Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

Here is a rant. Both personal and educational. First personal, just over 7 years I started this thread. It went along me asking the TTR admin for our own folder. Like you can literally click on Page 1 of this thread and see a link of my first request to the admin.

I am not trying to take credit for this request that ended up being a crowd stadium wave of some sorts. But there is an element of personal reward when a simple request for a "home" turns into this discourse of ideas in a very civilized fashion.

Suddenly you got this pool of knowledge that you can dip your toe in if you are new... Or like just f##### dive in head first and dive deep. Your only limitations of breath being your attentions.

 

I said I was going to post a educational point but I just kind of kindled out.

It's kinda a long rant. So if you got time this weekend, it's like a one beer read. Maybe two depending how much you read into things

 

So I accidentally posted the last comment with no way to delete it. So depending how the rest of this write up goes, you may see multiple comments.

So this is meant to be for newbs and the people that have a few years under their belt. If you are a Oak Leaf cluster vet that still gets suckered in by customer. Then that's on you.

So first off. P or D of your job is a timed thing. You get as much freight loaded or unloaded in the shortest possible parameter of time. In the capitalist world we call that productivity. Personally, to me that is a fair scale. It costs $150+ an hour to run those trucks, so the faster I can give or take your stuff, the more money I can make for my company.

One thing I want to reiterate is that if you have a daily or weekly customer, you don't screw him. Even if he is at fault you don't abandon them. This is especially true if they stayed past their working hours to hook you up.

With all of this said, I hope we have a mutual agreement that this logic goes out the window when you are dealing with a DC or mega shipper. These are massive companies where you don't deal with the same shipping or receiving manager on a weekly basis. You may not even deal with the same person twice within a year.

One of the downsides of my posts is that they take up so much time to read. I appreciate people that still follow along though. I do have a point to make

I pull into a mega facility and play the purchase order / pickup number fight with the cute girl in the guard shack. Two re-delivery charge threats later they let me in. They even give me a door to back into.

I back in and set my chock and wait to get loaded. Nobody gives a crap if you are there and how much you flail your arms. There's literally a sign telling you someone will be with you eventually.

I called my dispatcher and she told me to leave. As soon as someone noticed me on the phone they came up to me and inquired about why I was there.
"I've been here for an hour and nobody is loading me, I got to go. I am almost out of driving hours"

Listen to me now and hear me later. This is important. And I hope I still have people reading this at this point.

The person that was just talking to is now on the phone for the past 5 relaying what I just told them

"Yes, he's been here for an hour. He said he is getting ready to leave.

He then gets off the phone and tells me that someone will be with me momentarily.

This is the part where my Spidey senses tingle and go for the door and leave. Like literally unchock my tire and pull away from the dock. Twice in the past I was in a similar setup. The phone call went the same way. Each time someone on a forklift showed up, they smiled and waved at me through the glass window, only to lock my trailer on place with their dock locks and then leave again. Both times they came back smiling an hour later to finally load/unload me.

Here are three things to take away.

1. If you sit at a customer for over an hour, there is more than enough reasoning to leave. This is especially true if you are running out of hours. Unless it's a high paying super load, it's unreasonable for an LTL carrier to waste this much time.

2. If a company doesn't get their freight or their freight isn't picked up to be shipped, they are going to raise hell. They will eventually end up talking to your dispatcher who will tell them I was at their dock for an hour and ran out of time. Now this falls back on the guy that is supposed to load you. They know this, so to cover their own arses, the best way to alleviate this issue is to lock you in place, and thus prevent you from leaving. If you leave, it's on them. If you are running out of hours cause you can't leave, then it's in you. And this is a hot potato you can't possibly toss back.

3. In all fairness to them, they are usually loading dozens of trucks a day. They are understaffed and overworked. From their view, you threatening to leave is probably interpreted as you trying to rush them or cut in line.

My bottom line is, unless your travel agent tells you to keep waiting, you need to leave. Better yet, do so unannounced. Don't let them lock you in and waste even more of your time.

 

In all fairness, some of these shops don't ship out enough to be in any rush. I will insist to come back when they are done (assuming they aren't too far out of route).

As for useless sales reps... That's not a unique problem to your company. Bunch of fast talking, Banana Republic khaki wearing nimwits that will lie through their teeth to sell our services. "Oh you using ABF/UPSF/FxF/ect? I can get it to the same place at half the time and half the cost"

I've literally had the sales guy meeting me at the customer to supervise and micromanage me on how to load the freight. He did that once and once only. When I saw his car parked at a second customer a few weeks later, I pulled along the fence outside and sat in the truck. He came out all frantic demanding why I wasn't coming to the dock. I told him i.am on lunch.

 

It's funny when you run into a coworker on the road and they do something so stupid that shock turns into dismay.

Bumped into my buddy #52 at a rest stop to take a quick break. We are both milking the clock a bit but he was ahead by a minute so he went out first. I trailed him back into Columbia when the interstate turned from 2 to 3 lanes. He was trailing TWC and for whatever reason went in for the kill after the third steep curve.

I am yelling out loud "#52, WTF are you doing?!? You can't take him, he runs faster than you!!!". I actually grab my phone and I am frantically calling my buddy and he just responds with "don't worry, I am empty and this mf'er is running loaded, I can outmaneuver him *click*""

Sure enough... 5 exits and 12 miles later he passes TWC. Long column of pissed off truckers in the middle lane behind him. All the other cars were allowed to pass in the far left hammer lane.

It's one of those unspoken rules to never criticize a fellow driver. But like seriously bro... Love ya to death, but we do get paid by the hour. All three of us ended up at the same light. I was surprised TWC didn't climb out of his cab to beat up #52. To be honest, even though that arse whopping was justified, I would probably get fired along my #52 for beating up the TWC driver.