Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

I'm looking at 10 hours today. Probably the same at least through Thursday.

Small yards have a greater OT potential.

 

I'm only 10 minute short on having solid 13 hours yesterday. Not too bad for a "part time driver"

 

Looks like I'll be hitting the dock pretty hard tonight. Started at 10 am today and I only have 1 more swap left. No way that will put me at 12 hours.

 

I had over 12 hours today. My first 3 schools came off kind of slow I guess, I mean it wasn't awful, but I didn't quite saw through the schools like I would have hoped. Some times I get the food and other times the food gets me. Lately the foods been winning.

 

Saw a fedex freight truck hauling a set of doubles the other day. One was a fedex ground pup and one was a fedex freight pup. Had to do a triple check on that.

 

1700# skid of vanilla lotion bottles for a gym downtown today. No loading dock, consignee says they take deliveries from the street.

"I don't mind double parking on the street, but this pallet isn't going through the downstairs lobby, too wide and I'm not scratching the floor by dragging it" (my jack is one of those skinny ones, and the skid had 2 pieces of wood in the center spaced just enough that you can't go through the center of it, just offside to the left or right with one side of the skid dragging).

"Oh, have security open up the side garage door".

No problem, pop inside and the security guard tells me to bring the truck around the side to an adjacent street where they open the garage door. The garage door, however, goes to the parking garage, and goes down a steep grade to the basement... which of course, is where the freight elevator is.

After gingerly bringing the skid down the grade to the freight elevator and loading area scraping it all the way down and leaving as little clearance as possible to drop it if I'm losing control, I happily discover that the skid is about 4 inches too wide to clear entrance to the freight elevator, so I move the skid against the wall with the rest of the freight deliveries that are sitting there.

Pop up to the 3rd floor where the consignee is located and let them know their freight is downstairs and prompt them for a signature, which they give. Then a supervisor of sorts comes over who over heard the exchange...

"So, are you going to bring it up?"
"No, ma'am, the pallet doesn't fit into the freight elevator, the BOL states that "all accessorial charges must be approved by the shipper, who isn't answering their phone, and I'm not breaking down a 1700# pallet with a hand truck when I can't have an inside delivery charge approved."
"Oh, ok, because they usually bring it up, so I don't understand why you aren't."
"I'd have no problem bringing the pallet up, but it can't fit through the elevator."
"So I have to bring all this up?"
"Yes, unfortunately."
"Ok, well, thank you."

I felt bad, because it probably sucked just as bad to break that pallet down as it did to walk that pallet down the slippery incline, but all that guilt disappeared when I got to overhear her very vocally complaining to her coworkers and how they can have a competing LTL company deliver the loads instead as I was waiting for the elevator to come up to me. Hopefully she makes good on that, because this was more of a PITA than anyone I know wants to deal with.

Then the same woman comes with a little dolly to go into the basement and begin bringing her freight up. Dead silence, as we arrive to the same floor, I go to grab my pallet jack from underneath her freight and drag it back up the incline to my truck to discover a $120 parking ticket for parking in a commercial zone for more than 30 minutes after 4pm (1615 or so at this point).

Liftgate charge... check, hopefully it sticks to at least wipe out the ticket that the company has to pay.