just rocked the boat

In your original post you said you were an hour away from the shipper. You still could have switched fueled and driven to the shipper in time. Once there you tell the shipper that you are going to be out of time, then call your dispatcher. Even the shipper will understand and maybe even take into consideration that you did what you could to get things going. But if your still driving then congrats. I would say try keeping better track of your time. Every minute counts especially if there are bills and mouths to feed.

 

Driving to a safe place to park should not be on your mind unless of course you're in a dangerous area. The shipper is supposed to let you stay if you are out of hours. Next time you might want to call the shipper and make sure you can stay on their lot for 10 hours. Or call dispatch and have them make the call. They might have more clout when they call and the shipper might listen to them since we are just a bunch of dumb truck drivers.

 

Yes you did rock the boat a little. But it seems strange they would have you T-call a load en route like that all of a sudden. I mean what if you were planning on taking a 10 hour break at that same truckstop anyway? Now they threw a monkey wrench in your plans for sleep and want you to work when you hadn't maybe planned on it. It's not like it's a preplan that came across the qualcomm that you had to quickly trip plan out your hours and agree to take the load. I say if they spring a load like that all of a sudden forced dispatch style, I might do exactly what you did.

 

Okay, where was this shipper and how far away was the next parking area?

I will not support you on ths one. It's not the fact of not doing it. It's indicating you will and then changing your mind midstream. The CSR probably contacted that customer and told them we had a truck on the way....you. Then you decided the heck with it and pulled the air brake. Now that CSR looks like a jerk because he or she has to call that customer back and tell them, "Sorry, we had a guy on his way, but he took a pee break and caught a case of the f***its. Can we come and get it in the morning?"

You had plenty of time to get the trailer to the customer, even if all you did was drop it in a door and then go roost at Walmart....or where ever. We do not get dinged for making a pickup and then moving 5 or 10 miles to a place to park. We're not always going to make it to a truck stop or Walmart or whatever. Sometimes we have to be a little creative in where we park. Sometimes we don't get to stay where the amenities are. That's truckin'. Ask some of our flatbed brothers and sisters about places they've laid over.

You may not want to hear all this, but it's the facts. Now, I will most likely be one of the drivers who will have to repair the relationship we have with this customer...who puts freight in our trailers and keeps us rolling so we can make a paycheck. To the customer's way of thinking, if Swift can't do the job, Schneider, Werner, Crete or any of a huge number of companies can. This is how we lose customers.

My suggestion? Next time this happens, send in your Macro 9, check the "other" and tell them you're sick.

 

I agree 100 %

 

or next time, when they tell you to t-call the load at a truck stop, then give you another load, you ask the specifics on the next load, and if it is 'too close' for comfort, you tell them i'll keep the load i've got, and give the 'too close' load to the other driver who was orig. picking up the load. dont get a ticket because a planner or expeditor didn't do their job well enough....i sure wouldn't