My Experiance with Watkins Shepard!

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well she gave the load to someone else.....so i waited and waited and waited and then finally i got a load! BUT its LTL D'oh!

5 Stops all over northern CA tomorrow, im at the termainal in SFS parked between a couple of trailers, i was at the lounge/shop for a while but it was full so after talking to a bunch of drivers for a few hours i came back over here where i can leaglly park.

Anyway i have to leave here at 5:15am and drive 4 HOURS to the first stop lol, anyway I have to cover 400+ miles and 5 stops at 55mph first stop doesnt open until 9:30am and last stop closes at 4:30pm....so YEP it's going to be interesting AND i have to skip my fuel stop in order to make it POSSIBLE to do.


Anyway i'll be Out of hours tomorrow when i'm done so I'll be at the Pilot i think it is or the loves and I'll have ALL night to update and put up some pics but now I need sleep. I ran as hard as i could to get this load there i got it there 24 hours and 30 minutes early i thought i was only 30 minutes early! Good guys there though they didnt say anything they just unloaded me, but it would have been nice if the spoke english I nosed to there "dock" I could sware he said PULL around over there NEXT TO the dock.....NOPE he MEANT to say back in up to the ramp over there lol





American Trucker

 

I'm in Salinas, CA exhausted, 431 miles 5 stops in 14.5 hours

Good news I have time AND i feel like typeing! Pull up a chair....



I started out REALLY early this morning, 04:45am CA time. Found my Trailer, hooked to it and pre-tripped it, and luckily everything was good to go. BUT since i'm retarded and dont have time for CA BS laws, i figured i would slide the tandems ALL the way forward since there was only 6,000lbs in the box and all in the nose.

Well after 10 minutes and few choice words and a good pair of vice grips I was good to go

Anyway to I get rolling out of SFS Terminal at 05:00, i was 3.75 hours south of the first stop....NOT the way i like to start a day of LTL but nothing i could do...


SO since I'm SUPER smart i google earthed all my stops and everything the night before and saw the first stop might be tricky and with the 55mph BS i decided to leave really early. So just as planned I get to the first stop 45 minutes before they open!


so as I set up to swing into there driveway I see a truck. Sheet! So I pull in behind him, and he's up against the dock with the doors closed So i'm thinking he must have gotten their last night....NOPE

Their truck had a mexican flag and all kinds of spanish on it, and it was a team, one was like 50 and the other maybe 25 or so.


The customer wasnt suposed to open until 9:30am. Well luckily he showed up at 9am. And the "dock" was just a concrete pad lower the a trailer, so first the old driver tried to open the door.... Couldnt quite pull it off (i have no idea why) so he decieds if the truck is moved.....maybe it'll open.

So the younger guy pulls up and he was able to open the doors BUT after almost haveing the other guy roll backwards and almost crush him between the dock and the trailer (why he got inbetween I dont know)

Anyway so they only had 6 pieces and were out of there in like 30 minutes and they pulled up JUST enough for me to back in.


Now this place is crazy, not hard IF you can back and IF you know how to setup. So i figured 2 drivers right there, one pulled in behind me watching, the manager, and 2 dock workers my age......I'm gonna make a mess of this . WELL turns out i did pretty good, i hit it on the first shot. when you pull in you have to go to the secound enterance and circle around the building and the dock is on the far side sunken with a wall and a dumpster infront of it and a parking lot full of cars. SO basicly you need to keep your trailer tight to the building then pull forward to the right around the corner and blind side in. its exactly 76 feet from the dock to the wall infront of the dock..... so ya I had 2 INCHES to play with lol


Anyway droped 11 peices of there and left 15 minutes AHEAD of schedual!



Then I get to the secound stop, pull in CRAP! I thought i pulled in the wrong driveway and was SCREWED! but nope they just have a weird locking gate/fence. So they leave me sitting there for 15 minutes...........then open the gate. The owner tells me i look 12 and walks away.

So he walks up to my window as i pull in back and says put it in the dock, just pull up into the corner thats how everyone does it.... ya OK!


So I do and of course the W/S driver that normally does this run has DAY CAB!!!!! So that wasnt going to happen to i put it 20 feet to the left. And get out to help the dock guy unload.

The owner comes over and says "how old are you?" I say "21" he says "well im 90 years old and I said to put it over there, Come here, see that light right there a driver once backed into it so thats why you need to be over there!" so I said I pulled into the corner and there is NO way thats going to happen, and since you have that nifty little lite and a 70 foot long yard and 4 of your trucks in here and I've already spent 15 minutes waiting outside the gate and since your dock is NO differant then where i am I would save some time and unload your 8 boxes here"


so all of asudden mister tough guy says "OH well if you were going to have a tuff time backing it in there thats ok then...."



Then he turns around and says "8 BOXES WTF! WTF is wrong with Watkins Shepard! Are they ########## Retarded or something?"

I said "what?"

he says " Watkins Shepard called on monday to set and apt for 50somthing boxes, so I am paying all these guys to be here to unload this truck and you show up with 8 F****ing boxes!!!!!!"

so I say "........it could be on another truck"


he says " tell your dispatcher im PISSED and VERY not happy with there Stupid az$3s right now!"

and he walks away WTF is his problem

So the kid on the dock says he's a dick, he's always pissed about somthing.

Not 2 secounds later he comes out yelling and screaming at the dock kid about something.

then he walks away....


Then he comes flying back out..."WTF who the F***ks been getting the mail" so the kid says "XXXX usually gets the mail on her way in" so the old guy says " NO! tell her and everyone else NOT TO TOUCH THE MAIL, I WANT TO GET THE ########## mail!"


So then i get to sit there and watch this kid open and inspect EACH piece....


Then finanlly i was free!


So I get to the 3rd stop, easy place to find AFTER i got the right address and figured out which of the phone number was actully theres. HUGE place is in and out, took 5 minutes to unload 20 peices and then 10 minutes to inspect them


Then i had to skip my fuel stop in order to get all this done.



Get to #4, I pull in how THEY told me too, but i have to swing around a body shop and they have a dead car stuck there and i cant get around it. Guy comes out "hey man......you gonna make it around? No it doesnt move its dead. You have to find another way is homie"




So I take a left cut through mini storage turn around and come back from the other way, and back in. Unload while hearing "yo homie how old r you?, how many B****es you got around the country" etc




Then off to #5 on the way I ran into a Ex W/S driver I met at the terminal last night. Then i get there.....and ask how to get in.....

"oh you just have to back in off the street"



4 Lanes VERY busy 55mph AND a Suicide lane in the middle.....WTF!

she says "its real easy the normal W/S driver does it all the time"


So I pull out and block all 5 lanes to BLIND SIDE this BS. Fire Hydrant on one side and gas lines sticking up WTF on the other side.... YAY!


within 2 minutes I had .5 mile back up in both directions, cars beeping, yelling, going around me, ON THE F' IN sidewalk! took me 5 whole minutes to squeez it in and OMG what a PIA lol all for 4 freakin boxes.

Get this, I ask " can i just unload on the street"
them "no it needs to go to the ware house out back without a dock...
Me so i back in 50 feet and unload to the ground......WTF next time i go there they WILL take it in the street! the whole time HER and the other people there were watching out the front window instead of oh i donno guiding me in or SOMETHING lol


Anyway so I go to leave right, and get to the light. DB on a Street legal dirt bike comes down the zipper and stops right next to me fender....So much for right on red (had i tried that I would have smacked him with my 12 feet of trailer tail

But wait it gets better so While im watching him another DB pulls up between me and the curb on a motercycle! talk about suicide! (and yes My tandem were 6 INCHES from the curb he went OVER the sidewalk to get in there, he's VERY lucky i saw him in my hood mirror or he would be a puddle!


Then I get here to the TS and what a freakin mess (this is where my fuel stop was suposed to be earlyer today.....I'm not even going to try and explain this crap. Just if you dont HAVE to park here....DONT



Oh and dispatch was gone by the time a was MT so no load for me, its ok i need sleep anyway lol. Hopfully they can get me moving toward hometime tomorrow....


Pictures from the last few days to come....





American Trucker