Just a small rant...

[Malaki86]

Nothing like getting dispatched for a load that's due to be picked up in 1 hr and you're sitting 2hrs away.

Then, add a 2 hour wait from the time I entered the gate until they had a dock available.

Now add on an estimated 8-10hr loading time to it.

Ahhhhh - the joys of trucking

Oh - almost forgot the 989 miles the load has to run to get it there before 7am the day after tomorrow.

Hmmm - it's almost 8pm now - my day started at 3am.

Ya - love driving trucks for a living

[JBenson2]

2 hour wait after entering the gate and then 8-10 hours to load?
Wow!


What was the product that took 8-10 hours to load?

[Jackrabbit379]

What was the product that took 8-10 hours to load?

Go Go Girls. :P

[Uturn2001]

Sounds like to me time to send dispatch a realistic ETA update so they can reschedule your del time. If they dont like it...then touch glad hands.

[Malaki86]

Actually, I'm not sure what they loaded into the truck...

There is 1,750 small boxes in the trailer with a weight of under 8,000lbs...

The final tally was 2.5hrs to get into the dock, 7.5hrs to get loaded. When they finished loading, my 14hr clock was about 6hrs dead. Now the fun part begins. I'm just getting ready to pull out of Cincinnati, OH @ 4:30am. The load is scheduled to be in Ft. Worth, TX by 7am tomorrow.

I've already sent an ETA update for a real-life time of arrival with this load. The night DM instantly sent me a message that this load 'had' to be there by 7am. I sent a message to him that he needs to get in his car and meet me at the AR/TN border later today so he could get in the truck to drive it the rest of the way in, because running it as a team would be the only way to get it there.

He didn't respond.

Oh well - I'll call the daytime DM in a few hours and let her know everything going on.

Damn, I live for this stuff - hahahahahah

Actually, as bad as this load is sucking the life out of me, this is really the first bad load I've gotten since I started with Celadon 2 months ago. I can live with that. I've had worse loads within a few days of working at other companies, and then continue to get bad loads.

[Texas88]

Nothing like getting dispatched for a load that's due to be picked up in 1 hr and you're sitting 2hrs away.

Then, add a 2 hour wait from the time I entered the gate until they had a dock available.

Now add on an estimated 8-10hr loading time to it.

Ahhhhh - the joys of trucking

Oh - almost forgot the 989 miles the load has to run to get it there before 7am the day after tomorrow.

Hmmm - it's almost 8pm now - my day started at 3am.

Ya - love driving trucks for a living

Yes, my kid had something about the same last week.
Only it was getting unloaded, and could not drop it any where, secure load.
He darn near got a 34 hr. restart.... The DM, load manager where furious with that company.
Me thinks it has to do with them picking up Digbys clients, will take some time to wean the bad ones out????

[shyykatt]

Hmmm.. that happens to my husband all the time; he will wait and wait, telling the pispatchers "Hey, I am here- give me a load." then when they finally DO- its "It has to be such n such place by tomorrow morning"- and its like 1500 miles away! And then he'll remind them that their trucks are governed at 65 and don't run on rocket fuel. It happens to him over and over- I hear it every week. Or, our favorite- "It has to be there ASAP!"- then he'll get to wherever, on like a wed, and the yard dude will say, Oh, we don't need it til monday." Yeah, I'm sure ya'll have heard it all too.
But will someone explain to me WHY you guys do not get paid for actual miles?? That isn't even fair. Maybe RandMcnally needs some lessons in mapping. :shock: (I see I spelled DISPATCHERS wrong- but it looks better that way!He he!)

[JBenson2]

What is the downside of accepting the ASAP load, but at the same time advise the dispatcher an accurate ETA based on your log book?

Dispatcher: It has to be there by 7am tomorrow morning.
Trucker: I'll take it, but it will be delivered at 2pm tomorrow afternoon.

[joasis]

During my brief time away from flatbedding, I was with Covenant for a short time, and I was in chicago, empty, when disp. sent me to the drop yard for a "high security" load. I back under a reefer, unit running, 28 degrees, and get hooked up. The yard guy said no bills or paperwork, but he had a address where it was going..tomorrow am. Ok...fine. Short little run paid well while I waited for a good load, so I went to the truck stop on I66, paid the $5 for parking, and checked the fuel on the reefer....nearly empty and this thing had been running for days the yard guy said. So I sent a message in and asked for fuel auth. for the refer and never got an answer...hmmm....so it is cold...the temp is set at 28, outside temp that night was 30 something, so I set the unit from continuous to intermintent and hope the fuel lasts.

Now remember, I didn't get any paperwork and all I know is it is a high security load, which are only supposed to go to teams...so I grab a hurry up burger so no one steals the load of meat, I am guessing.. ...and get a crappy night's sleep listening to a sick reefer unti crank and run every 30 minutes all night, til I can't stand it and leave for the delivery address....I am looking for a food warehouse of some sort, and I am in a high tech area....see the address and sure enough, they have docks. A few hours later the guys show up and I hop in with no paper work, and they are happy to see me!....the load had been missing for 3 days or so (driver quit under load) and please, back up to the dock and lets get unloaded. Computers.....trailer load of computers....this was a distribution warehouse for PC's. I ask the guy why they wanted it cold and got a blank look....they had no idea why it was in a running reefer.

So the driver who quit under load must have trashed the paperwork, and cranked the reefer so everyone would think it was something else. Covenant lost points with me since they wouldn't even answer back as to why the reefer was running and I had to suffer that night listening to it for no reason.

Hope everyone laughs about this story like I did later.

I thought for sure the customer was going to be a morgue and the previous driver was in the back!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Malaki86]

Well that load is done, and I love how it ended at the receiver.

I pull into the yard to the guard house. The guard takes all the info and says to pull off to the side and drop the trailer in the lot - not park it - just pull over to the side and drop it.

After I drop the trailer, I bobtail to receiving and get signed off as soon as I step through the door.

I bobtail back to the guard shack and there sits an empty trailer in the same spot that I dropped my loaded trailer not 5 minutes before.

I hook up, guard writes the new trailer number, and out I go.

Total time spent in the yard - less than 7 minutes.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH