Changing again, the rules change but we're not told til after.

Doesn't mean it doesn't periodically cross the broad empty expanses of my mind!

 

That's exactly how they did me several times and I just refused to do it anymore, and tired from sni

 

The best one ever is I just delivered to frito lay in Flint, MI. I was told to grab an empty and shuttle it 2 miles to GM in Flint. Of course it was TA93xxxx POS trailer.

I tell them GM doesn't accept trailer over 10 years old. ICA says they're aware of that, GM is desperate for trailers so they made an exception.

I drive the 2 miles, pull into the driveway, and go to the guardshack. He comes out to inspect the trailer and immediately rejects it because of age. I tell him the situation and he asks, "who gave you this approval"?

So now I have to sit on hold with the ICA for 15 minutes, just give the guard the phone so he can talk to them, and finally everything is squared up.

So I hop in the truck, slide the tandems, go to move and the brakes won't release. In the 2 miles I took to drive there the brake chamber blew out lol.

So now I had to sit in the driveway for 2+ hours babysitting an empty trailer while roadside came out to replace the brake chamber.

While this was all occurring, another SNI driver comes rolling in with TA94xxxx and is dropping that empty. Two minutes later the guard comes over and tells me he has to reject my trailer, they can't accept any more over age trailers since the other guy just dropped one.

Back to the phones we go. ICA is calling box planners, customer service, who knows what they're doing in Green Bay. Finally after going around in circles for another 30 minutes the guard gets approval from his office for me to drop it.

So overall, what seemed to be an easy quick $25 (I was able to bobtail into my next load anyway) turned into a 4 hour ordeal that's a story you couldn't even make up.

And the clowns at Schneider wonder why drivers refuse to shuttle trailers for a pitiful $25. Hell, if they had a company driver shuttle an empty 90 miles at .38/mile they'd have to pay him $35. He gets paid more plus they pay for the fuel too lol.

 

Here's another good one. Drop a load at frito lay in Sterling Heights, MI. My next load was a good paying pallet load out of Walmart in Coldwater going straight back to Meier in Monroe, MI. Of course that was the dreaded "booking you next load out of market" scenario with an 150 mile deadhead.

So I'm told to grab an empty from frito, drive 50 miles out of the way to the woodhaven yard, then bobtail to Walmart. This is understandable because they always have too many empties in Coldwater with not enough freight around there.

But this forces me to drive straight through downtown Detroit during afternoon rush hour, which when I trip planned my loads I specifically booked the way I did to avoid all of the traffic. Needless to say I refused to do it.

Instead, I offered them this scenario. After I dropped my load in Monroe, my next load after was north of Detroit, not far from Sterling Heights frito.

I proposed that I'd bobtail to Walmart, drop the load of pallets in Monroe (bringing that trailer into the market they wanted a trailer in), then I'd bobtail back up to Sterling Heights and grab a trailer from frito.

That's too much thinking for them apparently so they said just forget it, pull the empty and drop it at Walmart. Such buffoonery, I was trying to do whatever I could to provide Schneider good customer service but it's either their way or the highway. Critical thinking and common sense are illegal in Green Bay

 

The empty trailer business is beginning to become annoying.

drop load at the main walmart DC in Bentonville. Picking up a load in Siloam Springs, which is just over 20 miles through the backroads out of that DC. Don't pick up an MT there, they say, go to the other warehouse up on the north side of Bentonville to get one, they say. Sure, I'll get right on that! (as I grab one of the MT's right where I am and go pick up a load.

Picking up scrap paper in Bentonville. Don't take an mt in there, instead, take it over to the Glad warehouse in Rogers, they say. Get there, and after guard makes phone calls to 3-4 people, get turned around because they have more mt's than they want to keep on hand. So, i drive to my parking spot (going home, and back to work the next day). Call in, tell them that Glad won't take the trailer, and that I am taking the mt in with me to pick up the load (which is 1 mile from where I am). They say hang on, while I talk to the box planners. I hang up, and exit my truck. Next day, I just put in jibberish in the new drop location, take my mt in to walmart to pick up the paper, and go about my business.

Next, I am dropping at walmart again in Bentonville ( I do this alot, LOL). This is Thursday morning, and I don't plan on going to work again until after Easter (today). I set my NAT when I booked my last load. They never remove my mt pickup, or send me to drop it anywhere else...... that is, until AFTER i drop the trailer, drive to my parking spot, and go home.

I was having no issues with these empty trailer moves until the last couple weeks. They are annoying, and do nothing but cost money and time, which wouldn't be so bad if they at least had a clue about it. Sending me to drop a trailer at a place that doesn't even want it is ridiculous. I've even been sent to drop an mt up in Illinois at an abandoned excel warehouse. Absolutely nobody in the building anymore, and they want me to drop a trailer there.

 

Finding Mt's suck.

 

Even my icr said the box planners are idiots

 

That is one of the nice things about bulk division, no looking for mt's. All trailers are assigned.

The IC's in bulk just went to the choice plan from what I was told.

I had some very good conversations with the Schneider IC's at the tank wash in Chicago. One of them had the whole mt trailer thing figured out pretty well. I'm not exactly sure how it worked, but the requirement has some contractual rules (sounded like a bunch of BS to me) and this guy had it all figured out. He said there was a time limit that they had for putting an mt on you and he figured out the best way to work with those rules to minimize mt moves. It had something to do with calling in before beginning his next move or something like that.

I just decided that Schneider had too many rules for me.