BigRed32771
Expert Expediter
I just wanted to pass this along to other FECC drivers who are offered loads going to or from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Because KSC gets their mail through a post office zip code in Orlando, all load information related to their location is wrong. Following the city to city routing to get there, for example, will drop you off in the middle of downtown Orlando, about 50 miles away from the space center gate. I have repeatedly spoken to dispatchers and my contractor coordinator, but nothing changes. Now I know why.
My CC let me know that no matter how often drivers complain about this, the company has no desire to change things. To do so they would have to charge KSC more for the additional distance calculated for most loads, and they don't want to rock the boat. I have made it clear that I regard this as forcing the drivers to subsidize this particular customer; we don't get the proper amount of pay for the proper amount of loaded miles, we don't get the FSC for that distance, and if we are deadheading in there to make pick-up we are not paid for the proper amount of miles for that either. In addition, because the routing is based on going to downtown Orlando, the odds are that the recommended route will be down I-75 and the Florida Turnpike/CR408 combination which is farther than across I-10 and down I-95 and has tolls to be paid. An additional nasty complication is that because the practical miles is about 50 miles less than actual, the calculated time allowed for the run is always tight (I was told about one team that accepted a KSC pickup while sitting in Orlando and got running late messages and a service failure for failing to arrive on-time because the system said they were only 1 mile from pick-up instead of the 50 or so actual miles; yes, the CC did take it off their record, but I'd have been P/O'd royally over that kind of treatment). If a driver is not familiar with the area, like I am since I've lived there for over 10 years, the driver stands a good chance of being totally lost because there is no connection between the city-to-city and local directions (50 miles away).
I'm quite sure that there has to be something in the system which allows for a different billing address from the ship-to address. My CC recognized that the company would not allow a situation to exist where I could ship something from Green OH to my place in FL but only pay for a load from Green to Canton simply because I had a mailing address in Canton. The reality is that the company knows this is a problem and chooses not to fix it because it might cause them to have to raise the rate they charge for loads to and from KSC, and they are essentially forcing drivers who take these loads to subsidize the customer by taking less pay for the load than should be charged/paid.
Don't get me wrong; I like going to KSC. But I don't like being screwed by the company for the privilege. In order for me to take loads in and out of there from now on, the dispatcher will have to adjust the load pay to reflect the actual mileage both ways, including FSC, or I will refuse the load on principle.
You decide how you want to handle this for your businesses, but at least you should know the facts.
Because KSC gets their mail through a post office zip code in Orlando, all load information related to their location is wrong. Following the city to city routing to get there, for example, will drop you off in the middle of downtown Orlando, about 50 miles away from the space center gate. I have repeatedly spoken to dispatchers and my contractor coordinator, but nothing changes. Now I know why.
My CC let me know that no matter how often drivers complain about this, the company has no desire to change things. To do so they would have to charge KSC more for the additional distance calculated for most loads, and they don't want to rock the boat. I have made it clear that I regard this as forcing the drivers to subsidize this particular customer; we don't get the proper amount of pay for the proper amount of loaded miles, we don't get the FSC for that distance, and if we are deadheading in there to make pick-up we are not paid for the proper amount of miles for that either. In addition, because the routing is based on going to downtown Orlando, the odds are that the recommended route will be down I-75 and the Florida Turnpike/CR408 combination which is farther than across I-10 and down I-95 and has tolls to be paid. An additional nasty complication is that because the practical miles is about 50 miles less than actual, the calculated time allowed for the run is always tight (I was told about one team that accepted a KSC pickup while sitting in Orlando and got running late messages and a service failure for failing to arrive on-time because the system said they were only 1 mile from pick-up instead of the 50 or so actual miles; yes, the CC did take it off their record, but I'd have been P/O'd royally over that kind of treatment). If a driver is not familiar with the area, like I am since I've lived there for over 10 years, the driver stands a good chance of being totally lost because there is no connection between the city-to-city and local directions (50 miles away).
I'm quite sure that there has to be something in the system which allows for a different billing address from the ship-to address. My CC recognized that the company would not allow a situation to exist where I could ship something from Green OH to my place in FL but only pay for a load from Green to Canton simply because I had a mailing address in Canton. The reality is that the company knows this is a problem and chooses not to fix it because it might cause them to have to raise the rate they charge for loads to and from KSC, and they are essentially forcing drivers who take these loads to subsidize the customer by taking less pay for the load than should be charged/paid.
Don't get me wrong; I like going to KSC. But I don't like being screwed by the company for the privilege. In order for me to take loads in and out of there from now on, the dispatcher will have to adjust the load pay to reflect the actual mileage both ways, including FSC, or I will refuse the load on principle.
You decide how you want to handle this for your businesses, but at least you should know the facts.