Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

DFO....man, honestly, if it were me, I'd tell them I need $250 to re-work the load. If they said 'no', I'd ask them where they wanted me to take it....simple as that.

Seriously, man. This is NOT part of your job.

Hang in there and get the Choice thing sorted out. You know that little purple sticker they give you to get in an out of NY? Mine is in my glove box....no need for it.....same goes for NJ, DE, CT, ME, and the whole bunch of BS, half ####### roads in that part of the world. I'm just back from PA and this will likely be my last trip there unless the money and load are right.

Hang in there......SNI has some real good folks working for them.....just gotta get the right guy sometimes. But, seriously......don't re-work the load without getting paid for it; just don't.

Here's the secret, they need you A LOT more than they let on. Stand your ground without being threatening, and they'll make it right.

Good luck brother......

 

Sometimes I honestly wonder if Schneider just wants me to quit. I really do. Maybe when for some reason or another they don't like a driver, they just put them through hell in hopes in they'll give up and walk out, that way they don't have to deal with the issues that come with firing someone.

I don't know but I truly do start to wonder.

So, at around 1215 I finally got through to a DBL at Charlotte. It wasn't the same guy who was there earlier, who specifically told me to ask for him. He had gone to lunch so I told her I would call back.

Rather than waiting yet another hour, I just decided to call claims back and see if I could get anywhere myself.

Of course I get someone different at claims this time. I explain the situation for the 10th time to a different person. she puts me on hold and eventually gets back to me saying that no one has gotten back to claims about handling the situation. So, she tells me to just call and DBL and get them to have me drop the load in a yard.

I then call back in and sit on hold again for the Charlotte DBLs until I reach someone. I got the same lady I talked to earlier, so now I had to explain the situation to HER. Eventually she sets up a relay for me and has me drop it in a yard 60 miles away.

So I finally start my day at about 1300. I reach this yard and of course since its a Friday, everything is just full. Literally there is not enough room to turn around in it. Obviously I can't back out into the street. People just felt like dumping trailers wherever they wanted, so I couldn't blindside it into the ONE remaining spot in the yard even if I had to. So, I spent 5 minutes getting my tractor and trailer turned around. It was so tight there was a gap of about 4" between the rear of my trailer and the parked trailers on one side, and about 3" from the front of my tractor to the trailer beside me. I had to jackknife it so much the side of the trailer was contacting the rubber fairing. I watched it very carefully to make sure it didn't start to push against the plastic fairings and damage anything.

Ok, now that I'm at least facing out of the lot I can try to put this trailer into the hole.

Again, I had absolutely no room to work with. It took me 15 minutes, I think I got out about 8 times and had to wiggle myself back and forth at least 5 times to inch my trailer over to the point that I could get out and pull the 5th wheel release.

Next, I called in to the DBLs yet again, because I got a call from one while I was driving to the relay drop asking about my ETAs to pickup for that 1400 preassignment. The load had to be picked up by a certain time because it was critical or whatever, and they would have someone else pick it up and relay it to me if need be. This ended up being what they decided to to. I get told the work assignment is no longer valid and just to blast through it with "dummy" times and get all green check marks, but not until I receive the "real" preassignment.

Then, I had to get the empty trailer out of the lot. Same crap. I couldn't pull forward and exit out the lot, so again, I had to pull the trailer out the opposite direction I needed to go. I start my turn, get out and check the room that I had to make sure that as I jackknifed it and the tandems pivoted, the trailer would not move backwards into the parked trailers behind me. Rubber fairing rubbing the side of the trailer again, I finally get it out.

Finally, done with the Coca Cola crap. Not my problem any more. I head to shipper where I am supposed to be picking up the relay load. I get there and there is no relay load here. So, I call in yet again and get told that they're still working on it, and just to wait.

Hours later, another Schneider driver shows up. He starts walking towards me and because of this I assume he has the relay load and we'll be swapping trailers. We get to talking and I tell him how to get through the busy lot so we can swap trailers.

I believe he was a newer driver, because he must have got confused and told me that he had the load, when in fact he didn't have the load and he just had an empty trailer and was picking his OWN load up out of this place.

Eventually he realizes stuff is not adding up and decides to call his DBL because at this point we are both confused as hell. I start to understand that he must have mistakenly told me he had the relay load when in fact he didn't. I realize it and laugh and tell him to just forget about having ever talked to me about it. He gets his dock and I sit and wait some more.

Then, the Qualcomm goes off. The preassignment I was supposed to blow through with dummy times just gets deleted. WTF. I figure they decided to clear it out instead of me having to fill out a dummy load.

THEN, I get a NEW preassignment, picking up an actual LOAD from the same place I am waiting for the relay to show up at, and taking it up to Michigan. Call in for the 800th time, yet again get a DIFFERENT DBL and confirm that this is ACTUALLY supposed to happen. Get told the Costco load wasn't ready and that this new one was right. Also got a message from the planner saying it was OK for me to deliver early, even though the appointment for delivery in Michigan wasn't until Monday.

Go into this place and give them my info. They have no idea what load I'm supposed to be picking up. Finally they find it. Apparently my load is not supposed to even BE READY until Monday.

Eventually they tell me to just wait for a dock to open up and then back up to it. Ok, good enough.

Get back to the truck. The DBL at Charlotte I've been dealing with most of the day then calls ME, saying he was busy and tied up and tells me about my new load that I already know about, but then says I'm taking it to Ohio.

Wait, no, I'm taking to to Michigan.

Nope, Ohio, because THIS DBL didn't get the message from the planner saying that it was OK to deliver early, so he automatically set up a relay in Ohio.

Words just cannot describe the #### show that this is.

They just banged on my door and told me to back up to a dock. At least I'm getting loaded now. I will go to the TA that is 6 miles down the road after I get loaded and park it for the night. I will have a total of about 70 miles for today. I could care less. I'm just done.

I'll run this load to Ohio and relay it there. At that point I will see where I am headed. Again, if they try to send me back into the NE, I will refuse and say nope, send me to Charlotte. Otherwise, I will finish out my 3 weeks, and this time get sent back into Charlotte. I will sit down and go over all of the #### that has been going on with whoever wants to listen. I'll try to talk with the IC Contact, hopefully I can get going on that and be done with being a company driver. If I get denied for Choice, before I set foot in a Schneider company truck again after this time out, I will be promised that things will change and that my miles will improve by someone at Schneider, or that Dodge dually will be doing a 3rd gear rolling brakestand out of the parking lot, leaving behind 4 nice "**** you" marks to remember me by.

The support shift planners are already spamming my Qualcomm asking for updated ETAs and NATs which the DBL told me to just update after I finally picked up the load. I could care less. I might think about updating them tomorrow when I wake up.

 

I seriously got a headache just reading all of this. Typical mega carrier BS. I've been through similar situations I don't know how many times. Sometimes you have to take charge and make calls to higher ups to get things moving. And they wonder whey they can't keep people eh?

 

Also, don't "peel out" like you said...lol. They might make trouble for you. Don't give them any ammo.

 

Wow. Just wow

 

If you're wondering if they really are trying to piss you off intentionally, fat chance that really is the case. These people involved in this load are too incompetent to be smart enough to intentionally #### with you.

My advice would be to have a nice sit down with the operations manager and go over the DBL's heads. See what they have to say because you're not getting much help or information from the DBL level. Maybe they can put you with that one DBL that was good. You've obviously been a "good soldier" and have done everything that has been asked of you. Now what can they do for you?

 

Does anyone know for sure that this driver even had the chance to secure the load? Don't know about the rest of you but I've picked up a few loads in my time where the trailer had already been sealed by the time I got it. I've been in DFO situation before. Got to receiver and my load was in shambles. Receiver asked me what happened and I simply stated that maybe a driver should get a chance to inspect and secure the load before they shut and seal it.

The driver should be held accountable for the other problems like not scaling it and bad tires

 

Coca Cola is the worlds worst shipper, receiver, and customer in general. Their freight is notorious for shifting due to it's dimensions and their inability to utilize air bags. I NEVER picked up a relayed Coke load for this very reason. NO WAY NO HOW!

 

Yeah if it was a preload for the original driver it wouldn't have been secured by the driver

 

If a Coke load is preloaded the yard jockey puts a dummy seal on the door. When the driver gets his paper work he gets the actual seal. The driver is required to break the old seal, secure the cargo, and put on the new seal. You're told this and to bring in two loads straps in the load information. Every Coke DC I've been to has had signs explaining the procedure. Every guard/shipping clerk has made a point of telling me to secure the load.

There is no way this isn't the fault of whomever made original pick up. That driver should be serviced failed and brought into an OC to talk to an OSR about the importance of securing a load. Depending on what else is on his record I wouldn't mind SNI parting ways with the guy.

I don't get on my high horse about bad tires or lights. I don't know when they went bad and I'm not about to consult my Ouija board to figure it out. There are some things that I will get my DBL involved in. Brake chambers with holes, overdue trailer pms, giant holes in the roof, etc. If a driver is blatantly not doing their job and taking responsibility for themselves I don't want them working at my company. We all make mistakes and a mistake shouldn't end a job/career in most cases. If nobody says anything how will that driver learn? Mistakes need to be identified and rectified before improvement can be made.

If I were faced with DFO's situation, knowing my DBL was out of the office, I would have directly called the ops manager, if he weren't available I would go to the Regional Manager. There are some things you want to get the big guns in on right away. DFO should also be getting some discretionary pay for the sitting he did while waiting on SNI to do THEIR job.