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Averitt | Averitt using contractor companies more and more now.

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PopGoesTheWeasel

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Its cheaper to pay these other companies money to pull freight than to have a t/l driver pull the freight back to destination terminal. It just seems its becoming more and more like this. Maybe i missed it before, but it seems to be happening more frequently now. I always see this @ other companies, but i guess we jumping on the train now.
 
Yes it is cheaper and plus it makes better sense to use contractors during peak seasons, like last week, verses hiring drivers and starving them to death when freight slows down.
 
When contractors are hired they are hired for a set period of time. I am certain they're guaranteed a minimum number of miles/days. AE is going to run them ahead of anybody else since they have paid them.
And why was last week a peak period?
 
Just business. Costs must be minimized. Sucks for the drivers, sure but the more business classes I take, it is all becoming more clear
 
Yep it leaves our underpaid combo shuttle drivers sitting at the house or working the dock to make a buck....Maybe these contract drivers can make the cookouts at the service centers when the city drivers are on the streets and before shuttle drivers come to work...Thanks management for looking out for Number 1
 
When I started with this company over 13 years ago they cared about their drivers...now they are nothing but numbers on a computer screen...they could not care less how long TL drivers sit, if they have 2 300 mile days in a row, their quality of home time etc...since being on e logs I can not tell you how many weeks I have had to run on my recap because I could not get a restart...

Friday morning? 300 miles from home, no problem here's your load home driver NOT...take this load in the opposite direction, deliver it Saturday get home Saturday night, oh and we just backed you up on a Sunday load...
 
It would be a little different if I didn't see SEFL, Estes, Fedex and other carriers using contractors also. It's all about moving freight and doing it as cost efficient as possible. I do agree it is a bummer to see our combo drivers on the dock when contractors are running.
 
Plus I'm thinking of the seasoned new driver who left another company to come to Averitt because of our new entry level pay rate. I would hate for them to give up a decent job in search of bettering themselves only to starve to death when freight slows.Sometimes contractors just make better business sense like TT1 said he has learned through business classes.Painful as it may be, Averitt is in the business to make money, and sometimes that makes us mad when we misunderstand their intentions. I know for myself I am guilty of only worrying about me, but this company is not about making me happy when it comes to business matters.
 
Good post Iceman..To be honest the thing I really think would stop a lot of complaining is another week of vacation after 20 years of service...Not much to wish for considering the hours we put in...
 
Iceman said:
It would be a little different if I didn't see SEFL, Estes, Fedex and other carriers using contractors also. It's all about moving freight and doing it as cost efficient as possible. I do agree it is a bummer to see our combo drivers on the dock when contractors are running.
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Respectfully, I will disagree, I dont think you can compare any other company with AE, nor should AE jump and follow other companies leads. Those companies don't have a huge truckload fleet running wild from customer to customer as we do. I see why AE uses outside carriers during peak freight AND peak vacation seasons but instead of using outside carriers and without hiring more bodies that will hurt us during the slow times there has to be a way to better utilize our truckload drivers that are sitting and getting 1500 miles a week and using 6 plus days to get those miles in. Even if truckload charges double what landstar does wouldn't it be smarter to keep that money under the same company? Though I know it's not viewed in such a manner. Any way you look at it more hiring isnt the answer come winter everyone will get less. I think the answer relies on better utilization of available manpower. Truckload came out with VHOS years ago, they said it would result in the load planners being able to plan ahead and better use a driver's available hours, now you have the computer logging, good tools if used effectively.
 
11 years ago, Avrt had only a few outside vendors pulling our trailers, they were people Gary knew from when he started up. T/L and mt Dedicated pulled the excess LTL shuttle freight. The company really cared about it's drivers, decent pay, Home EVERY Friday nite or O dark 30 Saturday morning. If you left on a Sunday nite, you were home Thursday nite. For almost a year I often pulled a set of Pup's from ORL to MIA on a Sunday nite. If I happen to get thru Cookeville , it was not a issue to stop and see my fleet manager.....Now FORGETABOUTIT.....the place is locked up tighter than a jail. Home time now is when they feel you should be home, forget about making any plans, I just walked in the door, been getting in Saturday evening 5 out of the last 6 weeks. I do believe there is a covert plan in place to keep us out 2 weeks at a time, then home for 2 days, not even guarrenteeing than it is a week end. Tooo darn many 200-300 mile loads and you have to wait around 6-9 hrs after your break is up to get a load. Freakin load planners could care less about us, we are just a pawn. Nite shift dispatch are nothing more than unethical liars. All the VHOS was is a scam to show outsiders WE ARE RUNNING LEGAL....HA...I love electronic logs.....our inept load planners and fleet mangers can NO LONGER coherce us to run HOT. How about the message that AVRT will buyback your vacation time until October....ya right!....or how about $1500 bonus to convince someone to come to work for us in any division....ARE YOU KIDDING ME....Just recently they hired 5 more T/L drivers in ORL.....like we really needed them! Are we just hiring drivers to fill those 700-800K trucks so they can squeeze a few more revenue dollars out of them? I bet the drivers hired this spring/summer won't be here come December...I would be gone myself, but it's too late to start over...I 'm looking forward to RETIRING soon....TRK 14286 is my truck number....(The Last One)
Not my home address!
 
When there are contractors running our freight and I see 25+ TL trucks sitting on the yard, I see a problem. I understand AE is in business to make money. Just a little planning (ie, experience) could go a long way and "common sense" experience is something that is lacking in this outfit. The first one up there that needs to be run off today is...PR are her initials. Most incompetent person I have dealt with in any arena I have been in.
 
ltl lifer said:
When there are contractors running our freight and I see 25+ TL trucks sitting on the yard, I see a problem. I understand AE is in business to make money. Just a little planning (ie, experience) could go a long way and "common sense" experience is something that is lacking in this outfit. .
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I've been at the customer when they called to arrange truckload transportation. Apparently truckload gives priority to their dedicated or customers who ship regularly with, I can understand that, but I've heard them say it will be 3-4 days before they could even tell the customer when they may pickup the load, so that means it could be a week or longer before they could actually get a truck. I don't work in the planning, but a week or longer seemed mind boggling to me to get a truckload shipment moved in the ky/tn area.
 
But when you ask ....what's going on...the reply is...freight is slow or I don't know or nothing on the books...which is BS.....but yet when the load comes in over the QUALCOMM...you barely have the time to p/u and deliver....what really burns me up is the load planner doe's not send the loads out until 1000-1130, or if your up north...they will sit you for a day so you can pickup up a load heading for Fla, get home Saturday nite late...then have to deliver Monday morning.
 
Pre-planning has never been something AE does liberally. They will let a guy get empty off of a load in the late afternoon and then he has to sit until the next morning and wait until the load planner comes in, has their coffee etc and then they will shoot loads to the truck that a guy has to scramble and move 150 empty miles to get it picked up by the appt time, why not do the empty moves at night when guy empties out, let him plan when he wants to arrive at that customer. Keep in mind, if you have a flt mgr that's willing, he can go into the system and plan your next load and shoot it to you. Trainers used to get priority when getting loads, they would get them before 8 every morning, not sure if that's still the process or not.
 
So truckload has been running LTL loads for a couple of weeks now phasing out Landstar has anyone heard how this is working out? Looking in from the outside I can only imagine it would be positive as you keep some truckload guys busy with LTL freight then you have fewer road trucks competing for the "wild" freight and keeping AE money in the company vs paying an outside carrier.
 
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