I think I just learned something. I need to hire an office full of Load Planners and Dispatchers that I pay more than I pay Truck Drivers, so I can have #### ups like that too. I’ve been making sure the guys have enough available hours to deliver the load before I dispatch them. All this time and I’ve been doing it wrong.
I remember picking up a load from one of our drop yards that originated out of General Mills in Minnesota. The load was very hot and HAD to be in a food warehouse in Houston by the date of the appointment. I got as far as Ponca City OK before I was told to stop at a small TS at the junction of I-35 and US 60 so another driver could go home. Everything went well until that same driver blew a turbo close to midway between Ponce City and Oklahoma City. The only time I can remember doing a drop&hook on the side of a highway. Thankfully a state trooper was there. I was really angry to start with. I got the load in Houston on time, busted my hours to do so. I later learned our safety critter crawled several inches up a fleet manager's backside that day! I had to leave an empty trailer at that TS, no idea what happened to the other driver or that empty.
Being a bad person and blocking the fuel island should be ENOUGH reasons not to do something. Why not just drop the trailer at a traffic light, or on the sidewalk?
Low-class drivers, one might call them bad people, will "forget" the trailer they are bringing to the "swap-meet" has a flat tire, some broken door hinges, tandems stuck fully forward or fully back, turn signals that don't work, etc. Don't be a bad person, or else.
