Another thing added to list of what’s wrong in trucking.

Being lied to usually by brokers on your pickup/delivery appointment time. Anything that time is involved is so crucial for driver because of hos! I’m doing my best to manage my time but there are times you screw it up really because they(brokers) gave you the wrong info.

 

Brokers, planners, dispatchers...one constant in the universe is, most members of the trucking operations team would lie to their own mother to get a load covered.

 

Brokers lying to you? Wow, that’s not very friendly. Have you discussed your grievance with them? I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding.

 

The worst is when you sit for hours at some truck stop waiting for your appointment time, then when you get there they say, “what took you so long? We been waiting all day for you.”

 

This pees me off to no end.
1pm appt time, say F it and show up at 11 if they have a problem idc I’ll park on a street near by and wait
“You don’t have an appointment…..”
I’m a work in?
“No like we didn’t even know you were coming, if the forklift guy is here I’ll get you unloaded but if he’s not it could be a day or two”
Al####ingrighty then

 

This is why you call the customer yourself. Then you’ll know exactly when your appointment is. Often, you’ll get lucky and get told to come on in.

When I was OTR I had a fairly regular load that delivered to Charlotte, NC on Sunday morning. I had a backhaul that picked up in Moorseville, NC on Monday Morning going back to Texas.

That sucked because it would put me in the middle of Atlanta traffic Monday. So I thought what the hell. I’ll call the pickup customer. Maybe I’ll get lucky. The one guy that works there on Sunday is the boss man. He said “Come on in now if you have your pickup number. One less truck we have to load tomorrow”.

From then on I always picked that load up Sunday morning and was parked on the west side of Atlanta by the afternoon sipping on a frozen margarita and watching the wormins in the Mexican joint.

 

I got two different deliveries in early this week thanks to two phone calls.

 

I do it all of the time. Many times I am given the green light to show up early.

 

When I was active one of the most frustrating things was actually getting in touch with the customer. In a lot of cases, the actual customer might be 1000 or more miles away. In one situation I remember the customer was not even in the US. I could only contact through my company. Also, some finals only have a pre-recorded number with delivery instructions. It's a dang shame, but that's trucking!

 

I always said, never wait in a truckstop. The chances of you getting loaded early in a truckstop are exactly 0. The chances of you getting loaded early at the shipper are about 80-90%; in my experience. Granted, one needs to be mindful of their 14, but if you have to wait too long, you can reset at the shipper.