Anyone Else Get Trapped In Michigan?

iheartfaye · May 15, 2005

Hi All,

I was telling my wife that I hate dropping in Michigan because it seems I can never get out. Oh, I get plenty of runs that within the state, and I will literally run all day with maybe 200 miles to show for it. 200 paid that is with about 500 total miles.

Picking up a straight truck load last night split between two cargo vans the other driver brought up the very same subject. Has anyone else fallen victim to this? If so, other than turning down half of the runs offered in Michigan, what have you done to better your outcome? Move out of Michigan?

Thanks,

Brian Cunningham
Panther #2635
since 11/2004

whitewolf53 · May 15, 2005

Yes::Unfortunately i have been TRAPPED HERE ALL MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!
Whitewolf53x( x( x( x( x( x( x( x( x( x( x( x( x(

TJ959 · May 15, 2005

I live here too. It hasn't always been a problem. Used to be almost impossible to get away from Detroit because of all the short loads around town. Last time I was there I sat for 12 hours and nothing happened. I live in the Grand Rapids area, which is supposed to be hot but lately it takes 2 to 3 days to get loaded from home. I dunno??????????

mvbn1 · May 15, 2005

I get "stuck" up there from time to time, but I always get out. I live close enough to Detriot, that if I'm there on a Friday night, I head toward home.

Bob and Hooligan · May 15, 2005

I would suggest that you put a comment in when you enter the POD on a load. Tell dispatch that you want loads out of Michigan. Then, if they offer a load explain that you do not want another load of that type. Try it. It works.

Bob and Hooligan

miko · May 15, 2005

I am running out of the Milwaukee area. Usually I get loads to the Detroit area and nothing out of there, even tho I could also pick up in Indiana or Ohio, which is not too far away. I hate going there, and recently, my company hired another driver from the Michigan area, pulled a load from upper Wisconsin off of my van in order to look good to the newbie, so he can head to Michigan. This past week I was sitting in Milwaukee and come Friday, they had nothing other to offer to me than a load to Lansing. I f I would not have been stuck in frickin' Chicago in traffic for hours, I would have made it up there in time to be unloaded and on my way back home since they again did not have a backload.
However, if loads within the Michigan are would be offered to me, I'd take them as well, but my company so it seems, does not have the right connections. So you see Bruan, you are not the only one.

merkurfan · May 15, 2005

Me... Been there since mid-week last week. Been getting mini'd to death, chase it 100 miles, run it 50.. Dispatchers are starting to get the hint. They just send the load and are afraid to call. I won't do them with out full deadhead pay. I finely got one that gets me out of MI yesterday. It's in the back of the van now even though it was picking up in the morning (got lucky and cought a dock worker loading someone elses load. They are closed weekends) It got me a whole 15 miles out of MI.. I am in Toledo.. Bet with my first out I go back to MI..

I will try the note in the qc. I've done enough mini's, they don't pay well and most of the time are your whole day. At least getting this one picked up early I can be at chryslers gate at 5 am when they open. My odds of getting a load later the day are really good with 1st out.

iheartfaye · May 15, 2005

Hahaha!

I can see this is a recurring issue. I will definitely try noting when I POD that I want out of Michigan. I have tried such before in order to get home but it has never worked. I still get load offers on the qc that will take me in the wrong directon so I stopped doing it.

Reading some of the posts about the other victims it is exactly what I go through. I take a mini, get 1st out and just get a series of minis all day long chasing my tail so I am dizzy.

Noting the POD raises another question. Have you found it to be the case that dispatch passes over you if they see the note because it is not what you want, or have y'all (I'm from Florence, forgive me) still gotten load offers which go against the note you have on the qc?

Just curious. I want to operate smarter and more efficiently than what has been working out.

Brian Cunningham
Cargo Van #2635
since 11/04

merkurfan · May 15, 2005

Twice I have wanted to go home. First time I sent dispatch a note. Once they recived it every run did in fact take me farther from home. So the second time I asked to be sent in the wrong direction (I was in chicago so I asked for new york) they sent me to waterloo ia, 150 miles from home.

But I'll try anything once. If I'm still doing mini's in a few days I will deadhead out of MI to indianapolis or chicago. I've learned to deadhead late at night. When I tried it on Friday afternoon I got load offers along the way because I got close to loads that had not been covered. If that does not work I'll go out of service and deadhead far far away.

The problem is, at some point, we all end up back in MI and we will have to fight to get out of there all over again.

I'll also probably put in a call to contractor support. If there are that many short hauls around detroit I am sure there are detroit based drivers that would like to be home every night.

dukesadog · May 15, 2005

When all the auto plants move to mexico or canada , you'll get out of there. We moved from Grand Rapids Michigan last year after everyone we knew ( including us) got laid off from GM and Electrolux....its a dying state. Too bad because I really enjoyed living there.

Dukesadog

Tennesseahawk · May 16, 2005

Merkur has the right answer... take your first out to Indi or Seville, OH. In fact, you could go to Battle Creek or Fort Wayne and they usually have longer runs there. I live in Detroit and fortunately I'm taking minis till my co-driver returns from his vacation.

Being a straight truck team in Detroit has its advantages. There's usually a "cushion" of singles to soak up the smaller runs, making us available for any runs over 600 miles.

I've also found out that if you try to negotiate a load with dispatch and they find another driver to take it, you get a turn-down.

T-hawk

TJ959 · May 16, 2005

I'm getting a little miffed but I don't know at who yet. I don't want a bunch of mini runs either but I'm having trouble getting any load in or out from Michigan. That's rather inconvenient since I live here. .... So who did I offend ?

davekc · May 16, 2005

Tough call.
The carriers are trying to satisfy customers and at the same time, the truck needs to turn a profit. If the runs are early enough, we may run one or two, and that is it. If they know you will keep running them, they will keep offering them. After a couple of refusals, it is easier to find your own brokered load out of the area.
Davekc
owner
20 years

merkurfan · May 16, 2005

My first night out I was sitting at the walmart in Wooster Oh.. I ran in to a Panther driver with 6 years under his belt. He very first words of advice where "If your sent to Detroit get the f*&$ out of there or they will mini you to death"

I always take other drivers advice as 50/50 they might be giving me good advice, they might be giving bad advice. I now know his was good advice..

First out don't mean crap either. Watched 2 vans at the truck stop here get loads before me. And they where not first out. Dispatch flat out lied to me saying they both had loads on. Uhhh yeah, after I had been bs'n with the drivers for an hour? They oughta know better.

mvbn1 · May 16, 2005

I know what you mean. I was in Woodhaven last week, along with 5 other P2 drivers, (Note: I was the last one there), and a dozen others, and I was given a load from Ann Arbor to Lafaytette. What's the odds that some of those drivers where passed over? Worked out well for me, cause I ended up picking up in Lafayette on Friday, Monday morning delivery in Beaver, PA! Gave me a chance to stop at home and see my son play baseball.

merkurfan · May 16, 2005

Your lucky, I got another 100 miler, takes me from toledo north of detroit. Gonna have to DH out in the dark of night tonight.

miko · May 16, 2005

Guys, I am wondering, if you are given alot of mini's, how many loaded miles do you average in a week??? Does it still come close to what you might make on a larger run?

Over the weekend, some company contacted me from Michigan, saying they have work out of Milwaukee to Detroit, and further down south for a very nice pay rate. I am interested since my company is so slow right now, it ain't funny no more. But I was also informed that if they didn't get me out of MI right away, they will provide local loads around Detroit.
I don't mind to run around Detroit for a week, but if I don't get enough loaded miles together, I might as well hang myself. It just doesn't cut the crap no more.

Miko

iheartfaye · May 16, 2005

>Guys, I am wondering, if you are given alot of mini's, how
>many loaded miles do you average in a week??? Does it still
>come close to what you might make on a larger run?

Miko,

Unfortunately the mini's in Michigan do not add up to very much. Like I said, the typical day would be 500 miles driven in order to get 200 paid miles. With the lag time before pickup and moving to where you want to be after delivery, you literally end up running for 24 hours straight. Then, it gets to the point if dispatch did offer you a big run then safety would shut you down because you had been in motion too long without good sleep. (Yes, I have been shut down in a cargo van by Safety and made to switchout).

I am going to take the previous advice and move out to Indy or Ft Wayne from now on if I do not get back out in a reasonable amount of time.

Brian

merkurfan · May 16, 2005

I think I have become the mini expert. I have not had a load since last wensday over 100 miles. And that one was 125. I have been in MI or toledo doing mini since then even had a Sunday pickup, monday deliver one that had NO layover pay. Total miles in the past 5 days 650, total PAID miles (those are the ones that count) 352.. Do mini's pay? Absolutly,,,, NOT. That is why once a dispatcher finds a driver that will do them, they mini them to death.

mvbn1 · May 16, 2005

...that's why I start heading home when they do that. On the 10th, here's the way my day went...

Picked up a load in Ohio going to Chatham.
Picked up a load in Winsdor going to Madison Hgts, MI
Was given a "recovey" from Detriot to Brownstown Twp, MI / cancelled
Was given a load from Romulus to Lexington, TN. On the way there, it canceled. Then it was on again, with a later pickup time. Got to the shipper, and they canceled the load.
Then I got a load from Warren, MI to Kitchener, ON.

Wow, what a day!