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

Anyone in Richmond? How's the yard looking?

 

I understand what you are saying, but part of any truck driver's job is to ensure the load is legal for the roads. That driver chose to continue driving to his destination with an overweight load after he scaled it and knew that it wasn't legal. I doubt very much he was hired with the understanding that he wouldn't have to deal with reworking loads as part of his compensated work duties.

Now if he chooses to roll the dice and see if he can get away with it, that's his prerogative, but when that trailer was dropped for another driver to deal with, that is a different matter. Dispatch had no idea the load was overgross until I went in and told them.

 

I was planning on being there but this drop load in Front Royal suddenly morphed into a live unload and the appointment is not until early Saturday morning so who knows when I will get unloaded

Worst part is that I busted butt getting it here because I was told I could drop early. If I had the correct information I would have just brought it to the yard.

The day started off great as I exceeded my 2017 payroll goal, but all good days come to an end.

 

It's covered with snow of course.

 

Whoever dropped that load on the yard like that sounds like a self absorbed douche. People like that need to be invited to a blanket party for “counseling”.

 

So you're sitting in Front Royal until then? Why wouldn't they just let you bring it to the yard?

 

Had the same thing happen a month or two back. Pulled a trailer off the yard, destined for points west. Scale ticket indicating it was over *gross*.

The really annoying thing about it is that the scale on our yard wasn't working at the time (and still isn't, I don't think). So instead of weighing it right there on the yard and getting things resolved quickly, I had to waste an additional half an hour driving down to the Pilot.

I was 81,600. Sliding the tandems ain't gonna help that. And it was from Chesapeake, so a quick jaunt over for a re-work wasn't in the cards. That's a two-hour drive in the opposite direction from where it needed to go. Brought it back to the yard to see what they wanted to do with it, and I think they gave it to one of our Mack OTRs.

 

I guess because it costs them nothing to just have me sit here. I don't get layover because I am under a load and I don't get detention because the appointment is not until tomorrow morning. If I bring it to the yard, they have to pay for fuel and miles to me get there and fuel and hourly rate for a local driver to bring it back here.

It wouldn't be so bad if I knew I would be sitting beforehand and could hang out at a truck stop with food, bathroom and showers before getting here, but I'm in a holding pen at the consignee with none of those facilities as far as I can tell.

 

I've had a drop turn into a live load twice before, and I put in for detention and got it.

If your original instructions said it was a drop, you followed your instructions and it ain't on you that your instructions were either wrong a priori or were changed after you were underway. Take a picture of it with your camera showing that you followed your instructions as they were given to you, and tell 'em you expect detention starting two hours after you got there, just like you would any load that took two hours longer to load than you expected.

You may not get the full amount, but you can still get something for your time.

 

If it's happening so often some of the blame needs to fall on the company. If drivers who drop overweight trailers on the yard were made to take them back to get reworked, it wouldn't continue.

These guys know nothing will come of it so they carry on screwing over the next driver. The fact they are leaving the overweight scale tickets with the trailers, proof they know them to be overweight, just reinforces that.