I Was A Baaaaaad Boy! I Also Did My Good Deed For Today.

I caused some trouble today. I delivered my HV load of sneakers to a whse in Lebanon, TN. One of the first things out of the guards mouth is we don't have any MTs. I haven't even asked about MTs yet. Kinda fishy. So I am thinking is that a dare or double dare. I let dispatch know the guard stated no MTs. My dispatch asks if they are going to live unload me. I tell her no. I let her know I am going to go take a peek and see if I can find a MT. I go drop my trailer where I was instructed to then run over to the lot by the road. I had spotted 3 of our TRLRs on the way in. First 2 were sealed. Third one wasn't. So I open it up. Sure enough, MT!!! So I hook up, finish my 30 min break then head for the guard shack. Guard drops the gate when he sees me approach. I stop in front of the gate, get out, then go into the guard shack. I tell the guard I found one. He states, that they are planning on using it for a load. I kept my mouth shut, but I am thinking to myself, I just brought in a TRLR and I parked it next to another one of our TRLRs that needed unloaded. Unload one and you have a MT. Simple math. I tell the guard I will let my dispatch know so she can work on getting released. Guard tells me to hold on a second. Then says whoever he is messaging on the computer said for me to call my dispatch. So I back up out of the way and message my dispatch that they are not going to release the TRLR. She lets me know she will let the load planners know. I sit there for about 30 mins then I shoot her another message asking if any word on getting the TRLR released or does she want me to put it back and just BT to my next shipper. A few mins later she messages me: "Not yet. Also load planner got an email from them about you & trlrs so plz put it back." Obviously they must of sent a nasty gram about me. After I put it back, I even waved to the little weasel in the guard shack on my way out. I was nice to everybody and not once was I ill or rude. I think I am going to try and find out what was said in that e-mail.

Now on to my good deed. As I was leaving Calhoun, TN from picking up my load a driver asked me to help him slide his tandems. So I pull off to the side. This individual informs me that this is his first day solo. So I let him know to get his tractor and trailer in a straight line. He gets out and I show him how to operate the pin release. Once back in the truck he asks which way he needs to go. (That tandems are always all the way back when picking up at this shipper.). I inform him he needs to back up to slide his tandems forward. Have him stop in the area I generally have to slide my tandems when picking up a heavy load from this shipper. I let him know that there is a Love's one exit south or a Pilot 3 or 4 exits north. That he needs to go get weighed to make sure he is good. I ask him where he is headed and he is going to Ft Wayne, IN. I tell him the pilot would be a better bet since he is heading north and the Love's is on a hill anyway. He then asks for help figuring out his e-log. The company he works for uses a different system than what we use. We use the Omnitracs QualComm. I have no clue what system he is using. To make matters worse he keeps punching in different things on his e-log. I wish I could of helped him, but I had 45 mins left to get myself somewhere before MY clock ran out. I apologized for not being able to help him with his e-log and suggested he call his dispatch. I did find out he had spent 4 weeks with a trainer. I feel sorry for the guy. His trainer royally failed him. The guy didn't know the basics. As much as I would of liked to have the time to help him, I couldn't risk putting myself in a bad position.

Way to go, Patrick, with your good deed. I'm certain that driver appreciated your help more than he could express at the time. That story also helps me appreciate my trainer even more, even though it felt at times like I was pulling teeth to get the info I was needing to truly understand some of the procedures.

I remember well my first time scaling and the stress I felt. OMG. Got yelled at for popping the brakes on the scale, couldn't find a spot to get my trailer straight behind (and then when I did I was blocking other folks), couldn't get all four pins to retract to save my life, in/out of the cab 8 times trying to get near the hole I marked, still in everyone's way, rinse repeat a few times and finally got it right. A guy inside helped with advice saying he saw me wearing the rubber off my tires circling back to the scale so many times Lol. Ended up needing to slide the fifth wheel to make it legal. Whew!

And your MT story is too funny!

I'm only a young pup in the world of big dogs but I'm learning lots and lots everyday, hell I navigated Knoxville alone today, I'm proud of myself lol bit that's the one thing I've been seeing is that trainers are royally screwing their trainees, fortunately for myself i got one that actually cares and has shown me alot and has told me alot about the industry, my company and the way it is out here

I caused some trouble today. I delivered my HV load of sneakers to a whse in Lebanon, TN. One of the first things out of the guards mouth is we don't have any MTs. I haven't even asked about MTs yet. Kinda fishy. So I am thinking is that a dare or double dare. I let dispatch know the guard stated no MTs. My dispatch asks if they are going to live unload me. I tell her no. I let her know I am going to go take a peek and see if I can find a MT. I go drop my trailer where I was instructed to then run over to the lot by the road. I had spotted 3 of our TRLRs on the way in. First 2 were sealed. Third one wasn't. So I open it up. Sure enough, MT!!! So I hook up, finish my 30 min break then head for the guard shack. Guard drops the gate when he sees me approach. I stop in front of the gate, get out, then go into the guard shack. I tell the guard I found one. He states, that they are planning on using it for a load. I kept my mouth shut, but I am thinking to myself, I just brought in a TRLR and I parked it next to another one of our TRLRs that needed unloaded. Unload one and you have a MT. Simple math. I tell the guard I will let my dispatch know so she can work on getting released. Guard tells me to hold on a second. Then says whoever he is messaging on the computer said for me to call my dispatch. So I back up out of the way and message my dispatch that they are not going to release the TRLR. She lets me know she will let the load planners know. I sit there for about 30 mins then I shoot her another message asking if any word on getting the TRLR released or does she want me to put it back and just BT to my next shipper. A few mins later she messages me: "Not yet. Also load planner got an email from them about you & trlrs so plz put it back." Obviously they must of sent a nasty gram about me. After I put it back, I even waved to the little weasel in the guard shack on my way out. I was nice to everybody and not once was I ill or rude. I think I am going to try and find out what was said in that e-mail.

Now on to my good deed. As I was leaving Calhoun, TN from picking up my load a driver asked me to help him slide his tandems. So I pull off to the side. This individual informs me that this is his first day solo. So I let him know to get his tractor and trailer in a straight line. He gets out and I show him how to operate the pin release. Once back in the truck he asks which way he needs to go. (That tandems are always all the way back when picking up at this shipper.). I inform him he needs to back up to slide his tandems forward. Have him stop in the area I generally have to slide my tandems when picking up a heavy load from this shipper. I let him know that there is a Love's one exit south or a Pilot 3 or 4 exits north. That he needs to go get weighed to make sure he is good. I ask him where he is headed and he is going to Ft Wayne, IN. I tell him the pilot would be a better bet since he is heading north and the Love's is on a hill anyway. He then asks for help figuring out his e-log. The company he works for uses a different system than what we use. We use the Omnitracs QualComm. I have no clue what system he is using. To make matters worse he keeps punching in different things on his e-log. I wish I could of helped him, but I had 45 mins left to get myself somewhere before MY clock ran out. I apologized for not being able to help him with his e-log and suggested he call his dispatch. I did find out he had spent 4 weeks with a trainer. I feel sorry for the guy. His trainer royally failed him. The guy didn't know the basics. As much as I would of liked to have the time to help him, I couldn't risk putting myself in a bad position.

Warehouses love to hoard trailers. I've heard rumors that there are some warehouses that have up to 100 of a particular company's trailers on their lot.

Makes it rough when you have drivers searching for empties, and these distribution centers have all of your trailers tied up, but, that is the deal made between your company and the DC. Often, these dc's have agreements with a company that they will always have x number of trailers on hand in order to be pre loaded.

That is why a lot of them will not allow you to bobtail in to pick up a pre load. They want that empty trailer to replace the one you are taking.

I brought a loaded trailer in. They had no excuse other than laziness for not giving me that MT. They would of been forced to actually unload a trailer than. Oh the horror!!!

Lol, yeah, that's unacceptable...to unload a trailer....at a distribution center!

I parked the trailer I brought in right next to another one of our trailers waiting to be MT'd. I am pretty sure I spotted a third one farther down the row.

I brought a loaded trailer in. They had no excuse other than laziness for not giving me that MT.

Look, not trying to be "that guy," but laziness probably had little to nothing to do with it. I don't know how things work at that DC, but at the Target DC I work at this situation happens all the time with Schneider trailers. We pretty much always have loaded Schneider trailers in the yard waiting to be unloaded and usually at least one in a door being unloaded, but we still keep at least three empties in the yard at all times for a few doors we use to load Schneiders. Because of the nature of the freight we load onto the empty Schneiders (bales of cardboard taken off other trailers--usually Target trailers), if we don't have an MT to put in those doors it will halt the unloading of other trailers. Sometimes we go a whole shift without using an empty Schneider, and other times we use two or three.

Also, at Target anyway, the people responsible for actually unloading the trailers aren't the ones who decide what gets unloaded first. As ridiculous as this sounds, corporate sends our DC a plan each shift for what trailers get unloaded and what doors they go to. We have alot of trailers that need to be unloaded at any given time, and we have outbound loads scheduled for stores and other receivers, so it matters to some extent what trailers are unloaded first. I'm not saying this is how the receiver in your situation operates, but my point is that you really have no idea why they couldn't let you take that empty. It could have been laziness, but I really doubt it.

Either way, as the driver, it really never hurts to try to take an MT anyway. MTs are hard to come by, so kudos for being proactive and trying. I remember a night we weren't giving out MTs and a Schneider came in that needed one. The guard shack checked with me to make sure, and I confirmed we couldn't give him one. Right after he got past the guard shack, an empty Schneider came out of one of the doors in the back so I found the driver and let him know he could take one.

Big Kudos on lending a hand!

***This is not offical*** The MT you're pulling out is on a maintenance hold. It's going to service.

Don't ask me who or where I heard that.

My company's philosophy is a). It's OUR equipment. b) 1 empty out, for every load delivered. c) we do not provide free storage units for our customers.

They know the rules and if they try to press and not release OUR equipment to us, a simple call to my company and my company will then call them back to remind them of the policy.