What would you do?

So how was your day?

 

Safely is the word you were looking for. Sorry Mr Dispatch I cant make it there SAFELY on time. Even if somehow I do i will be out if hours. So will have to VIOLATE the law and company policy, once i am loaded. Go tell the safety dept to send me a e-mail saying to attempt it.

 

If it were me I would have at least tried. There was just enough time to get there before they closed even averaging 35mph. If I made it then I made it. I am sure there is somewhere to park even if I need to get a little creative. But that is just the way I am. I don't mind parking in places that aren't truck stops or using all my available hours. I am used to working 99 percent of my hours so I would rather be doing something then just sitting. But like I said that is just me and the way I prefer to do things.

 

In these situations, the first thing I ask myself is " What would @tucker do?"

 

There’s no point. Receivers are mostly closed on weekends, and he has 700 miles and 3 days to do it. Load Friday and get down the road. Saturday noon, be within earshot of the receiver and get a 34.

Run balls to the wall during the week.

 

Or get loaded Thursday evening and finish out your day. Most likely miss dealing with everyone and there mother trying to get that weekend load and just drive. Head to the receiver and get there Friday night or Saturday morning then take the rest of the weekend off. Either way will work it's just personal preference. My main driver is the fact that I go home on the weekends so if I can get there early Friday rather then Friday night I'm doing it.

 

Ever go to a car dealer and look at a used car that says “Price: Please See Salespeople”? So, this chump walks up and you ask him about price and he wants you to come inside and sit down. Then he offers a beverage and maybe a doughnut. Sign this, initial that, wait here I will talk to the sales manager.

What he’s doing is getting you prepared to do what he says. Sit down, eat this, drink this, sign this, fill this out, give me your down payment and your trade in, now get your arse out of my office!

Dispatchers do a similar play. A lumber load is the bottom of the line load, but Dispatching for Dummies tells them to yank the drivers’ chain. All of that drama...

...over a NOTHING load. It’s like watching reality television.

 

I had a load of lumber scheduled as a backhaul once. Due to some delays getting my primary haul unloaded, I wasn't going to get there until 15 minutes after they were set to close. I called them up to see if they'd stick around, and they said "There's plenty of room to park, and we'll get you loaded first thing when the guys show up in the morning."

I'm in a day cab. Not sleeping in the truck.

"There's a hotel in town. We open at 6:00 AM."

I'll tell you what's going to happen. When I get there, if nobody is there to load me I'll just keep trucking on home and you can find another truck to haul it. If you want me to lay over, it's got to pay a lot more than it is...but it's not, so I won't be there in the morning and there's no telling when I'll be up this way again.

They had a guy wait around to get me loaded. I made a few extra bucks, and got home that night as planned.

 

Arguments between two or more people with oposing wants are basically politics. And politics is "war by other means" according to clausewitz, who also posits that the aim of war is to disarm the enemy in order to fully dictate the terms of peace. A disarmed opponent does what he is told by the armed one. In the old days of rank and file cannon and musket across a field, a surprise flank attack was the first step toward encirclement which lead to annihilation or surrender. "Put your weapons down and your hands up, weve got you surrounded" was what they always said in gunsmoke right? Encirclement. Ive defeated you, so just do as i say and i may have mercy. Obey or be destroyed, thats disarmament.

Sun tsu told us 2000 odd years back that warfare is deceptive.. The truth is a hindrance in war and thus in politics. Im getting to a point here, but these are the ground rules for effective combat whether physical or verbal. Clausewitz also has a bit to say about the size of the fight in each dog and of their weaponry. Time has proven this true since we have all seen that pampered, pudgy couch potato western civilians are no match for fanatical suicide bombers with nuclear undies in a train tunnel or whathaveyou. A guy who is fed up and ready to brawl at the waterfountain will always be yielded to by the others. And no im not saying that is the way to be at all. Im calm, go to church and say please/thank you and tip well. But the psychology and tactics of dispute have long been studied and tested, they are scalable from two men to two or more nations. And you were in a dispute, these axioms apply, though only on a verbal, political level here.

So back to that. The dispatcher thinks he is above you at the company since he tells you what to do every day. He has probably forgotten how easy it is to train a new dispatch chimp vs how hard is it to find, train and retain a CDL driver who will stay at a company that even goes to northeast, and lugs 8ft tarps for crap pay. If its those loads out of monson on 32 theyre on the board for like a dollar a mile every day. Please subsidize me loads.


So with the above instructions in mind.. Decieve, encircle, disarm, dictate the terms of surrender... My brain churns it all up and says this:

"Hey dispatch, i told you find me something i can actually do or im done for the day. Ive had enough of this job. Ive got a CDL and a savings account, i can afford to park this truck right here in new haven and get the next recruiter to send me a bus ticket to orientation at my next job. If you and me have to go talk to my friend up in HR, it might be you who is leaving and i havent read much about a dispatcher shortage crisis. Seems every youtube housewife is teaching people to dispatch from home these days. Think it over a while then find me another load." *click*