I often wonder why it is that people complain about miles. There are truly legitimate reasons and there are reasons which are a farse all together.

What I have done, and it seems to work out good is this:

1) Take the work they give you, regardless of miles, and don't complain. Obviously make sure you have the hours to do it.

2) Try and get the load there early if at all possible (I have been at my consignee 1 1/2 days before I was supposed to).

3) Keep the lines of communication with your DM open. Do not shut them out, ignore them, and especially do not piss them off!

4) Keep your logs neat and clean.

5) Keep your logs legal (log it as you do it is the motto I follow)

6) Try to keep your truck in the best possible working order inside and out. Granted there are circumstances that prevent that from happening.

Any other additions to this would be great for everyone.

Thx

 

About the only thing I would add is that, if and when you have a choice of loads, the one that seems best at first glance might not be the best. We will usually have a tendency to look at the longest run as being the best, but sometimes that leads to a disappointment once we drop off. Becoming familiar with your company's regular customers and their shipping patterns can come in handy.

If I arrive on the Mexican border on a Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, I'm probably looking at a day off. This is fine if my hours are running low. If I have hours available to run, I'm usually better off ending up in the northeast on a weekend. On the other hand, mid-week seems to be a good time to get a lousy 400 mile/two day run if I'm in the northeast, but our border locations usually have more freight than drivers and the loads usually have some miles. I imagine the experience will vary from company to company, but in the year I've been doing this I've started to get a feel for how to run against the grain. Whenever we have a thousand trucks going east, I prefer to be going west, and vice versa.

 

Yeah it makes perfect sense!

The way that they are running me is they give me a load Monday or Tuesday that delivers on Friday, and then Friday I get a load that delivers on Monday. When they do this I can roll hours and they keep me running constantly.

 

Another thing that I can add to this discussion, which goes along with a previous reply about the longest run not always being the best, is to learn how your company and your dispatcher operates. Learn where your company's best freight lanes are and try to stay in them if at all possible. This will help minimize spending hours or even days waiting on them to try to find your next load.

 

In other words, kiss everybody's ass. Problem is you are trying to simplify a very complicated situation. Your rules may work for you and nobody else. The other thing to consider is everybody has a different idea of what good miles are. Me, I'm not even close to being satisfied until I know I'm going to get 3000 miles and I'm not happy till I get 3200 or better. Somebody else is going to say that I'm crazy for working that hard and that they are quite content with 2500. And you haven't even begun to discuss the very real differences between companies and the way they dispatch drivers. You may have found a simple method that works for you but you would be very arrogant indeed to assume that it will work for even a small % of the drivers out here.

 

Karnajj,

How do you think I am saying to kiss ass?

If your late on your loads, are you going to be put up on the list for a good run? No.

If your logs are horrid do you think that they won't be scrutinized? No.

Do you think that a poor relationship with your DM is going to make life easy for you? No.

I am stating what I have heard from other drivers from multiple companies. My DM and I work good together, he knows what works for me, and I know what works for him.

Nothing is ever Simple, that is why I asked others for their input. I did not ask for criticism.

 

It sounds like if you do your job you make money...lol...go figure..

 

:roll: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :roll:

 

If you didn't want criticism you should have either said so in your original post or not posted at all. My main concern with your post is #1 and #2.If you follow #1 you will always get the crap loads because now they know they have a driver who will take them. Every company has bad loads and I don't mind doing my fair share of them but when I get one after another I'm going to have words with someone. As for not complaining, sometimes it's the only way to get results. How are they even going to find out that you are having problems if you just sit there and take it day in and day out? Certainly you have to learn to pick your battles because you can't fight them all but not fighting any of them is ridiculous.

#2 is very dependent on the company you drive for. I would say for the average driver maybe 10% to 20% of their loads can deliver early. The rest get delivered whenever the appt is.

 

hmmmm the original poster sound like he/she may be a dispatcher.. :lol: