Early morning useless post thread

[Twitchin Kitten]

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So, now the mechanic can make it happen - and claims that there are now 3 things wrong with the truck. And he's claiming there is a golf ball sized hole in one of the front rotors. I call bullshit on that because we had both wheels off last summer for brake lines and those rotors had half an inch of meat on them. Same for the brake pads.

So, now I'm finally home and hopefully they can figure this out. I'm out $340 for changing the rear differential oil as it is. He wanted me to drive 50 miles to get the clutch pad soaked with fluids as it was dry. I don't think so.

Now he's guessing that it could be a broken cord in a tire doing it. Bullshit. Tires don't clank.

I'm starting to lose faith in my mechanic. These guys have been very reliable, reasonable and most of all knowledgeable for the last 10 years. I think they started smoking pot and forgot how to diagnose trucks.

Just fix it so it's driving smooth enough to trade in. Pronto.

[LKTraz]

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Here's hoping for a short day of work today. As of yesterday when I got done I put 47 hours in "officially" and figure on another 10 that aren't documented.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Man - you guys have been awfully quiet this week. I've been busy battling a migraine ever since I tried riding the other day. Today I'm out of the house for awhile.

Anyway, LK - why aren't you documenting those 10 hours? Are you not allowed or did you goof up and forget to write them down and it's too late now? Matt's gotten to the point with his asshole boss that if he goes out on a side job that happens to be an alarm job from his boss, and winds up needing to fix something screwed up from the day job, he clocks it now.

[LKTraz]

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Basically it comes down to what 99% of all drivers do. You cut and slide things around to make the log book work to your best monetary advantage.

Example: If i would do it "by the book" and show finishing my day at say 6PM then I could not come back on duty till 4AM as the requirement is 10 hours off between tours. BUT......if I do that I can't take the decent trip since I'd need to get started at 2:30AM so I'd get stuck with a shitty but time consuming run that started later and paid less thus ending later and fucking me for yet another day into yet another shitty late run.

Therefore......its advantageous to not log by the wristwatch but rather by dividing the mileage by the theoretical highest speed it could be done at.

Now this is a good run but if done by the wristwatch one would fuck ones-self.
The one that goes up Twisty's way: It takes 6 hours to run from our plant to Fredonia,NY when loaded. (Slow pulling up hills and slow acceleration) It's a distance of 319 miles.
319 miles divided by 64 MPH average = 4.98 since you can only log quarter hour increments and to round down would show you speeding then round up to 5 hours. The ride back can actually be done in 5.25 hours since we are only carrying a maximum of 4,400 lbs of empty reusable totes. It takes .25 hrs to get to the trailer to hook up for the trip to the customer and upon return we must go PAST the plant to the shop to fuel the trailer (refrigerated) then come back to the plant to drop it and then return to the shop to park.

Totals as I log are .25 to pick up 5 to deliver 5.25 to shop to fuel .25 to plant .25 to return to the shop. This totals 11 driving hours and is the maximum allowed by law. There are 3 more "work" hours available that aren't spent driving but no matter what we must be done 14 hours after starting regardless of how the time was spent. After 14 hrs we MUST take 10 hours off. As well after 11 hrs of driving we must stop wherever we may be and take 10 off.

If I would go by the book then I'd end up out of drive time 30 minutes away from the plant in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and have to spend 10 hours there with no type of facilities whatsoever. Granted I'd be paid an additional $30 for being out "overnight" but it's not worth the $$ to be that close and not be able to head home and sleep in my own bed.

There's where I end up with undocumented hours as well as not logging trivial shit like sitting and doing paperwork when I'm done. Yeah, we're SUPPOSED to log it but nobody does and sometimes it can take 30 - 45 minutes to do.

Now if I go to on a regular run like from the plant to Boyertown then down to Elizabeth and back I get paid the same whether it takes me 9 hours or 14 hours. Why eat up time when you don't have to? (On the book that is) Sure as shit since we're allowed 70 hours in 8 days if I'd eat it up, I'd end up coming short and miss on a decent run as opposed to a shitty local run to 2 or 3 egg houses and have to load eggs for a short trip to the storage bldg.

See?

[Twitchin Kitten]

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O I C now. Still kind of sucks. You get paid by road time and mileage instead of actual hours working. And I gather the boss can't fudge it so you get those lost 10 hours since he's probably regulated to pay by your log book?

[LKTraz]

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Actually my pay is neither hourly or by miles driven (well kinda).

My company pays Zone and Stop pay. If we go from 1 - 200 miles it's a zone 1. Each zone has a guideline mileage.

001 - 200 = 1
201 - 400 = 2
401 - 550 = 3
551 - 650 = 4

And so on.

Each zone is paid a flat rate according to your pay scale level. New guys are level 1. I am a level 10 driver.

Stop pay works like this: If you pick up - deliver - return empty it counts as a single stop trip and there is no pay above the basic zone $$.

Now if I go the plant and pick, deliver to Boyertown and reload there then deliver to Elizabeth and drop that trailer then bring a loaded one back to the plant then it's a zone 2 trip (201 - 400 miles) with 2 extra stops (Boyertown to Elizabeth, Elizabeth to the plant). The initial delivery to Boyertown is part of the basic trip.

It's a little different way to pay but it works.

[LKTraz]

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And off I go to work yet again.

This will be the 3rd day in a row that I won't be heading to NJ. I gotta take a load of used paper egg flats down to Ephrata to a farm that uses them for bedding for the cattle and then just around the corner to pick up 324,000 eggs and run them back to the plant.

The good part......it's a short and easy day.
The bad part.......it is a minimum pay day.

Oh well. I'm just glad to be one of the ones working. Monday we had 11 drivers that had nothing to do! There were 5 yesterday with nothing to haul.

Irene kinda fucked up operations in Elizabeth so it will probably take till the end of the week for things to catch back up for us.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Did Elizabeth flood on you or roads and towns going to Elizabeth screw things up?

We still have areas down here on the east side without power but all in all, we're getting back to normal here. West is a different story.

[LKTraz]

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Minor flooding screwed up production runs, kept some employees from making it in which further fouled the runs up and there have been a few access issues with moving finished product out to make room for more product so they can't run any more till the space is cleared. Most of the stuff in the way is hauled by outside carriers so it will depend on how quickly they can get in and grab the stuff.

[LKTraz]

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Well......if I'm gonna get a just a zone 2 today, at least it's the easiest setup. I already have my empty trailer hooked to the truck and it's at the shop so I don't have to go to the plant to grab it. That saves me 45 minutes!

Just have to go to Eprhata and grab 324,000 eggs and bring them back to the plant. Then my next trailer should be loaded and released so I can run to Harrisburg and deliver then come back with empty totes. Easy day