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Central Transport | CSA Score Skyrocket?

Dock Man

Dock Man

Logistical Engineer
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I happen to be upstairs while the A.T.M. was having a meeting, Friday 12/30, with some of the line-haul drivers before they left, the topic our CSA scores. Apparently there was a memo sent out notifying them that our score has reached 99%. I am unsure which category, assuming either Vehicle Inspection or Haz-mat Compliance (which is not public record). I am sure most of you know this is one chart we do not want to be on the top of. He was warning them to have everything in order because we as a company are going to get popped every time for inspections.

So cover your own asses out there. If something isn't right, don't get caught holding the bag.

P.S. I have checked the CSA website but the last updates were from November 16, 2012 and not current.
 
Dock Man said:
I happen to be upstairs while the A.T.M. was having a meeting, Friday 12/30, with some of the line-haul drivers before they left, the topic our CSA scores. Apparently there was a memo sent out notifying them that our score has reached 99%. I am unsure which category, assuming either Vehicle Inspection or Haz-mat Compliance (which is not public record). I am sure most of you know this is one chart we do not want to be on the top of. He was warning them to have everything in order because we as a company are going to get popped every time for inspections.

So cover your own asses out there. If something isn't right, don't get caught holding the bag.

P.S. I have checked the CSA website but the last updates were from November 16, 2012 and not current.
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It would be nice to know which terminal/drivers are causing this. My place has had 5 or 6 inspections that I know of, ticket for one brake, warning for lc tag light is all i ever heard, NO HAZ mad problems with 20 P&D and 7 LH drivers
 
This doesn't surprise me one bit. I've heard of L/H drivers taking their placards off before they go through the PA tunnels just so they don't have to drive around. I had a driver meet me in PA with a haz-mat load out of NJ and he had NO haz-mat paperwork. I told him you expect me to pull this back to TOL without paperwork. I refused to pull it. A lot of this stuff is because the drivers don't care. We employ the bottom of the barrel for drivers. As fast as you hire them they quit. The majority of the drivers at our barn don't even do a pre-trip. The safety dept. and line-haul dept. knows whats going on, but they don't care either. There are loads every night that are overweight and the supervisors know it but don't care. If you take it to a CAT scale and weigh it so you have documentation and return to the terminal to have weight taken off they have s*** fit. Then you get punished for complaining.
 
Buckeyedriver7 said:
This doesn't surprise me one bit. I've heard of L/H drivers taking their placards off before they go through the PA tunnels just so they don't have to drive around. I had a driver meet me in PA with a haz-mat load out of NJ and he had NO haz-mat paperwork. I told him you expect me to pull this back to TOL without paperwork. I refused to pull it. A lot of this stuff is because the drivers don't care. We employ the bottom of the barrel for drivers. As fast as you hire them they quit. The majority of the drivers at our barn don't even do a pre-trip. The safety dept. and line-haul dept. knows whats going on, but they don't care either. There are loads every night that are overweight and the supervisors know it but don't care. If you take it to a CAT scale and weigh it so you have documentation and return to the terminal to have weight taken off they have s*** fit. Then you get punished for complaining.
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"OUCH" is all I can say.
 
Buckeyedriver7 said:
The majority of the drivers at our barn don't even do a pre-trip. The safety dept. and line-haul dept. knows whats going on, but they don't care either.
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We have the same 5 or 6 that you will never see do a pre or post despite the TM saying over and over everyone has to, but like anything else, it depends on who cares. Earlier this month I watched the same guy come and go for 3 days with his driver's headlight out, and 2 of them days were during our snowstorm, just cannot understand some people I can't tell you how many times I watch P&D leave without closing dock doors, closing their trailer doors, and just leave the yard without looking anything over, outright pathetic if you ask me, but thankfully I do not know of any freight falling out the back door (but we are missing a few jacks that no one knows where they went???). A couple are rookies, a couple are seniors, so it is not who is who type thing, it is who cares and who does not. In addition, you would not believe how many start their DVIR paperwork sitting at the table at the end of day while doing logbooks, off the cuff I have said that failure to show entered truck and trailer numbers is an automatic ticket and CSA points for failure to do your pre-trip, of course that fell on deaf ears too.

I'll just keep doing my job and let the ship sink around me.
 
Not_wanted said:
It would be nice to know which terminal/drivers are causing this.
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NW, just pick a terminal,any terminal. Some drivers will stop to get major repairs done, some won't stop to get any repairs done. The saying is "I don't get paid to get sh#t fixed, so I don't get sh#t fixed".I know it's disgusting but it's fact. If I spend 1 1/2 hours in the shop, if there is one, to get repairs made, for which I don't get paid time, if they have or can get the parts, my dispatch time is never changed. Home term's are never notified of the delay, unless by me personally, so I always show up late by my punch time. I could care less, I get there when I get there. I heard some talk Sat. morning from bosses at my place concerning equiptment and o.o.s. notifications, but they would not say a whole lot, just some big changes were coming. Possibly to do with a new employee handbook. Either way, my wallet started to gasp for air.
 
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One thing will fix the lack of drivers post trip. We have talked about it on here before. It is accountability. However, in most cases Vitran gets what it pays for. My guess is 50% of our drivers need to be fired and replaced and replaced with FedEx quality drivers, but without wage increases that cannot happen.
 
There is never any accountability in this company. The one time I did complain, I was told by my TM. "Boy, your buddy sure screwed you over." To which I replied--in the first place, he's not my buddy and in the second place, he screwed YOU over because I'm not taking that trailer. You may be right about the 50% figure, but why "FedEx quality drivers"??? Believe it or not, they also have some slackers, just like any other company out there. What IS holding this company back on demanding accountability is the fact that they can not and will not be able to hire quality drivers with the treatment the drivers receive and the pay scale they start at. NEVER gonna happen.
 
sadsack679 said:
There is never any accountability in this company. The one time I did complain, I was told by my TM. "Boy, your buddy sure screwed you over." To which I replied--in the first place, he's not my buddy and in the second place, he screwed YOU over because I'm not taking that trailer. You may be right about the 50% figure, but why "FedEx quality drivers"??? Believe it or not, they also have some slackers, just like any other company out there. What IS holding this company back on demanding accountability is the fact that they can not and will not be able to hire quality drivers with the treatment the drivers receive and the pay scale they start at. NEVER gonna happen.
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they went from two years experience down to one year. the bottom of the barrel now.
 
What Vitran needs to do is eliminate the employment application. They should just have you put your arms on a table with palms up and check to see if you have a pulse and two hands and ask "when can you start". There are many drivers in the system that don't even have doubles or haz-mat endorsement and have been here for years. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that was a requirement. We will never get quality drivers with what they want to pay. I see things every night from our L/H drivers leaving the gate and I shake my head in disbelief. Like sadsack said we have the same thing at our terminal, I don't get paid to go to the shop or do a pre-trip so they don't do it, plus their lazy. I do what ever it takes to protect my license. The company doesn't want a professional driver that does things by the book. They want steering wheel holders that don't complain and do things illegal.
 
sadsack679 said:
he screwed YOU over because I'm not taking that trailer.
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Exactly. We are getting better at my place, but I can watch the same guys day after day leaving for P&D and never hit the brakes after they leave the dock (meaning did not stop and look things over) The same goes for some of the linehaul men too. All three days this week a P&D shared his truck with a linehaul with no cab marker lights, didn't care so they just drove it. Their cure? Joked about putting 3 paperclips in the pigtail to hotwire the clearance light circuit to the marker circuit so the trailer was lit up,,,,OMG,,,, stupidity at it's finest.

My guess the next step may be automatic suspension for getting an OOS. As far as getting things fixed, yes I am hourly so if I take it to the shop I am getting paid, but it makes me so mad that some of the linehaul whiners make 50% more than me, come in 2 hours early to play cards, eat at the break table, drink their coffee, then get to Chicago, talk about how they waited 3 hours for their trailer, then drive back and say they have 14 hours in so they cannot take the 10 minutes to put on a set of wipers or a light cord that we are out of at our shop. I spent over 20 years OTR on percentage and mileage, not once did I ever say "I am not being paid, so I won't do it" simply because most I worked for you would lose your matching 401(K) or yearly bonus if you had a workman's comp claim or an OOS that year.

Accountability is the bottom line, but it has to be across the board. At my place it is so so fair, but a certain few can still do no wrong, a certain few drag their feet and make $100 more a week than me but do less work, and a few I do not understand how they got their CDL and Haz Mat they are so STUPID.
 
Buckeye, you were right. The doubles/hazmat WAS a requirement at one time in the past. Now you can be hired and given 30/60 days to get the endorsements. The problem starts when a new p/d and/or Linehaul newby has hazmat on the trailer and doesn't have the knowledge to handle or control it, but also doesn't know enough to refuse the shipment. Freight is freight, right?? Just got myself hired, so I don't want to get fired! As long as nothing happens, we'll just skate along with our heads in the clouds. It's all part of the game that is being played out everyday at the Flying V. When something happens--when, not if--the co. will let the driver hang out to dry, but we will all pay.
 
Not_wanted said:
Exactly. We are getting better at my place, but I can watch the same guys day after day leaving for P&D and never hit the brakes after they leave the dock (meaning did not stop and look things over) The same goes for some of the linehaul men too. All three days this week a P&D shared his truck with a linehaul with no cab marker lights, didn't care so they just drove it. Their cure? Joked about putting 3 paperclips in the pigtail to hotwire the clearance light circuit to the marker circuit so the trailer was lit up,,,,OMG,,,, stupidity at it's finest.

My guess the next step may be automatic suspension for getting an OOS. As far as getting things fixed, yes I am hourly so if I take it to the shop I am getting paid, but it makes me so mad that some of the linehaul whiners make 50% more than me, come in 2 hours early to play cards, eat at the break table, drink their coffee, then get to Chicago, talk about how they waited 3 hours for their trailer, then drive back and say they have 14 hours in so they cannot take the 10 minutes to put on a set of wipers or a light cord that we are out of at our shop. I spent over 20 years OTR on percentage and mileage, not once did I ever say "I am not being paid, so I won't do it" simply because most I worked for you would lose your matching 401(K) or yearly bonus if you had a workman's comp claim or an OOS that year.

Accountability is the bottom line, but it has to be across the board. At my place it is so so fair, but a certain few can still do no wrong, a certain few drag their feet and make $100 more a week than me but do less work, and a few I do not understand how they got their CDL and Haz Mat they are so STUPID.
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Not everyone is a professional truck driver...Not everyone takes pride in doing the right thing..This company hires the bottom of the barrel drivers...Accountabilty is not possible at this company...Thats why when this company fails.... Drivers like me and you will find something better...And drivers like them will struggle to find anything at all. Except the JB Hunts of the world.
 
Accountability is a HUGE piece missing from this company, from the top to the bottom. I don't know how many times I have brought this up to various people in the company from supervisors to TMs.

I'll let you in on a little secret.

If you keep letting people get away with things, guess what? Surprise. Their going to keep doing them or not doing what is supposed to be dome. And if you don't correct it, there is no to blame but yourself.
 
runawaytrain said:
Not everyone is a professional truck driver...Not everyone takes pride in doing the right thing..This company hires the bottom of the barrel drivers...Accountabilty is not possible at this company...Thats why when this company fails.... Drivers like me and you will find something better...And drivers like them will struggle to find anything at all. Except the JB Hunts of the world.
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I have my days to, not washing my windows, shaking out floor mat, ya know sometimes attitude gets to anyone around here. things slow like they are, now would be the time to give a few pink slips to the under performers so those of us that pull our weight do not have to be on revolving days off.
 
Had enough-wow, I agree with you. That company has even gone down hill since I left. Did not think it was possible. I blamed local mgmt and local employees for the troubles at my barn , but since I am on the outside looking in, the whole place needs to be revamped. Unfortunatly, a ton of people will have to be unemployed because of that
 
Buckeyedriver7 said:
This doesn't surprise me one bit. I've heard of L/H drivers taking their placards off before they go through the PA tunnels just so they don't have to drive around. I had a driver meet me in PA with a haz-mat load out of NJ and he had NO haz-mat paperwork. I told him you expect me to pull this back to TOL without paperwork. I refused to pull it. A lot of this stuff is because the drivers don't care. We employ the bottom of the barrel for drivers. As fast as you hire them they quit. The majority of the drivers at our barn don't even do a pre-trip. The safety dept. and line-haul dept. knows whats going on, but they don't care either. There are loads every night that are overweight and the supervisors know it but don't care. If you take it to a CAT scale and weigh it so you have documentation and return to the terminal to have weight taken off they have s*** fit. Then you get punished for complaining.
Click to expand...
Darn it! That was supposed to be a secret!! LOL
 
runawaytrain said:
Not everyone is a professional truck driver...Not everyone takes pride in doing the right thing..This company hires the bottom of the barrel drivers...Accountabilty is not possible at this company...Thats why when this company fails.... Drivers like me and you will find something better...And drivers like them will struggle to find anything at all. Except the JB Hunts of the world.
Click to expand...

I have an open invitation at a company I worked for 10 years ago and left over safety and dispatch, now drivers love working there again with a personel change, but after 23 years OTR I want to be home, so, unless something daily pulls through, I will just ride it out as long as the checks keep cashing.
 
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