I was at a Walmart DC today. After one hour of wait time I sent in detention macro. About an hour or so later, I see my trailer pulled out and done. So on the cb I called in and said I know they haven't called me but I see my trailer done. What do I know, I'm new. Anyway the guy gets all bent out of shape telling me to wait for my paperwork. I apologize and wait.

Well when I get my paperwork they have the unloaded time and paperwork ready time as the same. I ask the lady at the desk to change it and she gets all nervous and tells me they have been calling me. I don't like being taken for an idiot, but as people were waiting I let it go. I should note that the guys waiting looked shocked that I even did that.

So I go to the truck and get on the cb and tell everyone to watch their trailers cause they could be done and they are sitting on the paperwork. Well the lady at the desk didn't like that too much and told me that wasn't necessary. I told her that lying wasn't necessary either.

By the way some other trucker chimes in and tells me that Walmart is the customer, not the other way around. Apparently he doesn't mind sitting for free. And also incidentally I think everyone is too timid with these people. From day one I've been treated great everywhere, I'm polite and have all my paperwork in order so I never have a problem, but I'm not the type to take this nonsense. I have no problem demanding to speak to a manger or regional manager or corporate and I'm very good at this stuff.

Anyway I contacted my company and they told me not to worry cause they go by the time I say not what the customer says (I was surprised at this and asked why would they do that,what if I was lying and they said they track the truck movement) but the point of this whole thread, I plan on getting my own truck and authority and out of curiousity, how does an o/o charge detention time? How does this work? As I was delivering to Walmart , who does my company charge? Actually I was delivering grape juice and I saw on the BOL that it says to bill Welsh's. Does the company bill Welsh? and how does the small guy who may have bid on this load from a broker get paid for detention time?

Thanks

 

It is difficult to get detention time from the broker or some of the larger shippers, such as Walmart. I would not do business with them. I have delivered to them when I was leased to a carrier several years ago. Because of the way they do business and treat drivers who deliver to them, I won't do business with them. They want to dictate how vendors do business with them including loading and unloading their freight. I refuse to do business with anyone who does business that way. They don't even want you to sleep in your truck while you are waiting for them to unload your trailer. If you do business with Walmart the relationship is very one sided to their side.

 

Funny thing is when I was originally standing in line to check in all the drivers were talking how bad Walmart is and in the short time I've been driving I've had great experience with them. I'm usually in and out. I like your attitude GMAN in refusing to deal with them. To be honest as mentioned I'm a new driver and I can't believe how important the trucking industry is to this country. When people drink their morning oj, they have a truck driver to thank. So I'm surpised that this industry doesn't wield more clout even over Big Bad Walmart. If trucks don't move nothing does.

Anyway, so do you basically never charge detention pay GMAN? What do you do when someone has you waiting, do you just swallow it as the price of doing business? And one final question, do you think my company as it's bigger will be able to charge detention time or do they just pay me and eat the costs?

 

ummmm no they're not. I can't believe you havent walked up to someones shipping/rcvg window and say "Hi, how you doing today? I'm here to pick up/drop a load" and they treat you like dog-chit for no reason. Or maybe it's because they get yelled at by truckers all day. You know the saying "If you can't take the heat..."

Welcome to trucking

It was probably a yard-dog :roll: who hates truck drivers even though he may have been one for years.

Dude, not trying to be a troll here, but how long you been driving?? I swear I'm a really nice guy too and I get shat on damn near everywhere I go, literally... no exageration :?:

Example, I was picking up a load of pet food in Columbus, OH I pull up, check in the guard (who was really busy but not coppin' an attitude... yet) tells me where to drop my empty. I slide my tandems and drop it in dock 68.
4 hours go by and I get on the CB and say "hey do you care if I bobtail to our terminal" (which is 7 miles away) and he replies "yeah this aint no hostage situation!!" to which I reply "I didn't say it was, spanky"


So I come back 2 hours later, after I did a load of laundry and got a shower. The guard tells me where to grab my loaded trailer and where the scale is. I grab it, do my pre-trip and scale it out. I get to the shack and I ask one of the guards to sign my detention form and he replies "Nope, we don't do that", I go over to the other guard 6 feet away and ask him the same thing and he's being a dick... so I smile and say "I'm going to be paid for it anyways haha!" and start walking out the door as he starts bitchin' "why you ask us then..." and muttering some other incomprehensible shi..

I can't wait to be an O/O to refuse loads outta this shthole!

 

i still treat every truck drivers with respect even though some of them do not have common sense. if your load is ready i will came out there and get u. but i probably only one of the few yard-dog that do this

 

The guards are the LAST ones you want to ask for detention pay sign-offs. The shipping/recieving clerk or staff is the appropraite channel.

 

Most of the time it isn't an issue. However, I have been in a situation where a company has their own trucks going around me and others to get loaded or unloaded. In that situation or where it is getting close to 2 hours and no progress is being made, I will talk to the shipping department to see what is delaying the loading/unloading. I also inform them that after 2 hours I charge detention and give them my rate. If they tell me that they don't pay detention, then I inform them that unless my truck is unloaded within 2 hours that I will be leaving unloaded or not and will take their product back to where it came. With me it isn't an empty threat. Most of the time they will go ahead and unload me. My time has value and the shipper needs to be reminded of that fact. I am always polite, but firm in my statements. Walmart seems to place little value on the time of truckers. I have been in a situation where the shipper didn't want me to leave with their product. I inform them that it isn't their product until it is off of my truck. It belongs to me as long as it is on my truck. That can get results. If you can do drop and hook with Walmart then that might work, but I won't have any shipper dictate to me how I run my business or what they will pay me for my services. I don't mean to seem arrogant, but unless a shipper pays what I need to haul their product, they can find someone else to haul it. About 2 or 3 years ago I went to pick up some steel at a plant near Gary, Indiana. I was the 3rd truck in line and others were behind me. The way the drive was designed you could not get out of the facility until the trucks in front were loaded and moved. They kept me 6 hours. There was no good reason why they could not have loaded us. The shipping personnel were literally not working. Their excuse was that they needed to redo the first guys load. If that were true, then they should have pulled him out of line and loaded everyone else. As soon as the second shift came in we all got loaded in a timely manner. The second shift guy told me that they just were not working. We could see that for ourselves. I was to have been paid detention time. I am still waiting. I will NEVER haul anything for that shipper again. I have not been back since. By the time I finally got loaded and everything secured, I was too tired to drive very far. I won't allow that to happen to me again. Had I been able to get out of the facility I would not have stayed that long in the first place.

 

When I delivered my last load of that copper the guard shack recorded my time on a detention slip and gave it to me. I was there for maybe 3 hours and when I left they recorded my time again and told me to send it in. Not sure what I'll get but I thought that was pretty cool. This place had the whole loading and unloading process down pat like clockwork. Because of that storm we all got stuck in Texas we all showed up at the same time or there wouldn't have been a wait.

 

Prodigy
I also am a nice guy and I would think if I called someone "spanky" I might not get treated the best after that.

Maybe after the guard said "yeah this ain't no hostage situation" you said OK thanks allot I will see you in a couple hours. Things might of been better for you.

Mike