If you're late, you're late.....period

made my miles for yesterday look real bad! and Now I am driving Night instead of Days. Just to make up.

 

Well I love them. Get there and out in the time to drop and hook. Just delivered to one and the load was not due till the 10th. And it only the 6th?

Even when I was driving for others and had to do a live unload, I had no problems with wal Mart, always knew how much it was going to cost, no matter how much is coming off.

 

it seems like the last 6 months i was with USA all the WM loads were drops. the ones i had in my 1st year that were live were a pain.

 

I have had many of those days, and that is a issue with customer service/planner. And here is another issue with planners. I have had loads that were drop or hook and found out they were live load or unload. This really messes up your ETA/PTA and screws you on your next load.Also if you do any Wal-Marts don't be even 5min late or they will not let you in. This happened to my mentor once he was in line, and by the time he got to the gate it was 5min past his delivery time. He told the guard look I was here early it is not my fault I had to wait in line. After calling his DM he was alloweed in to to get his load off. And here is another think I hate about Wal-Mart, you can be their on time, but the can take for ever to get you loaded or unloaded. I to always made a point of being on time for every load unless it was something out of my control..

 

Picking up/dropping loads is like being an enlisted man: Hurry up and wait.....

 

I had a boss like that he would tell me to meet him at the yard I would get there call him ask how much longer.

He always said I'll be there in 5 minutes well I would wait 15 then leave then he would call and say were are you I told him at home until you can be on time I will not meet you anywere.

He decided to give me a key so I could start my work while waiting on him.

 

I am enjoying this post I get to shippers/receivers all the time and they say it's a rarity for a driver from my company to be on time or early. It's not an option to be late, if you don't have any more respect for a shipper/receiver time than that then you shouldn't drive, it makes the drivers look bad. In 2 years I've been late just once, on a delivery to the Lowe's in Boise ID. I left Cheyenne in plenty of time, then overnite a big snow/ice storm hit and since I had been watching the weather I was ready for it. We left early (the very second my 10 was complete) and we crept along the interstate about 15-20 mph. I called the mgr of the Lowe's and told them I had a 5pm delivery time but with the storm I'd be cutting it close.......still planned to make it but I'd be close. He said don't worry, drive safe, we're here til 7 pm, if you can be here by 6 or so we'll have you MT and gone real quick. I promised I'd be there well before 6 and was planning on being there at 5, just wanted him aware of the roads. Anywys, I creep along and creep along, called him again around
4 pm and updated him he said he wished all drivers handled things this way. So, I get there at 5:00, swear to God, right to the minute. My wife and I were trying to figure out how to navigate the crowded parking lot and dodge the snow piles, I found the dock and then we remembered to put in the mac 5 (saying we arrived) we sent the mac 5 at 5:07 pm and seconds later we get a beep from the weekend planner in Denver. I kid you not.....the message says...."you were 7 minutes late, I'm going to have to service fail you". My wife could have fell right off the chair. The whole way here the road were full of 4 wheelers and trucks in the ditches, just a mess....and I get there on time, I talk to the manager of the store and he's ecstatic that I got there and wished all drivers put this much effort into their job. SO, I'm happy, my wife is relieved, most importantly the consignee is ecstatic, but the planner says he's going to fail me for the 7 minutes. To make a long story short, I called the planner directly and after we talked he didn't fail me. My wife was already in tears from the stressful drive and the no-care attitude of people, she is just learning how drivers get treated. I think my company is worried about losing the Lowe's account so amybe that made the weekend guy so anal. Regardless,
I know I did my job, as well as was humanly possible, that helps me sleep at night. Even now, I am in Crossett AR waiting on a Georgia Pacific load that is scheduled for pick up tomorrow at 13:30. I got here last night and have been in touch with GP, they should have it done shortly so I'll grab it and be gone a day ahead of schedule.
That being said, I guess it says something about the freight right now if they dispatch me Friday to go 172 MT miles to pick up a load that is scheduled to pick up Sunday afternoon

Long story short, do the best you can and try not to be too stressed. I am 43 and just now being taught how bad stress is for your body/mind. I plan to be around to take care of my wife and myself for atleast another 50 years or so, and yes, stress is something that will cheat your lifespan.
Everyone drive safe, be careful, your loved ones want you home.
(guess I was feeling chatty this afternoon)
mt1

 

I always tried to be early I was at a yard in Jersey one time with a load of lumber there were four of us all together we slept in the yard three of the guys had early appt. times and mine was for 11 the receiver gave me a hard time and said "that"s why we have appointment times" he wasn't going to unload me but the forklift guy felt bad and took the load off anyway (p.s. there were no other trucks anywhere!!) got some bad looks when I went in to get bills signed

 

I can't argue with you on opinion, or point of view but I have a story that almost ended my driving career because the entire incident went on my DAC and no company would touch me after it happened.

I pulled frozen loads from the midwest out to the east coast and reloaded a variety of different products coming back. One night my reload coming home was frozen hamburger meat going to a Dist Center here in the midwest. When I reached the warehouse I was informed that I would have to wait til the following morning to be unloaded.

I notified my dispatcher and was told it was okay because the next morning I would have to take my empty trailer out to drop in a yard at one of our customers because we had no other empties. I was being penciled in to pick up a loaded trailer at that customer that, due to the original driver getting tied up somewhere else, was already a day late for delivery on the coast.

Under the assumption that everything was alright I settled in for the night and waited for a knock on my truck the next morning. After delivering, I boogied for the drop and hook, qual'd that I was under the load and recieved a service failure. I called my dispatcher and he said it would be taken care of and not to worry.

My load was now 48 hours late for delivery on the coast and I had a two day trip to get it there. When i arrived at the delivery I was hassled by recieving for being so late. After telling them what had transpired I was given a door and they unloaded me. I qual'd that I was empty and recieved a second service failure.

Getting my reload went smooth and I delivered a day and a half early. I dead-headed over to our yard, went into the office and started going off about the service failures. I chose to take a couple of days at home and said I would be back monday morning for work. When I got to the shop monday morning, my truck was gone and I was told that it was in for major service. I would recieve a call when it was ready to go. That call never came. My calls went unanswered and eventually all contact ceased.

I was informed shortly thereafter by a friend of mine that I had two service failures on my DAC and would be hard pressed to find another job in the industry. This all occured because I agreed to take a load that was already late due to another drivers bad luck. That all happened about seven or eight years ago now and I'm hoping its all behind me. Yes Im back behind the wheel but it has taken a while to get here.

Although I can't argue with your opinion about being late, it's not always in our control.

 

Been waiting at CHEP to get unloaded since 11am. As I am posting this it's 615pm, and I'm in the dock finally. Hard to type with them running in and out!



Good thing I didn't have anything better to do with my life today.