Attn: Panther II drivers

theoldprof · Apr 11, 2005

My friendly Panther II recruiter has sent me info. In that info it tells me I need a nationwide cell phone with PAGER CAPABILITIES. What mobile phone systems have pager capabilities? What mobil system do some of you Panther guys and gals use?

Thanks. :+ :+

merkurfan · Apr 11, 2005

Beats me. and I am with Panther

I just have a sprint phone. I know it can recive and send text messages. But when I put myself as "avaliable out of truck on pager" Dispatch just calls me with a load offer. Heck lately even if I am just marked "avaliable for load" they still call. As long as you have a cell phone with good coverage nation wide your fine. Also, if you plan on running in canada be sure to call your cell provider for a canada ad on to your plan. It's roaming up there and very expensive. For most comunications they will use the qualcomm so you won't get many work calls while in canada anyways. Family calls on the other hand...

good luck and welcome aboard.

Dreamer · Apr 11, 2005

A lot of cell phones have pager capability now. I have Sprint, and after my message plays, it gives you the option to either leave a message, or just enter a phone number. If the phone number is entererd, it comes up as a text message the screen.

Dreamer

Wolf_Exp · Apr 11, 2005

Here is another idea. Most cell phones come with caller ID automatically. So if you miss a call- it will tell you the number missed. Unless they have a restricted no. But p2 being a business I assume would have a listed no.

Diesel
Owned By: Wolf Expediting
Leased to: Try Hours
2002 Chevy Ext. 2500 Express

LDB · Apr 12, 2005

I have t-mobile. It has dead areas, especially kind of far back out in the country, but it works well enough and they were satisfied with it when I signed on. If all else fails there's a way too expensive satellite gizmo available.

Leo
truck 4958

Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

theoldprof · Apr 12, 2005

merkurfan mentioned about family calls. How do you handle family calls since you might be sleeping at any hour of the day or night?

Thanks. :+ :+

Crazynuff · Apr 13, 2005

I have cingular . When I sleep I turn the phone of if I'm not available . It will beep when turned on if there is a voice mail and it will show missed calls . The nice thing about Cingular is no long distance or roaming charges and free mobile to mobile . I can call home and some family and not be charged .

BigBusBob · Apr 13, 2005

Cingular will charge you roaming charges in Canada, and it's .79 per minute in Canada... if your on a Canadian cell phone tower.

Voice of experience... I still have the $1,500 cell phone bill from last spring to prove it.

theoldprof · Apr 13, 2005

What is a good phone co for use in Canada?

Thanks. :+ :+

merkurfan · Apr 13, 2005

I was told sprint has some sort of canada plan for 30 bucks. Beats me, never looked in to it when I found out how much it would cost to get canada to allow me in.

bryan · Apr 18, 2005

HI
The best phone for Canada that I've found is NEXTEL. You pay a $20.00 a month fee for CND coverage and $.20 a minute. Since they are also a CND company {TELUS} they have great CND coverage. It also has pager capabilities.
BEST OF LUCK

Tennesseahawk · Apr 19, 2005

We've had extremely good luck with Sprint. Free roaming was only $5, and Canada is .30/min. From what I've heard from other drivers, they have the best reception too. We rarely lose a signal.

aquawarrior7 · Aug 29, 2005

We have sprint pcs also. We signed up a long time ago and got free internet on the phone.We bought a little adapter that plus the phone into the computer and I can play online going down the road.

Oh I have a question/complaint. The other day we were at the point of the load where we need 2 people looking. QC goes off offering us a load.Then the phone rings, so my partner answers the phone tells dispatch she will accept load on QC then hung up after telling the lady we are busy right now trying to find this consignee.
Well she decides to take us off the load about 5 min later cause my partner hung up on her.
Have you guys had this problem?
Why do they have to call on the phone when we are that close and trying to service one of their customers?
Sorry had a rant there.

mvbn1 · Aug 29, 2005

It really depends on what they mean by "pager capabilities". If they want to send you numeric (numbers only) messages, then that can be done on most phone. When a call is made, and you don't answer, the caller is given the option of leaving their callback number or a voicemail. The callback number can be used as a numeric pager.

If they want to leave a text message, that a whole different animal. Most cellphone can receive a text type message, either by accessing the service providers system and sending the message, or by sending an email to the phone.

My guess is, they want to send a numeric message. Only problem is, that your at the mercy of the service provider. Sometimes voicemail and return call numbers (numeric messages) can take forever to get to your phone.

I run a small company, besides expediting, that sends text messages to our customers phone or pagers. At times, it can take several hours for the message to get through. Most of the time, the message is received by our customers within seconds, but like I said, it can be very delayed.

bryan · Aug 30, 2005

HI
Call contractor relations: this stuff has to stop.Dispatch has been on a roll with me for the last 2 weeks. They gave me a no responce because I turned down a load 2 minutes after it showed up on QC. It weighted twice as much as I can legally haul. THey gave me a service failure for being 4 minutes late to a pick-up in Chicago at 15:00 on a Thursday.Guess I got to close to somebodies corn flakes.LOL Contractor relations is checking into these problems but they say its going to take about 10 days. And I probably got another service failure Friday. THey wanted me to drive 130 miles to a pick-up in 1 hour I repeatedly ask for a new time and was given it,but when I arrived at the shippers I recieved a message asking where I was at and that I was late. GO figure.Don't give them an inch because their not going to give you one. ALso you don't find out about these service failures until you get your settlement so about 2 to 3 weeks after the fact.In this day and age you can starve in that amount of time.