I am starting out with ffe.

[Mr Roper]

Does anyone know anything about ffe thats were my career starts. I have to take the refresher class due to no otr experience I hear good and bad. I will not be asking to get home just want to keep rolling down the road every once in awhile home dont need much home time. Most of the bad I hear are from truckers that seem to need to get home alot. Sure would like to hear from ya if you know anything about them

 

[notarps4me]

There was a poster who went by lonewolf on another site. He had a lot of issues with junk equipment. Had to constantly jump his tractor off. Seems like they only wanted to replace just one battery. He battled that for quite awhile.

 

[Tim]

KLLM owns them now.

 

[Mr Roper]

KLLM owns them now.

Didnt know that. I know I have to start somewhere I dont mine earning my way up being in the oil field I did earn and put away money so I could do this. Get that drive time and move on to bigger and better things.

 

[Rigjockey]

There was a poster who went by lonewolf on another site. He had a lot of issues with junk equipment. Had to constantly jump his tractor off. Seems like they only wanted to replace just one battery. He battled that for quite awhile.

Mo' money than brains. Spend a dollar to save a dime. lol

 

[passingtrucker]

Judging by FFE's website, it appears to be a reefer company, meaning you'll be delivering perishable foods to grocery distribution warehouses. Very important you ask how much they pay for dock delays. I've delivered to Ralphs DC in Compton, CA -- and its a place intended to make you regret you became an OTR trucker. From the moment I checked in at the gate with the security guard to the moment I drove out with an empty trailer, over 6 hours had passed. Ralphs DC (a subsidiary of Kroger Inc.) in Compton, CA is not an isolated case. Most grocery chain DC warehouses takes at least 3 hours to receive and unload you. When you pickup a load, your dispatcher might have you go to 3 or more different shippers. So the first pickup, you might get 6 pallets of lettuce and celery. The 2nd pickup at another shipper, its 4 pallets of apples and 4 pallets of oranges. This continues until you have a full truck load. Then your last stop is to check your axle and gross weight and slide your tandem axle if necessary to comply with weight laws. If you're overloaded, you return to the last shipper and ask them to take off the excess weight, then check your weight again at the public scale. One nightmare load I had was picking up frozen seafood at different warehouses along I-5 from Washington state to Northern California. The last frozen warehouse had me grossed at 80,600 -- and it was Friday late afternoon. So I go back to the shipper to realize he's close until Monday. I layover for the entire weekend, not earning any $$. I think I deserved layover pay, which my dispatcher had declined. Monday morning, the shipper was surprised to see me, saying "you actually waited all weekend? Most other drivers take the overload and run the back roads to bypass the scales !!" So I realized he deliberately overloaded me, expecting me to evade the scales somehow. BTW, the entire load of frozen seafood was going to another wholesaler in the east coast, who intended to reload the frozen seafood into a reefer ocean container and send it to the Middle East. I'm guessing this seafood is for the rich Oil Sheiks in Saudi Arabia.
Picking up your load at the shipper can be a nightmare. You check-in at the shipper's office, you bump the dock, then you sit and wait because the produce load had just been recently harvested and is being shuttled from the farmer a few miles away. The forklift driver (doesn't speak English) takes 2 or more hours to load you, then you sit and wait until the other half of your load comes in from the most recent harvest. You can't drop your trailer to get something to eat, so you're at the mercy of these lunch catering trucks who charge $7 for a burrito, then you notice the people who speak Spanish only pay $4 for the same burrito you ordered. You realize you're paying a surcharge because you don't speak Spanish. And they wonder why OTR drivers are quitting after getting their one year of driving experience. Lesson here is, keep a stock of bottled drinks, crackers, and canned goods on your side box when shippers/ receivers take too long to load/unload you. And make sure there's dock delay pay (when you exceed 2 hours at the shipper or receiver) and if they give layover pay if you need to sit an entire weekend because the shipper overloaded you and he's closed until Monday morning.

 

[Duck]

The last frozen warehouse had me grossed at 80,600 -- and it was Friday late afternoon. So I go back to the shipper to realize he's close until Monday. I layover for the entire weekend, not earning any $$.

You sat around all weekend because you were 600 lbs over gross?

 

[blackw900]

The last frozen warehouse had me grossed at 80,600 -- and it was Friday late afternoon. So I go back to the shipper to realize he's close until Monday. I layover for the entire weekend, not earning any $$. I think I deserved layover pay, which my dispatcher had declined.

For 600 pounds?

How much does fuel weigh? In a pretty short distance you'd burn off enough fuel to offset the over weight.
You were declined layover pay because all you did was cost the company money through bad decision making.
Most scales won't even bother you for 600 pounds over gross as long as your axles are legal.

I would have fired you for sitting there!

 

[Rigjockey]

For 600 pounds?

How much does fuel weigh? In a pretty short distance you'd burn off enough fuel to offset the over weight.
You were declined layover pay because all you did was cost the company money through bad decision making.
Most scales won't even bother you for 600 pounds over gross as long as your axles are legal.

I would have fired you for sitting there!

I usually estimate it to be 8 lbs per gallon. @ 600 Lbs it would be around 75 gallons. My math sucks. When overweight situations arise I call dispatch and make the aware. They ask what I think, I, 9 times out of ten say run it. the last over weight was 2,000 Lbs over gross. Rather than layover the weekend.

 

[Mike]

We can't go out overweight from the plant. Did in the past and got hit for over gross in Louisiana. At 600 over gross, gonna be tough to get legal even if you get it down to under 80K by the time you get to the first scale, especially if you are limited on what you can slide. The tickets get expensive quickly.

I loaded just a bit over gross a couple years ago, knowing I would be under gross by the time I crossed any scales, if they were even open. Well, they opened just as I was approaching in Texas, ended up with a $270 over axle ticket (with an open bore tanker). The money isn't a big deal because the company paid it, CSA record remains and stings a little.

Can't fault the driver for not running over gross.

 

[EllieMae]

What gets my goat is grabbing a relay load or one from a drop yard that a day cab jockey left that's not been scaled and illegal. 42000 lb load and no weigh ticket? I have had loads overweight on the trailer axles by 1500 pounds with axles just legal. Lazy hurrah for me and to hell with the next driver cowboys make me puke. I refuse to run illegal any way shape or form. I know many drivers simply don't care, different for me. I drive the way I live my personnel life. Respecting myself for doing it the right way.
My CSA is clean and hope to keep is that way.

 

[Rigjockey]

With the truckers we have out here today, 6oo lbs could be the weight of the driver. LOL

 

[passingtrucker]

For 600 pounds?
I would have fired you for sitting there!

I was an owner operator at that time. A Nevada enforcement scale had once made me unload the excess weight, which I suspect they wanted to keep for themselves (watermelons). The watermelon load I lost to the enforcement scale was deducted from my pay. DOT clearly stipulates shippers must never send off an overloaded truck. When a driver says "I'm overloaded," shippers are required by law to correct the weight. Thus, its illegal to take disciplinary actions against a driver for complying with ANY law.
However, if you stop to sleep because you're too tired to continue driving, and you deliver late, the carrier will starve you and say "I've got no load available in your area. Check back later." And you notice you're the only driver laid over, while everyone else is busy.

 

[Tim]

With the truckers we have out here today, 6oo lbs could be the weight of the driver. LOL

Oh damn, you just didnt go there!

 

[Tim]

DOT clearly stipulates shippers must never send off an overloaded truck. When a driver says "I'm overloaded," shippers are required by law to correct the weight. Thus, its illegal to take disciplinary actions against a driver for complying with ANY law.
However, if you stop to sleep because you're too tired to continue driving, and you deliver late, the carrier will starve you and say "I've got no load available in your area. Check back later." And you notice you're the only driver laid over, while everyone else is busy.

Really? I'd like to see this "law".

 

[hootowlserenade]

I have to agree with not running overweight... I have gone back to shippers to have them reload or repack a load if my axles are over... swift does not give me service failures for being late because of being overweight, they know better... just like when on road tells me to drive to a truck stop for a repair (like a clearance light on a trailer), I tell them to send a Qualcomm message noting the problem telling me to drive... if they won't send a Qualcomm message that means they will get in trouble for telling me to drive... in which case I tell them I am not moving until they send someone for the repair. Your company cannot force you to break or bend any rules.

Sent from the cutting edge of my Droid RAZR MAXX

 

[Rigjockey]

 

[blackw900]

We can't go out overweight from the plant... The tickets get expensive quickly.

I got a ticket in Virginia about 2 years ago for 1,500 over gross....$180.
That isn't expensive, That's nothing!

CSA record remains and stings a little...

Overweight tickets aren't CSA reportable violations as far as I know.

 

[DubbleD]

I was an owner operator at that time. A Nevada enforcement scale had once made me unload the excess weight, which I suspect they wanted to keep for themselves (watermelons). The watermelon load I lost to the enforcement scale was deducted from my pay. DOT clearly stipulates shippers must never send off an overloaded truck. When a driver says "I'm overloaded," shippers are required by law to correct the weight. Thus, its illegal to take disciplinary actions against a driver for complying with ANY law.
However, if you stop to sleep because you're too tired to continue driving, and you deliver late, the carrier will starve you and say "I've got no load available in your area. Check back later." And you notice you're the only driver laid over, while everyone else is busy.

You certainly are a breath of fresh air.

 

[Tim]

Overweight tickets aren't CSA reportable violations as far as I know.

You are correct, overweight violations carry no CSA points.