THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE - DFO gets a truck and hops on Schneider's IC Choice Program

Posting from my phone so can't respond to everything now, but got 3 loads preplanned from NC to OH to GA then back to NC. Assuming nothing gets cancelled should round out this week nicely. Headed out tomorrow...

 

Just sitting here about to blow a gasket having trouble with incompetent weekend shift as usual at Atlanta OC, more to come later

 

Alright, time for a real post. What a crazy time its been since I left out on the morning after Thanksgiving.

Stepping back to the night before Thanksgiving, I made sure to send a message in saying "I'm bobtailing out of Sams club to go home for Thanksgiving day, I'll be leaving out on the 29th and will be at my home location, my address is blah blah blah" like a good choice driver is supposed to do. But why do I waste my time? Nobody ever does anything. Come the 29th, my NAT/NAL still shows me at Sams Club in Charlotte, and I have an empty trailer search based out of that area. Great.

I take a look at where they want me to go look for the empty. Pretty much straight south from where I live, going 50 miles past where the load picks up out of then backtracking 50 miles north again to the pickup. Well, I could fight the holiday staff or just go with it, I mean not many places are gonna be open the Friday after Thanksgiving anyway so might as well just go there.

So, head on down, grab the empty, head north again to my pickup. Arrive at the shipper, place looks all but shut down, but the gate was left open. Ok, well my trailer was preloaded, maybe the bills are somewhere and I just pick it up and roll. Check the pocket, check the rear of the trailer, check the little gate house, check all the doors, try the phone number, nothing nothing nothing. Great. Drop my empty and bobtail all over the place looking for a sign or door or anything to help me out, just by random luck a guy and his wife show up (not sure why, lol) and I flag them down and explain what is going on. He gets on the phone and makes a couple calls and tells me someone will be down here in 15 minutes, the manager decided to just shut down early for the day but of course didn't let anyone else know. They were both extremely nice and helpful and went out of their way to give me a hand. A little later the right guy finally shows up and goes and grabs my paperwork, get a few things signed and a seal, grab my load and head north to Ohio.

I delivered that load Saturday morning. I'll be watching that shipper for more loads - they are EXTREMELY light (5000lbs) and like I said even though I had some trouble getting my load out of there, they all stepped up on a holiday weekend to help me out when they could have just said "sorry man check back on Monday". Places like that are places that I want to haul loads for.

Up at the receiver things start to get fun. Gate guard gives me an empty assignment, drop my load and go check for the empty, can't find it anywhere. Go back, he says its in a door. I go to the door, no, its not. Back to the shack again. Gives me a list of other empties - I go looking around. Nope, none of these trailers are available either. Not like they're loaded or in a door or something, they're just NOT THERE. Back to the shack again. He tells me to look for some with a yellow zip tie on them. I drive and look around again. FINALLY find one. An hour and a half later (on a fricking drop and hook), I leave there and head south for my next pickup.

Next load was supposed to be a 30m live load, turns out it was a drop and hook. Nice! Drop the empty, grab the loaded. All these little issues (delays at first shipper, 2nd shipper can't track their empties, etc., etc.) are starting to add up. My next load had a nice big window on the pickup, but the delivery appointment was starting to get pretty tight. Headed south again, stopped for fuel. This tank (filled up in Charlotte on the 27th) I drove at 60MPH. Got 8.25MPG! Yeah, that that was fun while it lasted.

Appointment now looking really tight. It's not my really my fault, because of all the little issues that have popped up, but is Schneider going to feel that same way? It's either hammer time or face the possibility of paying $500 to have my next load repowered. Yeah, time to haul ###. 680 miles yesterday, including the 2 stops, and the WV turnpike. Supertrucker in his straight piped W900 thought he was gonna show me up passing me just before the first hills of the turnpike. HOW ABOUT NO. I tore that frickin turnpike UP lol. Never saw Mr. W9 again.

Finally reached NC. Time was running low, start checking the rest areas. Full. Full. Full. CRAP. Why is everything full on a Saturday night? Time running really short now, its either burn up all the time looking for a truckstop spot at 8PM or try to make the Charlotte OC. Charlotte OC it was... got there but ran over my 11 by 4 minutes. Could have probably cheated it by stopping, logging off, then driving again and let the Qualcomm auto-log driving after 5 minutes or whatever, but it is what it is. Finally reached the Charlotte OC. Fuel up there. 5 MPG. Yeah, I was movin yesterday lol.

Woke up this morning, with all the time I made up for yesterday at the cost of copious amounts of fuel burned, I had built up enough time to make myself feel much better about getting all my loads completed on time. Or so I thought.

So, back at 60 MPG cruising again, I want to see more of that 8.25MPG. Headed down to Decatur, GA and get to the receiver there. Drive up to the gate. Sit sit sit. Press buttons. Nothing. Walk around, nothing. I know someone is here, I saw them drive in in front of me. For the love of God. Call the phone number. Nothing. Call Schneider, they basically throw up their arms saying they can't get ahold of anyone either and tell me to relay it through the Atlanta OC. So, now I have to figure out what the heck to do. Its either back into the street (was a super quiet street, but I know that's a big no-no with Schneider) or, back up from the closed gate, go the wrong way through the other side of the gate that was open, then attempt to blindside my trailer into the employee parking lot then get out without running over their grass. Hmm, neither option looked good.

Oh look, here comes an employee! He sees me at the gate and says "want in?" I say "sure, but it looks like ya'll are closed today?". "No, we're open" he says. "Ok, can you let me in the second gate up ahead too?". "Sorry man, I'm on a tight schedule" he says tapping his watch. "Maybe the person coming in now can let you in". Well, no point in arguing with Mr. In A Rush, so I drive through the open gate, stop well before the second, let the employee open the second gate, then follow in behind them.

Finally get in and find someone that tells me where to drop my trailer. Call Schneider and tell them that I was able to deliver the load and ask if they can fix my workflow. They say yes, the planner will fix the workflow and resend it. No empties, but the Atlanta OC is 5 miles away, so I bobtail down there to look for a trailer.

Not really anything to choose from. Found an Emerson, looked crappy but it didn't leak air and the air pins for the tandems worked. Good enough. My workflow still wasn't updated, so I call in and give them the trailer number and they put it on me. Pull up to the gate. Nope, they won't let me out because the trailer isn't on me. COME ON. Workflow still not updated, but the drop relay task at the Schneider OC shows a pickup empty task as well. Decide to just fill that crap out and put in the trailer number, if Schneider isn't going to do their job and update my workflow its not my fault if they get confused by what I send in.

Fill that out, sit and wait for it to send messages showing the DVIR reports on that trailer so I know its on me. Never does, but I get a phone call from the lady that put the trailer on me, she says that trailer isn't in service any more. THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW. THANKS ATLANTA FOR PILING ALL THE CRAP YOU PLAN TO SELL WITH OTHER CRAP IN THE YARD, DON'T FLAG IT OR TAG IT OR LOCK THE KINGPIN OR STRIP THE NUMBERS OFF OR ANYTHING. JUST "BE" THE CLASSIC CRAPHOLE ATLANTA OC.

Ok, by now my patience is wearing really thin. I've wasted an hour and a half looking for a trailer here and sitting on hold with numerous weekend support shift people and all that time I made up yesterday driving at warp speed basically watching fuel pour out of my stack still in liquid form is all for nothing.

Call in. Ask if I can bobtail. No, you didn't send in the exception. I CAN'T SEND IN THE ******* EXCEPTION BECAUSE HALF MY WORKFLOW IS JUST TOTAL CRAP THAT YOU GUYS DON'T FIX. He tells me hes sending another pickup empty task and to send the exception and then wait. CAN I JUST FRICKING BOBTAIL? I'm running out of time burning up my day. No because you didn't send the exception. OH MY GOD GIVE ME A BREAK.

20 minutes later new task shows up. Send exception. Wait another 15 minutes. Get sent to Lowes to pick up an empty trailer. A good 30 miles out of route. WHATEVER, WHAT CAN I DO.

Reach the Lowes DC. Grab empty trailer. Head north to Tennessee.

Ok, ya'll still with me here? In all the craziness, let me share this one experience for today.

Just crossing into Tennessee from the Georgia border, on some 2-lane backroad cutting through what aren't really even towns but just little areas with rickety houses lining the road. Fields upon fields throughout the rolling hills are sitting dormant until the spring returns. It's almost 1700, the sun is almost set, I can't see exactly where it is setting but the light still reflects off and punches through the thick cloud cover providing a beautiful backdrop against the mountains. I glance over to my right and I'm gaining on the Union-Pacific train that is rolling on the tracks next to me. I catch up with the last car and continue slowly passing it as I follow the road.
Ahead, the tracks cross under the bridge that I'm driving over. The train is now on my left. Its about 55* out, I have my window down am enjoying the cool fresh air. I am still slowly passing the trains. It dips down into a valley behind the houses to my left. Finally, it approaches a crossing and the engineer lets loose on the train horn. The sound that horn made as it echoed out of that valley, along with the "chuclunk chuclunk chuclunk" of the cars on the track made every hair on my arms stand on end. It was just way too cool.

BGRRAWWWWWWWWWW goes the jake brake, interrupting my moment of trainquility, I gear down angrily as Jim-Bob in his Ferd F-Teenthousand slams on his brakes and makes an unsignaled turn ahead of me.

Alright, back to the tasks at hand.

Finally reach the shipper. Absolutely MASSIVE plant in the middle of nowhere. Throw on the 4-ways and go by every intersection at 5MPH aiming my tractor with the high-beams on at the signs trying to see where I'm supposed to go. Finally get there, finally figure out how to reach the guy at the gate to let me through, he gives me instructions and I pull in. Go the little shack, look for my bills. In the Schneider slot? Not my load. Check all the others to see if they got mixed in. Nope, not here either. Call the phone number. Can't get through to anyone. No one around to help, can't see **** anyway. Call Schneider, sit on hold for 10 mins, they can't get anyone other. "CS says they sent an email and we have to wait 30 minutes for them to respond" before we do anything else. ARE YOU SERIOUS? EMAIL THE CUSTOMER? What can I do, lol... Support shift guy asks if I want to have the load pulled, or wait, I really wanted this load to NC so I tell him lets just wait and see.

Finally, I find a guy in the yard truck and flag him down. He tells me how to get to the shipping docks and I can ask for some help there. Drive down to the docks, finally find one lady in an office who is sitting there with her purse in hand, texting on her iPhone looking pretty unhappy that I'm here looking for some help as shes trying to leave. I explain the situation, she sighs and gets up and complains about all the computers being off, walks over to another room with a working computer. I give her my number and tell her from what information I had the load was ready since 1000 today. She looks it up and goes on about it not being ready, maybe they didn't have an empty trailer, blah blah I'll have to wait until the morning. I ask her if there is anywhere nearby to park, since the remarks specifically said we can't park here. "Not really," she tells me, "they used to let trucks park at the IGA down the road up until someone took out a light pole with their trailer". She told me about a gravel lot next to a Hardee's about 10 miles down the road, I saw this coming in too. I figured its my best choice. As I'm walking out to my truck she comes out after me and yells "driver, if there's room next to those trailers over there, you can just park here for the night". I thank her, and park here, and will wait until morning when I can find out more.

So yeah, the past few days have been a little crazier than I'd like, but hey, can I really expect any less on a holiday weekend?

 

I'm not sure if your comment about "thinking I'd not have these hassles as an IC" was directed at me or just a comment in general, but anyone that goes from company to IC believing that they will never have the classic "Schneider" issues is sorely mistaken. If for some reason you believed that I was under the impression that I wouldn't have any of those issues, then you would be mistaken, lol.

I understand how the park location works, and if you read my post you will see where I explain how I took the steps to have my location updated - by messaging in saying "I'm going home, I'll be leaving on the 29th, and my address is xxxx". Same thing as giving them the customer code, they can look up the code by the address, as I don't remember my code off-hand.

Lastly, sure getting the green check marks is great, but it is still problematic if they never send the update assignment, as I cannot complete a workflow task filling out a tripsheet barcode to send in the BOL's with the proof of delivery. As far as the system knows, that trailer is still sitting at the Atlanta OC waiting to be picked up and delivered to the customer, when in fact it has already been delivered, but they never sent an updated workflow to me so that I could indicate that. I'll have to call in today and get that worked out so some poor soul doesn't show up at the Atlanta OC looking for a ghost relay load.

Thanks man, maybe the time I have 17 years of experience and get grumpy at everything like moosc (just givin you a hard time moosc, lol) it'll be time to hang up the keys and write a book.

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Other than those issues (that were to be expected on a holiday weekend especially since Schneider seemed to be staffed almost entirely by support shift) I still had a good week. I stayed ridiculously comfortable in my APU equipped truck running my laptop and lights and whatever else I wanted along with my bunk heater set at 72* in the 20* nights up in Ohio. I got home for Thanksgiving with my family. After delivering this load I'll have done about $3800 gross for the pay period including taking a day off for Thanksgiving. After delivering this load I'll be close to home, so I might swing by for a day. Because I can. And, even after playing some catch-up for the 4 days my truck was down while I made repairs, I should still be brining home a paycheck at a minimum 3x larger than I ever made as a company driver. Sure, I'll write down my experiences here. But will I complain? Absolutely NOT. I'm happy as can be.