My First 8-2 Split

I went to a reciever last night in New Jersey about midnight thirty hoping to either be unloaded or allowed to park on property. They turned me away on both accounts as I had an 11:00 appointment today. So I parked at a dirt lot the guard told me about that was maybe 2-3 hundred yards away. If I waited all 10 I'd have been 1.5 hours late so I did my first split, got here about 10:45. Yay for me worked out great. Without all the information shared by this site and yall i probably still wouldnt have known exactly how it was done. THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE!!! Only negative is although i made my 11am appointment I'm still sitting here at 16:16 as I'm writing this but i am almost unloaded.

That's awesome Michael! Is it easier to understand by seeing it happen?

That's awesome Michael! Is it easier to understand by seeing it happen?

It actually was Rob, before you do one you kind of wonder if you're doing it right etc but watching it happen on both ends, when them hours available bars light up...priceless. They finished unloading at 1700. 6 freaking hours. They were all about to go home for the day when someone noticed I was still in the door. The dock boss kept apologizing saying they forgot I was there. To top it all off though the girl that took my BOLs had gone home and they couldn't find them. They forgot me, took 6 hours to unload me and lost my BOLs. Crazy daze.

In the future, if you've been sitting in a dock and after a while notice nothing is happening, go back inside and politely ask if they have an estimate of how much longer it will be. Drivers sometimes WILL get "forgotten " sitting in a dock. What I'll do is go in and ask where their rest room is (whether I have to go or not) and say something like.. "I know you all are very busy, but while I'm here, you wouldn't happen to have an idea of how much longer it will be, do you?" Get your answer, thank them and walk away.

If that doesn't get them moving then I'll go to plan B which is calling my dispatcher who will call them himself, to ask why they're holding up the truck and remind them of our detention policy. The only times I've sat in a dock for what seems like forever when being loaded a couple of times and it was generally something to do with a production delay where they hadn't finished making the product to be loaded onto my trailer, etc. But yes, as a new driver I was "forgotten " in a dock once. Its unnerving.

It's hard, as a new driver to really know how long is too long at a particular customer. If I've never been to a place before, when I check out the location on google satellite view before arriving, I'll also take a quick look at their reviews to see what other drivers have said about loading or unloading times so I have a general idea of maybe what to expect.

Whatever you do, don't get rude with these people and try to keep the conversation friendly and pleasant.