2 months out of school and making them a trainer with a driver thats fresh out of school. Now the trainer/seat filler is quitting so I'm sure the company will move trainee/seat filler to a trainer/seat filler position and throw another seat filler in there. I know that everyone has to start somewhere and fortunately I grew up in Western Kansas and my father had a large construction company and farm so from the time I was old enough to grind the gears I was moving trucks around on private property and farm roads. But even when I did finally get a shot at being a driver I had to spend 6 months with a crusty old fart that had already forgot more about driving than I will ever learn. I left there this evening shaking my head and almost feeling sorry for these two because I'm sure the recruiter gave them some long line of BS about how fantastic the training program is and how they will make all this money while getting to see the country in a POS fleet truck that has absolutely no comforts other than two beds and an AM radio.
Okay I'm done ranting but next time I see a truckstop scammer thread I'm going to list the biggest scam of all, the recruiters for these revolving door trucks.
So I picked up an oversized load at our yard in Washington last week and delivered it to Florida yesterday. Took an extra day or so on the way to take a day and night off with my family in Kansas City, sort of a little mini vacation. But all in all I loaded last Wednesday afternoon, delivered Tuesday morning 3300+ miles with a 34 reset thrown in for good measure and all of that with an oversized so I was only running daylight. Not a bad 7 days in my book and very happy with it. I also was given a load picking up right at the same exact spot where I delivered also oversized going right back to where the original load picked up. Again, excellent!
So yesterday morning after unloading I drop my trailer and head to Fresh Market (Pensioners Florida version of Whole Foods) to re-stock my POS Volvo fridge which I fixed last night but thats another thread all in itself. Another driver for the same company and fellow forum member had recommended going to Jensen Beach to hang out which I did however upon my arrival at the beach the "Tropical Disturbance" disturbed my plans with horizontal rain. So I head back to the customer to figure out what to do next.
Now here's where the rant begins, while sitting there catching up paperwork and scanning my trip one of the gold trucks from Iowa pulled in with a team operating it (I use that term loosely). They were there to pick up a load going to the same place I was going and they were a day early as well. The yard manager told them to park next to the outdoor ramp just like I was parked only on the other side. Now to actually get to this ramp out in the middle of an airport tarmac is tough, you pull down into the car parking lot and back straight up. More room than 90% of the places I have been in 23+ years of driving. So here they go, they are trying some sort of fancy backing around to get to the elusive acre of concrete on the south side of the ramp. I watch as they manage to take out two pedestrian crossing signs that have been in the same spot since Chance Vought was building F4U Corsairs there in World War 2. They proceeded to flatten the signs, rip a mudflap off the truck and smash the cab extender on the left side. I say "They" because one was out of the truck directing the other one but they must have spoke two completely incompatable versions of english.
Now, while doing all of this there was a FedEx truck there waiting on the ramp and he was coming up with some pretty creative new cuban names for these drivers or um seat fillers. They took the better part of an hour to get backed onto that elusive acre of open concrete but in the end they got there and even removed some obstructions other drivers have managed to work around for 70+ years. Now these two decide to unhook from the trailer so they can go get food and the fun begins. A half hour of dragging the landing gear back and forth across the acre of concrete and they finally pull the pin. Now in this half hour they both had been out next to the trailer a dozen times looking at the landing gear, looking at the slider on the trailer tandems and even looking in the side box of the sleeper but not until the "driver" made a phone call did they discover the pin release. Whomever he called forgot to tell them that the air lines and pig tail needed unhooking as well so after giving them a really good stretch before they slapped the back of the sleeper cause a panic stop and another 10 minutes looking around the truck for what had hit them they leave.
I left right after that and headed to a bookstore for the afternoon. Upon returning they are there backed in front of the trailer with the doors standing open in the horizontal rain because the company won't let them idle and they have no APU or money for a cheep room. I laugh as I fire up my APU and turn the AC down to 68. I don't think they slept all night because they were complaining about my truck running all night to which I explained my truck hadn't been running since I pulled in last night. The one guy gave me a real confused look and said well it's running now to which I tried my best to keep a straight face as I explained to him that was the APU which kept my sleeper a comfortable 68 all night as well as powered the flat screen tv, microwave, satellite receiver and everything else I felt necessary to be comfortable. He complained that it was noisy and kept them up all night to which I countered it was probably the 100% humidity and heat not my APU.
So today goes on and these two are so broke they can't get anything to eat, they set there the entire day with the doors wide open sweating in the horizontal rain and complaining about being broke. Then they get ready to load which requires hooking back up to that aweful trailer that gave them so many problems the day before. After consulting his nicely laminated instructions the "driver" begins trying to hook up. Well I watched yesterday as he cranked the gear a good inch past the point where the pads hit the ground so the trailer was already high but then I hear the air dumping out of the bags before he starts backing. I watch as he makes a half dozen attempts to get the pin to lock which was only catching the slot about an inch so it was above the locking jaws. How the hell he kept from jumping it over the 5th wheel was beyond me but I finally got my shoes on and walked over to show him why it wouldn't hook up. I had him put air in the bags and I cranked the trailer down about 3 inches and what do you know it hooked.
Now I hadn't had much contact with these tow up till this point other than first thing this morning when driver A or um Seat Filler A was complaining about my truck running all night. Anyway I get to talking to these two and the first hing that became apparent, the company form Iowa with the gold trucks gives all new driving school enrolees an frontal labotomy. Then I find that Driver A is the trainer and has been driving for, wait, wait 2 MONTHS. Driver B is the student and they are a "training team" and the "student" has already been through the first phase and now he's cleared to drive in a training team after only, wait, wait 10 DAYS.
Now throughout all of this comedy act I watched as Seat Filler/Trainer A walked around with his Captain Kirk headset on have a very animated and loud conversation with someone discussing the lack of income. Now these two are a "training team" which means they can run around the clock and they are picking up a legal load in a van thats all of 8,000# tops at exactly the same place I am and its going to the exact same building that I am. I have an oversized load which is 11' wide so I can only run during daylight hours and have numerous curfews/restrictions to deal with the next two days and I'm planning on delivering by noon on Monday. These two are telling me that they can't make it there till Monday night or Tuesday morning - HUH? I asked seat filler A twice when they were going to be there and he insisted on Monday night or Tuesday morning so then I asked what route they were taking thinking that maybe they are getting paid hub miles and are going via Bangor Maine and San Diego California. He said they are going through Oklahoma City where he's abondoning the truck and trainee/seat filler B and getting a bus ticket home because he's not making any money.
All I can say is what the HELL are these companies thinking, taking a driver who's 2 months out of school and making them a trainer with a driver thats fresh out of school. Now the trainer/seat filler is quitting so I'm sure the company will move trainee/seat filler to a trainer/seat filler position and throw another seat filler in there. I know that everyone has to start somewhere and fortunately I grew up in Western Kansas and my father had a large construction company and farm so from the time I was old enough to grind the gears I was moving trucks around on private property and farm roads. But even when I did finally get a shot at being a driver I had to spend 6 months with a crusty old fart that had already forgot more about driving than I will ever learn. I left there this evening shaking my head and almost feeling sorry for these two because I'm sure the recruiter gave them some long line of BS about how fantastic the training program is and how they will make all this money while getting to see the country in a POS fleet truck that has absolutely no comforts other than two beds and an AM radio.
Okay I'm done ranting but next time I see a truckstop scammer thread I'm going to list the biggest scam of all, the recruiters for these revolving door trucks.
