Drivers Council 1st things 1st

Bob and Hooligan

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
I wish everyone running for drivers council the best. My suggestion for those running is to look at the minutes from the first meeting of the present council.

You will see that we suggested over 30 issues for the company to address. Decide for yourself how many of these were even considered. Those that were addressed by the company, had absolutely no input from the council.


Expect to meet some very dedicated people who are doing their best to improve the drivers lot. However, don't expect to have much impact on the direction of the company.

Good Luck

Road Hooligan
Lame Duck Council Member
 

Bruno

Veteran Expediter
Fleet Owner
US Marines
If I get on to the council and because I live in Seville, Ohio I plan to be a voice for all the drivers and Owners of Panther. I would like to work with the council and Panther on the way a 1st out is given at Panther. I would like to see drivers be able to keep their 1st out if they are headed home to take time off and do a less than 75 mile run to service the customer. I would like to see macro 55 made for Panthers C-link in case a driver is hurt and needs help really bad. I came up with it at FedEx after my Father died getting out of his C unit trying to get to his phone when he was having a heart attack.
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
Just a headsup...
Panther's C-link is called "the QC" or "the Qualcomm". Don't sabotage your own credibility by using a competitor's lingo in a Council meeting.

Drivers with a First Out can take their First Out with them anywhere they want to go, including home, as long as they don't change their in-service status to anything other than another in-service status. If they take it home with them, they must remain in-service. As soon as they go out-of-service, they lose it. You can go Available-Sleeping, which is an in-service status, and keep your First Out.

Panther will not, I promise you, allow drivers to take a First Out, then go out of service for the weekend, then come back out on Monday morning with a First Out, at the top of the board. Not gonna happen. Imagine delivering to Detroit on a Saturday morning, finding yourself #8 on the board. You wait it out until Monday, only to discover you're now #22 on the board with 12 or so First Outs ahead of you, because they were chillin' at the house for the weekend. That used to happen, a lot.

Many drivers abused the Available-Sleeping with a First Out to do just that. It got so bad that they changed the Avail-Sleeping to be a maximum or 12 hours. If you set an Avail-sleeping for more than 12 hours, more than likely dispatch will simply put you Out-Of-Service without telling you. Same with the 34 hour restart for vans that many try to use for over the weekend. If they see a van with a 34 hour restart status, they'll put them OOS in a heartbeat.

These are the kinds of "time-in-service with the company" issues that I talk about in another thread, the kinds of issues that a member of the Driver Council should be intimate with going in.
 

Bob and Hooligan

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
I too will call the QC C-link on occasion. Even though I have not been with Fed Ex for over 7 years.

I suggested that Panther provide a macro 55 type message. Panther said that they would never do that. The reason? They did not want to be held responsible if someone died.

Good luck to the new council members

Road Hooligan
 

davekc

Senior Moderator
Staff member
Fleet Owner
I looked through some of these items and the implication that essentially none were addressed is not accurate.
Were they all addressed? No.
Some issues with regards to Canada/Customs changed, and I don't know if all of the trailer issues have been fully addressed.
Could some things been implemented better? Absolutely.
New board position program is a clear example.
Is it a better program than what was there in 2006? I believe it is at its current state.
Is it a perfect design? No
All I am saying is many of the items have been addressed but not necessarily to everyone's satisfaction.
That shouldn't come as a shock.
If that place of satisfaction exists, I may want to put a application in myself.
 

Bruno

Veteran Expediter
Fleet Owner
US Marines
I too will call the QC C-link on occasion. Even though I have not been with Fed Ex for over 7 years.

I suggested that Panther provide a macro 55 type message. Panther said that they would never do that. The reason? They did not want to be held responsible if someone died.

Good luck to the new council members

Road Hooligan

Glad to see someone else was thinking the same way.

They can't be held responsible for trying to send someone help that needs it. If that was the case FedEx would have never done that. Sorry Trutle for using the word C-link. I'm not perfect. I will call it the QC just for you my friend. And thanks for the E-mail I understand now. Well, as far as a 1st out not being lost when you go out of service. Never say never, It don't hurt to try to get that changed.
 

Scuba

Veteran Expediter
First Thing I would like to say is no group is going to get everything that they want from another group period. With that said when you are making a pitch to someone and you are combative you aren’t going to get very far it is human nature. Many of the issues I brought to the table have been addressed not all to my liking but then I understand it is give and take and several of the issues are still being worked on. I think that after staying on topic with Jeff St Pierre on one of the biggest issues that the people I represent have and that’s trailer swapping. This issue is being worked on. Every one of you that has swapped a trailer has received a trailer with problems more often than not. With that in mind Paul Reid has been moved into the safety building and is now working directly for Jeff. This enables them to more closely monitor who has what trailer. Also Panther is looking into attaching a device that will report the trailer number when you are hooked to it just like the refer trailers do. By doing this they can back charge the guy that dumped that crappy trailer on you and you can get paid for your down time. So while you don’t see all of what’s going on by looking at the action lists it doesn’t mean it’s a dead issue.

On some issues Panther is not going to budge they will not make the macro55 forget it. Panther’s stance on that is they could be held liable if 1. Someone didn’t respond to the message fast enough 2.If help was sent to a wrong address they could be held for liable. How many times have you made a delivery and received another load before you have left the cons yet the QC gives a different starting address. The dispatcher would not know for sure that you are at the address that the QC is giving. This is out of the control of Panther it’s a QC issue. Sorry to hear about your father but think of this if he couldn’t get to his phone could he get to the QC?

First out’s are a closed issue we got Panther to stop giving first out’s like candy. First out’s are set in stone by contract and can only be given out for a mini period. Once you get a first out you do not lose it unless you go out of service or turn a load down. You cannot keep a first out if you go out of service as noted in another post for the very reason given. If I am sitting in my truck waiting for a load and you are sitting on the couch watching tv when you come back in service you go to the bottom of the list.You don’t lose it when you are on macro2 or 3
Macro 2 and 3 were also my baby I got those pushed through because solos were taking a hit when we were out of hours we had to go out of service making it all but impossible to have an in service time greater than 70% unless you claimed to be available when you were out of hours. So we came up with the 14hr and 40hr for restart. Yes if you go macro2 over 14 hrs you can be placed out of service this was explained when the change was made same with going over 40 hrs for a restart. This was done so people couldn’t hold their spot indefinitely while not taking any loads. And for Panther’s part they aren’t supposed to call you during these times so when you are ready to roll you should call in and have relations move you to macro 4.

Many of us worked very hard on your behalf, not just on the days of the meetings by the way. Several people have my cell number and call me about issues that then need help on. Most of us have mentored several new drivers and at risk drivers. Those of you wanting this NON PAID job need to understand this will take up a lot of your free time. There isn’t any perks for doing this job besides a free lunch which most of the time it is the same lunch that the new drivers get during orientation no steak dinner yet lol. The only thing you will take away from doing this job is some satisfaction in the small and sometimes the big changes you get to make. We also talked about making a mentoring group to help new and at risk drivers. To be made up of council members and other volunteers.
 
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