CRETE - A Year in Review

The trick is getting out there. I even have a home time request in and was sent back to MD. The hard part to swallow was that there were at least 5 guys in the Columbus terminal that were deadhead up from NC like me. They all had productive miles but me. One of them was even sent off to Lincoln with a load (would have been a good start at getting me home).

My current bout with bad luck continues today. It started yesterday when I asked dispatch for a better appointment time because I would be there by Sunday. The original apnt was set for Monday 23:00. I was told to check back in the morning and they would try to work something out. So I did just that, expecting the request to be ignored. I was very pleasantly surprised to get a message back that they were working on it and shortly there after I was sent a rescheduled apnt less than an hour away along with an Apnt #.



This makes me very happy and off I go. The customer is less than a mile away and I pull in with my Apnt# in hand. Moments later I am told this load has been canceled. Oh no! I then tell them that I just received a new apnt because my original was set for 2night at 23:00 and my new one was for the top of the hour. I am then told that is not possible because they don't accept deliveries at that hour and my load isn't on the schedule for anytime today.

After a number of messages back and fourth and conversations with the receiver I find out that Crete got this load from another shipper that couldn't cover it. I also find out that this load was canceled out of the customers main office in AZ last Friday and hasn't yet been rescheduled.

All in all, an absolute Cluster and I'm still waiting to find out what my fate will be, but it looks like I may be under this load far longer than I anticipated. Dispatch has assured me they are working on it and will get it straightened out, but I saw the Unloading Schedule while in the guard shack and nothing is being unloaded after 11am (I assume that is the end of their day) and it is now 10:22 with no resolve yet.

UPDATE:

Moments after posting this message the qualcom sent me some good news. "Everything should be OK now, here is new PO#, it was never updated in the system and the BOL has the old PO"

Sure enough. The new PO worked and I'm docked and half the truck is already unloaded. Although I am now an hour late for my appointment (I was on the books all along for 10am). Ugh! If I hadn't pushed for a new appointment time this morning I would have been up the Creek. I would have pulled up to a locked gate in the middle of the night, then wait all night for the day crew to come in and straighten out the mess with what most certainly would have been a reset appointment for the next day at best. What a day, and it hasn't even started yet. Now all I have to do is put in an empty call and wait for the "no freight" message that is sure to follow.

The folks back at the office did a great job getting this little debacle straightened out.