XPO | 70 hour work week ?

[bigfoot077]

ELIMINATE EMPTY MILES, ELIMINATE EMPTY MILES. I remember hearing this a lot in the videos. This is what I don't understand about their thinking. SC X cuts a run, They have 4 trailers going to the reship, 6 trailers coming back. The reship will create 4 vias to cover the original 2 trailers. Thus creating 4 times the empty miles compared to the original empty miles if they were to send someone to the reship from SC X.
I have also seen pure trailers sent 150 miles out of the way to eliminate empty miles. Then ending up creating 2 or 3 vias to cover that trailer because the receiving terminal went over at the reship.
Wouldn't it make more sense to send the amount of drivers to the reship to cover the freight? Eliminate the need to cram and jam the freight into a trailer and eliminate damages and claims? Seems like they are spending more money and accomplishing less. Am I thinking too clearly?

You are thinking very clearly. This has been a major concern of mine for years now. Now with the new centrally located linehaul, they really have no clue where things are at and lots of times they ask me what to do when I call in. Right now they are trying to cut empty miles and they are spending a dollar to save a nickel. I see what goes on at my SC and wonder if things are that messed up here, what is going on everywhere else.

 

[bigfoot077]

Yes you are thinking too clearly. Logic and common sense have no place here,just do what your told and never question your superiors unless you want to be asked the million dollar question. It seems that many,many times they are over engineering this whole operation. It's not that hard to figure out but those in charge of ops. sometimes make me just laugh at their strategies. I shouldn't complain because it makes me lots of money!

Yes, you can't question any one. Linehaul is an entity of it's own. My manager has told me that he has tried to question linehaul moves and was told to mind his own business and not to worry about linehaul. Hmm, I think this company has always preached communication and now my manager is told to mind his own business.

But like you, I am making lots of money over their mistakes and creative operating.

 

[micro brew]

ELIMINATE EMPTY MILES, ELIMINATE EMPTY MILES. I remember hearing this a lot in the videos. This is what I don't understand about their thinking. SC X cuts a run, They have 4 trailers going to the reship, 6 trailers coming back. The reship will create 4 vias to cover the original 2 trailers. Thus creating 4 times the empty miles compared to the original empty miles if they were to send someone to the reship from SC X.
I have also seen pure trailers sent 150 miles out of the way to eliminate empty miles. Then ending up creating 2 or 3 vias to cover that trailer because the receiving terminal went over at the reship.
Wouldn't it make more sense to send the amount of drivers to the reship to cover the freight? Eliminate the need to cram and jam the freight into a trailer and eliminate damages and claims? Seems like they are spending more money and accomplishing less. Am I thinking too clearly?

That made way too much sense.

Here's another situation I've run into many times that is easily fixed. All winter long I was running mt's to the east because we were running for inbound. What sense does that make? The freight flow is so much heavier west to east in this area that should never happen. So much sub-service was used it was creating mt miles. On top of that, the vans that took that freight were all one or two codes that would have made nice pures out of my mt's. All of our runs are easy to project ahead of time - it's 99% two day and day-lane freight so run a van into our place to fill those mt's and save a few bucks on the sub-service. This still happens all the time at my barn and a few others on eastbound runs.

As much as I hate sub-service, if it is used correctly, it can eliminate some empty miles and save money but I watch it create empty miles all the time here.

 

[Bankrupt]

That made way too much sense.

Here's another situation I've run into many times that is easily fixed. All winter long I was running mt's to the east because we were running for inbound. What sense does that make? The freight flow is so much heavier west to east in this area that should never happen. So much sub-service was used it was creating mt miles. On top of that, the vans that took that freight were all one or two codes that would have made nice pures out of my mt's. All of our runs are easy to project ahead of time - it's 99% two day and day-lane freight so run a van into our place to fill those mt's and save a few bucks on the sub-service. This still happens all the time at my barn and a few others on eastbound runs.

As much as I hate sub-service, if it is used correctly, it can eliminate some empty miles and save money but I watch it create empty miles all the time here.

Pures or at least headloads were probably swung (new word) over from pups at XCW or XAY to accomplish this incredibly brilliant feat.

 

[imported_gov]

Pures or at least headloads were probably swung (new word) over from pups at XCW or XAY to accomplish this incredibly brilliant feat.

Swing pures and head loads is a great idea. Just think of all the damages that are done with re-handling fright as much as we do. Like I said its don't my ball park, game and I'm just a simple player.

 

[micro brew]

Pures or at least headloads were probably swung (new word) over from pups at XCW or XAY to accomplish this incredibly brilliant feat.

I swing pure westbound pups into westbound sub-service vans every night now. Then I build misc pups with all the cross-dock freight. Am I missing something here?

Perhaps they are just in aw of my fork-lift ability?

 

[wonderring99]

I swing pure westbound pups into westbound sub-service vans every night now. Then I build misc pups with all the cross-dock freight. Am I missing something here?

Perhaps they are just in aw of my fork-lift ability?

Sounds to me like you fos at whatever reship you are at is trying to pad his numbers with the weight of a easy swing of a pure ... integrity issue ... that needs to be corrected. What reship Jake? How far west Jake ?
I build east coast pures ... and build misc long box on outbound ....

 

[micro brew]

Sounds to me like you fos at whatever reship you are at is trying to pad his numbers with the weight of a easy swing of a pure ... integrity issue ... that needs to be corrected. What reship Jake? How far west Jake ?
I build east coast pures ... and build misc long box on outbound ....

It's all Salem (XSW) lane freight that I work with but St Louis is the same way. It's not the FOS - he's at his wits end with it also. It comes from line-haul, or so we are told, the van gets preference on cut time.

For the Salem lane, I usually load two vans. The first is a mix of everything but normally I swing a pup that could go directly to Salem without touching a dock. The second starts out as a Laredo. It always starts with the swinging of a pure Laredo pup, sometimes two. If it does not fill with Laredo I try to make it a Tulsa with certain freight. If that does not work, I make it another Salem misc with a Laredo head load. I've done the same thing at other places with Salem, Louisville, Tomah, St Louis, Laredo, La Salle, Quad Cities and Tulsa lanes and maybe some others.

Hate to tell ya W99, but those nice pures you load probably end up on a van at XCW or XAY before reaching the destination terminal.

 

[wonderring99]

It's all Salem (XSW) lane freight that I work with but St Louis is the same way. It's not the FOS - he's at his wits end with it also. It comes from line-haul, or so we are told, the van gets preference on cut time.

For the Salem lane, I usually load two vans. The first is a mix of everything but normally I swing a pup that could go directly to Salem without touching a dock. The second starts out as a Laredo. It always starts with the swinging of a pure Laredo pup, sometimes two. If it does not fill with Laredo I try to make it a Tulsa with certain freight. If that does not work, I make it another Salem misc with a Laredo head load. I've done the same thing at other places with Salem, Louisville, Tomah, St Louis, Laredo, La Salle, Quad Cities and Tulsa lanes and maybe some others.

Hate to tell ya W99, but those nice pures you load probably end up on a van at XCW or XAY before reaching the destination terminal.

Most everything out of the midwest going to LLA ends up in a long box ... gateway to mexico

 

[bigfoot077]

Pures or at least headloads were probably swung (new word) over from pups at XCW or XAY to accomplish this incredibly brilliant feat.

We load pure trailers just to send them to a FAC just to load them on a long box. If nothing else, have a long box at our place, load it and then send it on down to the FAC. That would save us from unloading and reloading freight and all the damages. I understand wanting to cut out empty miles but not by unloading, reloading and damaging freight coming out of pure trailers.

 

[NorthTXcon-way]

Most everything out of the midwest going to LLA ends up in a long box ... gateway to mexico

We load 4-6 long boxes to Laredo everyday..El Paso gets a lot too..:sombrero2:

 

[Bankrupt]

Sounds to me like you fos at whatever reship you are at is trying to pad his numbers with the weight of a easy swing of a pure ... integrity issue ... that needs to be corrected. What reship Jake? How far west Jake ?
I build east coast pures ... and build misc long box on outbound ....

There was truth to what you are saying. Years back, on our inbound dock, we would swing perfectly good headloads to comply with our local initiative called the Tonnage Enhancement Program.

T.E.P.

We had T-shirts made up that said Team Tonnage Enhancement AND somebody even submitted a team O'brian quarterly award nomination. That put a supposed end to the program.

All true.
​

 

[micro brew]

There was truth to what you are saying. Years back, on our inbound dock, we would swing perfectly good headloads to comply with our local initiative called the Tonnage Enhancement Program.

T.E.P.

We had T-shirts made up that said Team Tonnage Enhancement AND somebody even submitted a team O'brian quarterly award nomination. That put a supposed end to the program.

All true.
​

When was this?

 

[Bankrupt]

When was this?

A decade ago at a terminal no longer in existence. Like I said, it was local, but based on an XGO memo, the practice was far reaching past our SC. Am sure it is still done - just not as rampant or as obvious. People are people and given a chance to look good at the cost of others, many will conduct themselves that way.

Good thing we don't have corporate leaders like that.

 

[micro brew]

A decade ago at a terminal no longer in existence. Like I said, it was local, but based on an XGO memo, the practice was far reaching past our SC. Am sure it is still done - just not as rampant or as obvious. People are people and given a chance to look good at the cost of others, many will conduct themselves that way.

Good thing we don't have corporate leaders like that.

Maybe the un-satisfactory implementation of T.E.P. led to the terminals closure years later.

 

[bigfoot077]

A decade ago at a terminal no longer in existence. Like I said, it was local, but based on an XGO memo, the practice was far reaching past our SC. Am sure it is still done - just not as rampant or as obvious. People are people and given a chance to look good at the cost of others, many will conduct themselves that way.

Good thing we don't have corporate leaders like that.

Yeah, good thing we don't have corporate leaders like that!

 

[Bankrupt]

Maybe the un-satisfactory implementation of T.E.P. led to the terminals closure years later.

Naw, it was very profitable, but I always knew we would be more profitable with out it as other nearby terminals could easily absorb the area just as they had before it was opened.

The premise for opening it was better service and I believe that was one reason. It's existence also served the luxury of insurance against any labor problems. It would have been easy to route all area freight around problem terminals to nearby terminals and this capability was in place all over Ohio, PA, IN, and MI. The potential for labor problems seems to have abated in the last decade. - Especially at Conway. We just lay down and ask for more.....er I mean less.

 

[micro brew]

Naw, it was very profitable, but I always knew we would be more profitable with out it as other nearby terminals could easily absorb the area just as they had before it was opened.

The premise for opening it was better service and I believe that was one reason. It's existence also served the luxury of insurance against any labor problems. It would have been easy to route all area freight around problem terminals to nearby terminals and this capability was in place all over Ohio, PA, IN, and MI. The potential for labor problems seems to have abated in the last decade. - Especially at Conway. We just lay down and ask for more.....er I mean less.

Rumor has it they shut your barn down because I complained about walking between a dumpster and a wall with no light to get in when I passed through on via's. Really, this is what I was told.

They shut mine down also. Even though I got hosed bad with my seniority, I might be one of the few who really made out work wise by going to another terminal. The one I'm at now is a pretty good place to work - good bunch of drivers - seems to have been an easy transition for those that were already there and those of us who came out to work here (well, one is universally despised but it didn't take them long to figure him out). Same BS as any terminal but I really like the majority of my co-workers - they actually work, especially the group just above me. Never seen that many million mile drivers at one barn either.

 

[wonderring99]

I really like the majority of my co-workers - they actually work, especially the group just above me. Never seen that many million mile drivers at one barn either.

That is because they got tired of driving the garbage scows at kepharts

Good deal that you landed well Jake ....

 

[micro brew]

That is because they got tired of driving the garbage scows at kepharts

Good deal that you landed well Jake ....

All the terminals I've worked at had a pretty good crop of drivers but this one has the best workers. It could be the trash, I don't know, but these dudes work.