First Rejected Load

Back surgery and previous injury aside...
What would some of y'all do if you had to work ?

3 tons of freight is nothing.
6,000 lbs

Of course, the heaviest thing most drivers lift, other than pulling their weight up into the cab, is a Big Gulp 99oz Mt Dew and a whole pizza from Flying J as they waddle back to their truck with their knees flexed inwards and touching and their feet shoulder width apart.

This is getting ridiculous.

 

Kinda late to the party, but here's my 2¢.

The hairnets and booties are pretty standard for any place that prepares food. It sounds like the OP's shipper was that kind of firm.

Places like that usually don't have lumper services. They handle their own product. Since they refused to touch it and you have a handicap, your options are either 1. Hire a day laborer if you have time to find one or 2. Find a suitable warehouse, sounds like a dry storage would have worked for this one, and pay them to reload your trailer and either store the claimed product or shift it to the nose.

I'm not judging, but if you're a carrier you need to start being a problem solver and quit depending on a broker or shipper to do it. That's like you own a henhouse and asking the fox to fix a broken fence line. You put yourself out there to move the product from A to B and failed. It doesn't matter who's fault it is. What does matter is your clock is running regardless. So it's in your best interest to get the problem fixed, even at your expense, to free up the truck. Then go about making money on the next load, and later clawing some rate back and avoiding a product claim over the poorly loaded product (that you have documented thoroughly), albeit after the fact.

Which is another thing. Poorly loaded. Another thing to blame someone else for. I'm not seeing the product first hand, but I have to figure that shipper probably didn't just start moving that product yesterday. As-in, if it was always falling over like that, they'd likely do something about it. As-in, you probably braked hard or swerved somewhere on that long trip. It happens. Like I said, not judging. Just throwing it out there. Personally I drive like I got a single unsecured pallet in the middle of the trailer, all the time. That is, unless I seen the product go on in a more secure fashion. If you're hauling a reefer, it happens more often you'll have some singles up in the nose to shift the weight to the rear. They usually won't tip if they're loaded snug, but that ain't true all the time. You just can't depend on it.

 

Not commenting on the OP's situation, but this is critical, IMHO. It comes down to being able to keep the "big picture" in mind, while taking care of the detail stuff along the way. I had to learn to not get too hung up on the details of any single load, so long as I was meeting my weekly average. Once I did that and focused on continually moving forward, even if it cost me in time, deadhead miles, etc. (within reason), I started making much better money.

@RedForeman's posts are usually worth a lot more than 2¢.

 

Right.
You have to be willing to chop off a toe in order to save the foot.

 

I used to think 6k#'s of freight was nothing until the bone spurs on my vertebrae took out 2 discs. Not for nothing, but anyone that thinks they can spend the rest of their life lumping freight is in for a rude awakening. If I had it to do all over,I would have never touched any freight.One of the reasons I liked flatbedding was no touch freight, chain and go.8yrs of reefer work is what did me in, just a few words from someone who worked hard my whole life and paid the price and still working and still paying.

 

I've been fingerprinting all of my LTL freight for 31yrs.
15k - 40k lbs per week, depending upon how many loads I pulled.

I guess it's all in how you lift.
You gotta respect it.

Sorry you got injured. Really.
Could happen to any of us.

 

Here is one from today. Sealed load shipper loaded with no shrink wrap and even double stacked 2 skids. What a bunch of F’ing morons. Clearly do not give a #### about what’s going to happen on the other end. I could kick people like this in the nuts repeatedly.

Driver restacked it and got the job done for which I’m very thankful for. Got out of there with clean bills but the shipper is now blacklisted. How much extra $ should I throw the driver? He’s base salary $1300 plus .54 after 2400 miles. Part of the job or throw some extra?

 

Compared to the lumpers now I work cheap. I charge $10 a pallet or a $1 per minute which ever is greater.

 

Depends on how many cases of damaged goods got "donated" and what it was. If it was nothing special, I'd probably throw the driver at least $100 for the trouble and still complain about driving more carefully next time. A couple cases of really good restaurant quality chicken or beef, then that might require coming thru the terminal for a taste test before settling up.

 

.10c a case is good for you and he.
I've got a buddy that gets .15 thru his company , so .10 is a discount, per se.
If it was 1000cs... $100
1400cs.. $140

But, that was a lot of work.
You have a good driver.
Communicate with him on what's fair.
Mist drivers would have called you and said, " I get paid to drive!"