Thanks BD; my biggest problem with some of these companies, is that the people in charge receive no formal training, and have no business doing the job the are assigned. Ala, my former P&D manager, used to be the old safety manager, and had no clue what was involved with P&D. The sort would routinely run too long, they would 'flex' stops onto us, when we were running way over capacity already. 'Flex' is FXG speak for adding stops from a neighboring route, to ease the other driver's burden, and was usually done when a driver was on vacation and the swing guy was covering the route.

Funny, isn't it; when these Nazi types hear the words 'Police' or 'DOT', they suddenly forget what they were arguing about! Sucks that it has to come to that sometimes. And your dispatchers, asking you to pickup 45k with a single axle Daycab! Nice!!

Now, if the outbound staff were smart, they'd load the stuff going farthest away first. That cuts down on the handling.

"Some"??? I've seen maybe 2 that cared in the least.

Well, when I puck up shipments like that I write "Unprotected freight" on the bill. That makes the company not responsible if it gets destroyed.

That's why they put stickers on the freight that say "Do not top load", although they don't mean much to someone who can't read.

That's one bad thing about where I work, all spring ride trailers, which doesn't do the freight any favors. Pallets and boxes tend to get crushed.

People often say to me "You did a good job getting this thing from here from ..." wherever, when I only brought from Baltimore.

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Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

Yes, we are SUPPOSED to do that as well. Of course, that doesn't always get done. Some of the drivers are almost as smart as the dock help!.

Yep, it's really cute how they can sash down those little cones on the top of the no top load pallets by setting a ton or so of freight on top of them!

Something else I like to do is to keep a measuring tape handy. I kept for linehaul because of morons who wanted to bring me 53 footers with the axles slid all the way back.

Now, it gets used for big stuff. If someone wants to make ME pick up oversize freight they're gonna pay for it. Than maybe in the future they'll give that junk to some other company. That makes me wonder how often people get away with shipping stuff on the cheap by just putting "1 skid" on the bill, and then getting charged for a standard size skid.

Well, not if it goes on MY truck.

I imagine someone somewhere in a high place will get real tired real fast of paying freight claims for stuff that was top loaded when it has "do not top load" stickers all over it.

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Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

Yeah, I do that as well. I'm probably NOT the most popular P & D driver my company has, but at least I try to keep the shippers honest.


Oh yeah, they are real tired of it. But they don't seem to have the ba**s to do anything about it. They have such a hard time finding dock workers. Perhaps if they would pay them decently and treat them like humans instead of slaves. . .

Another thing that really gripes me - I have one customer that is a regular. The receiving clerk there has to be the dumbest, most ineffective nincompoop that I've ever seen. They want their freight early. . .Who doesn't??
So this morning I get there at 8:30 and their gates still aren't open. Our hero couldn't find the key???? After he finally gets his head out of his um you know, and gets the gate open, he has me back into the dock.
I back in, then go into the receiving area. It is absolutely packed with freight, no way in hell they are gonna get me unloaded without at least an hour worth of clean up. And of course, they have a lot on my truck, and I don't have any way of working around one oversize pallet.
So I tell him, look, I don't have time for this. Lets off load this thing in the yard, then you can deal with it at your leisure, and I can be on to my other stops who are screaming for their freight. Well, of course he can't do that, until I talk to his boss.
So now, he tells me to pull out into the yard and he will get to me in a minute. Of course, since he is now mad at me, his minute is a half hour, and I'm again headed in to talk to his boss. He sees where I am headed and rolls up on the fork lift saying "where are YOU going, I gotta get you unloaded."

So we finally got his crap off the truck, and one pallet is slightly busted up. NOT the freight, just the pallet itself. In fact, the shrink wrap is totally intact, with the shippers sealing tape all around it. So dipwad signs the delivery receipt, noting that one pallet is damaged, and has items missing. I asked him how he arrived at that conclusion since he did not break it down and check it against the packing list.
He says "I don't have time to check it in now." Knowing that giving him a kunckle sandwich would mean my job, I just took the DR and noted on it that the pallet itself was damaged, no apparent damage to freight and SW is intact with the shippers tape.

ARG and it's only WEDNESDAY!

Sorry for the rant, I just needed to unload a tad bit here. . .

That's where I'm thankful for my liftgate.

"Just sign here, I'll unload it myself, and have a nice day."

Like I always say. if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

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Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

Yeah, I know where your coming from

Having worked as an unloader for UPS in the past, boxes in trailers fall apart, people pack 40 pound boxes of screws in small packages, that break open....Pay/hrs aren't very acceptable.....and a little to much stress will cause unloaders to throw broken packages at each other. Or kick field goals with packages.....Best thing to do is make sure your package is unbreakable...easy to read......and helpfulll....possibly toss a breakable/fragile sticker on it.....and pray.....

That is because UPS has it coded into the barcode. the driver can not release the package without a signature. When the driver scans the bar code, it automatically alerts him to the sig req status. Something must be entered on the sig pad, even if only a "dot" before the driver can "stop complete" and go on to his next stop.

I aggree with you there..But Also DHL is far worse then the other two.

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Unite and support the Truckers Strike and take no grief from anyone official...

Buckle up for for your life...

We Need to Restore order in this Country