Stevens Transport Aviary . . cont'

Wasted six hours of daylight waiting on a repower that wasted six of the same hours across the street simply because dispatch did not notify both drivers of the repower location and NEITHER of the drivers bothered to get the other drivers contact info til the day had been wasted.
Topping this is the fact that i am busting my assets to get to.....Indiana.
Indiana...only west if you are east of it and daylight savings is expired.

 

Your trainer should have known to get other drivers contact info. Failure on his/her part.
Dispatch tells you the other driver is an hour away. You call the driver and find out he is 350 miles away. You have already been up 12 hours, and on the clock for 9 hrs.
Now, how the heck are you supposed to work this out???
Learn NOW, don't wait til your out on your own.

And as for direction you can run. If you are on the west coast, you can only run east. If you are on the east coast, you can only run west. Any other location, crap shoot as to which direction you will go.

 

Lesson to be learned: When you get a repower message, call your DM or dispatch immediately and ask some pertinent questions such as the other driver contact information, where the load is going, how many stops, when they're due, how many miles away is the other truck, the repower location (exactly! the TS, the city, the exit number!). There are some people that set up repowers that do a lesser quality job of researching the details (such as how many hours a driver has coming back over the next few days), where the driver is headed (home?) and more. And to defend some dumb repowers, the computer does not always show the hours available correctly. It is not uncommon to see a driver has 6 (driving) hours left in the day, but when you research it, find they have less. It's a tedious process to research it, so it's often not done.
I hate those calls that come later at night, "....this guy was suppose to be here 3 hours ago. My 14 is run down. I can't make delivery now!". Then the driver often refuses the repower, so we have to start all over. Getting that information up front (you have to ask for it!) helps you control the situation. You can tell someone, "I won't have the hours." or "He's 417 miles out. How do you figure he'll be here in a 'couple hours'?"
Then lastly, in defense of the repower teams, drivers will sometimes agree to a repower with all info up front, but just drive past because they never had the intentions of completing the repower in the first place. If you talk with the other driver, they'll often tell you (the other driver) the truth and you won't spend 5 hours sitting there for nothing.

 

exactly! i was simply flabbergasted that we didnt pick up all the necessary information up front. and you are right, it is a very valuable lesson, particularly in this industry.
i just never have been able to understand the logic that others are infallible, and are therefore to blame when things go wrong that you have every tool at your disposal to avert. please note, the you in this is not you specifically but you in general.
i tend to be OCD when it comes to details. i need them all. its just how i am built. but its not my truck, not my rules, not my game. and unfortunately, i am the one that gets burned on things like this, then am told "well thats just how it is".... i hate that kind of lazy logic.

hopefully when it is my truck, my rules, my game i will do a more professional and thorough job at it.

and with that, stepping off the soapbox for the next in line

 

I, too, would rather get chewed out for making late p/u or delivery than deal with myriad state LEO's, none of whom seem to know which end is up.

 

Choice always equals fault.

 

I always asked for the drivers phone number so I could call and talk to him/her and ask the questions such as meeting location and time, how far out, etc. Quite a few times I was told that they couldnt give me the other drivers phone number because of privacy. I would tell them to give the other driver my number and have that driver to call me. Most of the time I got the call, but not every time.

 

They tried that "privacy" crap on me once... I told them if the number is private, so is my time. I got the number...

 

Hey Emul. I was looking at my QC messages, and re-read your "wake-up call" message... I laughed at it again, and then noticed something... Did you mean to say the danishes and coffee were in the foyer next to the consigliore (a mafia boss' advisor) or did you mean concierge?
If you actually ment to say consigliore, I'd like to see the hotels you've been staying at!

 

Newbie question.... for future reference....

Where the h*ll is there to park in Wichita, KS
Truckstop guide lists two places both full when I get here.
I slipped into a "space" at the Kangaroo Express in park city. Back lot looks like the surface of the moon with craters just as big.

I did take the liberty of pinning the Walmart and SAMs I spotted on the way in.