My second trip started out good. I got to my delivery on time and I picked up a second load from another driver and delivered it on time. I was unloaded at 8:30 in the morning on monday. Now I sit and wait for a day and a half to get my next load which needed to be delivered by midnight the next day which was 985 miles away. I had 20 hrs to drive that far needless to say I didn't make it on time but I did deliver the load. Now I was told to get another trailer fromanother driver and to wait for him because he was bringing it to me. Well that didn't happen so I drove to switch tralers with him. It wasn't a big deal but I wasted 2 or 3 hrs of driving time that I could have used to deliver this load on time legally.That was 800 miles away. I made the delivery on time but I felt I pressured to make unbieveable dock times. If this is what it takes to drive truck. I'm done because I won't lose my freedom and my home because of rediculous dock time that even the old pro's can't make. Another driver that just started a week after me has his next load lined up and two days to get to his dock time on both loads. Maybe I pissed off a dispatcher some how but I won't go through this again. So I am quitting them tomorrow. Petes out P.S. My hats off to all you drivers out there and you are the best people in the world

I haven't started yet, but I'm sure I'll have to go through this too. Surely, everyone has.

I'm expecting truckdriving to be pretty rough, but I don't have a home, wife or kids to worry about. All I have is my car payment.

Good luck 2u

petesout, if you don't mind saying, which company was this?

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Bob
Unwilling Midlife Crisis Participant

I don't fully understand your timeline there. It got kind of confusing without the names of each day you delivered and picked up. It all seemed to run together into a 3 day period.

I wish you could clarify it a bit better. Because it seemed to me, you delivered on monday, waited till tuesday noon for a load that delivered at midnite tuesday over 900 miles away. Is this correct?

I don't mean to sound like an ###, so please accept my apology right now. There are 100's of guys that would kill for a dispatcher like that. Many of the smaller guys/companies run like this. You're late for EVERY load, picking up and delivering. But, it's not that big of a deal really. They don't expect you to make it. Although they certianlly would like for you to.

Many times a dispatcher will see how hard he/she can push a new driver. It's the feast or famine test. They either give you NO loads, or give you outragous loads. Simply to see how you will deal with it, and how you are when placed under pressure. Not enough miles, can be equally stressful for some drivers.

I left a job like this, because I realized (after about a month) I would not have a CDL in short order if I stayed. Triple digit trucks, 55 mph zones and a 87 mph load dispatches do not mix well for long. I made killer money though, for that month.

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Team Players.....
It's hard for me to play professional team sports. On a minor league salary.

Welcome to the world of OTR trucking.There are good days and bad days. You tend to get a lot of this type of stuff during slow freight periods. Some companies don't have the stones to stand up to a shipper and tell them can't do it legally. They are afraid they will lose that load to another carrier. Some shippers give them a load and say this is your apt. time and some will tell them call for an apt at the receiver. And if you question them about it they will either tell you shut up and deliver the load or start pointing fingers and saying its someone elses fault. I done this job for 30 years. Its allways been this way. Its been my experience that if your dispatcher has to reschedule a load because you can't make the given apt time, then you may be stuck sitting on a load longer than you want to, because the receiver sets the apt times, not your dispatcher. An example of this is Sams Club DC. The ones we delivered to only received from 4am to 11am. They would unload over 100 trucks in that amount of time. Dock space availability was very limited. At 11am they stopped unloading trucks and started loading their trucks. If you missed your apt time and had to rescedule you have to wait for the next available apt time. Thats just the way it is. If you are going to be a truck driver, get used to it or get over it. If you can't do that you will need to find another way to make a living.

Thats my plan.

take it from someone who has been around a few years, you will have your good companies and your bad ones .. you have to wait it out ... try and apply with another company and see how they run you ... make sure if you decide to leave anyone, put in a 14 day notice if at possible and make sure someone signs it .. you could end up like i did on my dac them saying i left under dispatch when i didnt and i cant prove it ...

When I was a company driver dispatch would tell me a rediculous time to get to the reciever, I did it alot at first but 7 times out of 10 the receiver would mention that I'm a day or so early. So after awhile it got there when I got there. Bought my own and it really got there when I got there.

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