'Removed from Service' for waiting for pick ups.

[OhShoot]

Simple context is we had a very VERY light day. Even with cut routes it was extraordinarily light. Once I finished my deliveries, lunch, and break I still had a good amount of time til pick ups. So I ended up waiting almost 2 hours just to start pick ups. Eventually did the pick ups, finished the day, and went home.

Fast forward a few days later and I get pulled into the office and questioned about the day. Was honest in my answers and kept them short and concise. Was told I'm being removed from service pending an investigation since I didn't check in when I finished deliveries.

I've never had a day like that where I was so light and had finished so early. The entire building was essentially a ghost town. So what should I expect? BA and Steward seem to be giving slightly optimistic answers, but still the first time dealing with something remotely like this. I have has some days where I finished early but only had 20ish minutes of downtime after lunch and break. Any advice or similar experiences?

 

[Thebrownblob]

I think all of us have been directed to do pickups in the +\- 15 minute window. He went and delivered and picked up in the time window how is that not following instructions? A lot of Stockholm syndrome answers there. It’s perfectly normal, especially in trucking, to have down time.
We don’t chose our dispatch or pickup times. I’m suprised to see how many here think he should be disciplined for following methods and the company’s poor dispatch

Fair days pay for a fair days work. Taking advantage of a mistake on managements part is a risky game. I’ve seen these cases go to panels and some of them don’t come back. The common sense that you call Stockholm syndrome is the difference between a driver making it to retirement and a driver not making it to retirement. I do not believe you should use your personal phone to call and tell them, but simply sending a message via diad saying I am finished with work with nothing to do for two hours covers your ass. At the very least these drivers sit out many weeks worrying about their job. Would’ve taken only a couple of seconds to ensure that doesn’t happen.

 

[Manifesto]

Fair days pay for a fair days work. Taking advantage of a mistake on managements part is a risky game. I’ve seen these cases go to panels and some of them don’t come back. The common sense that you call Stockholm syndrome is the difference between a driver making it to retirement and a driver not making it to retirement. I do not believe you should use your personal phone to call and tell them, but simply sending a message via diad saying I am finished with work with nothing to do for two hours covers your ass. At the very least these drivers sit out many weeks worrying about their job. Would’ve taken only a couple of seconds to ensure that doesn’t happen.

I've sent a message before when I was going to have to wait maybe 10 to 15 minutes for a letter box.

 

[BigUnionGuy]

Fair days pay for a fair days work. Taking advantage of a mistake on managements part is a risky game. I’ve seen these cases go to panels and some of them don’t come back. The common sense that you call Stockholm syndrome is the difference between a driver making it to retirement and a driver not making it to retirement. I do not believe you should use your personal phone to call and tell them, but simply sending a message via diad saying I am finished with work with nothing to do for two hours covers your ass. At the very least these drivers sit out many weeks worrying about their job. Would’ve taken only a couple of seconds to ensure that doesn’t happen.

The first bid route I won, had the corporate headquarters of a national restaurant chain that shipped 400

NDA letters every day. I would drop off a couple of totes in the morning, and pick them up at night. It would

automatically put you about 2 hours under. One cover driver that ran it when I was on vacation would go up

the street and sit in a movie theater and watch the latest flick. This was DIAD 1 and pre-internet.


If anyone is (so) naive to believe that the company isn't watching your every move....

You'll learn the hard way.

 

[AttackedHawk34]

Wow I've done this before waiting for the letter box pick up. I know now to call and just don't sit around eventhough I used all my breaks up beforehand

 

[542thruNthru]

Fair days pay for a fair days work. Taking advantage of a mistake on managements part is a risky game. I’ve seen these cases go to panels and some of them don’t come back. The common sense that you call Stockholm syndrome is the difference between a driver making it to retirement and a driver not making it to retirement. I do not believe you should use your personal phone to call and tell them, but simply sending a message via diad saying I am finished with work with nothing to do for two hours covers your ass. At the very least these drivers sit out many weeks worrying about their job. Would’ve taken only a couple of seconds to ensure that doesn’t happen.

You nailed it.

Getting paid for 2 hours to do nothing is not representing the employer's best interest.

 

[KearsargeCoop]

View attachment 471718
You nailed it.

Getting paid for 2 hours to do nothing is not representing the employer's best interest.

Neither is dispatching a known pick up route without enough work to fill the day. Both parties are at fault.

 

[Thebrownblob]

Neither is dispatching a known pick up route without enough work to fill the day. Both parties are at fault.

Again, I don’t disagree completely but there’s only one party that’s going to sit and wait and worry about their job, and possibly lose thousands of dollars while doing so.

 

[KearsargeCoop]

Simple context is we had a very VERY light day. Even with cut routes it was extraordinarily light. Once I finished my deliveries, lunch, and break I still had a good amount of time til pick ups. So I ended up waiting almost 2 hours just to start pick ups. Eventually did the pick ups, finished the day, and went home.

Fast forward a few days later and I get pulled into the office and questioned about the day. Was honest in my answers and kept them short and concise. Was told I'm being removed from service pending an investigation since I didn't check in when I finished deliveries.

I've never had a day like that where I was so light and had finished so early. The entire building was essentially a ghost town. So what should I expect? BA and Steward seem to be giving slightly optimistic answers, but still the first time dealing with something remotely like this. I have has some days where I finished early but only had 20ish minutes of downtime after lunch and break. Any advice or similar experiences?

Has this happened before? Maybe not in such a dramatic fashion, but maybe 15/20 minutes? Have you ever been talked to about this? Curious if this is possibly a trap situation where they were monitoring your "unaccounted time"?

 

[542thruNthru]

Neither is dispatching a known pick up route without enough work to fill the day. Both parties are at fault.

If that's the stance you want to take if this situation ever happens to you. Then good luck at panel.

 

[Coldworld]

Can you wait for 13 pages of a seniority list for a B driver?

Perhaps…how is the feeder gig going??

 

[Coldworld]

I did sort down in Orlando every Friday night I'd get there around midnight and sit there till 4:00 sometimes later. Couple times they had too many drivers there and I'd pull an empty back.

Dispatch knows if they give me end of sorts then I’ll be there til a certain time…they are fully aware of what’s happening so not my responsibility to notify anyone. Nope.

 

[Coldworld]

If you are sitting at the rail waiting for loads you put it on breakdown???

If I have to get a chassis flip or if I do end up getting a flat tire or something on the tractor (very rare) I will put down breakdown. Careful here…we have had drivers put down breakdown or delay and be sleeping at a cpu and been thrown under the bus for this. I’d be very leery about using delay or breakdown for everything. Seen it bite people in the ass.

 

[Johney]

Dispatch knows if they give me end of sorts then I’ll be there til a certain time…they are fully aware of what’s happening so not my responsibility to notify anyone. Nope.

I did this for at least 4 years. Also sitting next a crap ton of other guys doing the same thing

 

[Coldworld]

I did this for at least 4 years. Also sitting next a crap ton of other guys doing the same thing

Yep. They know when the train gets in and when stuff is unloaded. Now I don’t spend an hour hooking up and leaving when my trailer is in a spot ready to go but I’m not putting anything down if I have to wait. They are pushing some of this on the newer drivers and I just see it causing more problems than not.

 

[KearsargeCoop]

If that's the stance you want to take if this situation ever happens to you. Then good luck at panel.

Well first of all if I left for my day with minus 80 stops I'd pop in the office and let them know then.

 

[SorryLazyPOS]

I never have that much downtime no matter how many stops I have.

 

[Coldworld]

I never have that much downtime no matter how many stops I have.

Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. Some of these runners are cutting their own throats…

 

[some1else]

View attachment 471718
You nailed it.

Getting paid for 2 hours to do nothing is not representing the employer's best interest.

I reiterate Stockholm syndrome. It’s perfectly normal at every job to have down time. They have brainwashed you into thinking downtime=stealing. If you still have delivery’s left and you are sitting around that’s completely different if you have completed all the work and are waiting for a pickup time you aren’t doing nothing you are waiting for a pickup.

 

[FromOffTheStreets]

Unfortunately I've got the ups store pickup on my route. I'll regularly set there for over 30 minutes after fully loaded. "They don't have anyone else to grab the air," they say. At times it's an hour to hour & a half setting. ORS just can't find anyone else to do it.