Not so sure what to do...
I would have to half-heartedly agree with j b sux' comments. I've noticed that JB lives up to most of their words except mileage. imagine this; Right after thanksgiving, you listen to the Harper Hotline.. 5 minutes of da da da da da and then it comes... yea, and we are a great company, we get all our drivers thru the house on christmas.... did anyone pay attention.... THRU the house??????? I have a 4 year old boy now and i get "thru" the house. last time i spent x-mas with jb signing my paychecks, that meant 3 whole hours. Apparently there must be customers open that JB does not even know about, because every holiday I end up sitting and sitting. It makes no sense. Fleet managers say that they have a percentage to maintain. Would it not be more cost-effective to not have 90% of the fleet not idling???
Onto mileage... haha!!! if only the ASM's were paid off of commission. I hear all the time from my fleet manager that he is not the one assigning loads. And I bark back saying yes, that is true, however, we as drivers are not allowed to contact the ASM's and you are our only liaison to them. Its amazing how fast they can get quiet. And then idle time. Always get griped at about idle time. Does anyone else here agree with me that high idle and low miles are proportional? That when the truck is not moving it is shut off or idling, and im not sweating in the middle of August because they cannot get me miles? Am i missing something??? And we wont even go there with delivering a load at 0700 and then the ASM schedluing you for your next pickup at 1400, totalling killing off your 14 hr rule, in which after you almost have to decline the load, you get put at the back of the line to wait for more freight that usually does not come until the next morning. Happens ALL THE TIME!!!
And on a final note, and I try to say this with the utmost respect and professionalism. Note that I said I "try." I hear Craig Harper, VP of Ops say all the time, "stick with us, jb wont touch cheap freight. It is our goal to put those companies that accept cheap freight out of business through high safety standards and excellent customer service." Did the thought ever occur to Mr Harper that these "cheap companies" stay in business because they have drivers willing to drive for them? And why would that be? Could it be that they were not getting miles at JB Hunt??? Could it really be that a Vice President is fighting his own ghost?? I am sorry Mr. Harper, I dont know why I like JB and why I continue to come back, because I am usually reminded within 60 days as to why I left, but lets be honest. The detention center has done nothing noticeable. I follow procedure and have not seen increased pay for sitting at US Foodservice for 12 hours. That's 20 salary paychecks that could be spent elsewhere and eliminate the detention team. And while I like optimism, quite frankly it does NOT put food on the table. 3rd quarter was bad, but there is a promising 4th quarter. If you find out who i am really, look up my driver info and see that i have yet to break 2000 paid miles over the past 2 months; I'm not talking about week to week either, im talking about my paychecks. I hit 1980 last week and that was the most in two months. Which leaves me totally worried about when the real freight slowdown comes in January and February. Am I going to get even 1000 miles then??? I have been extremely patient, yes I admit i make enough to pay for my child support and medical insurance and thats why I stay now. I cannot afford another job change at present. So I guess Im securely at jb hunt unless this posting gets me fired. But, to drivers that have a choice, and most do, the same rule applies: take care of the driver or someone else will... even if it means going to a cheap freight rate company that you have sworn to place out of business. At least the driver will stay busy there.
This is for all companies using HHG, not just JB, however JB is not exclusive to this paragraph. The government has strict rules about getting paid for your work in every field of business except drivers. Here it is in plain math. The average driver getting mileage pay based on the HHG system (call it household guide to mileage, post office to post office, whatever) is typically on average 10 percent out of route. Keep that 10 percent in your head. There are 52 weeks in a year, meaning the average drive gets 52 days off. Add in a 2 week vacation. This equals 66 days off total for the year. We will make the math simple and take away from that, a single day. Now, the average driver gets off-time 65 days a year. That means he is working 300 days of the year. Ten percent out of route. that is 30 free days... WHAT OTHER JOB PROFESSION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA MAKES IT LEGAL TO WORK A FULL FLIPPIN MONTH FOR FREE??????????????? And thats just mileage pay, thats not fueling a truck, pretripping their equipment, loading and unloading, and any other logbook entry that requires line 4, etc
p.s.
I guess on a final final FINAL note, yes, my availibility is always accurate, no, I do not believe for a second that in the city of Dallas, TX as was the case last week, that there was absolutely no freight that JB could book on a weekday morning at 0800 when i emptied out. I guess I can sum most of this up in two words... corporate stupidity... hope yall enjoy!!