An old man's career goes flat, Snackbar moves to open deck

That might work with box jockey freight but we have a lot of variability in what we do on the specelized side. Some guys are qualified for up to 10’,12’,14’,16’,16’+ is how it works here. Height is another less defined qualification that is done on a one and one basis. Then we have guys who can tarp crazy loads and we have guy who can’t tarp at all or will damage tarps or the load. A 12’ wide load of plate is a lot different then a 12’ wide uncrated machine like pictured below.

At a mega box carrier they have customers seemingly everywhere. It makes me chuckle when guys say they had to deadhead 100 miles to their next load like it’s a big deal. My longest deadhead is 1600 miles to a load and we somewhat regularly DH 5-800 miles. That’s just the way specialized is sometimes.

 

Lol the trip to the ISS is controlled by an AI so Hawaii it is for you

 

Yeah many companies have been dabbling with it for some time, but a truly large model based system that leverages generative AI to communicate with customers and drivers as well as scheduling and booking loads is a huge undertaking and frankly for what dispatchers are paid now the crossover point hasn’t been achieved.

It’s coming before full automated drivers that’s for sure, and in the next decade it’s likely we will see it. Especially with box freight I’m anticipating we will see more automated loading in the future, that tech is pretty much at hand but again they don’t pay dock workers all that well.

 

Busy couple days. Left Bedford PA yesterday at 11 am eastern. Managed to get both the WI and MN stops delivered by 15:00 central today. 1050 paid miles with 40k lbs in 29 hours, plus I managed to escape the twin cities and make it all the way down to Albert Lea for the night. @kylefitzy you mentioned deadhead miles...my next load has 457 of them. They have me headed down to the Love's in Bates City MO (from Minneapolis) to rescue a load that delivers one stop outside Atlanta and a 2nd stop in Warner Robins...then home. And the best news....it's 7000 lbs and on a conestoga. It was originally supposed to deliver Friday, but they said I should get it there Monday as early as possible. No clue as to what happened to the other driver or their truck, I just know they need me to get it moving.

 

Well shoot, you almost got to see the new Smokey point distributing Kansas City location. Also know as my house, they called me to see if I could possibly recover and store that trailer for a few days. I guess they got it worked out with the truckstop. What are you going to do with your trailer when you get there?

 

As far as I know I am dropping my empty there, I haven't heard any instructions to the contrary. So, do you know what the story is with this load?

 

Something about driver health issues.

 

I tried to find out what to do with this trailer and if he is still hooked to his trailer or if it's there by itself, where is the paperwork etc. (my dispatcher was still out so I am working with his backups), they didn't find out much, they said they'll find out more in the morning before I get there and let me know.

 

My biggest concern is, if they have had any contact with him or did he stop there for a 10 or to do a 34 and pass away. At Creaffer they had that happen and didn't discover him for several days. As little contact as we have with Ops here while under a load, the same thing could occur here very easily.

 

They located the driver. Thankfully he's not on an eternal 10 in the sleeper. They have also located the keys. I tried to offer some help by dropping this trailer in Wichita and picking up an RGN so we could load the truck on it and get it to Wichita (if he is gonna be off on medical for a while), but they said they would send a driver to pick up both units. I figured if we loaded it on an RGN then @kylefitzy could make a few extra bucks picking it up and storing for them until his hometime is over then just drop it at the yard. Oh well, I tried.

*Update - got to the Bates City, MO Love's and there is no other SPD here besides me. They sent me back to the TA in Oak Grove, MO instead...not there. Before I asked again, I went across the street to the Petro...BINGO.