schneider...a year in review

Ya'll ever have a "lazy day"? Im taking one today. Im tired. I feel like crap. Ive got 330 miles to drive and could pretty much make it to the drop today and have a load in the morning, but Im stopped at the OC in Memphis and this is where Im staying until 0400 when I pull out headed to Oklahoma. I have until 2359 tomorrow night to be there.

It's not so much me being lazy as it is just needing to stop and refuel myself. Been running pretty hard lately and need a bit of a break. These 12-14 hour days are starting to gang up on me. Im driving 9-11 hours per day and I'm getting a bit tired. I figure if I can take a half day today and just sit and veg out, it will do me some good.

I think I also need some time to just recuperate. Lately, I have just been feeling worn down and sick. Im sure its from the stress of the job as well as just running myself ragged. I think Im going to take some advil and hit the bed early today and try not to think of deadlines or appointments or how many miles I have in front of me. Im just gonna lay back and open up Netflix and watch The Andy Griffith Show until I fall asleep.

On a side note, Im sure that most of you would take tomorrow off to watch the Super Bowl, but frankly, I could care less about the game. I hate both teams playing in it so it is of no interest to me. I wonder if there is a way that BOTH teams could lose?

Ya'll think about that.

 

We went from an old system at Schneider for getting our loads to a new one called "workflow". This new system is supposed to make things a lot easier and smoother. It is supposed to make finding trailers flawless. Remember that I said that, because I'm about to tell you a story about it.

So, I go on workflow after i come back from sometime for my wife's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!). I get back in my truck at 0700 on Monday morning and sign in and await the load that I am sure to get ASAP. Well, ASAP turned into all day. It seems the system didn't show me as being ready to get a load, even though I had done the proper procedure to get one according to Workflow paperwork and my training. It didn't take.

Around 11:30pm, I finally get a load to pick up an empty trailer in the yard I was sitting in at the Atlanta OC. I accepted the load and went to sleep. When I got up, I proceeded to try to find the empty trailer that they told me to get, to no avail. I let them know it wasn't here and went through the "exceptions" tab to request a new empty. Now, in this tab, you tell the system that the trailer you were sent to get is not there and then you list up to three trailers that are there and empty and it will assign you one of those. Workflow. It flows your work. Makes things smooth as silk, right? Huh.

Once I send the request with three separate trailer numbers that are ALL empty and ALL right in front of me, I get a response that says neither of them are within 30 miles of Atlanta and therefore i can't get one of the ones that I am LOOKING at. So, I find another three and back under one and send the form again. Same thing. In fit, the one I'm backed under is not at this yard and is more than 30 miles away. Im backed under it. In THIS yard. Physically touching it. No matter, workflow knows more than me.

I spend the next two hours chasing down an empty trailer that is never there until I find one and go get my load. The rest of this lad goes pretty smooth until i get to my drop and drop the trailer. Workflow tells me to pick up an empty at the place I dropped the load. No such empty. Cant find one anywhere. So, I was told by dispatch to bobtail to a truckstop and they would find me a trailer. I woke up the next morning and had a message to go to KC, Mo to pick up a trailer there and then go get my next load. So I head there and when i arrive, guess what? No empties there. I'm told then to go to Independence, Mo and pick up and empty there...no empties. They tell me to go to a different place in KC to grab an empty...you guessed it, NO empties.

This kills my 14 hour clock and I'm not going to be able to drive as far as i wanted to drive today because I am wasting time driving all over Missouri and Kansas trying to chase down an empty trailer. I finally get one and head to my pickup three hours late. I get loaded and try to leave...new problem.

When I send in my depart, it tells me I don't have a load. WHAT?!? I cal dispatch and for some reason, the load is showing in my "preassigned" tab, but on my system, it is active. This is a major problem, apparently. I have to sit for another two hours while the eggheads in the office try to figure this whole thing out. Finally, they gave up trying and just told me to run it to the destination and they would straighten it out later.

As I am leaving the KC area, it starts to snow. HARD! Roads are getting nasty so I pull over at a truckstop and go to sleep figuring it will be better the next morning. It wasn't. LOL. I just started driving and made it through. I did notice a small little crack in the bottom of my windshield and watched it grow from a small speck to a large crack within 100 miles of leaving.

I am now sitting in Dallas at our OC getting a new windshield installed. I have about 240 miles left to drive to Houston to drop this load and hopefully get another one unless my workflow is still screwed. Here is to hoping that it is fixed and I can roll on.

I do think that the new system is going to be awesome when they get the bugs out of it. When it worked for me, it worked great and really did make things easier. The trailer situation threw a wrench into it though, and really set me back a little. I talked to a guy that is working on the bugs and he told me that the trailer thing is the most heard complaint that the drivers had. At least they are working on it.

More later...be safe out there!