Last March, my employer had me go to a warehouse on (Route 104?) in Williamson, NY to pick up from a Mott's (Dr. Pepper Snapple?) facility.

I had a pickup appointment for 1800. As I was doing my pre-trip, I noticed that someone had damaged the front bumper of my tractor on my days off. So I had to write it up and hunt down a manager to sign off, stating that they'd inspected my tractor to see that it was damaged before I left with it. So that delayed me about 20 minutes leaving for my scheduled pickup.

According to GPS, I should have been fine. GPS was estimating arrival right at 1800. Unfortunately, it was an unseasonably warm day for March. I had to pass through a few small towns to get to Mott's, and school children were all out playing in the streets because of the good weather. So that further delayed me in getting to Mott's.

I pulled into the Mott's parking lot at 1805, five minutes late. By the time I got parked and walked into the building, it was 1808, and I was technically EIGHT MINUTES late for my 1800 pickup appointment.

At the time, I wasn't acting as a for-hire carrier. My employer was buying product from Mott's, and had sent me to pick it up. When I checked into the shipping office at Mott's, I was told I'd have to wait for a while for a dock, because they were all in use. So even though I'd arrived late, Mott's was not waiting for me, I WAS WAITING FOR MOTT'S. There wasn't a door open for me to back into until 1825.

In other words, if I'd arrived early for my pickup appointment, I still would have been waiting until 1825 for a dock to open up.

Anyway, I backed up to the dock that Mott's asked me to, at 1825. I was hungry, so I ate the lunch my wife had packed for me. Sometime after 1900, I'd finished eating and was a little sleepy. So I crawled back into the bunk to take a short power nap, figuring I'd rest for about 15 minutes or so.

I woke up at 0100 the next day. What woke me up is that Mott's had finally started loading me. Now I had a problem, as I was supposed to meet another driver (to swap trailers) early that morning, about 350 miles away.

At the time, I thought it was just a normal loading delay. STUFF happens. I wasn't happy about it, but didn't raise a stink about it because well, complaining wouldn't get me on the road any faster.

But when dispatch finally came in that morning, I had to call dispatch so that they could swap some loads around to get the Mott's load delivered (to one of our other facilities), as I couldn't meet the driver I was supposed to meet, at the time and place I was supposed to meet him. At that time, the dispatcher informed me that the reason I was running several hours late is that I had arrived A FEW MINUTES late for my scheduled pickup time.

I later heard this story from other dispatchers and drivers. Apparently, it is SOP at Mott's in Williamson to make you wait for many hours on the dock, when your load has already been picked, if you arrive even one second late for your scheduled pickup time.

I haven't been back to Mott's, would never go back to Mott's, and I'm not alone. Many drivers at my company feel the same way. They refuse to go to Mott's in Williamson, NY.

What makes the behavior so outrageous (besides the obvious) is that when I showed up there, I was a customer of Mott's. I wasn't a for-hire carrier picking up for someone else, my employer was buying the product... and my employer (THE CUSTOMER) was greatly inconvenienced by an artificially created loading delay.

astro-turf????..why would they wet down astro turf?????...astro turf is fake, no need to wet it down!!!!