Anheuser-Busch Nightmare

I don't do "welfare water." Always had a preloaded trailer when I did though...

 

That sucks. They didn't pass on a break to bow down to you and load your trailer. How dare them, don't they know who you are?

 

You should take your DP some donuts and explain that is not the kind of load you like to get and if he will give you the best loads you will continue to bring the donuts.

This is what successful drivers have done since day one.

 

No, sir. Not "pass on a break". Take another (literally) minute and put the one or two pallets on that were already staged by the trailer. Oh, and remember that many times you have "bowed down to them" (your words) to make an appointment at a given time, only to be told the product has yet to have been made and you'll be waiting for a number of additional hours.

This is just one reason unions have such a lousy reputation. Many of them are no longer an image of what they were intended to be, and this is not the only union shop that this has occurred at. In a dozen years, I've experienced this crap many times.

Screw A-B and places of the same philosophy.

 

Maybe they were smokers and needed every minute to get to a smoke zone. Its not all about you, just because you drive a big truck doesn't put you at #1. Break time is break time, you dont know what they need to do on their breaks. Call home, talk to the wife/girlfriend, check on the kids etc

I don't think the dock workers make the product, they just load it. So your problem with the product not being made is more of a factory floor kind of thing. Anyone who has ever worked in a factory knows that sh** happens.

Whats the big deal? You get paid to sit there don't you? Just enjoy the detention pay.

Who knows, maybe you rubbed them the wrong way and they enjoyed making you wait. If that's the case it will happen to you alot, at both union and non union shops.

 

Listening to the CB for hours for them to call you is ridiculous. I was never so happy to see walmart start handing out those pagers.

 

You keep bringing up that I somehow think I'm #1. OK, fine. You have a right to your beliefs. All I'm saying is that AB has a reputation for screwing drivers out of time while expecting them to be on-the-spot on-time. I guess it comes down to a little mutual respect. Drivers get there on time, and expect the supplier to be at least close to their end of the commitment. In ABs case, the number of delays in excess of 6 hours was obscene in relation to number of pick-ups.

And, yes...poop happens. But AB bordered on abusive when it came to drivers. Haven't been back there since '99, and won't go back if asked.

 

I hear you, sitting sucks no doubt about it. Try sitting without detention pay, that really sucks.

 

A-B. Piss-water beer. Ultimate in cheap freight. What they pay doesn't even buy the fuel to pull it.

 

I think that was sure part of it...no DP back then with the company I was with. Certainly having to pay DP speeds things up.

This was very early in my driving career, so no doubt that taints my viewpoint. I feel the same way about CREngland (but that has been well-covered!).

Take care, and stay safe!