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Line Bids

Shifterknob

Shifterknob

The Last Wordslinger
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Ah, another shot fired across the bow by the esteemable management of OHFL! New line bids are being posted across the system, and guess what every bid states?

All line bids are FOR START TIME ONLY and are subject to daily cancellation. If there is a destination on the bid it is courtesy information only, any destination is subject to change without notice. A driver cancelled will work according to local dispatch rules. All bids are subject to "short, via and beyond" according to nightly dispatch. Any driver bidding aline bid with a known departure time from a foreign terminal (lay down) accpets that start time at the foreign terminal. You MUST be line qualified to sign a line bid prior to your time to bid.
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Mike B. has sent an explicit message to all terminals stating:

"It is very important that the line language I have included in the bids is used and the bids are worded how I have them. Please do not change the wording."
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He also states:

"The time indicated on each bid is the 'out of gate time', the time the line schedule is expected to depart the terminal. Each terminal will have to communicate the appropriate start time to their drivers to meet the departure time."
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So, to summarize:

-Line bids are meaningless. According to their bid language, they can do anything they want with you on any given night regardless of what you bid. We have already experienced this in action in Portland, and I am sure we are not alone.

Since according to them, our line bids are only start times, what if I show up at the window at 2200 to go to Medford and a junior bid man shows up at 2200 to go to Eugene, and they decide since I have a poor attitude or my shirt is untucked, they are just going to send me to Eugene and the junior guy is going to go to Medford?

Are you kidding me?

All of this is because they don't have the intelligence or the ability to properly forecast their manpower needs more then five minutes in advance, and they overlook the fact that if there is not enough freight to justify a scheduled line bid, that run cancels out, and that bid driver goes to the extra board on his seniority. I guess that is just not enough flexibility for the brain trust in Central, huh?

- Don't change the wording. Yeah, no kidding. Keep watering it down a little bit more every bid, Mike B. You have completely removed what it means to hold a bid, and for what reason? Paranoia? Poor planning ability on your part and the part of your crew in Central? You just don't care about how your drivers feel about anything?

- Times indicated are departure times. Well, now you are just being plain contradictory. If all we have are start times (your words, not ours), then tell me why I am bidding a departure time (which everyone in this company knows is a joke anyhow) and not a start time? P&D drivers bid a start time, not an "out the gate time". What is the difference? I don't care about what time the schedule is supposed to be out of the gate, because that is usually beyond a driver's control.

We have always bid a start time and a destination (at least at most of the temrinals), but apparently OHFL is incapable of making that happen anymore, and we are all just going to have to chew ashes because our management can't pull their respective heads out of their rear ends to run a trucking company properly. I find it quite funny that most freight companies, even the non-union ones, seem to understand the concept of a bid properly, but OHFL can't or won't.

Huh. I guess they are just special. Special in the "short-bus" sense of special, you dig?

Go figure...
 
Hey, had another thought. If it is legal to run a 572-mile Klamath Falls turn, and a 580+mile turn and it is legal for Auburn drivers to run Auburn to Redding, CA on 590+mile laydowns, how come it is illegal for Portland drivers to run a 584-mile laydown to Sacramento?
 
Got yet another thought:

Those new run times they have conveniently placed on our dispatch sheets? I quite frankly don't care what kind of time they put on our sheets, but I got to thinking about this a while back, and made a few calculations. Then Mike B. sent out a message confirming my calculations. Most of the run times are figured on a 52 MPH average, and quite clearly do not have breaks or meals figured in.

52 MPH... in a 55 MPH state? That isn't realistic, and it certainly isn't legal. Ask any weighmaster in Oregon or California, and they will tell you that you cannot realistically average more than 50 MPH,a nd that at a higher than 50 MPH average, in theory, they can write you a speeding ticket. I've seen it happen where they measure your speed between scales in Oregon or between reader plates and scales, and if you are running too high an average, they will write a speeding ticket.

Not that any of us really care, because we do't do performance standards and never will, but it's the idea that our management has such realistic expectations of us.

They will hold a driver an hour or two past his "scheduled departure time" (see above", refuse to pay most or all of his delay time, and then expect to him to make up the difference in his run time.

"Hey bud, we got us some hot freight there, don't be taking your lunches or breaks now! We need that freight there pronto!" Never mind that the driver is getting out of the gate an hour past his "scheduled departure time" because of things completely beyond his control.

Inefficiency breeds illegality, and we the drivers are just not going to play along.

I might suggest that OHFL management sit down and figure out where it's all going so wrong in their own backyard instead of trying spread the responsibility to those who are not even in a position to do anything about it, except I know they won't listen, so why bother?

OHFL drivers busted their butts all winter long, driving in some pretty bad winter driving conditions, and most of us did it safely and still got the freight through as good or better than the competition. And what do we get as a reward?

We get horse manure piled on horse manure, in the grandest tradition of Oak Harbor Freight Lines...

Gee... thanks!
 
If they are trying to change contractual language or application, without an extension or contract, you should file an ULP. I understand some things you are referring to may be being discussed in negotiations and if they are and a deal has not been reached or impass has not been reached, a ULP is in order and I hope that is enough to not allow them to replace the workers in the event of strike action.
 
OHFL has never been a friend to the ohfl line driver's,dave VP has alway's stated that if given the chance he would do away with them,they are not making the company money.So dont act like it's a big suprise that this is happening,ohfl line driver's have alway's been very outspoken when it come's to the way ohfl is run and the way central run's the line board.Portland linedriver's have the largest number's when it come's to complaint's against the company and then auburn,at least that's was the way it was when i worked there.So as a business owner i can see why david VP would feel the way he does about linedriver's.And also i can see why the linedriver's have a beef with ohfl. So the bottom line is if ya dont like the way ohfl is run go somewhere else it's not your compant it's their's you just work there.
 
easymoney97 said:
So the bottom line is if ya dont like the way ohfl is run go somewhere else it's not your compant it's their's you just work there.
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That's the ticket. Spoken like a true GOBBLER
just bend over and take it up the.........

Shifter, is there anything that can be done to change the way this is handled in the ongoing negotiations?
 
GOBBLER?........the only gobbler's i see are the one's who stick around for the feed.Get smart and stop working for the farmer,instead be the farmer so you can be the one doing the feeding.
To put it another way would be oak harbor used to be a company that everyone wanted to work for..........now only the bottom feeder's or as you put it "gobbler" want to work there.I stopped being a bottom feeder and became the one who give's the feed out.
 
Easymoney is right. Get out of there if it isn't your cup of tea. Go to school and read a book. Find something you'll enjoy doing. Better yet, buy a few trucks of your own and run them how you see profitable. Life is too short to stick around at a company that treats you like dirt.
 
willzzpdx said:
"...Shifter, is there anything that can be done to change the way this is handled in the ongoing negotiations?"
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I'm not sure what you mean? How what is handled in the negotiations? If you are talking about the line issues I raised, the IBT has been made aware of them, and since they are running the negotiations now, it is up to them to decide where to go with it. All we can do is point out the issues, why they are important and what they could mean in the long run, and hope the IBT negotiators can resolve the issues. And hope the rank-an-file shoots down any inferior offers that are sent to us to vote on.

As far as those of you who say that these aren't new issues, you are right... to a degree. But the company is clearly trying to push buttons and trying to break down conditions and bid definitions even further, and we just aren't going to let it lie.

As far as those who say leave... that isn't always an option or even the right thing to do. If you just keep running, eventually the bad karma catches up with you. I prefer to make my stand here and now, and fight the good fight. It's my choice, and I'm not asking anyone to feel sorry for me. I think I speak for many if not most employees still with the company today, even many of the non-union ones.

Those that have left the company, I wish good luck to. Those that choose to stay and fight, I admire and respect. We hold the line and the bar as high as we can, and there ain't a damned thing wrong with that, even if you lose the fight, because fighting is better than tucking tail and running, I say...
 
Shifta' and I both left a company that was not going in a direction that neither of us liked, he does have the ability and knowledge to leave when he needs to. But I admire him greatly for fighting for what he believes in, and fighting for those that don't stand up for themselves. The strong stay-the weak run- and the the smart know when to do both. They should just change your bids to "bid days off". Bill didn't get a desk job there by any chance.......
 
it is not only the line drivera that havea problem. I can notbelieve that a company the size of OAKH is unable to hire qualified city/line dispatchers. I worked for a company the worked both SEA/PTL and I was able to schedule the the pick up drivers and the line so if 1 stupid girl can do it why can't a company do it?
 
Electricfoot said:
"...Shifta' and I both left a company that was not going in a direction that neither of us liked, he does have the ability and knowledge to leave when he needs to. But I admire him greatly for fighting for what he believes in, and fighting for those that don't stand up for themselves. The strong stay-the weak run- and the the smart know when to do both. They should just change your bids to "bid days off". Bill didn't get a desk job there by any chance..."
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Well, I'd say we both left while the gettin' was good. I think that those that remained are far worse off than they used to be, but regardless, the majority made their own bed, and now they get to sleep in it. Too bad for those who got taken along for the ride against their will.

Thanks for the kind words, though. They seem in scarce supply these days...:1036316054:
 
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