Just Hauled The Most Important Load Of My Career!

at the company I lease to they pay $25 for haz-mat woohoo

Congratulations, that is no small task to accomplish. Even better that you were able to deal with security without losing it on someone. Do they pay an incentive for high-val loads? I don't know much about that side of the industry, but with flatbed there is usually a bonus for O.D. or Hazmat - so i figure there might be for that?

Wow what a pain in the *ss!

Glad it worked out though!

By the way...that guy that was following you....well various companies pay to have trucks followed. It could have been the shipper , the receiver, or your own company that did it. But that's a common practice with high value loads. People will be paid to follow drivers and report on what they're doing. Obviously your company has GPS, but that won't tell them things like whether or not you leave the keys in the ignition with the truck running when you go inside someplace. If you're hauling a high value load they'd really like to know that kind of stuff. So there's a very good chance it was someone being paid to follow you, not a criminal of any sort.

Surprise!!!

I finally captured Old School. He was helpless on I44 and had no where to detour around me.

Since I only had 555 miles to do today I really do have some time on my hands and opted to have a short breakfast with the man.

We meet at the TA about 7 miles from the terminal and have breakfast. It was nice to finally meet the guy!

Then I get a call from my DM. He said security went to him because they're wondering why I'm not driving. Seriously...

I told him and he said I need to get down the road right now. My DM is great, but he's just a puppet in this situation.

I'm a liar if I say that I didn't get really ****ed off at this. It cut our breakfast in half, I wasn't even able to finish my plate!

Whatever. I'm angry.

I drive down the road and 4 hours later I need to use the restroom really badly! I can't hold it until the next truck stop. So I quickly stop at a rest area and run inside. This takes me a total of 1 minute and 30 seconds. I timed it.

5 miles down the road I get a message from my DM. Security says you stopped at a rest area, why did you stop?

Umm, why the hell do you think!?

I told them it took a minute and said "they can rest easy".

At this point I completely lose my cool. If I was at home there would be a hole in the wall. Us Russians are temperamental people.

I'm about to call security and tell them to shove something up their ass. But instead I call Guy DeCou to tell him the situation and ask advice from a neutral party. Next I call my wife and rant. Afterwards I call Pat (PJ) and rant to him and ask for his opinion.

I overlooked the fact that that ****head woke me up and told me to work when I had no hours, woke up a driver who is sleeping. Imagine if I had gotten into an accident and I told the investigators my story? That would make the news just like the Walmart accident. Security is ridiculous and honestly I'm thinking about talking to Safety about them.

I drove the rest of the way and luckily I didn't get any more crap from anyone. I've never been so ticked off before in trucking.

I convinced my delivery to take me early so I got that garbage out of my trailer this morning. Done. I hate being micromanaged.

I'm done with it, I can now add that load to my resume when I look for a local job in a few months.

Prime is a great company, this is not a company bashing thread. But every company has bad apples and this is my story of the biggest load I ever hauled.

I do feel proud though. At just 22 years old I've hauled hundreds of loads, survived two winters, and now I can finally say I hauled a load that's worth more than I'll ever have in the bank. I wish they can give me a small cut of that money though so I can buy a Prius.

It was great to finally meet you Old School! I am lucky!!

Daniel, It sounds like you did a great job!!! You should be proud of yourself, it does not matter if you are 22 or any age - in my book you did a fantastic job in keeping your head and not losing your cool. Your journey was a bit nerve racking to say the least, however, the level of patience & professionalism that you exhibited is a testament to great maturity at ANY age!!! Good luck & God Bless in all your travel's, Debbie :)

Great job, Daniel! Maturity doesn't depend on age so much as attitude. You made it safely and on time, despite the hassles. Держите на автоперевозки, эмоциональное русски!

Glad to hear you got that one over with. I know how frustrating it got for you. Be safe buddy

Crazy story, dude! Thanks for taking the time to share it...

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I truly felt I could have maybe handled it better but we're all human. Sleep deprived+ woken up+ micromanaged+ annoyed = will get anyone angry. As much as I try to be professional everyone's got their breaking point.

And about the bonus for pulling hazmat and/or high value. If I seriously don't get a bonus for that load I'll be sure to never pull one again. I can honestly say that I would rather quit than put myself through that again. I value my health, there's nothing healthy about driving 8 hours, taking a 30 minute break, and then driving 3 more hours and doing that 4 days in a row. I'll pass. Glad that's over with!

I just finished my first high value load today, although I didn't have the excitement you had. The excavators alone are over $50k each.