#213 Dispatcher Detention Pay and ELD The Life of an Owner Operator Flatbed Truck Driver Vlog

then that means they're pushing me to drive tonight to get it down there and I don't want to drive tonight all right this end of the day today did not go good I got unloaded this morning it's Monday got unloaded this morning that went good I went to go reload and I was loading at a place that I have not been there before and I really wanted this place to work out because they have good side kit Freight but it took seven and a half hours to get loaded today from the time I got there and checked in from the time I got my paperwork and got out of there so I wanted to talk about a couple things this is just going to be talking video I wanted to talk about a couple things and they all relate to today first one is a coordinator coordinator / dispatcher I use the word coordinator because that's what our company uses the second is the detention pay and then the third is the eld first I'll go with my dispatcher / coordinator I give her a lot of credit I am just one of 50 drivers that she has to deal with every day and she does a excellent job at it I didn't I didn't think I talked to her I didn't talk to her until about 4:45 today you know nowadays everything's on the app they know where you're at and what you're doing when you're on site but I had sent a message to my coordinator here let me pull it up real quick here at let's see at 3:00 p.m. I sent her a message I said you can mark this place off the list I will not be coming back I am still waiting to get loaded and that was at 3:00 at 3:25 she sent me a message she talked to the agent she said agent is checking on detention pay and then at 4:15 she sent me a message that said you got paid for detention and there's two ways you can get paid for detention you get paid attention directly they'll add it right to the load or most the time they have to put in a request and then you might see your detention pay like 90 days later so you know I made my coordinator we we had a conversation a couple days ago we were talking about the relationship between drivers coordinators and agents and I was trying to get her perspective on kind of what she expects from a driver and then kind of what I expect from a coordinator and then we were talking about agents and when I talk about agents agents are nationwide Mercer is the main company and then they have agents and they're like and those agents are like independent contractors like we are owner operators they own the agent in certain areas certain cities throughout the United States so when I use the word agent that's what I'm talking about is different agents so you know and then I talked to her about agents and I said you know sometimes there's a real disconnect between the agent and the driver as a driver I should be able to call the agent and they should have all the information that I need for whatever load I'm picking up that that's what I expect from an agent and it doesn't happen you know all the time but an agent will tell you you know all the agent information has is what's in the computer screen well I need more information on what's in the computer screen example do they have overnight parking is an appointment do I need an appointment is it ok if I get there early what happens if I'm late is this place notorious for being late that those kind of questions that you asked an agent and a lot of drivers get hung up and they asked the dispatcher well the dispatcher / coordinator all they know is the information that's in the screen now you can go off the knowledge that they have because you know like I said you're just one of 50 drivers that dispatchers is dealing with so most likely she's had a driver been to that facility before or not and should say well usually you know we don't have a problem or you know you can expect this and and you know sometimes you go yeah you know usually it this isn't a good place to go but and you just kind of have to draw her information I've had I have not had a lot of dispatchers in my career because I have not been to a lot of companies but I do know when somebody can do a good job and when somebody's doing a good job and my coordinator she doesn't excellent job you know besides the fact of dispatching trucks she has to deal with a lot of emotions drivers were upset I was upset today you know and I'm kind of an easy guy to deal with I think I am but you know just in that text message you know just for her to come back and say okay I'm working on getting you detention pay well in my opinion the coordinator talking to the agent has more pool than the driver talking to the agent directly because most of the time the agent won't bs the coordinator where is sometimes an agent will just say whatever to get the driver off the phone that's my experience and that's not every agent that's just kind of my experience so you know my coordinator when she goes to bat for me to get my detention pay you know I give her a lot of credit for that and then like I said you know she she has to be able to you know deal with very emotional drivers sometimes trucks break down family problems all those things add up you know so I have to give her a lot of credit there's a lot of stuff that she has to deal with so anyway that's kind of my coordinator detention pay I kind of touched on that I got paid attention now I give credit to the agent they paid me detention and they paid me I would say a lot of money for detention but they paid me a fair amount for t detention and you know she said this usually doesn't happen with this customer and you know blah blah blah and I was like okay I understand cuz I really wanted to work out now by that agent paying me my detention to me that means a lot to me because that agent did not have to go to bat for me to give me the detention money she could have just well it wrote me off and said sorry for your luck better luck next time so by her I said I used the word her but by that agent paying me I'm gonna go back to that place I got burnt I was there for quite a while and you know and I was talking to other drivers I said yeah it's usually not this long you know something's not going right today so but by that agent paying me I will go back and I'll try this place because they have good sidekick free and that's why I wanted it to work out let's see 13 eld there's been a lot of truck talk about the electronic logging to heel D electronic logging device as if a lot of you guys would watch me go way back you gotta know I am Pro eld for the fact of today an example of today is perfect of why I like the eld with that 14 hour rule yes I got hung up for seven and a half hours or whatever now this loads only going 300 miles down to Louisville so I can make it up in the morning but there's been a lot of talk of being able to adjust the 14-hour stop the 14-hour doesn't that and in my opinion I don't want that I want the 14 hour in effect because what it does is it takes the pressure off of the driver to get the load there if if you if you have the ability to stop your 14-hour clock now the customer to shipper or the receiver the pressure is not on them to get you out of there quickly because now they know that oh well that's all right he can still get there in time if we hold them up for five or six hours where is the way it is now the pressure is on the the shipper and the receiver to get you in and out because if they want their customer to get their product in time they need to service you in a timely manner and if if you do away with that that that that that window and say okay well you can stop it and start it and stop it III don't agree with it I think I think you need the pressure if you're going to change the industry and change the way these shippers and receivers treat you then you know you the pressure has to be on them to get you in and out so that their product gets delivered on time if if you take that pressure off them and and now the driver has the ability to get it there on time the pressures not on them anymore now that pressure is back on the driver to get it there so example today if you could have say oh well he can stop his clock even though it took 8 hours it's sitting there.if stop his clock and he can start his clock up again once he gets loaded and leave in the the 14 hour Clark doesn't come in doesn't come into play then that means they're pushing me to drive tonight to get it down there and I don't want to drive tonight I've sat there for almost eight hours waiting to get loaded I spent a whole day waiting to get loaded a normal person has a normal 8 8 hour day job why should I have to drive all night because they screwed up so I am Pro eld and I know a lot of people don't agree with that and a lot of people want to fight it but you know I I just I'm I like the fact now that the shipper and the receiver has the pressure on them to get you in and out it's if now they don't want to hold the driver up because they need to get their product delivered and if you change that you're not going to change the industry that's my opinion all right this was just a talking video I'm sorry but I'm not too mad like I said I got paid for my detention that was nice that settled me down a little bit I was a little a little wound up earlier today because I did get held up I get my coordinator a lot of credit she she has to deal with a lot of issues and she is very very good at her job and I'm glad that I have a good coordinator / dispatcher it makes my job a lot easier being able to trust her so oh I fixed my little light I did fix the little lie to fix that on Saturday I got lucky it was just a broken wire in a connection so I just spliced it back together and hopefully it'll last for a little while longer we're going to be down in Louisville tomorrow we're gonna deliver this our appointments not to one o'clock so we're gonna leave here in the morning we got about five hours give or take a little bit to get down to Louisville so we'll leave in the morning have plenty of time to deliver this but so anyway thanks for listening to me rant and rave I know this is just kind of a talking video but I mean all in all if everybody did what they were supposed to do today and I appreciate that I got held up the agent took care of me the agent paid me detention my coordinator went to bat for me to make sure that I got paid detention so all in all everything went okay it could have been a lot worse and you know me I'm kind of a positive guy but I was kind of wound up this afternoon we got 40,000 pounds of iron sheets all different sizes and thicknesses and and that's one reason why it took a while to get loaded I will try this place again I don't know probably not in the near future but in the later future I might I might go over there and try them again so all right thanks for watching and talk to you guys later bye

Channel: SuperTruckerDan

Views: 22,605

Rating: 4.9442167 out of 5

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Id: nfl9W8tFWc4

Length: 13min 30sec (810 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2018