I don't expect them to get me a load going home. It would be nice, but hardly something I can expect or demand. I do expect, after talking with 6 different people in dispatch, for them to be aware that that's where I need to go, though. And I don't expect them to make every effort to try and get me "back up here", a phrase I have heard way too often for that to be a coincidence. It is, indeed, a mindset.
Clearly, it isn't merely a case of 'there's a lot of loads that go to Detroit', which there are, no question, but it's also a case of them actively looking for loads that deliver in and around Detroit, and maybe, unconsciously even, not taking as close a look as they can at loads that go from not-Detroit to not-Detroit. I've had two dispatchers now more or less admit that, without actually admitting that.
"I'd hate to think that they'd pass over an Atlanta to say KC load in favour of bidding on an Atlanta to Michigan load and miss out on either opportunity..."
Exactly, Ken. I wonder how many loads out of Chicago, for example, there might be which don't get as closely scrutinized because their destinations are South Carolina or Virginia or Connecticut, instead of the Detroit Metropolitan area. I've taken loads from Chicago to just about everywhere, but with Load 1 every one of them has been to Michigan. Every one. That can't be by accident or simply because 'there's a lot of loads that go to Detroit'.
Best one was the other day.
"I need a load heading south, in the direction of home."
"You're already in Flint. That's pretty close isn't it?"
"Not your home, my home."
"Oh, where do you live?"
It's a mindset.
It's an adventure.
