Picking Up The Wrong Load.

Well maybe this will help someone not make the same mistake I just did. Double check your bills of lading with your load assignment from your carrier!

Took about two years for me to screw this up. The load number is a long number that ends in 5955. I picked up the load that ends in 5995. Same delivery location. Both are 20 combos (unsure if same product). Customer PO number is different.

The load I was supposed to pick up was to deliver this morning, the load I have is supposed to deliver Monday morning. Not sure how this story ends yet, our sales department is looking into that now.

Had I looked at all of the po's and verified more I probably would have realized something was amiss. I gave the shipper the correct load number but they got dyslexic with it and then when I received the bills I did too.

I've heard stories of people driving half way across the country to a wrong location with the wrong load, in fact as a team we have saved situations like that. But never picked up the wrong load myself. I won't ever again.

Man, that's a bummer.

One company I drove for had a team pull a load from Atlanta to Seattle before realizing it was the wrong load. Had to bring it all the way back. Not a happy time for them I'm sure.

I had a similar situation last summer. Went in to pick up a load, only to discover that the shipper had mixed up their load sheets and put my load in the trailer of the guy who had just left. Luckily we both drive for the same company, so Interstate just had us meet up at the yard and play musical trailers.

I talked to another driver from another company a week or so ago while we were both waiting at a shipper. He and his wife had picked up a load in Dallas, and been told by both the shipper and his company that the receiver was in Portland, OR. When they got to the address on their BOL, it was somebody's house. Turns out the correct receiver was in Portland, ME. They had to backtrack to Dallas (where the shipper tried putting Portland, OR on the bills AGAIN), get the BOL corrected, and then drive to Maine.

These things will happen from time to time. That's trucking. All you can do is shake your head and laugh.

Yeah my mistake was a whooooole lot better than Oregon vs Maine or Seattle to Atlanta lol.

Getting unloaded now, so I guess nothing catastrophic. I have a sneaking suspicion that this load is the same product as the other trailer. I'm sure I caused a mountain of paperwork for someone though (maybe a couple of people).

Either way I'll be verifying every number I have on future loads. Don't think I'll be getting employee of the month for June.

When I was in training prime sent us to WV to an 01 but when we got there we found out the load was in their NJ facility :(

I took a Tysons load from Iowa to KY and 24 hours later Tysons called me to tell me the load was ready. I was like... "uhh.. I delivered it this morning and am picking up another load now." Smh

When I was in school the one teacher was telling us about a guy who hooked up to an empty and took it the whole way to VA before he realized it was empty. He had to bring it back and pick up the full one lol. Serious question tho for the team that ran to Portland OR and the correct address was Portland ME hopefully they got paid for those miles since both the shipper and dispatch screwed that one up.

When I was in school the one teacher was telling us about a guy who hooked up to an empty and took it the whole way to VA before he realized it was empty. He had to bring it back and pick up the full one lol. Serious question tho for the team that ran to Portland OR and the correct address was Portland ME hopefully they got paid for those miles since both the shipper and dispatch screwed that one up.

According to the guy I talked to they were paid for all the miles, plus an extra $250 for the inconvenience.

Recently we had 2 drivers who grabbed the wrong trailers (empties lol) and went about 500 miles with them. My question is how do you grab an empty trailer and not realize it? We typically haul very heavy freight lol. Also it is company policy to seal ALL loads so if it's not presealed by the shipper we are required to place a WST seal on it. Obviously they couldn't have pretripped the trailer either, which would be falsifying documents.

The outcome? They weren't fired amazingly enough, but one quit when he was told he wouldn't be paid for those miles or the return trip to drop the empty and get the correct trailer.

I'm still shaking my head over that one. I always thoroughly pretrip every trailer I pick up.. even if I'm only shuttling it a couple of miles, make sure the bills match the trailer number, seal number, if not sealed I'll open the doors to see how its loaded to give me a clue on setting the tandems until I can get it to the nearest cat scale , etc. Besides an empty trailer feels so much different.

Much of this discussion revolves around drivers being lazy. The only foolproof way to determine if a trailer is empty is to walk to the rear and open the door (s). If the doors are blocked, "get under it", pull out a bit and double check.

All of the trailers we pull are numbered. At least with my work, the trailer number is on all of my paperwork and in my QC trip plan. Regardless, I always check the seal# and match it to the bill of lading when I am locking the trailer door.

Sure things can fall through the cracks, but usually an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. CYA.

Absolutely, Gtown.