Sitting At A Receiver Questions

Hey all...just had a quick question. ..I see people post that they sometimes "sit at a receiver" for "x" amount of hours. I just wanted to know what are the reasons behind waiting to get unloaded? If you have a time to be there by, what's up with waiting hours to be umloaded? I understand not everything is perfect, just want to know why?

Humans do the unloading. That in itself should explain all. People think that because we pay the lumper $200 to $300 dollars to unload a trailer that they get the money. The company they work for gets the money and they make just a basic wage. And add in that some products have to be broken down on pallets of their own. Sometimes only a piece or two per pallet. That can take a while. And then once everything is broke down it has to be scanned in and received which takes more time.

But the biggest reason loading /unloading takes forever is humans are doing the work.

Figured that. Thanks.

To add to what Guyjax said, sometimes there is a really lousy reason. Seriously, sometimes you're going to come across individuals or even companies where they simply don't like truckers or they don't care. There will be times you'll show up at a place before they open, you'll see the workers stroll in, they'll open, and you'll sit there for 4+ hours before they'll even start unloading you. They could unload you if that was their priority. But the reality is, some places just get to you when they feel like it. It's incredibly frustrating for drivers, but you try not to let it get to you.

Then of course there are delays in manufacturing, miscommunication over appointment times, and all kinds of other stuff that can cause delays at customers.

I think it would make a noticeable difference in our economy if waiting times at customers were drastically cut back. The amount of wasted fuel and time is staggering when you scale it across our entire economy. Companies could haul a lot more freight with the same number of trucks and drivers would make more money individually. Transportation costs would come down, the number of trucks on the road would be reduced, and the price of goods would drop a bit.

To add to what Guyjax said, sometimes there is a really lousy reason. Seriously, sometimes you're going to come across individuals or even companies where they simply don't like truckers or they don't care. There will be times you'll show up at a place before they open, you'll see the workers stroll in, they'll open, and you'll sit there for 4+ hours before they'll even start unloading you. They could unload you if that was their priority. But the reality is, some places just get to you when they feel like it. It's incredibly frustrating for drivers, but you try not to let it get to you.

Then of course there are delays in manufacturing, miscommunication over appointment times, and all kinds of other stuff that can cause delays at customers.

I think it would make a noticeable difference in our economy if waiting times at customers were drastically cut back. The amount of wasted fuel and time is staggering when you scale it across our entire economy. Companies could haul a lot more freight with the same number of trucks and drivers would make more money individually. Transportation costs would come down, the number of trucks on the road would be reduced, and the price of goods would drop a bit.

I have to disagree with that last little bit. I don't believe for an instant the price of goods would drop so much as one red cent. They'd just use the decrease in costs as a way to artificially inflate their profit margins.

They'd just use the decrease in costs as a way to artificially inflate their profit margins.

Until one company decides they'll keep their profit margins the same and pay the drivers more or get better equipment instead. Now the other companies have to follow suit to maintain their driver count.

Or one company will decide to keep their profit margins the same and drop their freight rates to gain new customers. Now the other companies have to follow suit in order to get the freight they need to keep all of those trucks rolling.

They would like to simply keep the extra money and fatten their pockets but the competition isn't going to allow it, especially in a commodity service industry where so many companies are hanging on by a thread and will do anything to gain an advantage and stay afloat.

When I'm usually sitting a long time at a Receiver or Shipper its because of just pure Laziness, when you're getting paid an hourly wage and underpaid or the work you're doing is not deserving of a decent wage you lack motivation to work hard.

I call this the "American Way!" We have forgotten what hard work is. Sadly I blame the Government for the most part, I have this problem with Dispatchers or Planners as well. When they fail to do their job I'm left as the Driver to pick up the slack. You'll notice certain Shippers or Receivers tend to have this particular problem.

I have to disagree with that last little bit. I don't believe for an instant the price of goods would drop so much as one red cent. They'd just use the decrease in costs as a way to artificially inflate their profit margins.

Any business that overcharges for something is not going to last long. If say the price of transporting a gallon of milk drops by 50 cents then Walmart is likely going to drop their price they charge by pretty much the exact amount. Imagine what it would be like if all of a sudden the local grocery stores started selling their own milk for less that what Walmart charges. That aint ever going to happen.

Another something is that dispatchers will tell little lies in the pick up and drop off times. Ours (as nice as he is) seems to think that if he tells us to be there early it will keep us from being late. The load I am on now says I am to deliver it by 5pm tomorrow. My dispatcher wants me there by 7:30 am. A bit of a difference. So, when they open tomorrow at 6am I am going to call them and ask when would they like me there. I've found that by placing myself in the schedule where the receiver wants me, I don't sit in their lots as long.

As far as my fleet managers thing, I'm not sure why he does this. We have never been late through our own actions. The truck breaking down, horribly bad road conditions, and picking up a load from another driver who was running late are the reasons we have been late.

Which bring me to another thing, why do fleet manager forget how to count? Seriously. Pick up the load on Monday but it needs to be delivered by the previous Friday. I can't travel back in time.

So your are told to be there 9.5 hours early? Why is that a surprise? You are a very small fish in a small pond with thousands of other drivers. Therefore unless you have been there a long time and thought of a way to make yourself stand out then you are the exact same as every other driver in that pond that does their job and deliveries their loads on time everytime.

Here is the problem though. In the past when drivers were told the real delivery time that figured they had plenty of time and waited to leave until the last minute.bone flat tire....one backed up road with traffic or any other numbers of things and the load is truly late. Not just pretend late and they open the delivery window a little wider.

What you are dealing with is the hundreds of thousands of drivers that came before you and screwed up a good thing and now we are having to pay for it.