caught with my pants down.

I haul shingles in my van..... Got me thinking... How would you go about that?

 

Before CSA-2010 I would have been more likely to let a bad load go if company said they would handle it. Today there is no way. Every fleet manager/dispatcher I had knew I had a lot of experience and trusted my judgment. They also knew I had safety on speed dial. I know this is a forum and people can come in here and claim most anything. However on many occasions I left a shipper after refusing a load. The last one was at a dock several blocks from the Quick Trip on I-85 north of Atlanta an exit before I-285. I am sure somebody in here knows of this shipper. They are very hard to put a 53 foot trailer in. They overloaded me and they refused to fix it or unload the trailer so I left the loaded trailer in their drop yard. I then bobtailed to our Atlanta terminal and waited on my FM to work with load planner. Bottom line the shipper fixed it. I took a cussing from the guy over the dock area, but he knew I was dead serious. Thankfully most shippers are not like this and will work with you. However every once in a while you'll get one that won't. This is when you MUST grow a pair and stand up to them. BTW I would never want to work for a company that would not back me up in this circumstance.

 

There is one more thought on this issue. Turning down a bad/problem load also was determined by where I was the time of day and where the load was going. My last 6 months on the road I took a lot of loads from Tifton Georgia to several points in southern Alabama. Never crossed any scales and never remembered any DOT hot spots anywhere en route. I hardly ever worried about a CAT scale and just hauled the freight. However there were times I picked up in Baltimore headed up to the north east. You would never get me to carry a load by those Maryland scales next to the toll booth until I was 100% satisfied the load was legal, no way no how. And I did refuse a load once up near Fredrick Maryland. I don't remember the numbers today but the loaded weight on the bills was heavier then I could haul. The shipper said it was part of one shipment and the customer was paying for one shipment. My company backed me up and they took several thousand pounds off the load amended the bills and I left. I've spoken to too many young drivers whom have got overweight tickets and most start with the shipper would not fix it. Or I drove a long distance before I CAT scaled and my FM said I could not go back. This is an area where trainers have dropped the ball. Its another reason I feel that shippers on non LTL should be responsible for overweight fines. Let a shipper start having to fork out major $$$$$ on overweight fines they will install scales and refuse to let you leave till load is legal.

 

What company do you work for that lets you drop loaded trailers at the shippers drop lot when you don't like the looks of the way they loaded it? I need a new job

 

At the time I drove for Willis Shaw out of Elm Springs Arkansas. This particular shipper kept our empty trailers anyway. I had to go back but they fixed the load.

 

Had a load last year, hazmat, 2 stopper. 1st stop poked a hole in one of the hazmat containers and spilled haz fluid all over the dry van. I saw all this by peeking my head around the end of the trailer once in a while to see how much longer they would be. They never told me about the spill. I get on the phone and call my load contact dude and he says call back in 15 minutes with updates. Then I call 1800 Chemtrek and they can't help at all except to say, don't leave til it is cleaned up.

Meanwhile 1st stop dock dude says you're done get off my dock door, more freight to unload. I refuse to move til they clean it up. He gets all pissed off but gives me a forklift dude and says use him to fix your own load. So I have the kid unload about half the freight and we pour kitty litter and smear it around with brooms to dry it all up and sweep it out.

I call Chemtrek back and ask who qualifies that a hazmat spill is 'clean'? Should I call the fire department? They are no help so call the company and they say safety dude went home for the weekend-- really without resolving a known hazmat spill in progress? Wow.

Didn't get inspected on that load afterall even going through California fully placarded.

Speaking of unsecured loads, did hear of a guy who got written up for a pebble that was riding unsecured on this landing gear.