Averitt | Talk to much

Another burr under my saddle blanket. Let's review shall we:

City driver with assigned single axle - drives it during the day and parks it at night and nobody else drives it.

Then there are the tandem daycab units. These tractors run 450 to 700 miles a night, come back on the yard and are given to the least experienced, least seniority drivers to run the city in. I write mine up, park at the shop and before the shop can pull it in, city man has it and gone. Talk til you are blue in the face, does not good. Then we are to pretrip in the dark and run against the clock all night not really knowing where the unknown commodity of city driver took it or what he did to it. The experienced/senior city driver doesn't want to drive the tandems and will choose to have an assigned single axle. I don't blame them. If I were in the city, I would want one as well.
I understand what you are saying, but not sure it goes that way at every svs ctr. At nas every unit possible is on the road, often running out of trucks so the late start are getting stuck driving truckload sleepers that are available, some that are awaiting trade in etc to keep things moving, yea, even the peterbuilt sleepers. During the day the guys in tandems, if they come back into the yard to drop/swap after 5pm they are generally supposed to change trucks and get in one of the single axles that have come back from a route so if there is a problem throughout the evening the tandems are there for when the shuttle runs start leaving. 95% of the time I start the day in a tandem, and swap into a single axle in the evenings.
The least experience/seniority guys there may be somewhat inexperienced and an issue for tearing up equipment, back over here, if you dont have 20plus years you are low on the list, my 12 years with the company wont even get a route when the time comes for me to choose, unless I choose one that no one else wants just to have one. I think nash has more drivers over 20yrs with the company than inexperienced with less than 10-15.
 
At nas every unit possible is on the road, often running out of trucks so the late start are getting stuck driving truckload sleepers that are available, some that are awaiting trade in etc to keep things moving, yea, even the peterbuilt sleepers. During the day the guys in tandems, if they come back into the yard to drop/swap after 5pm they are generally supposed to change trucks and get in one of the single axles that have come back from a route so if there is a problem throughout the evening the tandems are there for when the shuttle runs start leaving. 95% of the time I start the day in a tandem, and swap into a single axle in the evenings.
I wish they would do some innovative thinking like that at our yard. Now that's red thinkin' LOL. What galls me is when I come in to go on my shuttle run only to find out that a city driver has my truck, 30 miles away, at a home depot.

I arrive back in the yard basically at the same time daily. Why not assign one city driver to my tractor. I would love this. We could work together to keep the truck in shape, clean, issues maintained, etc. At one time I had this scenario. Then, along came the smartest terminal manager to ever walk on a freight dock and the apathy amongst the troops accelerated. Now it's nobody gives a damn.
 
I wish they would do some innovative thinking like that at our yard. Now that's red thinkin' LOL. What galls me is when I come in to go on my shuttle run only to find out that a city driver has my truck, 30 miles away, at a home depot.

I arrive back in the yard basically at the same time daily. Why not assign one city driver to my tractor. I would love this. We could work together to keep the truck in shape, clean, issues maintained, etc. At one time I had this scenario. Then, along came the smartest terminal manager to ever walk on a freight dock and the apathy amongst the troops accelerated. Now it's nobody gives a damn.

I had to laugh, honestly I see the way it's being done and think it's VERY unorganized. When I come in at 8:30 or so, grab my bills, look over my freight, grab a pallet jack (if I'm lucky enough to get one), I walk out to the yard and just grab a truck, ANY truck, (which I think is absurd), any truck that's not an assigned single axle...... and it's left to each driver to know which are assigned, unnassigned etc. It only makes since to assign guys to trucks, hands down if it's your truck you (well most) would take much better of it....
 
A simple thing like a list could be made up. Is the computer system (1978 edition) that this outfit uses not capable of typing up a word or excel document? Heaven knows they type up and print all kinds of other silly directives. Get this...when bid time comes along, there is a bid sheet taped to the counter with the instructions "sign by seniority" but there is not a seniority list to be found. Just cracks me up. We, the unskilled children, are just supposed to know all of this. They cannot wait to remove the bid sheet and lock it away so as nobody can, or should, see it. ABSURD i tell you.
 
Knoxville does it right on tractor assignments, pairing City and Shuttle drivers according to their arrival and departure times. It works 99% of the time, normally when it doesn't is when an early arriving Shuttle driver is held up for an enormous amount of time making him arrive late and forcing his City driver to drive something else and a late City driver to drive his truck.
 
It would make life more simple to do something like that's for sure. It gets frustrating to realize you have a to run the liftgate and then have to look for a truck that has the plug to find out it those trucks have been taken or given out for the day to a temp driver. I think once someone in lifer's barn gets a ticket for running a single axle with a heavy ltl load someone will make a change to ensure all the tandems are available before cut times.
 
That or for having wrong placards. I have also heard of NUMEROUS times the shop having to send out a wrecker to hook up a cord to a liftgate because the rocket scientist in the city truck tried to use the liftgate without a cord. I mean numerous times. Nary a write up. Reminds me of the truckload driver that called breakdown saying he needed someone to come out and bring him a set of wiper blades. He was 8 miles from the terminal. Breakdown sent out the wrecker to make the road call. The blades were purchased by wrecker driver at an auto parts store.
 
The liftgates to have their own batteries to power the unit, but man who knows how many times you can use it before draining it, if the batteries are holding 100% or 10% of normal capacity, if all the batteries are functional etc. Before I hurt myself trying to unload something you can bet I'll be one of those drivers calling in to breakdown stuck with it down in a lot or street....
 
They were let down once, the driver knew he didn't have a cord and he used it anyway. I understand using the liftgate but how stupid do you have to be to use the thing without a cord?
 
That or for having wrong placards. I have also heard of NUMEROUS times the shop having to send out a wrecker to hook up a cord to a liftgate because the rocket scientist in the city truck tried to use the liftgate without a cord. I mean numerous times. Nary a write up. Reminds me of the truckload driver that called breakdown saying he needed someone to come out and bring him a set of wiper blades. He was 8 miles from the terminal. Breakdown sent out the wrecker to make the road call. The blades were purchased by wrecker driver at an auto parts store.
Maybe this driver did not have enough smarts to put them on. LOL!!! Thats the kind of stuff that keeps the raises away.
 
The person in breakdown that authorized this should have been fired on the spot. Instead he probably was given 50 yd. line tickets to a Titans game.
 
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