Now for something completely unrelated

**BigRed32771** · 02-17-2010, 06:34 PM

I recently had a conversation with another FDCC driver that caused me to ponder something I thought I already understood.

I received an "opportunity" paying me $1.01/mile. I turned it down, as well as the follow-up offer on the same load at $1.11. A dispatcher called me and we came to an agreement on a price so I took off for the pick-up location. The deadhead to pickup was about 250 miles or so. I stopped about 30 miles out to use the restroom and grab something I could eat on the run and met the other driver while standing in line at the register. He said that he had been there for 2 days or so, and asked if I was on a run. I said that I was on my way to pickup going wherever and he expressed surprise that I had taken that run at $1.01.

From his comment, I gather he had seen the same load offer I had at the same price. This is where I get confused. Figuring that the pay for the run itself didn't change, and that the only variable was the amount of deadhead miles and associated pay, a driver only 30 miles away should see a higher per mile pay than I would have seen 250 miles away. Is it possible that the system is fudging the numbers to make all "opportunity" offers for a given load come out to the same "per mile" for all recipients regardless of distance away from the load?

Till now, I've just figured that a load which made no economic sense to me in my then present location would look better to a truck which was closer and that would explain why runs which I turned down as poor paying would be accepted by another truck. Not that they were taking it at the rate I turned down but that they were taking it at a higher per mile rate because they had less money-losing deadhead miles to eat. Now I'm starting to wonder if the company is really playing us off against each other. I've heard drivers suggest such before, and have always denied it by explaining my understanding of how the price per miles varies based on distance from pick-up. Have I been duped? Have I been drinking the Kool-Aide without realizing it?

Anyone have any insight on this?

**LDB** · 02-17-2010, 08:15 PM

I stay on the telephone option all the time. I push 1 and listen to the pay breakdown. I then can verify the amounts are correct as far as fsc and dh. The only place they could fudge the numbers is on the loaded miles. Having sat in dispatch and watched the system operate, that isn't happening. They click a checkbox next to the trucks they want to send to. It then flash sends to all of them at the same time so the same info is going to each. Could be math error on somebody's part.

**TeamCaffee** · 02-18-2010, 09:19 AM

If you think that is even remotely true next time you are at the office sit down with the dispatchers for a few hours and watch how the system works. Get the facts on how loads are dispatched, how the computer calculates load pay, and how the trucks come up in the system to be dispatched. Get the facts instead of speculation and rumors.

**piper1** · 02-18-2010, 11:56 AM

After sitting in dispatch for an afternoon I highly recommend it. You figure out pretty quick that a) the system does not let things get "adjusted" very easily and b) the dispatchers have no time to play games anyway.

It sure opened my eyes to how things really work!

**BigRed32771** · 02-18-2010, 01:34 PM

Thanks for the input, it does make me feel that my initial understanding of how the system works was correct.

As for spending a couple of hours or an afternoon with dispatchers watching how things work, well...probably not gonna happen. In 5 years of being with FDCC we've been to Green 4 times: Orientation, 2 hazmat rad classes, and 1 "meet our new CC" visit when we happened to be sitting at Canton waiting for a load offer. I've driven by on the interstate a few times, but seldom come any closer than zipping through on I-76 through Akron.

**interstategar** · 03-10-2010, 10:40 AM

I noticed that the DH miles to the pick up will be from the last poll the system takes to calculate that. If you shut your truck down and the system shuts off before it can report its position, your DH miles to the PU might not show actual DH miles to that PU location.

This is what I have experienced.