Receiver refuse to unload truck.

one time i was hauling railroad ballast to a train de-railment. made made somthing like 3-4 trips at almost 200 miles per trip then big head cheese shows up and says he didn't approve for them to have us haul this rock from that location. we re-load it haul it all back. drop the last load back where it came from. then the phone rings ok they approved for us to use that rock re-load it again and bring it back.

got paid to haul the same rock 3 times. @ a rate of $145 per hour.

 

Railroads are amazing...amazing they stay in business. I hauled rock to where they were repairing a crossing...was told to be there "first thing in the morning". So, I pre-loaded the afternoon before (since I was right there...had to drive past the quarry on the way home), and it worked out great because I was going to have to drive right past this crossing in the morning to get to my 1st load. Showed up at 7:00 (figured drive time from the quarry to this location past the opening time of the quarry)...and NOBODY in sight. They didn't arrive to start work until almost NOON! Paid me real good, though, to sit there in a 40-ton truck blocking half of a 5-ton weight restricted road. I kept waiting for a state bear to roll by on the state Highway and glance up this little side road, flip around, and come have a chat...but amazingly it didn't happen.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of my day was pretty much shot after that, but at least I got paid well to sit.

 

That's the Railroad in general.
They work on a time frame that no other industry could ever manage. It's SOOO slow.

 

You apparently haven't worked in an oilsands mine.....

 

No, I haven't.
Is it as bad or worse?

 

Likely much worse.

 

amazing.
Half the time when I deliver a load, i have a number for some dispatcher across the country, who knows nothing of the work site I'm delivering to. If I even get a number at all.
I get the nearest road intersection, that might be as much as a mile away from the actual location. But they can't or won't meat me there to escort me to the job site.
Then, its a pair of good ol boys in their Hi-Viz and safety glasses with hard hats, who had no idea I was even coming (with no working phone number). SO they have no way to even unload me.
At least when I deliver to oil companies, its to a major job site with more people to answer to than workers. But still no one knows what's going on, or which sub ordered the material in the first place.

 

Railroad can do fast. There is a Tropicana Juice train about 50 to 60 boxcars the size of semi trailers, driven by 5 engines sometimes 6 if there is a few on the rear over a radio link. 15 hours to Jersey after loading and corralling the loads. Amtrack's Auto Train to Lorton Va is slightly slower.

But the best work by railroad is slow and steady. However there is another form of transport that is superior to rail and truck, barges by river. Something like a thousand loads of corn if not more can travel across the USA on the water. Dates all the way back to whiskeyboats in the early 1800's and late 1700's Canal work.

I was thinking of another refused load as well. This was meat for the Jessup distribution, a couple of pallets got refused, reasons I don't remember. Anyway, there are two ways this refused freight ends up. You go to Columbia Md which has a whole sale warehouse, and there you sit until the meat is resold and then taken off your trailer. The other potential location is on Federal Hill in Downtown Baltimore near Fort Street about a block from it. It's tricky getting a whole semi up there but since it's been in my family since baltimore was a city prior to 1700's you don't find it too hard to get one up there. Backing to the dock in that one requires some care as you are backing across almost 200 years worth of switches and tracks that used to serve this facility long before trucks were a real going thing after world war one. And there you sit until the freight is sold. You are the storage. It's a good time to get rested and raring to go with the next dispatch when you get through with a good meal at Baltimore Travel Plaza. The lasanga there with beef is to die for.

 

I had a delivery of urea to a paper mill. Left hand had ordered it from the regular shipper, Right hand found it cheaper from a canadian outfit. Get there and the Canadian is already unloading. I took that one back to the shipper after a few hours sitting at the gate while people figured out what was going on.
Another time I get to the shipper and they had just had a delivery of the same product. Usually they get one load of 5,000 gallons of what is basically Vaseline every 2 weeks. The load ended up sitting at a co. terminal and I got paid the full rate + canceled load fee so it worked out nicely for me.

A couple times I get to delivery and they don't have room for the product. So I sit and get demurge.