Normal Service has been resumed (for now anyway)

Well it would seem a little moan to dispatch yields results. After our "chat" the last two weeks have resulted in full triangles.  Nothing very noteworthy just business as usual. PEI - New Jersey - Toronto - PEI.  Spent the last two trips running with Ian & Klaus. 

Did manage a few photos and now I have a proper phone holder I have been experimenting with the camcorder on my android phone, that's great fun until you play it back and hear yourself firing off a volley of abuse at the numptys in cars in and around NY/NJ

In between grinding out the miles this week I did manage to get home to my family to celebrate my 48th birthday and also it was a year tomorrow I took possession of my current truck, so happy birthday to my Freightliner Cascadia,

Happy 1st Birthday Truck.

So as there is not much to talk about this post here are some photos of our trips over the last 2 weeks.

Sunset at Elizabeth, New Jersey. And below. 

Left to Right,  Klaus, Ian, Me, at the Flying J Truckstop, New Milford, Pennsylvania. 

Follow my leader through New York State.

Klaus (far side) & Ian when we were awaiting a dispatch from our Toronto Brampton Terminal.

This was on the back of a trailer in Toronto, Bear proof wheelie bins!

Ever felt like your being screwed by your company?

Well its been a very quiet couple of weeks work wise, very low miles and to be honest its not just myself that's been getting a bit pissed off with this situation.

For the last 3 weeks this has been the routine.  PEI - New Jersey - Montreal - PEI
                                                                           PEI - New Jersey - Moncton NB - PEI
                                                                           PEI - Montreal - PEI.

The last run to Montreal and back was my request as I needed to be back as we were all going to see Bryan Adams live in Concert here in Summerside, and a bloody good show it was too.  It was Elliott's first major live concert and he enjoyed it, although he was a bit surprised to see that about 5000 people knew most of the songs and were singing and dancing along, me and his mum included!  That he thought was funny.
OK, back to the low miles, I was lucky enough to hook up with my good mate Ian Newman for the run back to the Island and during the 10 hour drive back we discussed the previous few weeks/months work as he too was feeling a little shafted by the company.

Its been a fairly difficult start to the year and freight volumes are down compared with this time last year.   Company announcement in March (just wanted to set the scene)
We decided the time was right to pop in to Central dispatch and have a chat with our Dispatcher and Planner over the events of the last few weeks/months and try and get some commitment to improving our mileage and destinations.
To paint a fuller picture for this particular situation I need to go back to January of this year and the introduction of the Fuel Bonus Scheme (more like a shambles and scam in my opinion) but I will go into more detail a little later.
Midland wants to incentivise the drivers to increase their MPG, like I said I'll get into the nuts and bolts of that later.  And in January they also published the table of company drivers and their performance, I came in at #120 out of about 200, not that I am bothered where I finished.  The thing that was of interest was the mileage totals.  Whilst I managed to scrape just over 7000 miles there were a high number of drivers in the 5 figures.  The highest total was 20,513 miles!   There were many drivers who were earning a small fortune above myself and other drivers.  Now if these figures are to be believed that would mean this guy would have earned $5400 more then me in a month.   This thing has been going on for quite some time and some of us have had enough and want some of this action.
We have put our case forward that we want more miles, we have done our share of short miles and believe that others should step up and do their bit.  We have been assured that a meeting will be held between our Dispatcher, Planner & Fleet Manager to look into a lot of the factual points we gave them.  We will now wait to see what the outcome is and what action will be taken. The results of which will be detailed on this blog good or bad.
Fuel Bonus Scheme.
Ever since they announced this scheme I have been very sceptical on what formula they would use to calculate this bonus and who would qualify for the bonus.  As the time has passed my suspicions have been confirmed, there is no published formula. I have studied the only published results and I have no Idea how they have come up with the results.
This is of particular interest to me as being a former Fleet Manager I also commissioned a study into fuel management and fuel consumption and ways of increasing our MPG, whilst trying to reduce costs.
Now here are a few things that contribute to the final calculation which, to the best of my knowledge have not been factored in, they are including all company trucks on this scheme.  Now there are various areas of operations within the company trucks.

• Canada Only
• US Triangle
• Michelin Contract

Within these 3 divisions there are many variations that will contribute to the overall MPG.  The most important are Weight, Route, Terrain. Now throw into that mix different gearboxes and trucks with APU's, some trucks still running at 65mph and some like mine turned down to 62mph   How the hell can you call it a level playing field?
The company has issued a message to all company drivers that it is mandatory to attend one of their fuel seminars, I so far have refused on the basis I will not keep my Welsh Gob Shut!  I have had a full run down of these so-called interactive driver seminars from a friend and fellow driver who attended one last week, and the points and feedback put forward were all meet with the same answer. We will have to look into it and get back to you! 

Personally I would have collated all the data from the different divisions, come up with the average fuel consumption/MPG over a 3 month period within those divisions,  then set a benchmark figure for each division. Exceed it and you will get your bonus. Its Simple, why do companies have to make it so difficult, but there again what the hell do I know I'm just a driver eh?

Here is just one example of a point put to this fuel committee.

Q.
I drive a route that takes me from PEI down through New York/The Bronx/New Jersey then back to Toronto then back to Moncton NB/PEI.  I nearly always carry a load in excess of 40,000lbs.  There are trucks running Canada only with Diaper's (nappy's to the Europeans) or tissue paper and the weight of the load is a fraction of mine, who hardly have any traffic congestion to deal with and drive mainly on the flat, how can I compete with them, they are always going to get better MPG than me. So I have no chance of getting this bonus and they will every month, how is this fair?
A.
We will have to look into it and get back to you.

For F***'s Sake how stupid do they think we are?

In my humble opinion I believe this so called fuel committee was put together to tell the industry we are looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint/fuel consumption so we look good to the outside world, and at the same time reduce expenditure on fuel.In today's world, a very positive step. However, Based on what I have seen, read, heard and personally experienced, they will achieve none of the above.

I for one will not buy into this as there is no incentive, its a no win situation, I am a very competitive individual and like nothing more than a challenge. However its a no brainer, no chance of ever achieving their giddy goals based on the current criteria, so congratulations to the ones who did qualify for the bonus and I'm sure they will now look forward to receiving their cheques every month.

Only once they have revised the criteria on which one can "realistically" achieve this elusive bonus, will I even entertain participating.  I would even be willing to sit in on this committee as a consultant to share my meagre knowledge and experience in Fuel Management.  This would be at a compensatory rate in keeping with consultants here in North America mind.  Somehow I feel this invite will not be forthcoming.

So I guess for now it will be back to my role as a "Freight Relocation Technician"

Loading Monday 16th April for New Jersey, lets see where we go from there, if its Montreal or Moncton, keep an eye out for a mushroom cloud as this driver will explode with the force of a nuclear device.

Have a great week everyone.  




STT

Fries, Miles and Mushroom Spawn Multi Drop.

Due to having to renew my work visa I had requested a run that would give me time to do this at the border. Got a great load for Gouldsboro PA, leaving Saturday 17th March and Delivering on Monday 19th at 2pm. A load of french fries.  Its only just over a good days drive, about 15 hours  so after renewing my Visa on Saturday night I stayed at Murrys truckstop in Woodstock for the night.

Next morning off we went south, towards Pennsylvania.  The usual stop at Walmart for supplies then onwards.  An uneventful trip down, fueled in the TA at Portsmouth NH and decided to spend the night at the TA at Maybrook NY. I arrived at my destination at 10am with hope that they may take the delivery early, no chance!  15 mins before my booked delivery time I get called in.



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So after a fairly quick unload I was given a reload out of Coatesville PA.  The freight was Mushrooms, or so I thought. 2.5 hours drive I arrive in a very dodgy area of Pennsylvania, thankfully the collection site was tucked away in a nice quiet corner so a good nights sleep was had.

On the bay getting loaded with the spawn.

0600 the next morning in I go to pick up my mushrooms!  What I thought was going to be mushrooms turned out to be in fact Mushroom Spawn.  30000lb of it in fact, the most unusual was the 6 skids of  Oyster and Shitaki mushroom logs.

So with the paperwork faxed to Customs, trailer sealed, coffee made, off we go heading towards Pittsburgh then Toledo for the night. I was surprised when I left Coatesville and headed north on the US30 that it was a very large Dutch Amish community in that area and that traditional methods of farming are still being used, horse drawn ploughs etc, transport was still by horse and carts in amongst todays modern transport methods. 

The following morning after a nice long shower it was off to The Motor City Detroit to cross back into Canada at Windsor and on to my first delivery at Kingsville, then a short 3.5 miles to the 2nd drop at Leamington.  A slightly longer run to the 3rd drop at Harley the a 2 hour trip to Wingham north of Waterloo and a very unexpected treat, not only did I get to see how the the Oyster & Shitaki mushrooms were grown I got to take a trip in this bad boy,

Ford Mustang GT California Special.  Chiped to 529hp.... Awesome!

Once the fun was over it was back to work and had to run back to our Brampton Terminal for the night.

Following morning I get a load of sample kitchen towel from the Tissue plant in Toronto to go to the Tissue plant in Dieppe and an uneventful trip back home.  A total of 2917 miles in 7 days, a little longer than I am used to being away but I managed to get a lot done for myself at the same time. 

Monday 26th March.

Got a dispatch to Rotterdam in New York State with a load of Tissue Deliver Wednesday 28th at 2pm.  Arrived in Rotterdam the night before and managed to get unloaded 3 hours earlier than my appointment. A quick 200 mile to Tropicana in Jersey City NJ and picked up a loaded trailer for Boucherville just outside Montreal, delivered this load at 1130 on Thursday, great back to the terminal in Dorval and an early morning dispatch on Friday 30th be home for supper.

Thats when the wheels fell off this train!  Arrived at the terminal at 1400 hrs and was finally dispatche 22 hours later!  A loaded SLH trailer for Moncton, got as far as Lincoln NB before calling it a day.

Dropped the trailer at SLH and then an empty trailer back to the Island.  A short run but home for the weekend again.

     

Short Miles, Snow & Overweight Fines.

Was given a dispatch on Friday 9th March for Westborough Massachusetts, live load Charlottetown with fries for a 2am delivery on Monday 12th. Seems straightforward enough eh?  It would have been, but its only 11 hours door to door, just a good days drive, what the hell was I going to do on the Saturday after loading?  Drop the trailer back at Cavendish and had an extra day at home with the family, tidy :-)

Left 7am Sunday, stopped at Walmart for supplies in Newport ME on the way down, a fairly uneventful run down, got to Westborough early evening.  Now normally its a slow tip but this new fella in the warehouse was very quick, a little careless but quick, he only damaged 9 boxes of fries! but I was out within 45 mins.

Sent my empty macro and went back to bed, satellite went off at 8.45am.  Load at Tropicana NJ for Robert Transport in Boucherville just outside Montreal for the following day.

Tipped the following morning and went to our Terminal in Dorval, arrived at midday and that's where I stayed. No dispatch all day so I went to bed at 21.30, I expected to get a pre-plan in the early hours, how wrong was I.  23.30 BEEP!  WTF?????  Sent them a message telling them I had only just gone to bed as I had been waiting all day for a dispatch, no problem so I left at 04.30.  trailer switch at the Drummondville Terminal.  Picked up a trailer bound for Dieppe, it felt heavy and its the spring thaw weight restrictions in Quebec, I had a bad feeling about the trailer but not knowing where there was a scale I had to go to the government scale at Montmagny, over a 100 mile away.  Put it on the bridge and then got directed to the scale master. Turns out I was right,  I was 2400kg over on the drive axles.  even given the maximum tolerance per axle I was still 1600kg over gross.  A few calls to dispatch and they sent a truck from Quebec City to rework my load and take some freight off me. 5.25 hours later and $494.00 I finally was allowed to leave.

With all the delays it meant I could not make Dieppe and arrangements were made to switch trailers with another driver at Murry's Truck stop in Woodstock. Stopped there the night and continued on to Moncton the following morning. The weather was terrible, a lot of snow had fallen overnight so the journey took a little longer than normal. After switching trailers again in Dieppe I finally got home Thursday midday.    Was so glad to be home, it was a rubbish trip, short miles, snow & overweight fines, a trip to forget.  

Ready Steady....... Stop!

Wednesday 29th Feb I get a call from my dispatcher, you have a load for Falconer in upstate NY delivery Friday March 2nd at 8am, it loads at 7pm tonight!   I need to point out that just because its booked to load at 7pm does not mean it will be loaded at 7pm, and true to Cavendish Farms tradition, a quick call to shipping confirms my load will not even be looked at until 10pm at the earliest.
A quick call to dispatch to advise them of the situation and I would now be leaving the following morning.  With this agreed I relaxed into my bed for a good nights sleep.

NOTE TO SELF;  Remember to warn the wife that you have set your alarm on the phone for 0430.

So with the upset wife trying to go back to sleep, I then fire the 15ltr engine up and head off to get my load, I later find out that did not go down too well either!

OK got the trailer, got the paperwork, sent all the info via my satellite, pre trip trailer and reefer unit, get back in the truck and have engine warning lights and message up on the display, great, that's all I need.  The delivery point is 1118miles away and I got this, so off we go to Freightliner in Dieppe via Penske, who the truck is leased from.  3 hours later I leave the Workshop after having a sensor re-calibrated and head off to Penske.

By now the delivery has been cancelled as I will not make it by 1300 Friday the last receiving appointment and they don't take deliveries on a Saturday.  So it was agreed I would leave on Saturday, I would take a trailer back to the Island and bring a loaded one back to Moncton on Saturday.

I called back to Penske to find I was 2 weeks overdue for a service and that I would also need the drivers side windshield replaced so they rolled up the door and in I went to loose another 4/5 hours of my life.

Old one out, just waiting for the new windshield to be fitted.

So with the service complete, I grab an empty and go home to try again Saturday.

I arrive at Falconer 1/2 hour late due to me forgetting my phone automatically switches to Eastern time zone, Doh!  After giving them a com check for $150.00 and waiting 2 hours to unload I wait for my next instruction.  Now I am only 45 Min's from the Canadian Border at Buffalo/Queenston and just over 2 hours from our Brampton terminal, BEEP, my pre-plan, load at Tropicana, New Jersey, 395 miles away!!!!!! 6.5 hours drive away, I'm not complaining easy miles.

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So after a very relaxed run down, I grab my load, park up for the night ready for a short run up to our Terminal in Dorval QC.  I arrive at 1430 and drop the trailer and am 4th in line for a load east, not sure what time to expect a dispatch I go to bed at 7pm fully expecting a load between 1am and 4am.

0615am BEEP, trl 856045 ready in Dorval for Dieppe, A full LTL load bound for Halifax Nova Scotia.  Oh well I slept well and fully refreshed set off for our Dieppe Terminal, arriving 12 hours later, a quick message to dispatch and get a full load going back to Cavendish Farms and eventually getting home at 9pm.  Turned out to be a nice run just a shame it was delayed for so long.

For those of you who wonder what upstate New York looks like, I took a few shots between Falconer and Bath on my way to New Jersey.

Southwest Airlines landing at Albany International Airport.

Winters not quite finished.

Seeing as its a leap year and today is the 29th February 2012, mother nature has no regard for things such as this.  She is not quite finished dumping the white stuff on us, although I can't really complain as its been a very mild winter here on the Island.

I have also been very lucky that the storms here on the east coast and across to Toronto, I have managed to avoid, this is more down to luck than judgement.

These are just a few photos of what we had Yesterday the 28th February 2012.

This was taken at 10am

See how the wind has shaped the snow on the car.

The drifts got a lot bigger as the day went on.

Our drive is under there somewhere

A Quiet February.

In general its been a very quiet month in terms of miles, and also nothing really noteworthy to write about.  A quick 3 day trip to Toronto and back both Ian Newman and myself, Tissue/diaper products up to Irving Tissue in North York then 2 LTL loads back to Dieppe. A nice quick 2000 miles.

Then last week I get a dispatch to Westborough Massachusetts, 2am delivery with a load of Burger King Fries.  Tipped that off and then run empty to Jersey City, New Jersey.  An hour after leaving Westborough and not long after crossing the state line into Connecticut I ran in to a real bad snow storm, now normally this would not bother me, however there were a few factors that I had to take into consideration,

1. I was empty
2. The rate and volume of snow falling
3. Lack of snow plows
4. The local natives who have as much skill in driving in snow as my Basset Hound!
5. My load did not have to be in Toronto until 14.30 the next day.

So next rest area I pulled off and had a very nice 3 hour snooze! 

Just as well for 10 miles down the road the I95 both directions had been closed due to a Semi which had lost control in the snow and had jack-knifed across the interstate.

Thanks to my exceptional navigation skills (I was talking to local drivers on the c.b.) I managed to avoid the delays by taking to the side roads and thus avoiding further delays.

From there it was business as usual, the weekly battle to cross the Bronx, into New Jersey, then a nice 500 mile drive to Toronto, stopping for the night at the Flying J at New Milford, Pennsylvania.

The following day:- 

A very rare thing in Midland circles for us loadhaul triangle drivers, within a few Min's of tipping, A PRE-PLAN!  Yes dear friends, there was a load ready to roll east sitting at Brampton Terminal with my name on it.  So within an hour of leaving my delivery point I was heading out of the gate towards home.  So instead of a Monday arrival I was home and in my own bed Sunday night after dropping a loaded trailer off to our Charlottetown Terminal.

An Englishman, Welshman & A German go to New Jersey.

Tuesday 8th February, I get a call to take a load of fries to a regular customer in Linden/Elizabeth, New Jersey.  I had been talking to my buddy Ian Newman (englishman) that day and he was also going to the same place and as it happens another one of our buddies Klaus (the German) was also going there as well. So we all meet at Cavendish Farms who produce potatoe products which are shipped all over the world.  So next time you tuck into your fries at Burger King or Wendy's you may be eating PEI spuds!  After a lot of mucking about trying to find our trailers we were ready for the off. Its about a 16 hour drive door to door.

Klaus had the first delivery appointment of 11.30 eastern time on Thursday night, Ian was booked for 6am the following morning and my appointment was for 9am.  We decided to all get there together and see if they would take it early. We decided to stop at Dysarts Truckstop in Bangor Maine for the night, then off to Walmart in Newport, Maine the following morning to stock up with groceries, we drove through to Milford City in Connecticut for Fuel and the final 2 hour push through New York and a very quiet Cross Bronx Expressway, on to the New Jersey Turnpike and eventually to Preferred Freezers at Linden NJ.

We arrived about 7.30pm and after parking the trucks we wandered to the receiving office gave them our bills and cell numbers and they said they would call when they wanted us and would TRY! to get us unloaded early. Well that turned out to be a dream as Klaus was kept to his appointment time as was Ian and so was I, gutted as these people at Preffered are not the quickest. I got on a door at 9am and pulled off at 1300!

Railroad runs through the middle of the delivery site.

After the delivery's, Klaus gets a reload out of Tropicana in Jersey City, 10 mins away, Ian gets a load of melons from Vineland NJ and I get a load of plums from The Port Of Wilmington in Delaware. All loads bound for the Greater Toronto Area. Ian's load is booked for midnight and mine for 1am, only one small problem, its about 8.5 hours drive to Toronto and we did ot finish loading until 7pm!!!!

So Ian and I arranged to meet at the Allentown Plaza north of Philidelphia and stayed there the night.  We set off about 06.30 the next morning and headed north, roads were quiet dry and empty.
We arrived at the border and I get a message to take my load to our terminal in Brampton as the customer does not want it until the following day - sweet, Ian however has to deliver his and gets messed about for over 3 hours. 

Well I stay in Brampton for 16 hours until Ian knocks on the door, "check your messages I just got a load", sure enough, BEEP, and there is a LTL to PEI, trailers ready and so is Ians,  We both have to call in to the Dieppe NB terminal and leave our trailers there and the following day we arrive drop trailers and are allocated an empty trailer each to take back to Cavendish Farms on PEI.

Build up of snow on one of the trailers at the Dieppe Terminal after the storm the day before.

Me on left & Ian's on the right after hooking on to empty trailers at our Brentwood Yard in Moncton, bound for PEI.

So after dropping our empty trailers at Cavendish Farms I headed the 11km home and Ian the slightly longer trek to Charlottetown.  2559 miles and 5.5days and a lot of needless wasted time, had things gone to plan would have been home after 4.5 days. Never mind eh?

   

California Continued Again

As we left off in the last post I was just about to cross the state line into New Mexico.

One of the things that stands out is the way the land changes from flat desert to hilly green areas so quickly. The other thing to remember is that unless you have the correct permits you will have to stop at the scale as you cross the state line and pay to cross the state. as I was going from one side to the other I had to pay $60.00.    So with that all out of the way it was onward to Arizona.

Day 6 and we finally reach California. Now when you think of California you think of Hollywood, LA and its beaches, movie stars, fruit, wine and Money.  Now as you have seen on entering each state the signs have been colourful and informative. So I would have expected something special and was greeted to California with this!

Whoop De Frikkin Do. What a total dissapointment.