What's the stupidest thing you've ever had a dispatcher or office rat tell you?

During my first driving job, we hauled a lot of "air mail." I was westbound on 70 in January 2001, approaching the Eisenhower Tunnel, when word came over the radio that the road was closed due to ice. So I dialed dispatch on my cell phone.

Me: "Colorado DOT has shut down I-70 just east of Eisenhower Tunnel due to weather. I don't know when it will re-open, but I'll let you know as soon as I find out."

Dispatch: "Will the load be on time?"

Me (slightly annoyed): "Obviously not."

After a few minutes of back-and-forth, the dispatcher said, "This is an air mail load, it's gotta go!"

Me: "Then I guess you and the salesman are gonna have fun explaining to the customer why the "plane" can't get through the Eisenhower Tunnel right now."

Dispatch: "Can you maybe take an alternate route?"

Me (after taking a deep breath): "I started smoking because of people like you." Click.

 

From what I've been told, they do this to have a papertrail to cover their ###.

 

I was hauling an oversize load and the directions led me to a dead end, when I called the dispatcher she said to just drive around until you find the job site, My load was 12' wide, 14' high and 95,000 lbs gross in a residential area. I told her I am not moving until I either get proper directions or a phone number for the job foreman. by the way I was the first of six trucks making deliveries this day and she expected us all to just drive around until we found the crane that was waiting to unload us at about $3000 an hour!

 

Wouldn't it be nice if dispatch was held to the same standards as drivers ? NAH NEVER HAPPEN!

 

It's ok, certain states allow you to be over 80,000 lbs in the regular tractor and 53' trailer.

 

the dispatcher at my new ( not for long ) company keeps telling me I can drive to a safe place after my 14 is up if the shipper or reciever takes too long

she seems to be an expert in her own mind, but doesn't understand what I mean when I say I have 7 hours left on my 14 and 5 hours of driving time left

 

Not from a dispatcher, load planner, or driver manager....but an Operations Manager.....last week during our driver meeting, when I protested the new "90-minute limit on idle time" being implemented in spite of the fact that so many of our new battery-powered sleeper HVACs fail so often:

"Just get up and re-start the truck".

No, I'm not kidding. I almost got up and walked out. Had the meeting been in SC as opposed to OH, I would have...and taken all my stuff out of my truck at the same time.

 

I'm visuaizing 6 of you guys all trying to turn around in a WalMart because you got lousy directions! "Sure..just look for the crane!" If I could have reached through the phone, I would have throttled her!

 

Just out of curiosity what system are you guy's running? We had Clima-cab and had several problems at first but now have them working well in most cases. The newest Freightliners have some other system but I haven't heard the guy's complaining about them. Now the Webasto system is junk, and our's will not work for someone taking an extended break like a 34.

 

I've got a ProStar, and I think this system is called the POS. (OK...I'm kidding...). It's listed as the MaxxPower No-Idle HVAC System (and Blood Pressure Increasing Device).