My load was supposed to be ready, it isn't

Dispatchers are nothing but the firewall for the planning department; they take the calls and cover the screw-ups. A dispatcher will not point the dirty end of the stick at a planner. Planners hold the freight, and can hold out on a dispatcher's assigned trucks if need be.

 

Does your company keep several trailers at this warehouse? Have you checked others to see if it was loaded in a different one?

 

I've had that happen before. Mainly because the product was not available to load on the trailer. If their production line went down, you could be waiting a while.

 

Dispatch once had me break a reset in Disputanta, VA at the Pilot to go pick up a loaded trailer at QVC that was supposed to be ready (according to the broker) at 2300 but when I got to Rocky Mount, NC at the shipper, I was informed it wasn't going to be ready until 0800. So I parked outside the gate and went to bed. Dispatch had to relay the trailer as I ran out of hours in West Memphis due to breaking my reset.

 

Then quit ... I've always been paid detention in those circumstances ... it's either pay me detention or send me another load ASAP ... no waiting around for free.

And the planner is on the hook ... leaving a truck sit for 24+ hours. Do that often enough and the planner's truck utilization will be in the tank.

 

Make sure you talk to the shipper about their hours of operation so you know for the future. This has helped me out a lot.

 

Actually, I didn't hear enough info to know how to respond. What did your company say? Like others have said, it could be a number of things;....loaded on a different trailer, line went down, once a broker gave my load to another company by mistake. Kinda need to know more to tell if your company is just jacking you around or there's a legit reason, but from what your co-driver said it's how your company operates.....that sounds like Occam's Razor right there.

 

I agree, that is why I don't work for a CPM mega. I get paid by the hour.

No you don't understand. The planner's stats look great. Planner's job is to assure each truck has a trip plan everyday. Approving and running the trip plan is the driver's obligation. The lack of miles looks bad for the driver not the planner. The planners stats say he planned every truck in his area whether the miles were utilized by the driver or not. Just like the dead head miles on the load now are counted as out-of-route miles by the driver. Now to upper management is none the wiser and all the company problems look like the driver even though it was the planner running the scam. This is often why driver turnover is so high.

Just trying to help others understand the scams that go on in CPM companies. If you don't get it that still O.K. Since the op's company is rather small this scam is not quite as elaborate as it is at a mega-crap; Here the company owner/planner/dispatch just wanted the op and team-mate to take the run knowing it is likely that there would be a layover that would make the run undesirable anyway.