try swift frozen foods in col. roll in at 5 pm appt # 7 didn't get loaded until 11 am the next day -n- kodak in rochester ny didn't get load until 20 some hrs later

Who exactly do you sweet talk to at a shipper/receiver?

You don't so much have to "sweet talk", but going in and being nice never hurts. When a driver goes into the shipping/receiving office already prepared to be mad, it does you absolutely no good at all. These guys will purposely take longer to get you out if you are doing this. If you don't believe me, get to know some people that work in this position.

I always tried to be extremely nice, especially if it the driver in front of me just gave the guy/gal a bunch of crap. In most cases, I would be pulling out of the gate and on my way, while the guy/gal in front of me who was yelling about their "appointment time" is probably just getting a door.

Sometimes, the shippers will get out of hand though, and something needs to be said, but saying something to the people that are loading/unoading your truck does not good. Your company needs to call into someone over their head, although some companies won't do that.

Thanks for the clarification, Sportsoutlaw! I was expecting some "magical words" - LOL -, but in the end it's just the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", "you get out what you put in", and "don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes” kind of common sense. Reminds me of this anecdote:A man wants to hang a picture. He has the nail but not the hammer. The neighbour has one. So our man decides to go over and borrow it. But then he has some doubts: What if the neighbour does not want to lend me the hammer? Yesterday, already, he greeted me somewhat hastily. Perhaps he was in a rush. Maybe, he just pretended to be in a hurry, and he has something against me. But what? I did not do anything to him; he is imagining something. If someone wanted to borrow a tool from me, I would give it to him right away. And why not? How can someone deny such a simple favour to a fellow human? People like this guy poison others’ lives. And then he imagines that I depend on him. Just because he has a hammer. Now, that’s enough. – Thus, he rushes over, rings, the neighbour opens the door, but before he can say “Hello”, our man shouts at him: “Keep your hammer, you lout!” (Source: http://www.ierg.net/confs/2003/proceeds/Falkenberg.html)Life is full of self-fulfilling prophecies! *nods*

Well I guess I have been lucky after reading some of these horror stories. I have had a few long waits. One was Paterson Tubulars in Houston TX. sat for 7 1/2 hours to get a load of pipe unloaded. One place in Delaware spent six hours getting a few pieces of plate steel loaded. The longest was at a Power Plant in Nebraska, took out one of six pieces of a portable bridge from Cincinnatti, OH got out there and had to wait a day before they got a crane there to unload me and five other drivers, that one worked out though they ended up paying $600.00 detention pay.

Ran a load over, about 80 - 100 miles. I was told load needed to be there before 11PM and they needed the material right away. I made it over by 10 or 10:30 PM.

Told to back in over the pit, bulk load, and they would unload me shortly. This went on some time, I would check with receiving every so often. I crawled in bunk and told them to wake me when ready to unload. I finally left about 8 hours later.

I had been to Doane several times before and usually had to wait 3-4 hrs to unload every time.

Aahhh National Beef in Liberal, I spent 3 days there over a 4th of July weekend waiting for a load to go to Bangor sub base in Washington... Oh did I mention I was already late when I left Liberal... And dispatch wanted to know if I could make up the time... 14 hours till appointment time and all that distance...

At least I have to say one thing, I had my daughter who was a big Wizard of Oz fan, so we stayed at the Texaco and she was there like 399 times... She had fun at the museum...

Oh boy am I glad taht I am just a tow truck driver now... I load and unload my own freight LOL...

Sat for 31 hours in Plainview, Tx waiting for a meat load to Stockton,Ca
only to have a 4 hr monsoon rain jusy before i left.

Took a load to Simplot in Idaho......got there around 4:30a.m. and it took until around 9:30 a.m. the next morning to get unloaded, then loaded with another load and get out of there...how many things can go wrong at 1 feedlot???

my longest live load ever was a 9 hour one at some place in the chicago area over off of 47-- some grocery place.
at least they let me park there because my hours ran out setting there.