Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

So I wasn't going to share this initially cause it was one of my more over the top customers. But more than enough time has moved on and we are on subject.

This was back in 2015-ish and I had a residential in Belgrade Montana and it was right at the end of a culvesac. The way I do those is flip a giant u-turn and back right up to the driveway. My trailer will hover over the driveway but my tires will still be on the pavement so nothing gets cracked. I always hog the entire culvesac but there is always enough room for people to get into and out of the adjacent driveways. Then I hop out, triple check the address on the DR as I walk to the back, pop my door halfway up, then lower my two piece liftgate till it's almost to the ground. Then I ride it back up to finish opening my door so I don't 'fling it" which could inadvertently damage the springs and rollers.

While I am just going about my standard procedure, the homeowner walks out. "Are you Mr Smith? Looks like they sent you some kind of furniture (boxed up tall thing that was light but awkward in dimensions)."

- Second floor, third room down the hall. That's where this needs to go

"Sorry mate, no can do. I don't go into hous...."

I didn't even make it to the end of my sentence and he cuts me off.

- Up the stairway, third door down, and I want it unboxed and set up so I can check for damages

"I'm sorry sir, it's against Reddaway company policy to enter your ho..."

This dude went from 0 to 100 and took 4 steps towards me, fists curled like he wanted to punch me and he became belligerent and absolutely over the top verbally abusive.

I was like "whoa whoa whoa... Alright. Just give me one second. I'll let my dispatcher know so he knows I'll be here an extra few minutes. Let me grab my phone and I'll get your stuff"

As I walked back to my cab he shouted something and walked back into his doorway waiting for me to come back.

"Hey dispatch, I got a bit of a problem here... No no, found it just fine. But the homeowner is irrate and making inside delivery demands . No no, you don't understand, he is like over the top irrate. Not sure if he is drunk or just not mentally there all the way. No dude, I am telling you that this will escalate into him taking a swing at me when he realizes there is no way I am going into that house."

There was a long pause of silence when my dispatcher was finally understanding the gravity of the situation. ......R/R, can you get out?

I quickly drew a mental picture of everything going on around me. The trailer is only halfway open and everything is still tied down. The liftgate....dang it the liftgate is already down but not all the way. My foot pushed into the clutch while I inventoried the cab. Truck brake is set, trailer brake is not (winter time), and I have a clear shot out of the culvesac. I looked into the mirror and down the driveway to double check if he had anything to follow me in. I noticed he was also away from the doorway.

I said "one second". I dropped the phone, flipped the power divider switch, placed the truck in 5th gear, and as I released the truck brake; I gradually released the clutch and applied pressure to the gas. My entire truck took off from 0 to 15 and I hauled ### down the road grabbing gears as fast as I could. Left turn, left turn, then a right turn down the empty neighborhoods. Finally found the main roadway that lead back to civilization and I started seeing other cars again. The trailer door was probably up but I didn't hear the liftgate drag. I didn't give a crap. Best case scenario the police would pull me over asking me to explain myself. Worst case the homeowner would have chased me onto the freeway.

I finally found what I thought was safe spot to pull over. My dispatcher was still on the line. "R/R are you ok? WTF happened?!?".

I told him everything in detail and he said "ok.. go check your liftgate and make sure it isn't damaged. I'm going to break you from your route and have you do pickups next door in Bozeman. Bring the rest of your deliveries back. I'm going to call the residential and see what his side of the story was".

The rest of the day goes back to normal. I roll back into the terminal, break my set and put all the trailers against the docks before parking my truck. I walk into the dock to get into the break room to warm up. Our lone dockworker comes backing out of the trailer and yells at me as I pass him.

"Dude, come talk to me inside the break room, I need to get feelings back into my fingers and I have some returns to write up. Come follow me, you look like you could use a break as well."

- hey R/R, I was trying to ask ya, do you have that return for Tacoma?

"Hmmm?"

- City dispatch called me and said you had a return for Tacoma that needs to leave tonight

"Is it that residential? I had one that was suppos....."

-Yeah that one. EVERYONE is looking for it. This guy called and raised hell with a bunch of people and our TM said to send it back. No wait. He demanded it out of our State and threatened to discipline anyone that stalled it from reaching Tacoma tomorrow. Can you explain what happened on your route?

"It's a long story"