Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

Well today has been one of those days. Drove up to long island monday evening and parked at receiver for 11am appt. They were running behind and didnt get out of there till 1400. Dispatch had sent me a load earlier in the am that had a 1pm appt on philis southside. Notified dispatch wasnt even in a door when i got the msg. Nothing from them as usual. Called broker to let her know the deal and was told shipper is 24 hr, they will work u in and was more worried about the delivery.

Kept the broker updated on my 2.5 hour escape from nyc and eta to shipper. Again she was more worried about delivery at a local drop customer in rva.

Get to shipper close to 7pm. Shipping clerk basically says were super busy, ur more than 2 hours late, we realize its most likely not your fault, and call ur company/broker.

Call broker, get 'nighttime' broker who 1st call says not much i can do for you tonight. Before i can call our nighttime dispatch he calls me back and says that per some employee for the shipper in florida that the shipper knew i was gonna be late and that they were gonna load me anyway.

Some more phone calls between broker and shipping clerk didnt get anything changed.

Called our dispatch and notified them. They didnt have anything for me to do, and wouldnt bring me the 240ish miles back to rva. So now i sit in southern nj with 170 miles physically driven for the day and still have over 6 hours i could drive right now.

Its really frustrating when all the different players are lying to each other, but today i think its all on the customer and not the broker.

Hopefully tomorrow holds some better luck

 

We have officially been sprung! My mother is so happy to be home. There were a few delays, and we were supposed to be home yesterday, but, woo hoo!!! Now to figure out how I'm going to be at home and at work all at the same time!

 

The issue I have when dealing with brokers, other than the mere fact they are brokers, is that we drivers are the main point of contact with the broker after being dispatched but we don't have the authorization to act upon broker information or even some instructions so it becomes a ping pong of talking to broker then trying to talk to DM to relay information and coordinating this telephone dance while piloting 80k down the road.

Case in point being a recent broker load. Two pickups, one in SC, one in GA and bring it back to the yard. The consignee was actually in MS, but that's not how I was dispatched. Made the first pickup, was heading to the second when the broker calls me just outside of Atlanta while on the 85 to say 2nd pickup was cancelled and that I should just continue on to MS.

Well as far as I know I can't just head off wherever the broker tells me to so I better let dispatch know so they can make a decision. I mean I am capable of making a decision, but it's not my truck or fuel. By this time I am in the throes of Atlanta traffic, nowhere to pull over and send a QC message and of course no one is answering the phone.

Do I head to Richmond as dispatched?, do I head to MS where I wasn't dispatched?. The person/s who make that decision are unaware of the developments as I am the one dealing with the broker and I can't get ahold of anyone to update them and give them the opportunity to decide.

 

I've had a couple CHRob's play out like that though it wasn't the broker telling me a stop was nix'd, it was one of the shippers once I got there. But all of 'em ended up back in Richmond since they were going with other LTL headed in the same direction. I'd wager you did the same in the end.

 

I shut down in Atlanta and waited for a decision to be made. Wound up taking it to the consignee the next day, no clue if an LTL load was lined up for it or not.

 

Well awright. Probably better miles that way anyhoo.

 

Where's the girl under the umbrella?

 

Still under the umbrella. Duh.