Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

Exactly, why would you want the same driver on the same route. Who knows that if he calls ahead the fork opp will wait around 15 minutes extra.
Or that some places go to lunch early and can be skipped to come back to later. Nope, lets keep every driver moving around so they never really learn any one route. Never develop a solid working relationship with the customer or provide stability to the drivers and customers.
We would rather miss pickups that wont stay late or close early, but don't miss that one delivery that is way out of route and is known for staying late with a simple phone call ahead.

 

gawd, this.
In every form of trucking, not just LTL
food service, truckload, everything. NO wonder everyone just sees truckers as a inanimate object, they never actually meet and get to know the person behind the wheel.

Plus, let's make sure and do this when you are new to the company/business, therefore it's like two to three times as hard. But we can't understand why everyone quits in the first few months.

 

There are some very legitimate reasons for shaking things up a bit. One of them, is the BS factor. You get a driver that gets to know his/her customers too well, and there can be a lot of wasted time at stops, while the driver is BSing with the receiver.
And then there is the old bugaboo, theft and conspiracy. Particularly with delivering the same product to the same place over and over. You get a driver and a receiver who feel they need to give themselves a raise.
You have product signed for, that was never delivered, but peddled to somebody else, with the proceeds split between the driver and the receiver.
Actually inside thefts are a very high reason for smaller outfits to go out of business, for bigger outfits, it can (and should) be career ending for the top store management.
I know this isn't a pleasant subject, but it is a fact, and it is life.

 

We all know how residentials can be. It's a crapshoot--sometimes the customers are friendly and helpful, the place is easy to get in and out of, the freight is manageable...

...aaaaand then there's the jerk I had the other week.

It was a medical bed, addressed to "XYZ Hospital Bed Co," but went to a house--y'all know how people will do anything to avoid the residential delivery charge. So whatever. I back in off a VERY narrow dirt road and get it within 50 feet of the garage. This bill is a 5# box of accessories and a 340# freakin' BED, fully assembled, 7' by 18" and let's just say not the most convenient thing to move. So me and the customer(mostly me) wrestle it down and into the garage.

Whenever I see ANY carton damage, especially on residential/small business deliveries, I point it out to the customer and recommend inspecting the freight. I'm not the type of dick who drops busted freight and runs off. And sure enough, there was a hole in the box. We opened it up, looked it over, the bed itself looked fine. No damage to the actual product. No worries, right?

The next day, I get a message from dispatch. This [insert exceedingly unkind words here] lied on me and said that his $2500 bed was damaged, and that 'the driver never told me to check the freight.' I understand customers who are ignorant, ill-equipped or live in inconvenient places. But when someone casts aspersions on my character, I take great exception to that.

I do hope and pray that he repents, because I really don't think that eternity in the Outer Darkness is worth a free bed.

 

GP, I know what you mean. I delivered a pallet of tile (2500#) to a residence. Got the yeah, you can back in here speal.
Get to the customer, his driveway is a named road shared by about 5 other people, so its skinny. Get back as far as I'm willing to risk it. He comes out, bellyaching about how i was told specifically not to drive on his driveway, and I was supposed to be delivering it with a Moffit lift and extra help to get it inside the house. That's what he "paid for",
Sorry sir, its not on the BOL. I wasn't aware.
Offered to return with a smaller truck, and her refused because it wasn't going to be THAT day, but could be the next day.
Wound up hand unloading into the back of his Dodge truck. Cause he needed it that day, and it was supposed to have been delivered the previous Friday.
No damage claim, but one very irate internet shopper.

BTW, we don't have any moffits in our fleet. Never have, never will. Although, they would be very nice to have for some stops.

 

Tell him you will drop it at the end of the driveway and he can call a courier service with moffet. Corse he will have to bill someome else for the favor....

 

Absolutely, no debate here. But when its everyday, that is too much. I can see every 6 months to a year, making a change like that. But again, not everyday.