Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/101364
VOICES Carriers should lead on detention pay The deterioration of pay conditions in trucking since early 1980s deregulation has been compounded by tightened restrictions on drivers��� hours and little to no improvement in compensation for detention at shippers��� and receivers��� facilities. ���Before 1980 and deregulation, I got detention time, but guess what ��� I didn���t wait back then because they knew they had to pay it under union contracts and ICC rules,��� wrote former owner-operator Stanley Lippard, commenting on an October examination of the uncompensated detention issue at OverdriveOnline.com. ���I was a trucker for 41 years, 33 of them as an owner-operator and leased to a carrier,��� Lippard wrote. ���I know that through all those years, I did not collect enough in detention time. Altogether, it would not even have bought a good flat-screen TV.��� Andrea Sitler, of a local drayage hauler, noted in her comments on the same story that more carriers needed to take responsibility for compensating their drivers for detention ��� whether or not the carrier actually billed shippers for detention directly or got better rates to account for detention-pay outlays to drivers. ���The trucking company, not the shipper/receiver, should set the detention policy for its drivers,��� she wrote. ���The company needs to pay the driver for his/ her time. If the company negotiates another deal with the shipper or receiver, that is on the company ��� not Fleet executives don���t seem to view detention as seriously as owner-operators do. Detention didn���t rank in the top 10 industry concerns in an October survey by the American Trucking Associations��� research arm, the American Transportation Research Institute. the driver. The industry needs to take a collective stand on this issue.��� In our polling of readers earlier in 2012 on the top problems for owner-operators, excessive uncompensated detention ranked No. 3, behind fuel prices and regulatory issues for hours and electronic logs. ���The carrier thinks demanding detention for their drivers will cost them the customer,��� noted owneroperator Gordon Alkire. ���In some cases, it may happen. But shippers will pay if several things are in their favor ��� dependability of carrier, the rate that the carrier charges them, service of the carrier, attitude of drivers at the customer facility, equipment availability. It takes all this and more to command the constant partnership of customers.��� No, of course we didn���t have a schedule ��� I am a creature of habit. I like the same thing to happen every time I open my computer, turn on my television or fire up the coffee pot. I like to watch the same news channel in the morning and drink out of the same cup. Being on the road is hard for me in this respect. We have a vague schedule, but the freight always rules. It still pisses me off to arrive with a load and be treated like the receiver had absolutely no idea we were coming. What kind of idiot arrives at a warehouse and expects people to unload their truck? Sheesh. 4 | Overdrive | January 2013 ���Did that guy just say they weren���t expecting you until Friday?��� I asked my husband. ���That���s what he said.��� ���It���s Wednesday.��� ���Yes, it is.��� ���What are we going to do?��� ���We���re going to sit here until he can find someone to unload us.��� ���Um. This is a warehouse. It���s like the hugest warehouse I���ve ever seen. Shouldn���t there be an abundance of people able to unload things in there?��� ���They have a schedule, too. Just because we show up when our schedule says we���re supposed to be here doesn���t mean we���re on their schedule.��� ���That is the most ridiculous thing I���ve ever heard. Go show that man the paperwork that says we���re supposed to be here.��� ���That man deals with this about 90 times a day. Just sit tight ��� it shouldn���t be long.��� ���Sit tight? Pfft. I���m gonna write a letter. It���s going to be absolutely scathing.��� ���You do that.��� ���Who do I address it to? Who���s in charge of this?��� ���Start it out with, ���Dear Every Single Scheduler in the World.��� ��� Wendy Parker chronicles her journey on the road with her owneroperator husband, George, in the George and Wendy Show blog on OverdriveOnline.com. Scan the QR to read more from her on your phone or tablet.