Accepting Loads From The Shipper

"What? What are you trying to say?" Well, at Swift, we get our runs through the qualcomm , sent by our drive managers or planners. However, we made the mistake once of accepting a load from the shipper...

We had a run from Georgia Pacific, given to us by our planner, which included two stops. We get to the shipper (GP), and they've already given our pre-loaded trailer to someone else. "But, hey, can you take this load for us? The freight is going to the same two stops." --- that's exactly what the shipper said.

I thought, "well, I'm here, and I need the money... yes, I'll take it."

We made it to the first stop, and, three hours later, the receiver claims three pallets are missing from his order. "Alright, I'll let the company know," I said as I drove away.

Made it to the last stop, and was met with a rude employee. Whatever, be nice and just do what you're getting paid to do. Two hours later, the receiver explains to me that not all of his freight is there, and I've got freight that doesnt belong to his store, or the store I came from! What!?

I told the night dispatcher everything. "Okay, that sucks. Let me know how everything works out " --- night dispatchers say the darndest things.

Another two hours pass, the receiver put about 14 pallets back on my trailer, and I went to the terminal. Night dispatch is over, my drive manager is in the office now. I call him directly, he actually picked up the phone (he usually never answered phone calls), and once everything was explained twice, he tells me to call our OS&D department.

No problem, right? Wrong! OS&D has me call the shipper and tell them what I've already told four people already. I do it, though (because I was too new to know any better).

The shipper has me call both receivers to obtain item numbers and the quantity of each item they're missing from the shipment. It took me two hours to get all of this information due to people being on lunch break. By the time it was all done, the shipper gave me a confirmation number, and I gave that number to my OS&D department. No sweat, no money for my time, either.

Guess who calls me!? My terminal manager! Why? Because I contacted the shipper and two recievers doing work that wasn't mine to do!!! After explaining everything to my drive manager beforehand, he stepped up and told the terminal manager that I was told to do this by the OS&D department. Wow! The terminal manager's attitude changed instantly.

I was politely informed to never do any of that mess again, and that was the end of that fiasco.

Sorry, the fiasco started when you took a load you were not assigned.

If the shipper "gives" your load to another driver, Swift or anybody, get tractor and trailer numbers and QC a message to the DM. This becomes a document about your exploits, BTW, even if ECT gets it, there's written proof. Then get on the phone to speak with a human. (Yes, ECT are people, too!)

Don't touch it if it's not on the Qualcomm! Then you won't have stories like this to tell.

Hahaha

Yeah, that's my point, Errol.