Short loads

Getting a lot of them the last 2 weeks. I hope this is not a trend that stays. I'm getting loads 250 to 500 miles and that is it. A good week is 2,500 miles and up. This week I only got 1,400 miles on 4 short loads. They eat up your hours because you spend so much time loading and unloading instead of rolling. No rolling, no money. The loading and unloading, breakdowns, etc. are part of the job not something you get paid for. When the "parts of the job you don't get paid for" become a lot more than the "parts of the job you do get paid for" you start to get ticked a bit. It is what is wrong with this job and has always been that way.

The company has you over a barrel. I have topped out in mileage pay here, and their top pay is better than 95% of the other companies, but they hire new drivers and at 11 cents less per mile and they get their mileage most of the month. In order for them to get a raise they have to make 10,300+ miles per month for 3 months running. Dispatch gets them close to that and cuts back their miles so they can't make the raise. On the other hand since I make 11 cents more per mile, they don't give me the good paying mileage loads because it costs them more and they would prefer I just quit so they could hire someone at a lower mileage rate. It's all a game and the driver loses. If I do quit and move on to another company I start at that mileage rate 11 cents lower than I am making now and work my way up again. Stuck...

Not a good profession to be in and you get pretty cynical about it. You never know what loads are on the board to be offered, so you can't complain about it. Everyone complains about unsafe trucks. Fact is that safety rates for trucks and miles traveled has increased for several years now. Trucking has never been safer. The only thing that keeps it from being totally safe is the pay per mileage game where drivers have to drive their lives away to make a decent wage. Companies pushing them to make on time deliveries or they lose their jobs. Doesn't matter that you were held up in traffic because of an accident, weather, or shipper who held you up 7 or 8 hours...still have to make the on time appointment which is normally preset before you even pick up the load. These are the things that make it unsafe. Rookie drivers pushing too hard to get the load there instead of just telling dispatch it ain't possible and they need to reschedule the delivery appointment. They are too worried about their jobs to learn the tricks yet.

I, on the other hand, have to worry about my job because of my high mileage rate cuts into the companies bottom line. I have hit 60 years old now and chances of finding a better job has decreased. Companies want drivers who don't know the ropes yet and can be bullied around, and work scared of losing their jobs. Well really, everyone is scared of losing a job now a days. Back home there are no want ads running much at all. No local jobs to speak of that pays above minimum wage. I'm not quite to that point in my life where I can take that big a pay cut. Nor do I want to move to where I can find a better paying job.

Strange and scary times. Don't think they are going to get better any time soon. The grand kids will never have it so good, they will be taxed on 70% of their earnings to pay for those who do not work. Entitlements only force people down into the government sludge. You can never get out so you keep voting in the idiots that are holding your head under so they will give you a tube to breath with.

I am in Maryland today, I had a heck of a time getting through Baltimore yesterday afternoon. Traffic in the northeast is bad. Too many people up here. Headed over to Pittsburgh to deliver to a grocery warehouse tonight. I was supposed to be home Monday, but surprise, they don't have any loads that are over 250 miles. At this rate it will be May before I make it there.