So Much For A Short Day!

I've been working alot more than normal lately so I decided to take a shorter day to get home in time to pickup my oldest from Preschool today (220pm). I thought I had a great chance at doing it, and even be home to take him to school. The route i took was a 2 trailer local run that should've only taken about 7 hours! Clocked in at 12:30am for my 130 gate time to get started on my first trailer. Paperwork wouldn't print out so I called our warehouse to check the status. I'm told something to the effect of "We're a little behind, it shouldn't be long". 3 hours later I'm finally leaving the gate....

No problem with the 2 stores I had, I'm very skeptical my 2nd trailer that was due out at 5am would be ready even though its close to 6 by the time I get back. After another hour wait I can finally get started. At this point I figure if I can hustle and have a little bit of luck on my side I can still make it home in time. First store on that trailer I had help with due to running late, then I had to deliver some 3rd party LTL freight to the competitor chain. I sat for another 2 hours up there. Alright, this is gonna be pushing it real close but I can still get home in time to pick him up. I'm about 15 miles to my backhaul and I get a call from work. This morning I couldn't find the truck I was assigned (I slip seat due to low seniority) for the day so I looked at a sheet they put out daily with trucks that aren't assigned that day. Apparently someone goofed and put an assigned truck that was going out at 1pm on there so I was asked to come back to the yard because that driver was being a big baby and refused to take a different truck. I'm irritated at this point but I don't let it show. I tell them I'll be there in about 20 minutes. He needed an empty trailer for his route so he just took the one I had so we didnt have to unhook, and had a different truck hooked up to an empty for me atleast. Made it to my backhaul and only took about 30 minutes to get loaded. What should have been a 7'ish hour day turned into a couple minutes over 14 after post trip.

Fortunately my kids understand, and I never tell them I'll be home by a certain time on the days I work. Atleast I'm off tomorrow so I can take him to, and from school. I just wanted to share this to show that local drivers also deal with plans always changing and setbacks. Far too often we see new or potential drivers coming here thinking they can get a local driving job that's a 9 to 5 and you can have a "normal life". Sure there's jobs out there like that but typically they're highly sought after so you're not going to get it without alot of experience.

OUCH.

I doubt there even is ANY perfect 9 to 5 job at all, in trucking ... even local. Murphy always rears his dang head. Especially on a Monday . . . Murphy's Law Mondays, we call 'em.

Hope your day off tomorrow, is much better ~!!

~ Anne ~

I'm sorry it didn't work out. My dad was a brakeman on freight trains. We would call the dispatcher , see where he lined up, how many trains were coming in and get an approximate time. Once called, he had 1.5 hrs to get to the station. We could never count on him.

I hear ya Rob. It def sucks sometimes

It always seems like the days when I want or need to get home early take the longest.

But no matter how long it takes its always nice to have my bed and bathroom.

This morning I couldn't find the truck I was assigned (I slip seat due to low seniority) for the day so I looked at a sheet they put out daily with trucks that aren't assigned that day. Apparently someone goofed and put an assigned truck that was going out at 1pm on there so I was asked to come back to the yard because that driver was being a big baby and refused to take a different truck. I'm irritated at this point but I don't let it show.

Lol, I feel your pain on this. One of the big surprises to me coming into a local, slip seat outfit, is the drama over trucks. All our senior guys have their own trucks, and weirdly I do too-it's because I'm the flex guy who comes in early whenever needed, to haul everything we handle, so need a truck that's always available, is outfitted to pull all our trailers, and is permitted to pull everything both here and in Canada. Plus, it's a new automatic with all the safety features that was just sitting around because none of our drivers wanted to change their driving habits to not set the warning buzzers off, so the company was more than happy to give it to some one who wanted it. Anyway, last week, had a driver get hung up that I was doing a preload for that night. Because we are so heavy, we don't drop loaded trailers, so I offered to just load on my tractor, he could take it the next day, and I'd run my second load that night with his tractor. I even offered to load it on one of the other manuals, too. You'd have thought I'd asked him to commit suicide. He went screaming to dispatch and the company ended up paying me to sit for three hours till he showed up then paid me to sit another two hours at the rack since I missed my appointment and they had to squeeze me in. Needless to say, the terminal manager was less than pleased. There are now rumblings that there are going to be no more assigned trucks. Should make for some interesting drama.

There are now rumblings that there are going to be no more assigned trucks. Should make for some interesting drama.

I heard OD tried this years ago and it didn't really work out very well, people kept showing up earlier and earlier to claim their favorite truck.

Personally I don't care what I drive although it is nice to drive the same truck every night.

It always seems like the days when I want or need to get home early take the longest

Most definitely. I can recall only once taking an easy day that everything went as planned. I took a short day on my son's birthday last winter and got home earlier than I anticipated. It was actually the last route that kept me out of a terrible blizzard in southern MN. Made sure to let my buddy know we made the same money that day with me having clear sailing while he dealt with white knuckle driving before ultimately getting a hotel

One of the big surprises to me coming into a local, slip seat outfit, is the drama over trucks.

It really is amazing isnt it? Some of our guys choose the sleepers (10 of em) or the kenworths because they know most people don't want them. With an overwhelming majority of our routes getting home daily, and the kenworths being so jumpy while trying to back many us that slip seat prefer different trucks. Then similar to your company most guys that have been driving for a while choose the older equipment without the sensors. I believe I'm #144 of 159 in seniority but we only have 125 trucks. When we pick our routes daily I always just tell them give me one of the newest trucks available. I used to always take the same truck 3 of my 4 days because the assigned driver is off those days but he didn't like that. All of a sudden I was getting calls from management asking if I did the most bizarre things. For instance, I allegedly tied his seat belt in a knot, changed GPS setting on ELD to Kilometers, changed language to Spanish, and stole his private GPS unit. I got tired of being blamed for stuff I didnt so I quit using that truck. A different guy put a note on my locker for everyone to see telling me to cleanup the donut I left on his floor of his truck and finished it off with calling me a slob. I addressed that last one with my boss and was basically just blown off as it was a case of mistaken identity. We're constantly told at the end of the day it's still company equipment and they're just using it. Yet when I was called in for supposedly throwing a guys pillow on the floor (I didnt) I asked if its company equipment why leave their crap in a daycab. Sure they get priority over the truck when working but when they're off it becomes my truck for the day and don't want to deal with moving all the crap in that truck to be able to get my belongings in that I need for the day.

There are now rumblings that there are going to be no more assigned trucks. Should make for some interesting drama.

It would be nice to have an assigned truck to ensure it's being maintained correctly, but other than that I don't mind too much sharing trucks. Our parent company, Hyvee, from what I heard doesn't assign trucks. From what it sounds like they just grab whatever truck they want of what's sitting in the yard. The only exception is drivers with 1 million safe miles are issued their own private gold truck, and 2 million safe miles issued a black truck. Under no circumstances is anybody else allowed to operate them. Involved in any type of accident and they change the paint color back to red and its back in rotation. In the company newsletter last month they talked about a driver that had 1.5 million safe miles and put a crack in his bumper from bumping a concrete pole. He ended up losing his gold truck. He now has a new gold truck after passing 1 million safe miles since that previous incident.

We're constantly told at the end of the day it's still company equipment and they're just using it.

We are told the same thing and if you leave anything behind if the next driver does something with it oh well. Plus they inspect our trucks once a month (supposedly) and make sure we keep them clean.

I'm in a smaller terminal than you guys-25 drivers, 18 tractors. Assigned tractors for us just means that the same truck will be available for you at the start of the shift. If you're off, the tractor goes in the pool, and if it's needed and will be back in the yard at your start time, then someone else will be driving it on another shift. We haul our personal stuff out of the cab at the end of every shift. Tractors are assigned for two reasons: longevity-all six of our 20+ year drivers have an assigned truck, and flexibility-not all our tractors are rated or permitted for all the weights we haul or are setup with the equipment to load/unload every trailer, so for the three of us in this terminal who are trained to haul all our load types and all our trailers, we have assigned tractors so that we don't get stuck not having the right truck available if a specific load pops up (saves dispatch a lot of headaches.) My truck still goes out though when I'm off. It will just be guaranteed to be there when I start my next shift.