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Richmond dock...

a9faninnc

a9faninnc

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What happened to all the dockhands??Ive heard a few drivers asking this question.The new load plan appears to send more freight into this terminal,yet it appears the dockworkers have disappeared.

Flooding the terminal with shuttle drivers help the situation but is not a fix-all solution.It is a major break terminal that from a drivers veiwpoint appears to be under-manned.Their are mini breaks that have more dockhands.

If their is a hiring freeze,why cant we get some city drivers from that terminal who may not be getting in sufficient hours to volunteer for dock help??That would be utilizing the current workforce to the max,freight could get moved,drivers could make $$,and cut down on wait times.

The supervision from that terminal has never been in question,as I think most drivers will attest,as it is probably one of the more capable in the system.However it takes alot of ants to move molehills,not just a few...
 
Good question that I will follow up on. I am not aware that they have lost any dock hands but they could have and for some reason I am not aware of it. There is a little more freight moving through RIC on the break but I would not call the amount of break that RIC is handling a large amount at all. There is no hiring freeze. Do we want to be more productive than we are, yes, but hiring freeze....not at all.

This is the first feedback I have received on this so I appreciate it. Do you know how long they have been short dock help? They are getting all the freight processed but apparently it is taking them longer to do so based on what you are saying. I agree that we probably have some pretty decent supervision in RIC.

We recently moved the NPME freight out of FIS and placed it into RIC because that was where the majority of the freight was going, theere and NFK. Just made more since to have it in RIC than FIS. Recently a few other LTL carriers were giving us business in RIC that they could not handle. Possibly these few things put them a little bit behind.

Nonetheless, I'll check into it and see what's going on.

Thanks
 
There is no hiring freeze. Do we just hire at will like we have done in the past? No we do not. We expect our managers to offer proper justification as would be prudent in any business. I have probably approved the hiring of some 10 to 12 people in the past week in different locations. But I have denied a few as well that were not practical. I am not aware of any request made by RIC to hire other than a clerical person.

The way our process works is that the manager makes his request and justification to the Region Manager. If he approves it comes to me for final approval. 95% of the time the Region Manager approves a request I will support it but on occasion I have ruled the opposite way. I actually think we have a fairly liberal hiring process but there is an approval process.
 
bigbird42368 said:
maybe it is by location?
Click to expand...

There is no hiring freeze by location. But each terminal has to stand on its own two feet and has to justify their need to hire. It just can't be "well, I think I would like to hire a couple of people". A request like that would probably get a negative response and the manager would be asked for proper justification.

However, there are times when a terminal may have more than enough people to get the job done and it just isn't getting done because of a lack of productivity, wrong start times, or another reason. The answer then is not to hire people and just throw extra bodies at the work load and increase the cost. If there is an issue we need to fix the issue. That could be adjusting start times to place people in the right places when the freight hits, adjusting the dock layout, arrival patterns, and the load plan could be an issue. Freight flow patterns can change often and there are times that the load plan needs to change because of that.

Again, each terminal is the same in many instances and at the same time different in many other instances.
 
it sounds like some TM's may feel that it is kinda like a freeze from the way things were in the past ,so they just call it that. Change is a hard thing for a lot of people
 
Dock help

HELLO EVERYBODY..
Its been a long time since i've been on here. This is Tommy Hayes,Eden road driver for those who don't know me. Better known as Tater.
Just wanted to put my 2 cents worth in here on the subject of dock help.
I can't speak for other terminals,but I do run RIC every night. From what I see they are short handed.
Wed.night I got there appox 1230 am. The dock was slammed with freight and they had 8 loads that had just arrived. From what I saw they had 3 dock workers and Tom Fields there to work all this freight.
I can't say nobody was doing their job, Tom and his little crew were busting their tails the whole time i was there. And I was there FOUR HOURS..!!!
Needless to say the freight back to Eden was very late that morning. I still had to go to GBO when I left RIC,then to Eden.
Thur.night I got there at 1230 am again...and once again i waited four hours.
This time the problem was NEW term. I was told by Tom that my frieght from Newington was not even due in there until 300 am.
Two mornings in a row freight did not get to Eden until appox.10 am
It is taking me about 12 hrs to get 428 miles a night. (an 8 hr run at most)
I am going to call Mark Chase one day this week and request to go back to being a floater. I hope I can float out of Eden,but I can transfer to GBO or even RKE if thats where they need me.
I'm not doing this just because of two bad nights,its more times than not that it takes me 11-12 hrs to get 428 miles. I don't mind working those hrs if I can get some decent miles out of it...I feel I will have a better chance of that by floating.
Well I guess i'm through whinning now...just wanted to throw that out there.
Everybody have a good week,and BE SAFE..!!
-tater:smilie_132:
 
Good luck in your quest to float Tater.You may wont to edit your post before the mods do.You cant post complete names,however you can post initials with names,ie. T Hayes,Tommy H.....
 
good luck on the move Tater if that is what you want. i was told Friday that Easyrider was really working with the TM's to get waiting time down to a minimum . we all know that sometimes it can't be helped but when a driver sits in ATL for 5.5 hrs something is wrong, if easyrider wants more detail on that he can say he does and the driver (who does post on this board) would be glad to pm him details i'm sure.
 
bigbird42368 said:
good luck on the move Tater if that is what you want. i was told Friday that Easyrider was really working with the TM's to get waiting time down to a minimum . we all know that sometimes it can't be helped but when a driver sits in ATL for 5.5 hrs something is wrong, if easyrider wants more detail on that he can say he does and the driver (who does post on this board) would be glad to pm him details i'm sure.
Click to expand...

Yes, more details on the ATL delay. I would appreciate it. A pm would be just fine.

Thanks
 
.

RIC imho is the best at handling road drivers. where some terminals show utter disrespect and/or no sense of urgency, in my experience RIC sets the standard by which all others should strive for. Maybe the h2o in that area has a common sense strand or communication elixir mixed in. But i haven't been to ALL the terminals mind u (all but MIA and XMR lol).
 
Is it safe to say that Wilson compensates the driver for the time he spends waiting for a load. I believe you guys get paid by the mile so waiting (GIVING TIME) to the company is not good. 1/2 hour every so often is understandable, not 4 hours though
 
Yes, this is a big problem. as another driver implied, 8 hr runs now take 12 hrs, for the same pay- AND we will sit idly getting tired in the middle of our most productived period of the shift- then get going out on the road finally with heavy eyelids- GRRR. This is not sustainable and will make safe drivers like myself want to leave while drivers who dont mind taking a chance stay- I dont mind an hour+ waiting time...thats just enough for me to fuel, inspect my truck real good and wash my windows, drop and hook; But 2hrs+ is another story especially if cut times are ignored- if u even mention cut times in the dock tower you get barked at by a certain person in Atl.
 
571ng3r said:
RIC imho is the best at handling road drivers. where some terminals show utter disrespect and/or no sense of urgency, in my experience RIC sets the standard by which all others should strive for. Maybe the h2o in that area has a common sense strand or communication elixir mixed in. But i haven't been to ALL the terminals mind u (all but MIA and XMR lol).
Click to expand...

i do have to admit Tom in Ric is at the top of his game with the relationship between linehaul drivers and a outbound and also is the billing clerck Aleeta (sure i just killed her name )
 
one said:
Yes, this is a big problem. as another driver implied, 8 hr runs now take 12 hrs, for the same pay- AND we will sit idly getting tired in the middle of our most productived period of the shift- then get going out on the road finally with heavy eyelids- GRRR. This is not sustainable and will make safe drivers like myself want to leave while drivers who dont mind taking a chance stay- I dont mind an hour+ waiting time...thats just enough for me to fuel, inspect my truck real good and wash my windows, drop and hook; But 2hrs+ is another story especially if cut times are ignored- if u even mention cut times in the dock tower you get barked at by a certain person in Atl.
Click to expand...


Mention cut times in CLT and you get laughed at.This is a competitive industry through and through,not only in getting good customers but hiring good personnel.Hopefully we can get some ideological changes to satisfy both.Old habits wont change overnight,though hopefully we can continue to have an open dialogue with management to achieve positive growth and good employee morale.

It seems a lot of the cut times doesn't correspond well with start times.If you have a 9-915pm cut time,175 miles to your destination,then a 2-3am cut time there,thats a 2-3 hour wait.
 
Ric

Being in the transportation industy boils down to one thing....money....If you can do the same amount of work with less people, less money out of the door, then why not? More money in upper managment pockets and if its still not enough, well lets cut out some more and unfortunately the supervisors catch the blunt of it all, dock, drivers, upper management. I would love to see all of the road drivers attempt to do the dock supervisors:hysterical: or any of the supervisors jobs and vise versa, even if its just for 2 hours. Waiting is a pain, and driving at night is extremely hard, but being a driver, unfortunately, there will be times that drivers will wait and that is all based on the freight, what time it comes in, how it is loaded, etc... Constant harrassement of supervisors and bad talk does not help the situation. I do not know anyone who wants to hear complaining all day long. Everything possible is done to get all drivers out timely. There is always someone willing to help and do everything they can to make sure loads are closed timely and drivers are down the road when they should be because circumstances are a world worse at other facilities. Everyone wants it easier on themselves but have you ever thought about the other guy?
 
The other guy is getting paid for time spent working,hanging out in the breakroom on the comode or sitting on the bench next to me while he is getting paid . I do not get paid for fueling, monthly meetings that you have to show up early for, or sitting on the bench.I do think wait time is part of the trucking job, to a point.There have been nights on that bench that I wish I was working the dock. At least it would give me something to do while waiting.Probably get the load out quicker also, and make a few dollars.The wait time is not bad when your getting the miles. But when the wait time goes up the miles drop.
 
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