Fill-in Dispatcher!

Let me first start off by catching you all up to speed. I am 400 miles south of Gary, IN with 2 hours left on my day and 70 I gain 6.25 tomorrow and 10.75 Friday. I get a plan at 15:15 that has an appointment to be picked up 24 miles out at 15:30. So I confirm the preplan and rush over to the Shipper knowing I will be late no matter what but to keep it from being extra late.

I get there at 16:00 without sending a arrival at shipper because I haven't been able to trip plan it yet so I didn't want to confirm that I can make it to the customer 775 miles away (Menomonie, WI) by 5-11 at 05:30. I call dispatch because I wasn't sure I could make it yet and wanted to let them know I made it to shipper as they sent me a message "are you at the shipper yet?".

So one of them answers and I tell her that I am at the shipper but don't think I can make it on time but haven't been able to trip plan it yet. She says I haven't got your arrival call! I said I know that because I haven't sent the load confirmation yet because I don't confirm loads before I can trip plan them expecially when I'm pretty sure I cannot make it on time. She says well just send in your arrival call. I tell her AGAIN I can't because I have to send my load confirmation before I can send the arrival call. She responds,"Well your dispatcher looked it over and said you can make it on time." I respond,"When he looked it over all he saw was that I got 10 hours today and I deliver at 1400. He had no way of knowing how many hours I would have left by the time I was empty. As it turned out I only have 2 hours left on my 70 and day from the Shipper.

She continually says well your dispatcher confirmed that you can make it so you have to take it so just send your arrival call (I still don't think she realizes that in order to send an arrival call I MUST send a load confirmation call FIRST!) So I explicitly say to her,"OK just so I get this straight you want me to confirm a load before I trip plan it when I think without even trip planning it that I won't be able to make it on time?" She responds once again,"I need your arrival call!" So I respond,"Fine it is sent now may I get your name and what terminal you or based (I wanted this that way when my dispatcher hears about this tomorrow I can tell him exactly who ordered me to confirm a load without me trip planning it and while I think I can't make it without trip planning it.) So I hang up trip plan it and what do you know. I will have at best 8 hours on my day/70 to drive tomorrow. I can get to Gary in 6.5 or 7 hours driving time.

So I call her back wait a half hour on hold just to get a hold of her. She answers and I tell her I cannot make it on time which is WHY I didn't want to send the load confirmation before I trip planned the load! She says once AGAIN your dispatcher looked it over earlier and said that you can make it ON TIME! I respond look he had NO WAY of knowing that I would only have 2 hours left on my day/70 when I got to the shipper!

She then responds okay I don't see why you can't make it on time so why don't we do the trip planning together. If you drive 8 hours tomorrow you will be able to make it on time. I explain to her that if i drive 8 hours tomorrow I will be in Chicago metropolitian area where there are only service plazas that have such limited parking that you are lucky to find a parking spot no matter the day or time. I told her I can make it to Gary but would feel VERY uncomfortable to say the least to even attempt to drive farther in search for parking while my time expires.

She responds you NEED to drive 8 hours tomorrow as if she completely ignored what I had just said. I responded I CAN'T DRIVE 8 HOURS! She said well then why don't you talk to your FM in the morning. I just say fine and hang up. Sometimes I just want to reach through the phone and strangle the dispatcher on the other end. So to make sure I have my butt covered I send a Qualcomm message "I cannot make this load on time I was forced to commit to it without trip planning it. I was told to talk to my dispatcher in the morning. I am just sending this message to have it on record."

To say the least this is me now and during the entire call

 

I drive for Roehl.

 

Maybe so just really aggravating. I would expect stuff like this from night and weekend but this one was a regular workday FM. I am just wanting to be sure that I don't get charged with the Service failure when I was forced to commit to it. Of course this would happen the day my FM leaves early.