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

I was at speedco...had a flat completely off the rim,and the shop didnt approve speedco to fix it,they send me to a TA 70 mls down the road.I didnt think risking the company csa score like that,worth saving a few bucks.

 

I would have called breakdown!

 

tell them it's not safe, please send your name and employee number authorizing the move.

 

I had an under inflated tire (still on rim) that was found during a DOT inspection and that resulted in being put out of service and a $200 ticket.

Noone in the shop gets those points or has to pay any of that $200 so they are only too happy to tell you to keep driving to wherever suits them best. I have had flat tires since and breakdown always asks if I can drive to a shop. The answer is always a resounding "NO".

 

So!

If you send me a load assignment at 7:00pm...

...a load assignment that requires at least 7 hours of driving to get from the shipper to the receiver...

...and I only have 4 hours of drive time left on my clock...

...then under the best possible scenario, where I'm already hooked up to the trailer and can roll out as soon as I get the load assignment, it's going to take me 17 hours to reach the receiver.

Right? Can't make a 7 hour drive with only 4 hours left on my drive clock for the day. Gonna be that 7 hour drive plus a 10 hour break. Right? So 17 hours.

Which means that the EARLIEST I can physically arrive at the receiver under absolutely optimal conditions is 12 noon the next day.

Under those circumstances, I'm thinking that maybe that means you shouldn't be calling me and waking my ### up at 1:00am to ask if I'm going to be on time for the 4:00am - 8:00am delivery window.

I mean, at 1:00am, I was out of hours on my 14 and wouldn't be getting them back until 6:45am, and that should've been data easily available to whoever it was that called me.

 

Most of the time I set my phone to alarms only when I go to bed

 

I turn on my do not disturb. It allows calls from my favorites list-which Abilene is definitely not one of.

 

New kid on the overnights seems to want to do his job. It's bitten me in the butt twice like this too but its been entirely because of dayshift failing to leave that crucial "we know he's gonna be late" message for the overnight guy. For what its worth.

 

And continuing with the Abilene is not on my favorites list theme. I came off home time to a Buford Ga load for 5 am next day. So, run really hard, get down there, unload in the middle of my break, go back to the Wally World to finish my break. Wake up to a ton of messages on the QC (in the middle of a hella storm) directing me to grab a havertys load to Memphis that was "missed" (no kidding-their words on the QC). So, I sweep the trailer out and then I go to pick up the load and the bottom falls out again and I look like I've been pushed in the pool at JBs house with my clothes on and am still in there floating around. Got changed and boogied down to Memphis. They gave havertys an eta of 9 pm. I called our company and updated eta to 6 pm. Got here at 6 pm. Guess what? Yup. They're not here and I have to wait until 7 am for them to get started. I feel for the 8 am guy because there's no way they'll have me unloaded in an hour. Makes me later than I wanted to be for my next load, but what can ya do??? At least I'll make up for the lack of sleep from last night.

 

Today someone send me this load assignment... It's 8:40 PM... I have only 0.10 minutes available for driving and they want me to go pick up a load that's almost 3 hours away and drop it at the terminal by midnight!
Sometimes I just wonder who's the person that's sending these great load's assignments that only maybe Superman can do!