My last job , it used to fry me to see guys hooked to empty trailers on Thursday because they need one a Sunday when they get off home time. Well I need one Thursday to pick up a load to deliver Friday . Here is a list of empties , but 9 out of 9 are hooked to someone . But Ed is more important then our largest customer!
It is just a problem we have to deal with, and really not that big of a deal. If I am late to the pick up because I need to find an empty, then I will likely be late for delivery. But life is life, and we deal with it as it comes. My way of dealing with it is to simply not worry about things that I have no control over. I go with the flow, and adjust my times accordingly. And that is to say... If I am 3 hours late to the pick up because I am hunting for an empty, and would have had a 12 hour break if I had been able to pick it up on time, I will still take that 12 hour break by adjusting my delivery time.
Shop will cut the lock off of a trailer … if there's a truck under the trailer and it's a company truck and they're on home time … the shop can move the truck. Another tip … when looking for trailers at a customer, there's no mts, but there are trailer on a door … go in and ask when that trailer is coming off the door. Another tip … when in an area where there are multiple customers, there's no trailer where your DM sent you or none where you drop, just start popping into any customer where you see a trailer and tell them your were sent there to pu an mt.
If I’m staying the night at a terminal and want to drop my mt so I can use the facilities I always put a lock on it. It’s my mt not yours.
I have NEVER been able to get a dispatcher to give me a list of empties, except at the Oklahoma City yard This also pretty much just a gripe for Swift yards, not customers. Yes, it is something we have to deal with, but im not stressing. Just saying some scammy jerks are gonna have to deal with my retaliatory pranks. We can't all be humble preachers of such high moral fiber that such pranks are beneath us .Just don't fall off that pedestal, us low folk may not catch ya.
Some terminals take your mt trailer off you if you are not dispatched on a load when you arrive there
