My Experiance with Watkins Shepard!

Lets see lets go back a little while.........

Remember that horrible Furniture run in MN? That was backed up with another not so fun run.....Well I was hopeing for something that wouldn't make me go crazy at least for a few days.....


So I got back to conover and went home to do my 10 hr break, which was JUST 10hours before I had to be back at it....


So I get there and got that trailer I posted about haveing fixed right? $137.05

Then I got to take a barley warm shower in a TS that was 20 degrees in side NO HEAT!


Then I made it up to the TA I posted about....$10 to park waved because I bought $600 in fuel and spent $68 there.

Then this is where it all went HORRIBLY wrong!!!!!!!!



So I head up to MA in early mon morning to make my first delivery, that one and the two after went just fine, no problems. Except for the first stop decided they wanted to come to work 45 minutes LATE! AND I forgot the COD at the 2nd stop so I had to GO ALL THE WAY BACK!

THEN I drive 1.5 hours to my 4th stop and I get "oh sorry we dont receive on Mondays....." soooo I say "well its schedualed as a monday delivery". then she says " let me see if someone can go down to the warehouse and get it" and she comes back "sry we cant" and then she says "can you bring it back tomorrow?" and I say "no i'll be in RI tomorrow" and so she says "hold on let me give you to my boss" and he proceeds to tell me the same thing and that "Watkins Shepard should know they dont receive on mondays...." So im like "ok, I'll let my dispatch know and they can figure out what they wanna do..."

Then I leave and make it to one more stop for the day, little tiny place got it off fine but now, where to park? Theres NO truck stops.....NO rest areas......only a FEW travel plazas on the Pike and they only have a few spots at each....FML

So I finnnaly find FlyingFins Truck stop out in the middle of nowhere to shut down...End of bad day 1. I was suposed to do 7 stops on monday...I did 4!


Then early 6am tuesday morning, theres SNOW outside lots of it and its still comeing down hard! GREAT!!!!!! F***K me! SO I head out and the roads where rediculous! no plows to be seen ANYWHERE. So I reroute to get on and stay on major interstates.....Well they were just as bad but I figured at least they're bigger. Well all was going ok unitl I got to 2WEST. It's a 7% grade straight up!

There where a bunch of jacknifed trucks and spun out trucks and cars so everyone decided to STOP halfway up! Well I have these just WUNDERFULL super singles on my truck! so yep I couldn't get moving inthe middle of the Interstate! GREAT! So I finnally got it moving at about .5 mph and proceded on at that pace for about a 1/4 of a mile. then the tractor decided it wanted to rotate under the trailer, since i was bareley moving it wasnt a big deal but I couldnt get it to straightin out and i was getting closer and closer to the Jersey Barrier! and finnally I had to stop I was 6" from the wall and was only getting closer. Since there where so many messed up trucks now the state police blocked to road and called tow trucks ( i didnt know this as this was happening about 500 feet behind me) so I pull the brakes and try to call the shop...No answer....I try another shop...no answer....OK time to wake someone up....No answer....try another.....no answer.....Well now a big rig wrecker pulls in front of me and backs up to my truck, I get out and he says "I'm going to try and pull you up to the top" then he says "get in your truck and try to drive up while I pull you" So I do and it worked just fine, he pulled me all of 300 yards $250!!!!!!!






.....finnaly someone answers so I can get a Tcheck to pay this guy and I get Yelled at for calling his CELL the number that Watkins Shepard gives us for this guy....then

so since I only got 4 done I wasnt to far away from the stop i couldnt do the day before, this is where I had this problem above on my way back to them....Then i get there the roads not plowed and neither is the docks wich are right off the road, I tell the guy I can back in there I'll get stuck...he says "to bad" so I figure fine i'll show him....so I attempt to back in no go i get stuck now im blocking the road and 100 people all pissed off blowing there horns and I finnaly get out and try again only faster nope stuck again but now worse! so I get out and pull off my chains and put the behind the tires and was able to get enough traction to get out and park on the side of the road. I tell the guy sry cant do it you'll have to unload out here and he says nope, and I say "ok Bye!" then he says NO WAIT! Im like what! and he says "i guess I can back my straight truck up to yours and just put it in there" so after 1 hour of blocking the road he uses his head!

then back down for a stop in CT, then over to RI. more wrong info given to me again, wrong addresses/phone numbers/company names! Then for the 2nd time I had a customer say sry I'm not staying 15 minutes late....so instead of me being able to head up to ma and park for the night nope I have to stay in RI, I did get to the RI Truck stop though! Which cost $10 to park at! But OMG they have the Greatest Resterant EVER!



After tuseday I had only done 8 of 21 stops! But as I looked over the paper work I found that I might just be able to salvage this....

And when I tried to get to the last RI stop what do I get! I get to where I can't go anyfurther. So I call the RI local cops and 2 show up and they block traffic so I can back out into the intersection (i not only followed the directions the customer gave me herself but my map AND gps said this was the way to go...) Then the cop says "where you trying to get to.." so I tell him and he says I dont think there down there and he radios disptach and she knew where I needed to go so he says "follow me" and I got a Blue light escort all the way there lol

and I almost did BUT I had another customer not that HAD to have there stuff but wouldnt wait for it so I just skipped them as I wasnt going to let them mess everything up. Then I knocked 2 out in the same place, 2 differant stops same owner he said to drop it all at of them COOL but it took an hour to get in there but still COOL!

Then I had to deliver to a skyscraper in DOWNTOWN boston.....I parked right on the street and unloaded!

Then one of the stops I called to find out how to get in and turns out i was talking to some guy in NJ! awesome. I call conover and get the RIGHT info and call him and he talks me in turn by turn BUT wait it gets BETTER! theres a crew fixing some down power lines so I get to sit there and wait.... the road was barly as wide as my truck! So while i was waiting i called all the stops and got there hours...

Then the stop after I COULD have done before he closed BUT someone in conover talked to the customer early that day and told him i couldnt get there till the next say so he closed early and went to RI! FML


So Off I go looking for parking in MA again 1 hour later on my 8th attempt I found a spot on the Mass pike at one of the travel plazas.


So again while parked I was looking at my paper work and saw the one opened at 5am...on at 730 on at 9 and I had a 10firm APT and 1 stop that he would be there "first Thing". So I call mr. First thing at 8pm on his cell and ask what First thing is and he says when can you be there I say 6am and he says OMG lol ok I'll be there.. So I'm like ok I think I can do the 5 am then the 6 am then the 730 am then still make my apt on time....Well I did even though the 5am showed up 15 min late in fact I got to my apt at 845am and Was out of there at 945am. Then I headed back down to the last stop.


BTW the 5am one was also in DOWNTOWN boston luckily there was no traffic at all maybe 5 cars althought getting through that aly at 5am while lined with cars was tuff but i did it!


Then I get a load from Manchester to NJ term. I'm almost out of fuel! I call Fuel dept...theres NO place to fuel till CT. I'm like well im on fumes. and I say I might be able to make it to the one and only pilot in MA and he says what pilot my computer doesnt show a pilot and im like my GPS does so he says to try and get here....I figure I had about 25 gallons of fuel after I was loaded.... in manchester...then I had to go 100 miles south to the MA/CT boreder to this pilot which will require 15-18 gallons, talk about close! I made it and what do I find! in MA state law YOU must remain in control of the pump at ALL times SOOOO you can only fuel one side at a time and BY HAND! 181gallons! $678. Then I park which is where I am now and they dont even has a fastfood place here WTF!



Theres so much more that happend that I cant remember but as a quick recap, Bad Routing (they routed me down Illegal roads 24 in RI is a BIG NONO for trucks luckiy I knew that before I got there and rerouted), Bad phone number/addresses/names. Bad sequecing of deliverys/ trailer LOADED WRONG stops in wrong order/ bad weather, no parking, no showers, no WiFi, ##*H**e customers and 4 wheelers. Stupid roads and Why the F***k are there snow banks IN the F****kin road! So halfway through Tuesday I was SO FAR beyond my max BS level I called Missoula a schedualed 5 days off, once i get to NJ in the morning I have a load going to lexington, NC that delivers mon, im going to drop it off in conover hopefully he can repower it so I can go home.







Thanks for worrying about me, and for those of you that wanted to know if anyone at WS knew where I was, Thank you had anything been wrong that would be the only way anyone would know....






American Trucker