Always Know Where Your Load Is Going And Check Your BOLs.

Picking up a heavy load that I am dropping in one of our yards. When given the load, it was noted that the final destination was in MS. Get loaded, get tandems slid, start to enter my loaded form into PeopleNet and notice the BOL says the load is going to VA. Oops, someone made a boo boo.

They are now unloading and reloading me.

Things happen.

Yup, read the paperwork before you leave the yard!

I ran into a similar, but different situation, a while ago. The bills had the receiver address in Kingsport,Tennessee (from somewhere in Texas) and my dispatch was for those miles. The morning of delivery (My ETA was afternoon) I called the receiver for better delivery information. Turns out the actual delivery point was 130 miles east near Blacksburg, VA! I had to call my FM , who had to re-jiggle my next pickup.

This is an important issue.

I work a dedicated account where I am almost always picking up a pre-loaded trailer. We may have as many as fifteen or twenty pre-loaded trailers at some of the locations I frequent. On several occasions i have discovered the shipper/loaders got confused. One time my assigned trailer was not there. I messaged dispatch only to find out another driver showed to have picked up my trailer that was supposed to be going to Virginia. They were on their way to South Dakota with it. For whatever reason they had mixed up the trailer numbers on the BOL. They had put the same trailer number on two different BOLs. The other driver grabbed the trailer without double checking things. Had he checked out his loaded product, he would have caught the mistake and saved himself a lot of extra driving without pay. I got my ten hour break in while waiting on him to get my trailer back to me.

These are all flat-bed loads. It is real easy for us to make sure that our trailer is loaded with exactly what it shows on the paper work. I climb on every load and check every bundle of material. I make sure that the piece count is correct and that each bundle's shipping label matches my BOL. That takes maybe ten minutes of time, but it is worth every minute spared. The last thing you want to do is drive a thousand miles to your destination, and then discover that you were in such a hurry to take off with your trailer that you don't even have that customer's goods on your trailer.

Prime always has us call in a "live loaded call" after being loaded and the proper depart shipper macro is sent. It's a double check to make sure the load is going to the right place, the reefer temp is set correctly and the seal numbers match.

It's a pain to wait on hold sometimes but it does help ensure that everything is correct.

Lots of stuff to triple check on the BOL against your dispatch notes you are seeing on the computer.

Make sure of the trailer number.

Make sure on the addresses.

Make sure on the seal numbers.

Make sure you have all the BOLs. Some loads have more than one, and some trips are multiple stops.

Make sure the carrier name is correct. I have a load now that I made the shipper correct before I signed it. I was told there, "Oh, it doesn't matter." BS! It DOES matter!

Check to see if the Method Of Payment boxes are annotated correctly. This same load showed "COD", which was also incorrect. I had to get this corrected, too.

Lastly, annotate the correct boxes for the Loading, Counting, and Sealing of the trailer.

I heartily agree with PackRat's remarks, and I will just add... In trucking it pays to be a little OCD.

Seriously though, you always need to slow down a little and double check your BOL against your dispatch information. It has saved my bacon many times. Not everybody is as thorough as they should be. Sometimes folks will take some information for granted, or just get in too big a hurry to make sure your load is correct. Ultimately it comes down to the driver. Once you take off with that load, it becomes your responsibility - when you leave the yard it is yours. It makes a lot of sense to take the time to make sure it is right.

Great catch.

Happened to me a few weeks ago, shipper mixed up the pickup numbers. Had to get unloaded and then reload.