Wishful thinking I suppose. I talked on the phone, played solitaire on the computer, and generally goofed off until 1400. I then drove over to Wally Worlds distribution center and delivered my mouse food to them. No loads preplanned yet. I simply drove back to this truck stop I mentioned in my earlier post and have been here since 5pm. I got out and took a long walk just to clear my head for a couple miles. I just don't understand it. I mean I drove 592 miles on a load that I loaded on the 16th of July. You would think that they would have a plan. I know I would. It is a good thing that Jim Palmer Trucking is not a publicly traded company. Such stupidity would have to be accounted for. When you are a private company, you can be as inefficient and stupid as you want. You only have your self to blame.
At any rate, I took a nice walk around Prosser, WA. This town has a view of some smooth, golden rolling hills that the locals call the Horse Heaven Mountains. Well where I come from they call those hills but hey, it is their area. They sure are pretty. In walking around I noticed that the area that I was in is experiencing a lot of new development. I walked by a lot with a sign that sarcastically said welcome to pleasantville. There was a trailer on the property boarded up with some statements about the local bigotry of city council and the water board. No doubt a protest. I would have taken a picture but I forgot my camera. I am going for a walk in the am and will have a photo taken then. Good night for now.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Hello From Hopland
Well, I arrived at Wally World's distribution center per instructions from my driver manager. That was to arrive earlier than his negotiated arrival time and beg and snivel. Neither worked , so here I sit in a truck stop 7 miles down the road from the WM. I am not to return till 1330 or so. I guess I will get some rest but the lack of actual money making work (mileage)this last 11 days is nagging on my brain. I mean, I am a truck driver and by the mile is how I am paid. I am paid nothing to wait for a badly scheduled appointment time, delay by traffic, or any other excusable bit of misfortune. I am filling out job applications for other companies with all this spare time Jim Palmer is giving me.
I was looking at the internet and stumbled upon an anti-Amway website. I mean, who the heck isn't anti-Amway. You know, the annoying contact from a friend, stating that opportunity is knocking and you could be well on your way to success and financial independence. Him standing there with a new suit, drawing circles and talking about success while his credit card balance is nearing military budget levels. What a joke. But anyway, that really wasn't what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to address was the fact that in many ways, trucking companies are just as scummy and underhanded as the losers at Amway. Just read on and see if I have a point.
***Usually when you hire on with a trucking company you are pulled into a fold of information as you indoctrinate yourself with that company. You don't realize it at first. But there are many questions that you might have under normal circumstances. And these are not normal circumstances can you say cult like control. The company controls your lodging, eating schedule or lack of food, the pace of the orientation class and every bit of the material and information. All of this usually very far from home so that it isn't easy to leave. Some of the orientation materials will guide you towards a pointed questioning of the company representative. Usually that representative has the same social skills and scruples of a car salesman. Usually he is required to lie or represent the facts in such a way as to make them acceptable. For example: Our driver services guy at orientation stated that Jim Palmer does not pay its drivers in Rand McNally Houshold Movers Miles. He stated that we are paid not quite practical miles but not as short as HHG miles. I asked my dispatcher what he uses for mileage and he replied "I don't know what Curtiss is telling you, but we use HHG miles." Just in case you do not know, HHG mileage uses some way of calculating to rip you off of approximately 8 percent of the mileage on any given trip. Thats right, that is driving that you will have to do for free in order to get a paycheck on the load you are hauling. I don't think that the Department of Labor is really aware of the fact that I am not hauling Houshold Goods, It is not addressed in any of their writings posted on the bulletin boards at the Jim Palmer terminal.
***Amway will tell you in their materials that you are in the business of selling products and goods from their catalog to like minded people that want to also be successful selling Amway products and so on. Amway will not tell you that you must purchase weekly installments of tapes and training materials and take trips to costly functions. That would be illegal regarding pyramid schemes and other issues too numerous to list. The person that got you into Amway (your upline) will strongly encourage you to purchase these (tools) that are of course for your own good and these items are very good for your business. If you do not play ball so to speak it will be very difficult to get your upline to do anything for you..You do not get a credit or earn money on what you are forced, pressured, to buy. Your entire upline gets a percentage of what you are forced to buy. I don't think Amway knows or really cares what is going on here because all of it is against what they put out in their materials.
Maybe in a future installment I will get very specific about what some of these companies pull on their employees. I mean don't get me wrong, there are some very good companies out there. Jim Palmer is not one of them but they are not as bad as Schneider, Swift, England,...I dont have all day, you get the idea. Gotta go for now. I have 13 more hours of nothing to do. Late.
I was looking at the internet and stumbled upon an anti-Amway website. I mean, who the heck isn't anti-Amway. You know, the annoying contact from a friend, stating that opportunity is knocking and you could be well on your way to success and financial independence. Him standing there with a new suit, drawing circles and talking about success while his credit card balance is nearing military budget levels. What a joke. But anyway, that really wasn't what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to address was the fact that in many ways, trucking companies are just as scummy and underhanded as the losers at Amway. Just read on and see if I have a point.
***Usually when you hire on with a trucking company you are pulled into a fold of information as you indoctrinate yourself with that company. You don't realize it at first. But there are many questions that you might have under normal circumstances. And these are not normal circumstances can you say cult like control. The company controls your lodging, eating schedule or lack of food, the pace of the orientation class and every bit of the material and information. All of this usually very far from home so that it isn't easy to leave. Some of the orientation materials will guide you towards a pointed questioning of the company representative. Usually that representative has the same social skills and scruples of a car salesman. Usually he is required to lie or represent the facts in such a way as to make them acceptable. For example: Our driver services guy at orientation stated that Jim Palmer does not pay its drivers in Rand McNally Houshold Movers Miles. He stated that we are paid not quite practical miles but not as short as HHG miles. I asked my dispatcher what he uses for mileage and he replied "I don't know what Curtiss is telling you, but we use HHG miles." Just in case you do not know, HHG mileage uses some way of calculating to rip you off of approximately 8 percent of the mileage on any given trip. Thats right, that is driving that you will have to do for free in order to get a paycheck on the load you are hauling. I don't think that the Department of Labor is really aware of the fact that I am not hauling Houshold Goods, It is not addressed in any of their writings posted on the bulletin boards at the Jim Palmer terminal.
***Amway will tell you in their materials that you are in the business of selling products and goods from their catalog to like minded people that want to also be successful selling Amway products and so on. Amway will not tell you that you must purchase weekly installments of tapes and training materials and take trips to costly functions. That would be illegal regarding pyramid schemes and other issues too numerous to list. The person that got you into Amway (your upline) will strongly encourage you to purchase these (tools) that are of course for your own good and these items are very good for your business. If you do not play ball so to speak it will be very difficult to get your upline to do anything for you..You do not get a credit or earn money on what you are forced, pressured, to buy. Your entire upline gets a percentage of what you are forced to buy. I don't think Amway knows or really cares what is going on here because all of it is against what they put out in their materials.
Maybe in a future installment I will get very specific about what some of these companies pull on their employees. I mean don't get me wrong, there are some very good companies out there. Jim Palmer is not one of them but they are not as bad as Schneider, Swift, England,...I dont have all day, you get the idea. Gotta go for now. I have 13 more hours of nothing to do. Late.
Boise Midday On A Mission
Just a short entry, Stopped for fuel and also stopped at the bread store that is right next to the Flying J off of exit 54 on I-84. I like store locations like that as it is so difficult to find real food at real food prices. I seldom buy staples in the truck stop as the markup just makes me sick.
Contacted my dispatcher ready to do battle over the slow load and started by asking him if there is a chance of delivering this early. Which translated means: You stupid jerk, I want better freight... He says he will check and comes back with a 1530 appt time for tomorrow which is better than 2130 but says that I might be able to fit myself into their schedule. That translated, means: You loser, I could care less about your slow as a snail on a hot day freight. I have a fat nagging wife and kids that want nothing but money and to borrow the car. Leave me alone you spawn of satan. If you want to deliver this load any earlier, you had better do it on your own. At that I said thank you and I will give that a try. No need to translate that do you think?
Anyway, I am sort of on a mission. I feel that when I arrive, they will smile, and say see you tomorrow. It's just that I am not able to leave that alone and besides they will not kick me hard and say no. I'm on a mission, and will see how it turns out. Dedication, peace out!
Contacted my dispatcher ready to do battle over the slow load and started by asking him if there is a chance of delivering this early. Which translated means: You stupid jerk, I want better freight... He says he will check and comes back with a 1530 appt time for tomorrow which is better than 2130 but says that I might be able to fit myself into their schedule. That translated, means: You loser, I could care less about your slow as a snail on a hot day freight. I have a fat nagging wife and kids that want nothing but money and to borrow the car. Leave me alone you spawn of satan. If you want to deliver this load any earlier, you had better do it on your own. At that I said thank you and I will give that a try. No need to translate that do you think?
Anyway, I am sort of on a mission. I feel that when I arrive, they will smile, and say see you tomorrow. It's just that I am not able to leave that alone and besides they will not kick me hard and say no. I'm on a mission, and will see how it turns out. Dedication, peace out!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Alas, Snowville
Flying J, Snoville, UT. I guess this place is ok...But I feel rather bored by this place as I was just here. I delivered at the USPS center in SLC this morning and I was impressed with the absolute sense of urgency that those Postal Employees displayed in getting me unloaded. I mean that they were just going completely balls out, not even their own safety mattered. All that mattered was that I was patiently waiting and that my time was simply the most valuable thing on their mind. Ok, Ok, I'm full of crap. Trained snails could have unloaded that load faster. They got me empty by 11 am and I got an almost immediate load info message. I was to urgently proceed to Logan, UT and prepare for the most important hot load going to Walmart of Grandview, WA. Now remember, this is July 16th at 11 am. The Load delivers on Wednesday, July 18th at, get this, 2130...I have already loaded and I drove 66.2 miles and parked here in Alas, Snowville. I have run the miles in the computer. I have all of 2 days to run 541.6 miles to a Walmart, where the policy for the most part is that you will arrive no earlier than 1 hour before your appointment time.
I don't know about you, where you drive, or who you may drive for. But I have been on the road since the 6th of July, and not counting this load, all I have driven that I have been paid for is a total of 2936 miles in ten days. That does not count the 73 miles I was paid to drive to Logan and the 66.2 miles I drove here. Really that doesn't amount to a hill of beans.
All I am saying is that if you are thinking about driving for Jim Palmer Trucking; you need to rethink your position. I am, I believe being held down on mileage for daring to ask the company for a bigger truck in order to have enough room for a relative to ride along with me. It was assured to me that when I was in the hiring process that they had plenty of trucks with enough room and all I would have to to is ask. I asked and suddenly, it became a big fat problem where Curtiss (the driver services guy) would not answer his phone when I called to check on his progress...after all, he is there for me. He is also there to tell half truths and stall. Trust me, his bonus is indeed coming.
Anyway, I have been able to fill out some applications with my spare time and have made some phone calls to try and get a strategy up. Anyone have any suggestions? Email me. Dedication...
I don't know about you, where you drive, or who you may drive for. But I have been on the road since the 6th of July, and not counting this load, all I have driven that I have been paid for is a total of 2936 miles in ten days. That does not count the 73 miles I was paid to drive to Logan and the 66.2 miles I drove here. Really that doesn't amount to a hill of beans.
All I am saying is that if you are thinking about driving for Jim Palmer Trucking; you need to rethink your position. I am, I believe being held down on mileage for daring to ask the company for a bigger truck in order to have enough room for a relative to ride along with me. It was assured to me that when I was in the hiring process that they had plenty of trucks with enough room and all I would have to to is ask. I asked and suddenly, it became a big fat problem where Curtiss (the driver services guy) would not answer his phone when I called to check on his progress...after all, he is there for me. He is also there to tell half truths and stall. Trust me, his bonus is indeed coming.
Anyway, I have been able to fill out some applications with my spare time and have made some phone calls to try and get a strategy up. Anyone have any suggestions? Email me. Dedication...
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Good Ole Buford
To the left: Pictures at rest area in Iowa.Here I am at Buford, WY at the Buford Trading Post. The town has 2 people but get this. In all my years of trucking, they have always provided truckers with a nice flat parking area, they have wireless internet and usually this spot is just plain quiet compared to the Flying J. Exit 335 on I-80. The place has a neat A-frame look in the front and they take care of the facility.
On another note. I was sleeeping with the truck not running 58 degrees thank you. This truck comes in and parks in the huge lot right next to me and just leaves the truck running. Don't get me wrong, Dedication runs his truck when it is hot. Why, because Jim Palmer is just too unconvinced of the benefits of running an APU. It doesn't matter that he uses a bunk heater and in winter, my idle percentage is down to around 5 percent or less. I am hovering around 45 percent now thanks to some rather slow loads that I was given and I live in this truck and will be comfortable in it if there is no truckers lounge to go to. I mean this outfit isn't bad, but when they preach and preach about how you as a driver are to protect the company by not idling the truck and they can't even be bothered to provide a fan as part of the spec package, I just have a hard time seeing it through their eyes.
The Photos that you see above was taken yesterday morning in Iowa at a rest area. I am fat bellied and am trying to get as much excercise as my sedentary job will allow. While walking towards the back of the grassy knoll, watching for the dog doo, and such. There was this little view with this sort of shangri-la package for me and anyone else with the time to see.
Some people are just negative all the time and they get for the most part what they provide for others. Life is about the two wolves. First wolf represents all the good and positive things one can have in the world. The second wolf is all about the bad, evil, and negative things. There is a fight in every persons personal life between these two wolves. Which wolf will come out on top? Of course, the one you choose to feed. Be good, be kind, be wise. Dedication
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