Nestle Dist. Dekalb,Ill
Preplan said preloaded trailer, so i could arrive anytime. I was unloaded elsewhere. Arrived at 11am, sat at dock for 6 hrs then told go across the street to finish loading, then come back for paperwork.
I do that, then was told to redock they forgot something. So i sat there another 2 hours. Got released, went and scaled, 39,000 on tandems, went back to dock for 3 more hours, went and scaled again, 35,000 on tandems, now 14 hr day is gone. Return next morning ( load now late for drop out in So Cal.) Took them 3 more hours to get weigh coorect for ca. bridge law weight.
All told 14 hours. got detention for 11. hours. so watchthe jerk at Nestle, Dekalb. None of this would of happen, if the sob's loading new anything about the CA. bridge law and weights.

Back in the late 1980's... Wakefern Foods, Elizabeth NJ.
I arrived that Friday morning at 7:45 AM for a 8:00 AM appointment for 11 pallets. Guy says "it's gonna be awhile cause there are about 30 trucks ahead of you". It was a really nice day, and I was getting paid by the hour, so I got comfortable. By 10 AM I was bored out of my mind and it occurred to me that I had paint supplies (sandpaper, masking tape, spray primer, & paint) in the cabin that I bought a few days earlier. I was planning on spray painting my old tractor that weekend, so I figured I'd get a head start on it, and do some prep work.... The truck looked great at sundown with a shiny red coat & black trim. The paint was dry by the time I pulled out at 9 PM.
13.25 Hrs. almost 20 years ago...
I guess some things never change.

I used to work in the shipping department at a dairy plant, and I always felt bad for the drivers. The way that the company scheduled loads was horrible. We were rarely able to stage orders ahead of time simply because we were too busy.

We had 2 - 10 hour shifts, but second shift (my shift) was almost always there 16 hours (until first shift came back in) trying to finish up the last days loads. Some of it can be blamed on the lazy first shift (first always seems laziest to me, no matter where I work), who would let a truck with an easy load to pick, in before someone with a harder load and an earlier appointment. Or load a drop trailer not scheduled to pick up until evening, before a live load that was sitting there waiting.

But the biggest problem, was the crummy pick orders we had to do. When you're loading a truck with 44k lbs. and all different items with tiny quantities (we made yogurt, sour cream, cartons of milk/h&h, etc.) of less than 10 cases each, it takes forever to load. I feel sorry for the drivers who have to wait the 6-12 hours it takes to pick these crummy orders.

But I don't believe it's just the shipper to blame for these delays. You need to blame the customer too for ordering it that way. They would recieve loads like these at least 2-3 times a week, of the exact same products, always in the same tiny quantities. If they would use a little common sense in their ordering, we would be able to pick the larger quantities much faster. Ultimately it should make recieving it easier too. (Some might try to say it's to make sure that they get the newest code date, but most of the product was only made once a week)

Then there is the other problem with the dairy plant (or all food i'm sure), is the quality control process. Production would lag behind and the driver would be there waiting for product, but QC won't release the product without authorization from a lab supervisor etc, etc.

I'm not trying to say all shippers are like this, but if they are, there are some possible reasons. We have a lot to deal with. Personally, I liked most of the truckers that came in. They were friendly and (almost) always a pleasure to listen to. I didn't want to have to make them wait for anything. I always worked hard to try to get them out the door as fast as I could, and I can say that for most of the people on my shift that worked with me.

It gets hard for us to get along, however, when corporate big shots come in and tell us that what we have been doing (using common sense usually) is wrong and we have to follow some asenine procedure they set up... It's becoming common these days not to allow drivers into the facility at all. (Blame 9/11. I think most of it is rediculous, and would love to go into my political views, but I don't like it when other people do, so I won't here). or allow them to even use the restroom.

They came up with a policy that all reefers had to have their box temp at 34 degrees exactly before we could even let you back into the door, and expected it to stay that way the whole time loading. If they checked it while we were loading, and it wasn't 34 degrees, we would get written up or fired. (yes, we explained that it's impossible to keep it at 34 exactly when your doors are open on a hot or cold day). And there were several other incredibly dumb policies like this that just made drivers hate coming to pick up from us.

I was actually fired for not following all of their asinine policies and rules. They caught me 3 times using common sense instead of the rules set forth by corporate big wigs that have never been outside of their office (or even seen the plant. Their office is in Texas), and due to their Three Strike Policy" I had to be terminated.

Well, so be it. That's why I'm driving now. I know it's frustrating waiting for a load, but I understand that there can be a lot of issues involved in the delay, and I try not to get too pissed off. (admittedly, I still do, but I'm only human)

PS: The plant did pay detention time of $50/hour after 2 hours, but I'm sure that all went to the trucking company, and not the drivers unfortunately.

36 hours at the gm plant in kalamazoo mi this was 23 years ago. no det time. and the best part after sitting all this time they came out to the five of us that had been sitting there and said that the loads had been changed for us to go to flint mi to load

did you at least get your reset??

__________________
Pumpkin Driver - we got problems but so does every one else
Army Driver
"Wars come and go, but my soldiers stay eternal." tupac

A couple of weeks ago I spent 22 hours getting unloaded. I delivered a vehicle lift to the White House Transportation Agency in Washington DC. It was the fourth stop on the run and they could still take me at 4pm after I got all my other stops off, which I could just make, then have time to bounce empty towards where I would load the next morning. I arrived just a few minutes late due to a wrong turn but the consignee was waiting for me, and had me park on the street, then looked at me and said "So how are YOU going to unload that?" They didn't have a forklift to unload me with, and one of the peices was the pair of steel rails that a vehicle would drive onto to be lifted weighing 4200 pounds according to the bol.

So at this point my fleet manager has gone home, so getting ahold of night dispatch for instructions is pointless. The company hired to install the lift has also left for the day, and isn't answering their cell phone either, so we wait for morning. In the morning the first call to the installing company was met with: "We were only hired to install it, unloading it is your problem." I notify my FM about the problem and his response is "Beautiful!", and he lets the planner know that I am not going to be available for a bit. An hour later I get a qualcomm from my FM that customer service is working with the shipper to get me unloaded. Another hour goes by and it is nearing 10am, this side of the street became a no parking zone about three hours before, but the cops didn't bother me. I get a call from somebody at TMC, telling me to call another number, they have information about getting me unloaded. That number leads to the same installing company that we had called 4 hours earlier, but this time they tell me that they are going to get a forklift out to me around 1pm and that is the earliest that they can do. They did apologize for the inconvenience.

At about noon an equipment rental place did deliver the forklift. An employee of the installing company did show up at about 30 minutes later and was ready to go to work, but the government agency had to get GSA approval for something or other. I am guessing that this was going to blow the budget for the project all to peices so somebody needed to authorize that. At about 1:15 pm they did start unloading, taking all of about twenty minutes, then I had to wait for the Sargent to check all the packages, break down the pallet, and ckeck off the package numbers against the packing list. I was finally out of there at 2pm, 22 hours after my appointment time.

I am not expecting any detention pay out of that deal though. Since it took an act of Congress to get me unloaded I am doubting that the congress will reconvene for my sake.

When I left there headed north I had 11 miles to go to get back to the I495 beltway. Navigating all those stoplights took me 52 minutes, for an average speed of less than thirteen miles per hour.

__________________
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

-- J R R Tolkien

Where in DC was that?

How did you leave there? Did you go up 16th St to Silver Spring and get on 495 from US-29?

__________________
Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

That was down on 22nd near M street. I was headed for Tamko in Frederick MD, so I think I took NH avenue to CT avenue or something like that. I did go down us29 to NH avenue to get there more or less, I think I lost US29 somewhere because suddenly the street got quite narrow.

I do know that when I was outbound the road did say no through trucks in Maryland, and looking at the map later I was in Maryland before I got to I495, oops, but I wasn't about to dig out my atlas at the stoplights and figure that out.

__________________
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

-- J R R Tolkien

That sounds like down near Watergate, if it's Northwest. Every address in Washington has the letters NE, NW or whatever so you know what quadrant it's in.

When the street got narrow you crossed the line into DC.

__________________
Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

Delivering a load of new office furniture to Arlington, Va.

To start with, my directions were from some little gal that only drove a car to and from downtown Arlington, Va. Yep, you guessed it, wrong turns or turns a big truck with 53 footer just can't make. Streets you need to be on with "Absolutely NO TRUCKS" posted and a low clearance overpass where I need to go, I'm stuck.....so, I'm sitting aongside this highway on the shoulder of the road. I can see the building. I just can't get there from here. Along comes "Officer Friendly"...Ya'll know the type, attitude complete right down to the popular "High and Tight" USMC issue haircut and mirrored shades. I bail out of the truck and show him my bill of lading and explain just how I'm in this particular spot and why. You've never seen an attitude shift like the one I saw that morning.

Turns out that I've got one of the loads of furniture that's going to their new Police Station on the truck. He tells me to "Follow Him"...first time I've EVER had a police escort to a delivery. Lights only...no siren.

I get there, and park the truck. There's 3 more of our trucks there already, and the man in charge of the unloading tells us that the elevators haven't been signed off on yet, and they can't be used for freight...just people. He isn't real happy either bcause he's got a crew of 12 guys all standing around...on the clock...doing nothing too. This was 0700 on a Monday morning. The 4 of us drivers had the next 3 days to ourselves to explore the sights of beautiful downtown. Went to eat a lot and watched several movies we hadn't seen. Made some good friends.

Yes...we all got detention for the hours we could have worked/driven for the day...back then it was 10 hrs...$15.00 hr x 10 hrs for 3 days. We all pulled out of the delivery at about 1500 on the third day.

Big Red