Shippers and Recievers

Many of us have no problem doing this everyday. Switch companies if you cant make any money

 

I am sure the employees of shippers and receivers say the same thing about drivers.

 

Man, I hear what you're saying! Are you in a lease program?

 

some of us on the shipping and receiving side occasionally encounter a driver that makes us ponder how safe the roads really are with them out driving them in an 80,000 pound vehicle.

or how that driver got his cdl in the first place.



Edit- realized that sounds kind of mean. however i'd say 98% of drivers i encounter daily are nice people. i can't say their dispatchers provide them with all the proper pick up information though. dunno which is worse, giving them the wrong number for the pick up or giving them EVERY number in the world for their pickup.

 

and i completely understand that some shipping/receiving people are simply jerks. i work with a few and even when i report them to the boss nothing gets done because they are the bosses favorites.

i also get the boss coming down on me for telling drivers the truth when the load they are there for isn't ready. if we're behind we are behind. i'm not going to lie and tell a driver their appointment is for a different time than it really is. apparently telling you guys in the trucks that we're running a bit behind and are still working on pulling the order you're there for is bad customer service.

 

You got to understand that most upper level management in a company considers their shipping / receiving operation as a "necessary evil". They don't perceive it as adding any value to the bottom line... only cost. Sales folks get the business. Production folks make the product. How the product moves and ships is of very little concern to them. Most upper management don't have a clue what it takes to book their loads and ship their products. Most certainly don't want to spend any money doing it.

I don't know how many times in the past 20 years I've had upper management in my office at 10am on the last work day of the month demanding that I ship out 10 truckloads of product so the company can beat their record sales numbers... month after month. Most of the product usually isn't even ready to ship... yet they think you can "magically" have 10 trucks in the dock ready to move on a moment's notice within 5 minutes of their request. We all know that ain't happening in the real world... yet try to tell most upper management that! Definitely a frustrating experience for both shipping clerks and the trucking companies they are "forced" to call for "mythical" loads.

Late last month I spent an hour trying to explain to the owner of the company I currently work for that truck price quotes given during the middle of the month are not valid at the end of the month since most every company out there moves their product at the end of the month resulting in high truck demand. All he kept saying was "that's the craziest thing I've ever heard!" I love the guy to death... but he has no idea what it actually takes to move freight. I've never met anyone in an upper management position who actually did.

Let's face it... trucking is a "thankless" job. Shipping / receiving is a "thankless" job. It "has" to be done... but that's about as far as it goes in the business world. Work long enough in these positions and you realize that setting goals and meeting objectives is mostly a personal thing. "You" begin to realize what a "good day" is regardless of what anyone else thinks. How your day goes and the attitude you take towards it is what "you" make of it. Folks just starting in these positions really don't understand that... hence the negativity... but do it long enough as a career and you finally realize how the "game" is played.