Estes | Wait times

steercrazee

TB Veteran
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Why cant Estes pay drivers who have to sit and wait well over an hour sometimes 2-3 or even longer at a terminal on a load? After the first hour we should be getting hourly pay. We get to the terminals with our loads the sit and wait far to much for far to long. They know when we leave and when we will be there but they cant line didly squat up and have us rolling. This cuts into our 14 hour time and our rest time if its a bid run, and there is no excuse for it. If it has to happen we should be getting compensated. Multi billion dollar company and they fill their pockets full of money and could share a little of it for their incompetence.
 
Its trucking.

We a Husband wife team was called in Salinas CA by FFE in LA Dispatch to emergency drop everything and load right damn now at Salinas Americold in Salinas CA downtown below the truckstop, about 30 some minutes. We fortunately just fueled both tractor and reefer tippy top and looking forward to a night off after a really bad coast run.

That was about summer of 2001. June if I remember right. We sit down there in front of their two trailer docks and shipping office door on their property, the only truck sitting. Blocking the whole shebang being told to wait. They will come to the door when ready.

Reefer is howling in precool going through the 100 gallons of trailer fuel and the tractor was keeping us cool on damn near 350 gallons of fuel. We can wait. We shifted to 4 hour watches alternating sleeping so that we are overflowing on sleep and raring to go when they come bang on our door to back in. Denver was already hopping from one foot to the other waitin g on it. Hotstuff they said.

half a day goes by. Then a whole day and night. Morning comes on day two evening comes and morning again. By the time they got to banging on our door it was 84 hours straight waiting at a MOMENTS notice to be in Denver straight through.

The hour we were called, I was already discussing with wife to use our personal credit card and have a fuel dealer locally deliver desiel to both tractor and trailer where we were at their property on the docks waiting. we were down to about 10 gallons tractor and about that much on reefer. We changed to cycle to conserve it and try to hold that -24 precool. It was not going well in that 90 degree summer heat.

We reached denver after fueling AGAIN in salinas truckstop for another damn 400 plus gallons and I think FFE paid us like 1100 miles at 38 cents to me and 300 gross to the wife because she was still in training. It took all of 5 days and change to do a little 1000 mile run in a freaking team truck no less with like 800 gallons plus denver fillup against FFE for the cost of that epic screwup.

end part one
 
Part two.

But hey they are a billion dollar company. A bad money losing load is no problem provided you carefully pick which teams or drivers to use them to **** with them financially. We had thousands in savings by then and it was rapidly evaporating in that situation.

By July we had quit. Moved on to high dollar pharmacy drop hook, go reload back to shipper, drop hook and gone. Money money money money money. 9-11 came and went and even more money.

If all of trucking was that beautiful I would not be such a angry bitter bastard. But waiting is part of trucking. Little stuff all the way to the big stuff.

Example. A grocery load. You go to ... Stop and shop in Connecticut. Arrive at 7 am sharp. Gaurd shack holds you up for a hour before approving you to enter. You wait half a damn day for a dock maintaining trailer temp burning your ::shit::. You transfer the fuel from tractor tanks to trailer to keep it going. Dye laws be damned back then.

First...

They give you a manual jack. There is only 4 manual jacks in a warehouse cold storage full of power jacks. 20 drivers fight for use of the manual.

Second.

They stack small wood. YOU restack your ::shit:: onto that wood.

Third.

Small wood comes off into a specific spot between two yellow lines. Thats all the space you get. You leave space between each pallet and have your boxes facing out.

Forth

Nope, count layer etc is not right. Cut that small wood load in half again on more small wood. Be quick. we end the shift by 4PM.

Fifth

Heres the kicker. Now that all that hocus pocus is done and your back is broken, you are emotionally angry ready to go postal and tired of the accumulating BS they are heaping on you... the shift changes.

You bring paper work to the new desk dock boss and tell him to sign please you are unloaded.

No driver. I need to count and inspect.

Sixth. You wait two hours.

Finally a food inspector comes to inspect for damage.

Then a suit inspects the boxes and pallets (Their own small wood) for damage.

Restack. Reject damage if any.

More paper work.

Its now closing on midnight.

New shift.]

Wait into the early morning before dawn before that new dock boss tells you to come back at 7 Am for the original reciever will sign those load bills in your hand. Now covered in additional OSD and so forth for which you must fight with your own company people on the phone when they come at 8 am.

Part three coming up
 
Part three

30 hours later no food, no sleep and abused you pull into Danbury McDonalds on the 95 rest area at 31 yard stick and go to bed.

It will be tomorrow before you are right again. And starving. Your phone and satellite is full of call me messages.

Hey driver why didnt you report empty and ready to take our pre plan yesterday?

What preplan no one told me ::shit::.;

Now its into midweek and you are fooked.

Trucking. HA. The entire stop and shop load loaded in some distribution down in Jessup and god help you only got paid roughly 60 bucks for the driving wages, minus 10 dollars for the GWB, other tolls and so on. You got paid another 40 for lumping the ::shit:: minus 30 for the damages and minus 30 more for 6 bad small wood claimed by stop and shop.

You are now negative in your pay.

My second stop and shop specifically I verbally abused the gaurdshack person after deliberately being late 1 hour busted appointment. They rejected the entire load and as for good measure declared me banned from all their properties.

YAY. YAHOO!!! whoo hoo damn im happy. No more of that BS.

Company was not. They charged me the fuel for the return of load back to VA, shipper, they charged me again for the brokers, fines, fees, unloading and so on.

I simply quit.

It was four months before anyone would hire me. And the company themselves went out of business some years later.

It happened to be a load of peanuts in snack form. Out of the Emporia area.

I made sure that I never bought that snack item in my lifetime. The pain on sight is too much.
 
Why cant Estes pay drivers who have to sit and wait well over an hour sometimes 2-3 or even longer at a terminal on a load? After the first hour we should be getting hourly pay. We get to the terminals with our loads the sit and wait far to much for far to long. They know when we leave and when we will be there but they cant line didly squat up and have us rolling. This cuts into our 14 hour time and our rest time if its a bid run, and there is no excuse for it. If it has to happen we should be getting compensated. Multi billion dollar company and they fill their pockets full of money and could share a little of it for their incompetence.
Sometimes you have to get loud with dispatch and put your foot down to let them know you're not gonna take their ::shit::. Walk out and talk to the dock supervisor and ask when they're gonna close your trailers. And if none of that works call Central. If you can get a couple drivers who have been waiting as long as you to call central with you ::shit:: will magically start moving. But at the end of the day if Estes had to pay detention time they'd be more in debt than YRC or they would figure out how to move freight and drivers efficiently.
 
Sometimes you have to get loud with dispatch and put your foot down to let them know you're not gonna take their ****. Walk out and talk to the dock supervisor and ask when they're gonna close your trailers. And if none of that works call Central. If you can get a couple drivers who have been waiting as long as you to call central with you **** will magically start moving. But at the end of the day if Estes had to pay detention time they'd be more in debt than YRC or they would figure out how to move freight and drivers efficiently.
I agree. They have one bid run that nobody will take because you always get stuck waiting. Its a 45o mile run that turns into a 12-13 hour day because you have to sit and wait on gold medal to get there then get unloaded and loaded on your trailer. They could cordinate the drivers better than that. That run should take no more than 9 hours but every day your left out to wait.
 
I agree. They have one bid run that nobody will take because you always get stuck waiting. Its a 45o mile run that turns into a 12-13 hour day because you have to sit and wait on gold medal to get there then get unloaded and loaded on your trailer. They could cordinate the drivers better than that. That run should take no more than 9 hours but every day your left out to wait
I agree. They have one bid run that nobody will take because you always get stuck waiting. Its a 45o mile run that turns into a 12-13 hour day because you have to sit and wait on gold medal to get there then get unloaded and loaded on your trailer. They could cordinate the drivers better than that. That run should take no more than 9 hours but every day your left out to wait.
This is why it's difficult to describe the job to a prospective hire
 
Part three

30 hours later no food, no sleep and abused you pull into Danbury McDonalds on the 95 rest area at 31 yard stick and go to bed.

It will be tomorrow before you are right again. And starving. Your phone and satellite is full of call me messages.

Hey driver why didnt you report empty and ready to take our pre plan yesterday?

What preplan no one told me ****.;

Now its into midweek and you are fooked.

Trucking. HA. The entire stop and shop load loaded in some distribution down in Jessup and god help you only got paid roughly 60 bucks for the driving wages, minus 10 dollars for the GWB, other tolls and so on. You got paid another 40 for lumping the **** minus 30 for the damages and minus 30 more for 6 bad small wood claimed by stop and shop.

You are now negative in your pay.

My second stop and shop specifically I verbally abused the gaurdshack person after deliberately being late 1 hour busted appointment. They rejected the entire load and as for good measure declared me banned from all their properties.

YAY. YAHOO!!! whoo hoo damn im happy. No more of that BS.

Company was not. They charged me the fuel for the return of load back to VA, shipper, they charged me again for the brokers, fines, fees, unloading and so on.

I simply quit.

It was four months before anyone would hire me. And the company themselves went out of business some years later.

It happened to be a load of peanuts in snack form. Out of the Emporia area.

I made sure that I never bought that snack item in my lifetime. The pain on sight is too much.
Did you ever hear of labor laws ? Drivers are protected from paying for stuff
 
I agree. They have one bid run that nobody will take because you always get stuck waiting. Its a 45o mile run that turns into a 12-13 hour day because you have to sit and wait on gold medal to get there then get unloaded and loaded on your trailer. They could cordinate the drivers better than that. That run should take no more than 9 hours but every day your left out to wait.
Sounds like a hub run. I'd be out on the dock picking my freight and loading my trailers. Not a bad run with a few hours of dock time a night.
 
Sometimes you have to get loud with dispatch and put your foot down to let them know you're not gonna take their ****. Walk out and talk to the dock supervisor and ask when they're gonna close your trailers. And if none of that works call Central. If you can get a couple drivers who have been waiting as long as you to call central with you **** will magically start moving. But at the end of the day if Estes had to pay detention time they'd be more in debt than YRC or they would figure out how to move freight and drivers efficiently.
Lol. Demanding dispatch or the dock supervisor close your trailers will accomplish nothing. Central will just tell you to wait. If you're the last run going out of there to your terminal than you'll be waiting until all freight is loaded. It sucks but thats trucking. I'd suggest bidding on a different run..
 
Why cant Estes pay drivers who have to sit and wait well over an hour sometimes 2-3 or even longer at a terminal on a load? After the first hour we should be getting hourly pay. We get to the terminals with our loads the sit and wait far to much for far to long. They know when we leave and when we will be there but they cant line didly squat up and have us rolling. This cuts into our 14 hour time and our rest time if its a bid run, and there is no excuse for it. If it has to happen we should be getting compensated. Multi billion dollar company and they fill their pockets full of money and could share a little of it for their incompetence.
Talk to your supervisor, let him know you want to be compensated for all waiting time, maybe y'all will start getting paid for the wait time.
 
Log it all on duty, mass drivers running out of hours would get their attention.
If you are not free to leave the property and must be available for loads with short notice you are not off duty. Depending on what State you are in that could be a violation of minimum wage law. Just a thought......
Lately there has some talk about Driver compensation when waiting flying around Washinton, making some noise might help.
I know the U word is verboten at your Company, so I won't even mention it...
 
Log it all on duty, mass drivers running out of hours would get their attention.
If you are not free to leave the property and must be available for loads with short notice you are not off duty. Depending on what State you are in that could be a violation of minimum wage law. Just a thought......
Lately there has some talk about Driver compensation when waiting flying around Washinton, making some noise might help.
I know the U word is verboten at your Company, so I won't even mention it...
Check the reg's real close. I believe they still state you are on duty when you report. If dispatch tells you to be @ the terminal @ 0300, that is when you start the clock for logging purpose's. If they require you come to the terminal @ a certain time, then start your on duty-not driving then. Your time is valuable. Your supervisors don't think so. Change their thinking. When you can't complete your run & you showed your true & legal start time, then they will respect YOUR time. Until then you will suffer. von.
 
Log it all on duty, mass drivers running out of hours would get their attention.
If you are not free to leave the property and must be available for loads with short notice you are not off duty. Depending on what State you are in that could be a violation of minimum wage law. Just a thought......
Lately there has some talk about Driver compensation when waiting flying around Washinton, making some noise might help.
I know the U word is verboten at your Company, so I won't even mention it...
You are dead on about when your on duty-not-driving starts. von.
 
I work for a Northeast carrier. The ltl side, linehaul included, is paid by the hour. Gotta wait, not a problem. On the clock
As long as you allow your employer to abuse you, they will treat you like a unwanted step child. Force them to like you, not abuse you. von.
Ask your employer for a letter of recommendation. Tell them you are looking for greener pastures.

If they act like they don’t care if you stay or leave, then you’re staying there is a form of self abuse. Von.
 
As long as you allow your employer to abuse you, they will treat you like a unwanted step child. Force them to like you, not abuse you. von.
Ask your employer for a letter of recommendation. Tell them you are looking for greener pastures.

If they act like they don’t care if you stay or leave, then you’re staying there is a form of self abuse. Von.
Von. I do not understand your reply. I am compensated for ALL time I am there. Except 30 min lunch. A Duie Pyle pays all ltl drivers by the hour. Not complaining at all
 
Check the reg's real close. I believe they still state you are on duty when you report. If dispatch tells you to be @ the terminal @ 0300, that is when you start the clock for logging purpose's. If they require you come to the terminal @ a certain time, then start your on duty-not driving then. Your time is valuable. Your supervisors don't think so. Change their thinking. When you can't complete your run & you showed your true & legal start time, then they will respect YOUR time. Until then you will suffer. von.
A few years back the dot wanted on duty to start when you left the house
 
Lol. Demanding dispatch or the dock supervisor close your trailers will accomplish nothing. Central will just tell you to wait. If you're the last run going out of there to your terminal than you'll be waiting until all freight is loaded. It sucks but thats trucking. I'd suggest bidding on a different run..
Depending on the size of the terminal the supervisor or dispatch don't see that all the freight has been loaded. Saying something brings it to their attention and also let's them know that your cut time is at a certain time.
 
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