My Experiance with Watkins Shepard!

So remember all that work I did last night planning out this next load and doing all the math.........well this morning it all flew right out the F*** 'in window! lol

My appt for this morning was 7AM FIRM!!!! So I got there at 6:30am.....so I'm thinking cool I'm 30 min ahead of schedule already, and they were there ready to unload me.

So they have all these open doors and of course he wants it in the door with the stair case on my blind side, and this was a relatively tight dock area anyway...so 20 minutes of making an ##* out of myself and finally get it in the #### door crooked but it was in there lol so good thing I got there early!

Then it took us or should I say ME 1.5 hours to unload 77 pieces of furniture, I've commented before about what I think about the way they load the furniture into these trailers....well yep....thats all I got to say about that......heres one example: there was a couch on its end (like all of them) now this was a big one really long then they decided to WEDGE 2 75+lb boxes on top of it . It took the customer and his helper and a ladder and everything all three of us had to get them out and off without hurting ourselves. And of course the whole time I'm unloading he's mumbling to himself (about me) and when I finally said "what?" as if I thought he was talking to me he says "nothing I was just talking to myself" ***Deep breath***


Then I was also supposed to pickup 1 piece of furniture from them as well to bring back, well the piece of furniture hadn't even come back to them yet, and apparently W/S has been sending drivers over there every day to pick it up, and somehow like always it was MY FAULT. But he says "why don't you take these 2 pieces with you", so I try to call the guy that put me on this load to see what I'm supposeded to do about the piece thats not there and the 2 this guy wants me to take, well first I go out to start the truck and its DEAD........AGAIN!!!!! Luckily there was a straight truck sitting there and the two guys in it were going anywhere so they let me jump my truck with theirs.

Then no one answers the phone in helena, so I call missoula..no answer, then I call on call van dispatch...no answer, at this point I'm getting frustrated because 1. I'm wasting my 14 hours, 2.I'm blocking there dock and there NO WAY I was pulling out and then having to back in there again....


So finally 20 minutes and 30 phone calls later I get ahold of someone in Missoula who transfers me to someone in helena who was able to help me.....She say go back in and let me talk to them (to see if they have paper work on those to pieces) The doors locked and they're not answering the door.....so While I'm standing there freezing and getting snowed on I give her there number and she calls....no answer, so she say "well since they wont answer the phone OR the door, don't worry about it just leave" sounds good to me. Well now I'm hours behind....


So I leave there and get to my second stop and get yelled at again because no one called them ahead of time and the didn't know what piece I was there to get.....Well I know for a fact the guy who gave me this load had JUST got off the phone with her not 5 min earlyer....so yea......anyway 30 minutes later I get my 1 piece and I'm off to my next stop......


Well since I was never "sent" a "load" I was just called and givin stops I don't have any fuel stops or a trip number.....So I was on E like BELOW E and so I stop at 6 places to get fuel and every one said "sorry we don't take TCheck Cards"

So I'm sitting there running on fumes thinking.......hmmmm ok now what. So I find one last place and figure well all I can do is try, because I CANT afford to just buy the #### fuel myself and get reimbursed. Luckily this place excepts TCheck cards.....so I buy 50 gal and head to that next stop. I get there and its this little custom wood furniture place, and what I'm picking up is this HUGE 775lb box on a pallet, its as tall as the inside of the trailer and about 6 feet wide , and my truck is WAY higher then his dock, so its all uphill and he only has a pallet jack . so we get it in there and I strap it.


Then earlier in the day the guy who gave me this load called and I verified a few addresses I couldn't find and he was going to call all the stops for me to make sure they knew that I was coming and what I was picking up. And he tells me one of the stops has been canceled, including the one that didn't have my piece thats 2 out of 8 stops canceled, woo hoo!

So after the second pickup I call all the stops I have left to find out what time they open and close because at this point its 4pm. Well I found out that I was done for the day so I wrote down all the times so now I can REDO all that math to figure out tomorrow and thursday.

Anyway so I head towards the next stop, and I found this T/S here with free WiFi! score!!!!!! haha I'm gonna go check out the showers hopefully there worth my $6, I even bought 50 gal of fuel when I got here and you have to buy 75 for a free shower FML lol


so yep thats what I'm gonna do now, I'll be back in a bit!





American Trucker

 

It wasn't really all that bad of a day, a bit frustrating at time and kind of disapointing that I only got 2 stops done when I should have be able to do 6-8 of them......

But I'm trying to post as much as I can about the stuff that happens out here on the road the good AND the bad, I don't want to sugar coat what its like to be a Trucker or try to make it seem horrible either. I think its valuble to people like yourself that are in the research part of getting into trucking to see that trucking can be awesome one minute and then SUCK the next lol and then go right back to being awesome.

But even after a day like today or even with this off week I've been having, I'm still loving what I'm doing!


P.S that shower was Great!




American Trucker

 

nah just another day as a Trucker! Everyday is an adventure lol




American Trucker

 

If they have a dock, I usally just bring it to the end of the trailer and they take it from there, sometimes I have to put it on the dock (4 more feet) lol

Now if they dont have a dock It goes to the ground! after that it's on them....now If they ask for help or need it I'll help them. But 99% of the time all you gotta do is get it off the truck.


Now a hand truck works on EVERYTHING! Boxes are ovious, couches are always standing on there end so you put the flat side (the bottom) faceing the hand truck and lean it back onto it and then all you gotta do is roll it. And for the BIG Boxes like the dressers, this old guy in Upstate NY showed me this: You stick the hand truck under the box and tilt the hand truck back (not the box) what this does is lift the front end of the box and put wheels under it then you pull the hand truck and drag the back of the box.....works even better if you have someone pushing the box from behind as well.



I'll take some pictures next time I get a furniture load....I'm head to conover so I'm sure I'll get another one haha


American Trucker