Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

Ethos, no need to apologize for adding to this thread, that's what its here for. Your many years of experience are always welcome. The advice about the gate is especially good, I had this happen once, luckily the gate guard was nice and let me come in and turn around once he cleared the truck that was in line in front of me. He simply asked for my CDL, let me in and let me turn around, then gave it back on the way out. The driver behind me, however, got impatient and decided to blindside back out into the street.

Right now I'm waiting to get unloaded at Coca-Cola here in Alexandria. There's a partially loaded trailer still in the dock they want me to use. For some reason the planners sent me a preassignment that I completed about 2 days ago. Looks like someone deleted another assignment and now wants me to fill it all out again, lol. So, I called in about that to get it figured out and asked my DBL if she had any idea where I was headed next, as I'll have to get a good 40 miles away from Coca Cola to find a place to stop for the night. Looks like I'll be grabbing a load of of Maryland and headed to Ohio. THANK GOD.

 

#### this ####. This really is the last ####### straw.

I arrived about 2 hours before my appointment time. I have done Coca Cola loads before and I know they like us to arrive there early. My appointment was at 1700, I arrived at 1500, it took until 1830 before they finally unloaded the 1 Cowan trailer that was sitting at the dock I needed to be in, and got it out of the way.

I had planned my day carefully so that I would have enough time to get out of this mess, but still not risk being late for the delivery.

Already off to a bad start because of sitting around. Oh well, they finally got me the dock.

Guard breaks the seal and starts walking back towards the shack. I carefully open one of the doors looking inside to make sure that doublestacked pallets of Coca Cola bottles are not going to land on me. No, don't worry, nothing is going to land on top of me.



THATS BECAUSE THE STUPID LAZY ### PIECE OF #### DRIVER THAT PICKED UP THIS LOAD DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. HE DID NOT CHECK THE TIRES WHICH ARE FLAT SPOTTED. HE DID NOT SCALE THE LOAD WHICH NEEDED ADJUSTING ON THE TANDEMS. HE DID NOT GET OFF HIS ###, CLIMB UP IN THE ####### TRAILER AND TAKE 2 ############# MINUTES TO RUN 2 ####### STRAPS ACROSS THE PALLETS TO KEEP THEM FROM SHIFTING.

SO, I OPEN THE DOOR AND ABOUT 5 BOTTLES ROLL OUT AND JUST EXPLODE ON THE GROUND. AND YES, THIS IS ALL GLASS, NOT PLASTIC BOTTLES.



Guard looks back. I just shake my ####### head and close the ####### door. Explain that the ####### that picked up this ####### load didn't strap it and #### is just everywhere. After talking with the absolutely ####### useless support shift, sending in a macro for a load shift, and the guard talking with her supervisor she has me back up and open the door completely so they can look inside and this is THE FINAL ####### STRAW. I am absolutely furious, I am incredibly embarrassed and look like an absolute idiot. A Cowan driver comments about the load and says that this is the 5th time he has seen this happen with Schneider here.

45 minutes later the stupid lazy ##### at support shift message me back and I call in and explain that half the ############# load is laying completely broken and busted all over the floor of the trailer. I explain that I am in the middle of the DC area, have nowhere to park, and have less than an hour and a half left on my 14. They tell me to go park and and call back in the morning. I explain to the confused guard that there is pretty much nothing I can do, and that I have to leave and come back in the morning. The one spot on the street that I could have parked was now filled with cars. They wouldn't let me park in their lot across the street.

So, I headed for my planned stop point for the night near my preassignment.

I will sleep in tomorrow morning and call my DBL when she arrives, oh wait its not her tomorrow, its one of the weekend DBLs. God help the poor soul that answers the phone when I call tomorrow morning.

I will explain that one of two things will happen.

1. They send out someone with a daycab and an empty trailer. Someone that gets paid hourly. That person can meet me at an assigned location not in the middle of the DC area that takes an hour and a half to get in and out of.
That driver and me will swap trailers. I will head towards my preassignment pickup and go on my merry way to Ohio. The driver that gets paid hourly can take the load back to Coca Cola or wherever it needs be and spend the better part of his day relaxing in his truck while the lumpers that Schneider hires clean up this ############# mess of a load.

2. They can tell me no, I will be responsible for the rest of this crap. I have 14 hours left on my clock 70, enough to make it to Ohio and either run some recap hours or take a restart. But instead, they will tell me I have to spend them getting this load fixed, fighting DC traffic in and out, and sitting for the entire day while Coca Cola a. clears a dock for my truck, and b. takes their oh-so-sweet time to unload me. By that time, I will have lost the ability to make my preassignment pickup on time and will still be sitting way to close to the Northeast US and will lose my load out of this area.

If Schneider decides to go with #2, this is what will happen. I will refuse the load to Ohio, and go over anyones head who tells me otherwise, that I will be routed back down to Charlotte. At that point, I will hand them the keys to this truck. I will speak to whoever runs the choice program there as I still have not received any indication that my online application has been processed. I will either move forward with getting into the Choice program, or I will be done working for Schneider National.
I have ####### had it with being treated like crap and doing nothing but dealing with other peoples problems, making no ####### money and getting nowhere with this company.