Well im out of luck for a little while now. Just about every surrounding board is almost full. I had no idea they would push you to the bottom of the line when it would get below 67. No one ever told me. Oh well lesson learned just wish I would of known before hand.
One example of how they actively look for other trucks with which to dispatch around someone with low acceptance is, I once had a load delivering to Laredo on a Saturday morning, 9AM. Around noon on Friday they called me with a load that was picking up in Brownsville later Saturday afternoon, going to somewhere in Wisconsin, delivering on Tuesday, plenty of time, and it paid a really good FSC. Sure, I'll do that.
I get to Laredo at 6AM and head on over to the J to fuel up and grab a shower before the consignee opens up at 9AM. In a rare occurrence, there were very few cargo vans in Laredo, only two Panther vans. I talked with both drivers before I headed to the delivery, and found out that one had been sitting there for 4 days, the other for 5 days. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I was already dispatched on a load out of Brownsville. But later I called dispatch and asked out of curiosity why neither of them got the load (or why they both turned it down). It was then that I was told (and it's been confirmed several times) that when a truck is below 67%, dispatch is to make every effort to
not put loads on those trucks, to make every effort to actively dispatch around them, and if another truck is en route and can take the load, that's where the load will be offered.
It sux, but them's the rules, and you have to know them and work them to your advantage. The way the Acceptance Rate is calculated is by using all of the days in the current month, plus all of the previous calendar month. That means that on the first day of a month, you're dealing with the one day in the current month, plus the entire previous calendar month. You may have turned down a bunch of loads last month, but still had an 80% acceptance, but that also included the entire month before that. Then, the first of the month comes along and the month-before-last drops off the table, and now you're got a 60% acceptance, and you're instantly screwed, even though the day before you were lookin' good.
Earlier in the year I took 3 weeks off and came back in service the final week of a month. In that week I was offered 4 loads and turned one down. I was still showing well above 90% because the previous month I was at 100%. But then the first of the month showed up, and that prior month of 100% dropped off the back end, so now I was dealing with the current month of one day, and the previous calendar month, which was 4 loads, 3 accepted, 75% acceptance. I knew that the next load I got, if I turned it down, I'd drop to 60% acceptance, and there's a lot of month left to be sitting at 60%, so I knew that whatever it was, no matter how crappy, I was gonna take it, because even of I lost money on the load, that was a drop in the bucket to what I'd lose if I were sitting at 60% for an entire month.
Turns out the next load was unbelievably crappy. 80-something deadhead for 39 loaded, pick up Friday night and didn't deliver until Monday. Holy crap. But I was in a position where I
had to take it, or suffer the slings and arrows. I called into dispatch and explained the situation about being off for 3 weeks the previous month, and they could see my history before that, and ended up taking me off the load without a refusal, and the next load I got was a good one.
Speaking of refusals, pay close attention online to see if you wrongly get hit with a refusal. Anything that's more than 40% deadhead of the line haul (deadhead miles divided by line haul miles), picks up more than 8 hours in advance (weekends included), a second mini in a row, not enough hours left to complete the run, you should not be hit with a refusal for these loads. You have to look online, or call Driver Relations and ask, to see if dispatch put "driver refused load" in the status notes. They do it all the time, and those refusals add up and will count against you.
Also, a nifty little tid bit of information, if they offer you a load with more than 40% deadhead, and you turn it down for that reason, and they come back and say, "What if we pay full deadhead?", and you still turn it down, there's a little button on the screen they click on for when a driver refuses full deadhead pay, and it counts as a refusal, even though that's in conflict with the actual Panther-published rules of the refusal deal.
It's an easy fix. Just call Driver Relations, tell them the PRO # and that you got hit for a refusal for more than 40% deadhead, they'll do the math and remove the refusal.
The thinking behind that little ditty is, if they offer to pay full deadhead, then the percentage of deadhead doesn't matter, since you're being paid for it. It wouldn't matter if they paid full loaded miles pay for the deadhead, but just getting full deadhead pay doesn't make it profitable. If you're deadheading 95 miles for 200 loaded (48% DH), and the FSC on the loaded miles is low-ish, then you're gonna take a bath on that load, and depending on your MPG and CPM, you might even lose money. If the FSC is enough to make up the difference between the deadhead pay and your Cost Per Mile for
all miles, then you're good to go, otherwise not so much.
If you go to the Driver Web and them page down the "News You Can Use" to the 4th page, 04/13/2009, you will see "New Refusals and Non Refusals", which states the policy.
Driver Refusals - will affect accept%
-Driver verbally, electronically, refuses the shipment
-Load picks up within 8 hours
-No Response from driver within 10 minutes of load offer picking up within 8 hours
-Drivers actions (breakdown, violations of hours-driver fault) prevents on-time p/u-delivery
Non-Refusals - will not affect accept%
-Load offer is more than 8 hours in advance (also applies to weekends)
-Driver does not have hours to complete run
-Reduced Rate Offer-less than contracted rate offered
-DH is over 40% of the loaded miles
-2nd Mini offer in a row
-Driver on Hometyme and load does not go to or towards home state
If you have any questions on any of these items please contact a Driver Relations representative.
Thanks for all you do and be Safe.
"Dispatchers are like anyone else they want their day to be as easy as possible while still doing what needs to be done."
And they will abuse the pее out of a 100% Acceptance, too.
