Infuriate a Trucker in One Sentence

I don't really have a sentence. It's a situation and it happened yesterday . Shell Chemicals in Geismar gives you exactly 15 minutes leeway after your appointment then all is cancelled! First time at 06:00 there was a number missing and dispatch didn't get it fast enough... at 06:45 "cancelled"!!! second time at 10:30 there was a strapping chart missing... cancelled at 10:45 on the dot...
I understand wanting to keep things flowing but 15 min leeway just isn't enough. By the time they tell you what's missing, you contact mothership and get an answer : pouff! You're out of luck.
Sorry for the little rant.

 

Here s 2 more that happen to me recently:

Last Sunday, I pulled up to Walmart in Red Bluff, CA 930am for 10am appt. LP called receiving dept and let them know I was there. 10 minutes later and 2 phone calls they tell me " Your appointment is in the system, but the AG inspector is not here today, so we can t take the load today, you will have to reschedule". Then they had the nerve to try to blame my company and the broker for the appt being set. That was the first and last time that I will haul a nursery load into CA

Instance 2. I told my company that I needed to get through the house to get some important stuff. " Oh we ll do our best we don t have anything going that way" So they sent me to pick up a load that goes to Winnipeg, and when the forklift driver came and asked me where I was going, I told him, and the second load they had actually went by the house and delivered 20 minutes away. Man I was mad as hell, and went off something fierce for them lying

 

I have a feeling this one has been posted in this thread already in one form or another but...

"What time you getting off?"

I'd imagine most my fellow drivers know what the 3 word response to this naive question usually is

 

What seems to be the problem?
The weather isn't bad here!

 

Had a good one yesterday. The load I was supposed to pick up and haul into Georgia could not be made legal. 34,200 lbs at 41 foot from king to center of tandems. AL, TN, NC all have the same 41 foot bridge law.

Site had their own certified scale, but the security guard was trying to pressure me into rolling illegal.

Guard:
"Well, they won't rework a load unless it is over gross."
Me:
"That's fine. I won't haul a illegal load."
Guard:
"Guess they'll just have to find another driver that will."
Me:
"Maybe so, but I won't haul it if it isn't legal. I'll just go drop the trailer where I found it, and bobtail somewhere."

So, rolled off bobtail to shut down for the night (only had 90 minutes left on my 14.)

Next morning, I called as soon as the CSR was in, and the load was reworked and ready for me when I finished my 10 and rolled back to pick it up.

I managed to get through it all without raising my voice, but it was difficult not to go off on the guard.

 

Hey,so you made it 40 miles out of Atlanta."Im sorry...we Need you to go back to the Shipper...They left something off your load,try to Hurry...they close in an Hour.

 

I really wouldn't sweat 200 lbs. Maybe if it was severe incompetence, but why waste so much time on something no scale will blink at?

 

I probably could have run the load without issue, but if a site can't manage to make their loads legal, they need to adjust their loading software, or train their forklift operators better.

That's not the first illegal load I've had reworked by this national account customer, but it is the first time I've had a security guard at one of their locations try to get me to take a load with those sorts of comments.

Several times guards at different locations have asked questions about laws and loads, but that's perfectly fine. Try to verbally coerce me into taking an illegal load? Nope.

 

Actual conversation at a reciever.......

"But the other drivers do it all the time."

"I'm sure they do, but I don't. Find a different dock."

 

“Pull in here and do a U turn then back in”
Failing to mention it’s a tight turn for the yard dog......
No way a sleeper cab is doing that.