It is a beautiful morning in southern Texas. Sunny and warm. The buzzards were sitting on the fence waiting for the next unlucky critter to bite it while they’re skittering across the road. I have a load of meat due for delivery at 9:00 a.m. I was parked at a truckstop about 6 miles from the yard. I got a decent night’s sleep and was ready to start the day.
I was checking out the route and realized that the address from the qualcomm did not match the directions the qualcomm was giving me, and the delivery address on the bill of lading didn’t match either of them! No problem I thought. I have over 2 hours till my delivery time. So I called my dispatcher. The night dispatchers were still on duty.
Great Help From Night Dispatch
After explaining what my problem was, the dispatcher just gave me the same address from the qualcomm. I said I knew that, but that I needed more info…where was this load supposed to be? How am I supposed to get there? The dispatcher pinged me on the GPS tracking system. He then proceeded to tell me that I was 26 miles north of my actual position at the truck stop I was parked at! Lot of good that tracking system is! Now time is ticking away and I am getting frustrated. I told them that the location they’re showing me at was impossible. I know where I am. I could practically see Mexico from where I am right now!…. I need to know where I need to be! He said he couldn’t do anything for me.
I left the truck stop about 1 1/2 hours before my drop time, still plenty of time to get there. I followed the local directions from the qualcomm. I got to where those directions ended, but I was nowhere near the yard! Nowhere near anything that looked like my receiver. I tried to call the receiver, but the number that was sent over the qualcomm with the dispatch was not a valid number. It had been disconnected. I tried dispatch again. They tried to send me a different way, and that wasn’t right either. Now I have been driving up and down these roads, hitting dead ends, one ways, no trucks allowed. I’m getting really hot now. They want this stuff delivered on time but make it nearly impossible for us to get it to them!
Luck Was On My Side
I called dispatch – AGAIN – and they told me to call the meat department at my company after 8:00 a.m. So I waited and called them. The line is busy. I waited a few minutes and tried again – busy. After four tries I give up. I got a hold of my DM (driver manager – dispatcher). I told him what was going on and just then, while driving up and down this road, I stumbled across the address on a building that matched the bill of lading. It looked like a business office. I stop there but no one is around yet. I have no choice but to wait for a live body to get this figured out. Finally I see someone and I ask them about the address.
He sent me to the other end of the building and said to go around the building and go up the stairs. It is now about 10 minutes till my load is due. I could tell there were two floors but did not see stairs anywhere! SO I am racing around trying doors to try and find the one that opens up to a stairway. I finally found it and ran up the stairs with my papers. I get them turned in and tell the gal at the desk about the mixup. She said “Yeah, that happens a lot.”
“So why doesn’t it get fixed???” I wonder. She gives me the right directions, on roads that actually go through and allow truck access.
Nobody Looking Out For The Drivers
I hustle back to the truck and I talk to my DM while I was getting my truck to the loading area. He said to hurry up and get the arrival submitted on the qualcomm to show an on-time arrival. I have never had a late arrival yet and I am not getting one now because of this mess up. I ask my DM why this stuff happens when not only is he aware of the problem, but so are the day and night dispatchers and the receivers?? They all know that bad info is being given to us!! I guess no one cares because they are not affected by it. Just the drivers! And it is just the drivers that get the hit on our record if we can’t get it figured out.
SO I am on time, with about 1 minute to spare, and now I’m siting at the dock waiting for my turn to get unloaded. For 3 1/3 hours. Glad I wasn’t late!
See ya next time,
Steve
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Great post. I was melting down right along side you as I read along. My question would be “How can you avoid this situation in the future?” Obviously you are on your own in a cluster like this. Although you solved a problem that was not of your creation I would think that these almost calamities should be avoided at all costs.
Once again great post and I hope to never participate in (but I doubt it) a similar experience.
Great post!!! My blood pressure was rising fast with this reading!! This happens almost daily to the drivers. What should have been an easy start to the day with plenty of time for delivery turned into an ALMOST LATE ARRIVAL which is always the drivers fault. It would also depend how strict the arrival times are as you will also find out that many times are just given to the driver and there really is not an APPOINTMENT time.
Many times the billing address(s) will not match local place. Directions may be given to main local building, but the load actually goes another mile down the street where you check in. This also causes delay’s and may make you “late”. So you learn to keep a notebook for directions/procedures/map drawing at the customer for future referance if you get another load to the place.
You may try reporting the changes in qualcomm so the ones with authority can update them, but I have found those people do not care and if you work for a big company, the policy was 3 drivers (at the one I worked for) had to report this before directions were changed!! This is not right and driver’s soon learned to not even try going thru all the hoops. And directions need to be more specific. Don’t just say turn here when street signs are hid in trees and etc.. Give a warning like 2 BLOCKS PAST GROCERY STORE, CROSS STREET IS 6TH. We are not in a car that can just turn around anywhere.
I definately feel your pain as this has happened to me on numerous ocassions as well. But it isn’t just the drivers who are affected by bad directions that result in late deliveries. I’ve talked to sales people who say that, on average, it takes anywhere from 4 months to a years to get a new account up and running, but it takes less than 5 minutes to lose an existing account. This is why it boggles my mind that trucking companies do not take getting accurate information to their drivers more seriously. Yes, it’s true that the driver is the easy scapegoat, but it hurts the entire company when an account is lost for any reason. I have often sent updated directions in to dispatch only to find the old, incorrect ones still in the system the next time I’m assigned a load to the same place. I honestly don’t understand it. Even if a company blames the driver for losing an account… they still lose the account. Nobody wins.
This is one of the things that drives me nuts. One load I had in TN, I was following the directions with no problem and when I got on the street the shipper was on I slowed down to a crawl so I would not miss it. Sure enough the building was behind another building and the sign was real small and partially covered and I spotted it right as I passed it. There was already a line of cars behind me so could not back up. Figured I would go ahead a bit and turn around, I was an hour early so no worries. Well there is not exactly a lot of places to turn a truck around in the back hills of TN. By the time I got back, I was late. Not good. From there on, I always call the customer as soon as possible to get directions. They are always kind and happy to give directions. Seems to work out the best.