ABC 20/20 did a story on trucking safety....

After what was posted about the time frame he had off before this load, I would imagine most companies would expect a person to be ready to roll when the load hit the qualcomm. Some companies frown on turning loads down, and perhaps will give you grief over it, esp after having been off for 10 hrs.

Prime, I can say has been good though about loads, if you don't have the hours to drive, etc., esp for company, they will pull the load off you, sometimes you might have to explain your position and the reasons is all. Husband has had a time where he was sick after having come home for home time and just left out and a few hours later was terribly sick. He stopped and spent the night at a truckstop. Called dispatch to let them know and no grief at all about it, they would prefer you be safe and the load be delivered safely, even if late and usually they will have sales call and reschedule the delivery time.

It has a lot to do with the DM/FM also. If you grate on each other, then anything you do is going to hit the fan with them.

Don't let this episode scare you away, just know that this is the way the business works and what they expect. The easier you are to adapt to all types of sleeping and driving hours the better you will be. Those who sometimes complain about not making money are the ones who try to work 9-5 and it just doesn't work that way.

 

Another fact nobody has mentioned is he fact he chose to pick his battle with night dispatch. Anybody that has been in this industry any length of time can tell you the majority of night dispatchers are baby sitters and really don't have the authority to really make any type of decision so they're response is always going to be do what you can to get this delivered. His fight should have been with his daytime dispatcher and any problems or concerns he had could have been addressed before he accepted the load.