Hometime Parking

I have a question for those of you that do not have the ability to park your truck exactly where you live(or just dont want to) Since, I dont park where I live, I park about 5 miles from my house, and since we have to sign in before 0730 I usually run to the truck, throw a few things in there(most everything else is put in it the night before) and then sit around for about a half an hour, making sure that there isnt something that is immediately needing to go. After about half an hour, I usually head for home (being that its only 5 miles away) and keep checking option 5 either by phone or usually by computer. It usually works out pretty fine, as this is the way I have done it since I started working here, and I know for sure, that if I just have my wife drop me off at the truck, I will sit down there all day waiting for a load, when I could have been sitting at my house and playing with my kids. So, this moring I check in go home, sit around the house, checking opt 5 all the mean while...My wife goes to drop my oldest son off to school, she is gone 20 minutes, and during this 20 minutes, I get a load. This is at about 0830. So, I promptly call my wife and ask her to hurry up as I need to get to the truck....While I am staning there with my other son, waiting for her to pick me up, This Nasty(!) woman calls me and starts riding my butt about how come I havent accepted the load, mind you, it hasnt been but maybe 20 minutes since it was assigned to me. And I tell her that I am on my way up there and will be there in about 5 minutes..She proceeds to tell me procedure of this and that, and that I am going to be late. Well when I started here, I was told you only need to acknowledge the load within 2 hours of recieving it. Due to the fact that, they can certainly not expect you to just sit around for hours and hours while they figure out what load they are going to give you, whether you are at home or at a truck stop in between loads.....if it were that pressing then it should be preplanned!! The last company I worked for really stunk, but they at least had this problem worked out. I would "call" on the phone dispatch either the morning of or the night before, and they would let me know what they had for me and what time I had to be there to pick it up....none of this sitting around BS which apparently I am now expected to doand they also let me just bobtail home so, I could actually park at home. So, my question is.....How does everyone deal with returning from hometime?? Do you just go to the truck and sit there until you get a load, or what? Of course this question does not apply to the lucky people who have the ability to park there trucks at there house. Thanks for the answers people.

 

what policy did I violate?

 

LOL, maybe I didnt relay my info correctly, but I didnt abandon anything. You are not required to baby sit a truck. I park it in a secure location. If you are at a truck stop and are on the board...are you not allowed to get out of your truck and go get something to eat, or use the restroom? I really dont understand where you would think it could possibly be taken as an abandonment. Besides, I was told from day one, that you only have to go down and sign into your truck, you dont have to sit there and wait.

 

I was available for duty....I even signed in early at 0700...I was down there loading my fridge and putting all the rest of my stuff in the truck...I was ready to go, I always am. Besides that, I have never had a bad mark against me or even be late to a pick up or delivery, and that is the way I have done it from the beginning.....If they changed the policy and require you to babysit your truck, then they surely didnt let me know.