Anger Management

I assume many members have listened to Brett's podcast episode about getting fired for being early. It has helped me stay calm and avoid lashing out over legitimately unfair and aggravating circumstances. I just spent 2 days with relatives for Thanksgiving on Long Island, NY. I live in Oregon, but freight took me to the NE. I left at 3am Friday and had a smooth trip all the way to and across the GW Bridge. I was dispatched on a load I had accepted a few days earlier and was able to dead head 232 miles to Carlisle, PA to pick up a 2,500 mile load going to Long Beach, CA. UNREAL!! I arrived 2 hours early at the Shipper and the load was ready. But I didn't have the BOL# or trailer# yet. It was supposed to be sent to my Qualcomm. I called my DM. The CSR had not forwarded the message from the shipper that the load was ready. I waited 5 hours outside the gate, wondering which one of the 4 trailers contained my ticket out of there. The CSR then finally responded to my DM. She had meant to cancel that load, but got too busy and forgot. My DM broke it to me, and actually apologized, acknowledging the CSR had dropped the ball. He was able to line me up with a load to San Antonio instead, but it wouldn't be ready till Saturday (today as I'm writing this.) I went back to the shipper this morning at 5 o'clock. Someone else somehow had already picked up my load! I called my terminal weekend dispatcher. He said he messaged the CSR about and would get back to me. It's been 5 hours. I've been running on recap 4 out of the last 6 weeks, drove 12,000 miles in the last month and been early to every appointment. So do know what I'm entitled to? Nothing. As Brett reminded us, we have no authority. None. The only right we have is to decide when it's too dangerous to be on the road. If we're sick, we drive. If we get crappy load, we drive. We run hard to support out families. I'm 2,500 miles from mine. But yelling at someone is not goimg to help my situation. Empathy would be nice, but it's rare out here in this business. Brett's situation was more frustrating than mine by far and with higher stakes involved. And I have to believe this is just a hiccup. No one is out to get me. If Someone is being incompetent, they won't last long. This has been a great company to work for, which makes this seem even more out of place. Now I must go get some bandages. My fist seems to have lost a fight with my incredibly durable Coleman iceless cooler.

I'm very relaxed out here just the type of person I am, I don't tend to let things get to me let alone lash out at people even if it's their fault. There is no reason to yell at people, it won't get you anywhere and would only cause more problems.

Where were you on the Island?

Back in October we picked up a little a load in the Chicago area to be delivered to somewhere in Tennessee. Our DM and shipper made it clear that the load had to be there by a specific time something like 9pm on a Friday evening. 8pm we arrive. Place is ghost town. I speak with security he tells me where some of the warehouse worker's are. I go meet with a supervisor he checks my paperwork and said man you are the early. I said we can come back in an hour. He said hour??? Heck we weren't sure expecting you till Monday, to be honest it would have been better if you could delivered on Tuesday. He told me where I could drop the load. Later we learned the delivery time and date had changed but we were never informed

Where were you on the Island?

Patchogue

Back in October we picked up a little a load in the Chicago area to be delivered to somewhere in Tennessee. Our DM and shipper made it clear that the load had to be there by a specific time something like 9pm on a Friday evening. 8pm we arrive. Place is ghost town. I speak with security he tells me where some of the warehouse worker's are. I go meet with a supervisor he checks my paperwork and said man you are the early. I said we can come back in an hour. He said hour??? Heck we weren't sure expecting you till Monday, to be honest it would have been better if you could delivered on Tuesday. He told me where I could drop the load. Later we learned the delivery time and date had changed but we were never informed

Having to wait all weekend to deliver? Doing a forced 34 that you don't even need is no fun. And not great on the check either.

I assume many members have listened to Brett's podcast episode about getting fired for being early. It has helped me stay calm and avoid lashing out over legitimately unfair and aggravating circumstances. I just spent 2 days with relatives for Thanksgiving on Long Island, NY. I live in Oregon, but freight took me to the NE. I left at 3am Friday and had a smooth trip all the way to and across the GW Bridge. I was dispatched on a load I had accepted a few days earlier and was able to dead head 232 miles to Carlisle, PA to pick up a 2,500 mile load going to Long Beach, CA. UNREAL!! I arrived 2 hours early at the Shipper and the load was ready. But I didn't have the BOL# or trailer# yet. It was supposed to be sent to my Qualcomm. I called my DM. The CSR had not forwarded the message from the shipper that the load was ready. I waited 5 hours outside the gate, wondering which one of the 4 trailers contained my ticket out of there. The CSR then finally responded to my DM. She had meant to cancel that load, but got too busy and forgot. My DM broke it to me, and actually apologized, acknowledging the CSR had dropped the ball. He was able to line me up with a load to San Antonio instead, but it wouldn't be ready till Saturday (today as I'm writing this.) I went back to the shipper this morning at 5 o'clock. Someone else somehow had already picked up my load! I called my terminal weekend dispatcher. He said he messaged the CSR about and would get back to me. It's been 5 hours. I've been running on recap 4 out of the last 6 weeks, drove 12,000 miles in the last month and been early to every appointment. So do know what I'm entitled to? Nothing. As Brett reminded us, we have no authority. None. The only right we have is to decide when it's too dangerous to be on the road. If we're sick, we drive. If we get crappy load, we drive. We run hard to support out families. I'm 2,500 miles from mine. But yelling at someone is not goimg to help my situation. Empathy would be nice, but it's rare out here in this business. Brett's situation was more frustrating than mine by far and with higher stakes involved. And I have to believe this is just a hiccup. No one is out to get me. If Someone is being incompetent, they won't last long. This has been a great company to work for, which makes this seem even more out of place. Now I must go get some bandages. My fist seems to have lost a fight with my incredibly durable Coleman iceless cooler.

Update-- Second load was also cancelled. I was offered a 3rd load from the same DC; another San Antonio. And my DM paid me $50 for each of the 2 cancelled loads and all empty miles from NY. I never demanded anything. I did call to ask what went wrong on the CSR's end and I was going to request some compensation for the hours wasted, but I didn't even need to ask. It was done.

Where were you on the Island?

Patchogue

And you can guarantee that your ability to woosha your way thru that mess was noticed in a positive way. Staying a team player is gold in this industry. Good Job!!

On my 3rd day we sat for 5 1/2 hours a shopper to loaded he came out a t 4:30.and said he didn't have enough product to ship. So he canx the load. Went to another shipment and just delivered it day before and with another load to San Bernardino which we can't deliver early so once we get there we're stuck until tomorrow night. But this what we all signed up nbn for. Do the impossible and know you did everything possible to get it done. Yes it's frustrating but we didn't wake one morning and say I don't like it and quit. What good would that do? You didn't solve anything.

So do your job the best you can do and it will be just a blimp on the radar. More days and more loads. Shake it off.

Good luck driver.