Watkins & Shepard - The Adventure Begins October 8th

Discussion in 'Watkins & Shepard' started by BigRedBigRig, Oct 3, 2012.

  1. BigRedBigRig

    BigRedBigRig Light Load Member

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    Sep 1, 2012
    South Bend, IN
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    So I was in Conover all day Thursday. They didn't have a load for me, so I dropped my empty and I ran errands, went to McDonald's for wifi, etc. for most of the afternoon. I did go back to the truck about once per hour to turn it on and see if there were any new QualComm messages. There weren't. I'd gone to the terminal that morning to take a shower and to talk to Tim. He'd mentioned that there was a load going to the Indianapolis area, but it delivered the morning after Christmas. I wouldn't be able to make the delivery, but that load would have at least gotten me to the terminal by Saturday. The dispatcher wasn't at his desk, so I called and left him a voicemail saying that I'd take that load if I could leave the trailer at the terminal and another driver could deliver it the morning of the 26th. I never got a response to the voicemail.

    When it got late, I went to Walmart to rent a movie from Redbox. About halfway through the movie (past midnight) load routing and fuel stops for a new load popped up in my Qualcomm. The message saying when/where it picked up and delivered wasn't there, so I responded and asked when the pick-up and deliveries were. It was really late at that point and I needed to sleep, so I went to bed (and forgot to return the Redbox movie).

    There was a QualComm message waiting for me when I got up telling me that the load should have picked up yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and delivered Friday. I drove to the terminal and picked up the paperwork. There was no way I'd make it to either delivery on Friday (especially given the nasty winter weather I'd be driving through in West Virginia and Ohio) so I called the two consignees and made new delivery appointments. They both only had receiving hours from Monday through Friday, but the first one was going to be open on Saturday because of extra hours for the holiday. The second (and final) stop wouldn't receive any freight until Monday morning.

    I delivered in Ohio at 8am on Saturday and am now just sitting around until Monday morning when I can make the last stop. My delivery appointment is at 7am (about half an hour's drive from where I'm parked now) and it isn't very far to the Indianapolis terminal from there. Unfortunately, my sister had plenty of time to come pick me up from the terminal (four hour round-trip) on Saturday, but no so much on Christmas Eve. She can't pick me up until late in the afternoon, so I'll be hanging out in my truck at the terminal until then. I called the Indy terminal when I first got the paperwork, hoping I could leave the trailer in the yard and that maybe a local driver would be available to deliver it on Monday. No local drivers are working on Monday because it's Christmas Eve.

    So I do get to go home for Christmas after all. Just three days later than I'd hoped.
     
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  3. lonedragon

    lonedragon Bobtail Member

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    Oct 24, 2012
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    That sucs. And here i sit for xmas cause my truck is locked in the shop in modesto till after the holidays.
     
  4. justcruzin1

    justcruzin1 Bobtail Member

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    Nov 30, 2012
    Sunrise Beach, MO
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    Have a Merry Christmas! Stay safe!
     
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  5. BigRedBigRig

    BigRedBigRig Light Load Member

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    Sep 1, 2012
    South Bend, IN
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    Unloaded this morning. It took me and the warehouse guy assigned to my truck over three hours to unload. It was a long morning.

    I did a spot of shopping and then headed to the terminal in the afternoon. My sister and her boyfriend came to pick me up (she couldn't get there any earlier in the day today) and we got home around 10:30. I did make it home by Christmas after all.

    Happy Christmas, everyone. Be warm and be safe.
     
    jomar68 Thanks this.
  6. BigRedBigRig

    BigRedBigRig Light Load Member

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    Sep 1, 2012
    South Bend, IN
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    What on a map is only a two hour drive (from our apartment to the terminal) ends up being three hours of driving. That's a six hour round-trip. Not good. That ends up being twelve hours of driving (to be picked up at the terminal and then taken back). Getting routed to the Indianapolis terminal was a pain and then the logistics of being picked up.... mean I'm not going to be taking home-time again for a while.

    Which sucks. Probably going to wait until I've earned enough home-time to take an entire week off before I try to come home again.

    When my probationary period is done (and when I can afford the pet deposit), I'm going to look into having my cat in the truck. It would make life less lonely if I'm going to be gone from home for such long stretches of time.
     
  7. hup

    hup Medium Load Member

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    Oct 19, 2010
    Missoula, MT
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    Glad you made it home!

    As for having a pet onboard.. I can attest to its benefit.

    WS is one of the few larger carriers that will allow it these days. Its worth taking advantage of.
     
    BigRedBigRig Thanks this.
  8. Shiftin

    Shiftin Light Load Member

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    Sep 2, 2010
    Central-New Jersey
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    I think there is a $500 deposit for a cleaning fee if you or the pet soil the truck. Make sure you change the bunk blower filter every month or so. I use the bunk blower as a cab air filter system. Don't forget about the cab filter on the firewall wall on the pass side out by the the window. Ask the shop to replace them or just do it yourself and carry a spare.
     
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  9. BigRedBigRig

    BigRedBigRig Light Load Member

    188
    95
    Sep 1, 2012
    South Bend, IN
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    My sister and her boyfriend drove me back to the terminal Sunday night. I'd told Watkins and Shepard that I'd be back on-duty at 8am Monday morning. I'd talked to the dispatcher twice over my hometime because she kept wanting to confirm that I would, in fact, be back when I said I'd be.

    The load didn't pick up until 6pm, so I didn't have much to do for the day. I rehooked to the same empty trailer I'd brought in. Then I drove to a truckstop that was about half an hour from the pick up and waited there for most of the afternoon. I got to the shipper about an hour before my load was supposed to be ready (I'd called earlier in the day hoping it would be done early, but no one answered the phone or returned the voicemails I'd left). It was ready. It was just supposed to be a drop and hook, then I was supposed to scale the load and adjust the tandems before checking out with the guard at the exit gate.

    For once, I didn't have any trouble with my tandems.... both the tandems on my empty and the ones on my loaded trailer slid without any problem. There was another WS driver picking up the trailer right next to me and we had a horrible time getting his tandems to slide. We spent more than an hour at it. Even after we finally got the pins to retract, the tandems still wouldn't slide. He did eventually get them to move, but the amount of time we spent doing it was ridiculous.

    The scale they had weighed each group of axles. I drove across the scale and my load weighed in at over 81,000 pounds. I pulled off to the side and went to talk to the guy at the guard shack. He just mumbled something about how I must have scaled it wrong and told me to do it again.

    Now, I could understand how the weight would be wrong if I didn't have my tires all the way on the platform or something. In that case, the load would scale less than it actually weighed. How on earth would I make it weight more? Witchcraft?

    I scaled it three more times. The last time, I had the other WS driver stand next to the platform to tell me when my tires were exactly centered. I then returned to the guardshack with my four scale tickets, each showing a weight greater than 81,000 pounds. I told him that I couldn't take the load as it was and that I'd probably need to rehook to my empty.

    I called the on-call dispatch number and left a voicemail asking what to do. I also sent them a QualComm message. When I did manage to connect with them, it took a few minutes to explain that I wasn't overweight on my steer axles, but that the entire truck, regardless of weight distribution, weighed too much. I did get it as balanced as possible on my last scale. I had 12+k on my steers and 34+k each on my drives and tandems.

    By this time, it was after 7pm on New Year's Eve. There wasn't any warehouse staff there to take freight off. Nor would there be anyone there tomorrow because it was a holiday. Dispatch told me to take the empty and to qc the area dispatcher to let her know what happened. So I slid the tandems and put the loaded trailer into the bay they asked me to (along with the seal, paperwork and the scale tickets), rehooked to my empty, checked out with the guard and drove to a rest stop about ten miles away. And that was my day. An hour and a half of driving and a few hours at the shipper.

    And this afternoon, for a lovely change of pace, I drove five miles to a Love's so I could have hot coffee and wifi.

    What will probably end up happening is that by tomorrow morning, they will have taken some freight off the truck and I'll just be taking the same load I came in for. But with two days of wasted time in between.
     
  10. justcruzin1

    justcruzin1 Bobtail Member

    42
    6
    Nov 30, 2012
    Sunrise Beach, MO
    0
    That's a heck of a way to start the new year! It'll get better.
     
    BigRedBigRig Thanks this.
  11. walstib

    walstib Darkstar

    Holiday time seems to bring on issues as people's heads aren't in the game. If u can't reach Indy terminal next time call Missoula. I've had the Indy terminal tell me no then I had Missoula change their minds. Just an FYI.
     
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