ABF | What do you like about ABF/ What do you hate abou ABF?

I don't mind the swinging doors unless it's an all day rainy day. I know and appreciate the benefits of loading those trailers. I do wish they'd slim down that kickboard though the ones they use these days really make a big difference in the space available and the bottom foot of the trailer.

I totally agree! Even a half inch would make a difference!!
 
Noooo not in payroll. Your screen name leads me to believe you might be from coal cracking country. Do you work with go40? He knows Humpty Dumpty.

I work with GO40 and know who your talking about! But we call him THE CORNISH GAME HEN!!!
 
I do think ABF is the best job Iv'e held,But there maintenance to the dock and equipment leaves alot to be desired!
 
Dock maintenance seems to be up to the TM, BM or whatever you want to call him/her and I have seen both types there. What part of equipment maintenance are you having trouble with? I do find a lackadaisical approach to some smaller things and occasionally we have to throw a temper tantrum to get some things fixed but for major problems I don't see a real problem here.
 
I do think ABF is the best job Iv'e held,But there maintenance to the dock and equipment leaves alot to be desired!
I agree with ABFer. It is the TM that is responsible for the terminal and equipment maintenance. If it is terminal then put it in writing that there are repairs needed. Go to the TM and tell him you are concerned over the safety of ours due to his lack in maintaining the terminal. YOUR BROTHER ALWAYS!
 
I think we are too top heavy with management. Managers who manage managers who couldn't manage a nursery school. Ours sits around the office all day doing mostly nothing other than looking over the dispatchers shoulder, who dispatches 5 city drivers with an average of about 30 outbound bills a day. (one of the managers duties is sales. Kind of hard to do sales work when he very seldom leaves the office). We have 4 full time office people, 1 inbound strip guy, 4 city bid drivers and 2 on call guys with only one of them working every day. Also 1 premium service driver. Do we really need 4 people in the office for that? Our terminal has lost 90k the first 8 months of 2012. Time to trim the fat. How many other terminals in the system have similar issues? I bet we could have a better "or" if we had a few less empty suits sitting around.
 
Driver,
Feel your self lucky, he could be following you around all day with a Video camera.1 minute her, 3 mimutes there, end of the day 30 so-called stolen.Next stop employment office.
 
At times I have to wonder about how in touch with the end of line our upper management is and many times I wonder if they even care. Maybe they are too busy with other things and expect lower level managers to do their jobs without constant oversight.

I sincerely hope they have more sense than to appoint an unqualified supervisor to the position of TM. A guy who thinks calling drivers a POS and azzwhole and tells them they should retire is motivation to make them produce more has no business even being a sup, let alone a TM. A guy who screws drivers and thinks nobody is taking notice. It is disheartening to even see this type of person in a supervisory position with no corrective action on the part of the company. Then they line us up with sweet videos talking about how much they appreciate us and how valuable we are to the company. I agree that we are valuable to the company and have seen how big a difference we can make when handling freight and representing the company. But keeping a character like that around demonstrates that the sweet video is nothing more than cheap talk. Let us hope that they are not as out of touch as they sometimes seem.
 
At times I have to wonder about how in touch with the end of line our upper management is and many times I wonder if they even care. Maybe they are too busy with other things and expect lower level managers to do their jobs without constant oversight.

I sincerely hope they have more sense than to appoint an unqualified supervisor to the position of TM. A guy who thinks calling drivers a POS and azzwhole and tells them they should retire is motivation to make them produce more has no business even being a sup, let alone a TM. A guy who screws drivers and thinks nobody is taking notice. It is disheartening to even see this type of person in a supervisory position with no corrective action on the part of the company. Then they line us up with sweet videos talking about how much they appreciate us and how valuable we are to the company. I agree that we are valuable to the company and have seen how big a difference we can make when handling freight and representing the company. But keeping a character like that around demonstrates that the sweet video is nothing more than cheap talk. Let us hope that they are not as out of touch as they sometimes seem.
First off the steward should be right on this. He should be the one throwing paper at this supervisor. He should not be allowed to talk to people like that. The next time he calls someone a name put it on a grievance and then the Fort will have to take notice. YOUR BROTHER ALWAYS!
 
First off the steward should be right on this. He should be the one throwing paper at this supervisor. He should not be allowed to talk to people like that. The next time he calls someone a name put it on a grievance and then the Fort will have to take notice. YOUR BROTHER ALWAYS!

He always does it when nobody else is around. Our previous TM condoned it and it went nowhere. Fort Smith never took or returned calls on it. They always claimed that the HR guy who handles such issues is out of town. I didn't know corporate HR positions required so much travel.
 
He always does it when nobody else is around. Our previous TM condoned it and it went nowhere. Fort Smith never took or returned calls on it. They always claimed that the HR guy who handles such issues is out of town. I didn't know corporate HR positions required so much travel.
It will get addressed. I am confident that the right people with hear of his actions. There is no place for this type of behavior. If he feels someone is not doing his job there are contractual articles that gives him avenues to follow. Yeah I know maybe they can transfer him to 065 we have one of the BEST MANAGEMENT TRAINEE PROGRAMS in the business. I say that as a joke but it is true just look at the ABF who's who and you will see that many of them came through 065. With that said if anybody from Fort Smith is reading this post send this supervisor to 065 for some remedial training. After all what could it hurt? If he is a name calling trash talking supervisor we at 065 will give him a crash coarse on how both Teamster and management follow the contract and operates in the 80's even during hard times. Could someone please post the terminal this supervisor works at and what their OR at that terminal is. Some may find this thread's content offensive I don't. Because if someone is not pulling their load then we should all be concerned. Post it and let's fix it. If he is all that he is said to be then the Fort will make changes if he is not then he will be safe. YOUR CAN"T WAIT TO HEAR FROM HIM BROTHER ALWAYS!
 
Am I going to get some funny looks at work this week? :hysterical:
 
Heres a good one that I HATE about abf. Fri night I was coming out of bed after laying an extra 3 hours back to 042. To all you dock guys, this means that you are mandated 10 hours rest on a lay run by the DOT which you do not get paid. You also only get paid after laying over 14 hours, so I sat an extra 3 hours trapped with no pay, but I digress. Anyway I get back to 042 and am told at the window [after calling home to tell the kids that Ill be missing supper again] that I have to take a quick flip to 269 and back. This takes about 3 hours. So instead of getting home around 6pm on a normal day I then got home about 11:30 pm. I was told the frt that I picked up is due in 130 Phoenix by wed so I dont feel too bad as we need to get this stuff there on time, and Phoenix takes a few days to get there. I hand in my paperwork around 10pm and tell dispatch "dont drop the ball on this one since I went through all this to get it here". I show up at 042 the next day for my scheduled trip out at 1400 saturday and decide to take a trip around the yard and what do I find but that trailer that was so darn hot that I HAD to run RIGHT AWAY the night before to get because this frt HAD TO ROLL! Obviously, it didnt have to roll too far. I seriously doubt that you have ever met a dispatcher or OM at the door before they were ready to leave for the day and said "sorry, you are staying another 3 or 4 hours just because I can say youre staying". This constant excuse of "Its HOT its HOT its HOT" and then its not has worn thin. [dont worry, I checked the seal # on the trailer and it hadnt been stripped into another trailer. it was just sitting there cooling off I guess. Dont let abf tell you that its teamster work rules that prevent them from moving freight. they do it all by themselves and I have the pics on my phone to prove it]
 
Heres a good one that I HATE about abf. Fri night I was coming out of bed after laying an extra 3 hours back to 042. To all you dock guys, this means that you are mandated 10 hours rest on a lay run by the DOT which you do not get paid. You also only get paid after laying over 14 hours, so I sat an extra 3 hours trapped with no pay, but I digress. Anyway I get back to 042 and am told at the window [after calling home to tell the kids that Ill be missing supper again] that I have to take a quick flip to 269 and back. This takes about 3 hours. So instead of getting home around 6pm on a normal day I then got home about 11:30 pm. I was told the frt that I picked up is due in 130 Phoenix by wed so I dont feel too bad as we need to get this stuff there on time, and Phoenix takes a few days to get there. I hand in my paperwork around 10pm and tell dispatch "dont drop the ball on this one since I went through all this to get it here". I show up at 042 the next day for my scheduled trip out at 1400 saturday and decide to take a trip around the yard and what do I find but that trailer that was so darn hot that I HAD to run RIGHT AWAY the night before to get because this frt HAD TO ROLL! Obviously, it didnt have to roll too far. I seriously doubt that you have ever met a dispatcher or OM at the door before they were ready to leave for the day and said "sorry, you are staying another 3 or 4 hours just because I can say youre staying". This constant excuse of "Its HOT its HOT its HOT" and then its not has worn thin. [dont worry, I checked the seal # on the trailer and it hadnt been stripped into another trailer. it was just sitting there cooling off I guess. Dont let abf tell you that its teamster work rules that prevent them from moving freight. they do it all by themselves and I have the pics on my phone to prove it]

Don't need the pics, I believe it! Saner high has happened to me.

Come into work to do my run. 139 to 158. My dispatcher says the same thing. "IT'S A HOT HOT LOAD!". So me being a team player, say ok. I leave, and don't stop once, not even to take a quick leak. Get to 158, and tell em "Igot that hot load for ya!"
I go to bed, 10 hours later I come in to grab my load home. And what do I see? That same set I brought in, right where I dropped it. Never touched!

Never again will I do I trip without stopping.
 
Don't need the pics, I believe it! Saner high has happened to me.

Come into work to do my run. 139 to 158. My dispatcher says the same thing. "IT'S A HOT HOT LOAD!". So me being a team player, say ok. I leave, and don't stop once, not even to take a quick leak. Get to 158, and tell em "Igot that hot load for ya!"
I go to bed, 10 hours later I come in to grab my load home. And what do I see? That same set I brought in, right where I dropped it. Never touched!

Never again will I do I trip without stopping.

Oh man, I hate that too...thats happened to me more than once....
 
Don't need the pics, I believe it! Saner high has happened to me.

Come into work to do my run. 139 to 158. My dispatcher says the same thing. "IT'S A HOT HOT LOAD!". So me being a team player, say ok. I leave, and don't stop once, not even to take a quick leak. Get to 158, and tell em "Igot that hot load for ya!"
I go to bed, 10 hours later I come in to grab my load home. And what do I see? That same set I brought in, right where I dropped it. Never touched!

Never again will I do I trip without stopping.

Well let me put forth a scenario that might help explain some of this because it happens at my little terminal sometimes.
There is a trailer that is loaded with freight that will have no problem making service and it's will be run sometime in the future but it's not hot.
Now a customer calls and wants to change his shipment to a time keeper for the next day. The ABF person looks in the computer and says no problem its already loaded to the destination terminal so it will get there fine. Line haul already has all drivers dispatched and can't make the changes fast enough to cover this load so it sits until someone can be found. We at the end are alerted that we have a time keeper inbound but don't know when it will get here.
After waiting as late as possible our boss finally says forget it go on with your day we will have to break it tomorrow. So the linehaul guy drops it, goes to bed, comes back and it's still sitting there untouched.
 
I have to say the weakest part of the ABF system is the Line Haul Management. I see so many times when they could have saved a little money here and there and failed to do so. I think that is one area that will be addressed in Region 3 in the near future. For instance a road driver or UE driver can take triples from Cleveland right into the terminal in South Bend and to this very day we still do not do this. We have a Cleveland UE driver meeting a 034 driver 50 miles away to switch loads. We are losing a boat load of money yearly because of this I feel. YOUR BROTHER ALWAYS!
 
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