Arnold Drivers, What's your 20?

We got truck from Pete, dropped off rental car and set Mac 29 for 0800. Whew! What a week...

 

Yesterday morning, Jax called to ask if I could cover a load abandoned at the Pete shop I just came from. LR to ATL, RFN asap. I'm on it, say I and ran it down here to Cartersville. empty last night 2000. Earlier yesterday afternoon, I was sent a preplan from McDonough GA to Hattiedburg,MS for 1700 Monday, 2nd stop NOLA at 2000. 409mi to stop 1. I questioned why that load since it doesn't need to go until Monday morning. So I refused it. It was re-pre-planned (LOL) on me at 0337 this morning.
I chatted with GP ops this morning and they are looking for something else. 500ish miles for Sat/Sun/Mon? How are we profitable running like that? GP advised that any other lds I might get would not be coming back to SW region. I told him I'd been griping to get out of SW reg for weeks. I'm super-regional and just want miles...

 

Picked up a ld from Fairburn,GA bound for Plant City.FL for 1700 Mon. They had me bring it to Jax and drop. Dropped it here last night and then about 0830 this morning I received 3 preplans: Yard to Haines City,FL for Mon morm, reload near Orlando going to GA for 24 hr drop, then Covington,GA to Memphis! Very nice. Better than GP planning,lol... Today, wife & I are going sightseeing. She's never been to FL before...

 

Copy that. I've had one phonecon with driver liason and he was helpful. I don't see GP changing their ways anytime soon. It's like a bad marriage where you keep trying to communicate and work out the problems, but that only works if it's a two-way street.

 

Now in hotel in Austell,GA after truck crapped out on I-75 in Stockbridge last night at 2130. Wrecker arrived at 0430 and hauled us to Austell shop. Tranny prob of some kind. made some painful noise then kicked into neutral. DPF prob too,smoke coming from under hood and thru vents into cab. Lovely diesel aroma. This morning GP was talking rental car, but now they want to wait to see what the shop comes up with after Austell shop claimed they could have it repaired by noon tomorrow, based on my write-ups, not on their assessment of the truck. I'm not holding my breath, but since I have wifi here, I will put my time to good use applying for other work.
The Little Rock fiasco caused me to miss a Dr appt, so I rescheduled for Fri the 2nd in OKC. This latest problem now has that in jeopardy. If I can't make it, I will be out of BP meds with no refills available...

 

Lee Gomez, "Fleet Owner" in GP assured me he would call me with an update at 1700 today after we had a "spirited" phonecon that included D'angelo Provost, my FM. Not surprisingly, he failed to deliver on that.
I honestly don't know what I can do from my end to improve things. I have always been very "mission focused" with my assigned loads. Working with this (Dis)Organization has me missing my time in the Navy. No insult intended to those who have not served in uniform, but I prefer working with military-trained individuals and the commitment that comes with that experience, rather than those who are content to "work" via e-mail and an "Oh well" attitude. If I performed at the same mediocre level that most non-drivers at Arnold, I'm sure I would have been fired by now.

If there were true leadership at Arnold, the non-performing personnel would be gone, replaced by people who are not satisfied with the mediocre and passing the buck. Top leadership seems to be either unaware of the problems, or tolerate things as they are.

These are the times I regret my choice of jobs in the Navy (parachute rigger). Prior planning, etc....

 

Austell shop says truck will be ready sometime today. We are checking out of motel and taking cab to the shop. Before we came here yesterday, I msgd FM for $$ on card for motel/cab expenses, but he has yet to do that, even after I e-mailed him this morning. He failed to respond to the next e-mail I sent this morning asking if we were staying another day. (The motel office called to ask).
I was hoping that by using GP ops staff preferred comm method (e-mail), I might get some response, but wisely chose not to hold my breath...

 

To be fair, I found out that my FM was out yesterday. When we got to the Austell shop, we discovered that the truck had not been in the shop at all. They had been giving unrealistic eta's to breakdown and ops in GP. That put us in a bind to get to OKC by 1130 on Fri for Dr appt. Then I spent quality time on the phone trying to contact Lee Gomez. Finally got a rental car and left Austell at 1530 yesterday.
Now I'm home and discover that HR dropped the ball and I'm still at .335, not the .36 they told me I would be paid. I call HR and get the usual incompetent, we don't know wtf the deal is, but they will contact USX payroll, research the issue, blah, blah...
I just got off the phone with USX payroll and they said that according to Arnold, SW regional drivers start at .335 and get .34 after TWO YEARS!

 

FM called to advise they have a truck ready in GP. He said it's a Pete, so I asked if he could find out which of three models it is so we can plan to bring less if it's a claustrophobic 387. Now we are still waiting on the Chattanooga travel agent to let fleet owner that there is a rental car laid-on for today.