Laugh Of The Day... Missing Loaded Trailer

So my current victim.. er trainee and I headed over to Pella, Iowa this morning to pick up a preloaded trailer going to just north of Pittsburgh. We go to check in at the guardhouse and give the guy our pickup info.

His response: "Umm that load isn't here and we have no idea what happened to it."

He was like, well you know we aren't here on weekends, you all just come in, drop your empty, find your load and leave.. we weren't here and that trailer left this weekend. His guess was either the trailer was stolen or another west side driver came in and grabbed the wrong trailer.

He gave me a name and a phone number to pass on to my dispatcher so they could determine if it was stolen or we just have a careless driver pulling the wrong trailer to God knows where, who was just as stunned as we were. The dispatcher asked if they had a load we could take and they did.. so instead we're headed for Fall River, MA with a load that was supposed to be there tomorrow lol.

We're up for the challenge. Been to MA many times in a car, but never on a multiple drop load or a semi even. All we could do was to laugh. Double the miles and ready for Boston adventures. And Friday it's supposed to be in the 70's there.

Trucking fun. :-)

I once had to go to downtown Boston to deliver. Although the interstate was crazy, people in town were way more patient and a accommodating than I expected. It was morning rush hour.

At least you were able to keep rolling.

👍

I have picked up from there once. I my case the trailer registration was missing, had to have a copy emailed to the guy in the guard shack. That yard is not that big. Hope it was just taken by a lazy driver. Enjoy your trip. The fall foliage should be beautiful.

Way back when I was with my trainer at Central, we went in to pick a load up at a place in Gary, IN. Supposed to be preloaded and ready to go. Get to the guard house, check in, and the guard tells us that our pickup number has already been given to another truck...from CRST. Turns out the guard got his numbers all bass ackwards. That poor CRST truck had been circling the lot for 20 minutes trying to find a CRST trailer matching our trailer number. You'd think after the third lap they would've gone back and double checked with the guard.

Lol that sucks. A few weeks ago I got to our furniture vendor in Cleveland, TN, and couldn't find my trailer. Turns out it had been taken already, which made no sense whatsoever. Oh well, just got assigned a different trailer and went on my way.

I see West Side trucks alot more often now where I run. I've seen a few at the Love's in Clanton, AL and a few others places.

I've always wondered how these things happen. I understand drivers can and do mess up and grab the wrong trailer or give the wrong pickup number, but when a load is double booked, that just boggles my mind. Trucking isn't the only business where this occurs either! It happened a few times when I was a cab driver for the railroad. Maybe that is literally a dispatcher error or maybe just a lack of communication error?

I recently had to drop a loaded trailer at our drop yard in Houston. At the same yard I was supposed to grab an empty trailer to bring to my next 01, which had a preload waiting for me. I never found a flatbed at all, much less the trailer number I was looking for. So I let dispatch know, then bobtailed to the shipper where I got my pre-loaded trailer, which of course just happened to be the trailer I was supposed to get from the dropyard...

I recently had to drop a loaded trailer at our drop yard in Houston. At the same yard I was supposed to grab an empty trailer to bring to my next 01, which had a preload waiting for me. I never found a flatbed at all, much less the trailer number I was looking for. So I let dispatch know, then bobtailed to the shipper where I got my pre-loaded trailer, which of course just happened to be the trailer I was supposed to get from the dropyard...

Always pleasant when you can bobtail in to pickup a loaded. In and out before you can blink!

Yeah another driver apparently grabbed the wrong trailer. Last night when we were parked in PA a night dispatcher called me wanting to know if my trainee and I could team a load from PA to ND that was supposed to be there by 1300 today. My current trainee is an excellent driver but for at least the first 2 weeks we are not allowed to team and we'd both been up all day anyway. I had to turn him down because safety would have been all over me for that one.

Anywho we're now in NY and will make our drops in Haverhill and Fall River MA in the morning. Having a blast out here. I'll be waving to Brett from the far south as we cruise by.

I've always wondered how these things happen. I understand drivers can and do mess up and grab the wrong trailer or give the wrong pickup number, but when a load is double booked, that just boggles my mind. Trucking isn't the only business where this occurs either! It happened a few times when I was a cab driver for the railroad. Maybe that is literally a dispatcher error or maybe just a lack of communication error?

I don't know about Sue's situation, but there are a couple possible explanations for mine. At this particular vendor, we just go in and grab our trailer and paperwork without even talking to anyone--we just sign and leave a copy of the bills for the vendor in a mailbox. It's possible one of the drivers got there and his load wasn't ready so he grabbed mine instead (with or without permission from dispatch). Or dispatch could have simply double booked the load.