Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

MBM and I do food service for chains. 1000 to 1500 cases on a truck. Some two wheel in at 28c a case, some you just bring them the pallet and sit there and make 17c a case while they unload it. (it's not as cool as it sounds, some are VERY SLOW)

 

so, there I am, jamming along on my regular th/fri/sat route and stop 7 is on a university. It's an ugly back. Literally a 1/4 mile, between buildings, just enough room to clear landscaping walls and if you finally get back there, usually someone is already at the dock. (there's only one dock, it's idiotic, it's a university). I get back there, teh dock is open. I've been calling and calling the customer, who usually answers and I say "i'm 10 minutes away". Because obviously I don't want to chew up the space forever, other people have deliveries too.

still no answer.
Get back into the dock.
still no answer
Finally start wandering around this labyrinthine building looking for the restaurant. (it's a student center, you can imagine the size). I finally find a employee (not the usual manager) after 15 minutes of wandering around and two different people helping me look.
he's having a nice coffee and hitting on some student worker. (and obviously been for over 30 minutes). I'm on time, same time every week. I say "here's the paper, let's go"
this is one of the chains that i unload the pallets and they take it from there. He says "i'm not a horse, no manager until 8 (delivery time is 7:10am, it's now about 7:30) and I won't sign for it.

ok

call dispatch, use a few cuss words, take the pallets out and put them on the dock. They don't care about their product, why should I?

Finally some lady comes out, manager for the student union and says "i can sign but you have to wheel it to the restauarant (up a slow elavator and I didn't bring my u-boat, all other stops I wheel in)."

Nope, I get paid to bring it to here, they break it down. Are you going to sign or not?

"well I'll have to have my boss call your center and straighten this out" Yeah, your restaurant gets delivered to the door and all 1100 other ones do their own work, i'm sure that's it. not"

she finally signed, I didn't wheel it and I left at 8am. The delivery should take about 20 minutes.

I have no idea what happened, but I didn't hear word one about it, so I assume it's their issue.

i hate universities. Oh, for all this, I made about $11. 47 cases. ridiculous. and that food was still sitting on the dock. (you know, frozen and refrigerated food).

if mr 1 hour coffee break worked for me, he'd been fired long ago.

 

Spot on RR and good for you.

Some times we deliver appliances for a home builder, It can be 20 washers, 20 stoves, 20 dishwashers, 15 side-by-side Reefers or any of the mix. Home builder expects each appliance to be delivered at each address.

"Not Going to Happen buddy, I will make 20 consecutive day drops at 1 address per day or find a central location and drop all 20" "So, do you need the appliance right now or can you wait a few weeks" ?

Answer is in my favor. BOL is one address, Nothing about multiple stops.


Similar to what i was asking mike in the other thread. What's the point of having employees? Always someone standing around and they expect the drivers to do the work for them, Drivers are dumb enough to do it.

I was born at night, Not last night. Customer is not my employer, but i try to work things out.



Clarify: Work something out with the customer, 20 stops not going to happen when you see 10 guys scattering when the Tractor Trailer arrives. 1 location drop off will happen lol

 

well route bidding apparently is getting pushed off.
talked to the trans manager today and asked "well when are we doing this?" and he said that some mistakes had been made so he had to go back thru and fix it and then it would be another 2 weeks of posting before bidding started.

so I would guess at least a month until routes actually switch.

 

oh, so you drive a freightliner.

 

freightliners have THE WORST jake's (engine brakes) around. It makes the loud noise, but doesn't actually do anything.

I just want a bidded route so a. I have some sembalance of a schedule and b. I don't have to call in every freaking day only to be told "oh, we're not done yet, we'll call you back" (yeah, 6 months of this, it never changes).