Stoopid Noobie Tricks

[theoldprof]

I'm sure all of us did some stupid things as Newbies. Let's hear some of these wonderful business decisions we have all probably made. I'll go first: Got a load offer. Pick close by and deliver toThief River Bend, Wis. Wow!!! 700 miles!!! Unfortunately there is no freight coming out of that area. But, 700 miles. That is where I learned to sleep in an unheated, uninsulated GMC van in minus eleven degrees. I didn't freeze, but I slept in every spare piece of clothing I had in the van. Almost ran out of gas dead heading back to civilization. Missed THE gas station.

Nother one: Dispatch called. Pick up on the 23rd for del on the 24th? Yes. Looked at calendar and it was only the 21st. That was when I decided to have dispatch QC the load offer so I could check it over, including the dates. I also got a calendar and stuck it on my QC. Never made that mistake again. Those are two that I remember. I probably have plenty more.

Now, let's hear it from others.

 

[TeamCaffee]

Ours was our first trip to Manhattan NYC! We had been trying to get out of the north east for about a week and just could not break the loop. We had never been to Manhattan before and really had no desire to ever go. Got the load offer pay was really good, load was light kicker was it picked up in Manhattan but the load went to North Carolina, Perfect! Looked at Bob and said you ready to try Manhattan so we can get to North Carolina? He said sure why not so I accepted the load! Well the load keeps coming and coming and coming! I look again and there it was three stops in Manhattan starting at the very south side last stop picking up in Harlem. First time we had ever had a multi pickup so had never looked at that little box before. Well we bite the bullet we get into town have a heck of a time finding our locations and parking. We find out what they call streets we call alleys we get lost every which way we can. With out the help of very good friends who knew the area we would still be there. We pickup the last stop get out of Manhattan, customer calls in and the load turns into return load! So we did it all over again the next day. We survived and have not been back since.
I will say this though we still laugh over that load!

 

[nightcreacher]

back in 1985,i delivered into gm plant,linden nj,what a wanderful place,as they didnt get in any hurry unloading there,mean while my pager goes off,Pam Cashman wants me to go over to yonkers,pick up a load,and bring it back to edison nj.i told her would be no problem,if you can get me unloaded.Got unloaded and went to yonkers,where the dock forman said i needed to load my truck,so i made that phone call to Pam,and told her I was truck driver not lumper,and she said that i was just suppose to help,the shipper was to have coupe guys to also help.well there were no other guys,so I called pam back again,told her i was leaving cause I wasnt going to load this stuff for the warehouse.she talked me into staying,then the dock foreman said they closed in an hour.i better hurry if i was to get loaded,so i went to the bathroom for about 30 mins.well it s amazing how you can be loaded when its closing time.now im all loaded,didnmt touch 1 piece of freight,and started to leave the dock,with the 40000 #'s in my trailer,but the truck is hard leaving the dock.well to make a long story even longer,the next morning when im at the receiver,he opens the doors and about goes nuts,turns out shipper put 2 loads on my truck,almost 80000#'s in the trailer,of course bol didnt say anything near that,and no,i didnt get dbl pay,i did try,but i did get the 62% rather than the 46%.thats my newbie story,but believe me if i knew where to start,i could write a book about the things that were done in my beginning of expedite with Roberts Express

 

[Doggie Daddy]

Is the bridge that you crossed to get back to NJ still standing? DD.

 

[redytrk]

back in 1985,i delivered into gm plant,linden nj,what a wanderful place,as they didnt get in any hurry unloading there,mean while my pager goes off,Pam Cashman

Is Pam still around? She was my CAT team leader back in `88 when I started. She really seemed to care.

 

[terryandrene]

When we first got the QualComm, we were not as familiar with city and town names as we now are. We were laying over on a Friday somewhere in Pennsylvania and hoping to get a load toward our St Louis home. We hastily accepted a load offer to Anytown, ON thinking that Anytown, Ohio was better than nothing and it will now get us a couple of hundred miles closer to home for the weekend. Not until we got the run info messages did we realize that we had taken a run to Canada, not Ohio. And to make matters worse, this load delivered on Monday, not straight through. We now take the time to read and reread all QC run offers

 

[greywolf184]

One morning when my husband and I were newbies, we were in Vermont, middle of winter, fresh 1+ ft. of snow (just dropped a load 3 hrs earlier), after battling the snowy roads and hills, my husband goes to sleep. I had already been sleeping for a couple of hrs. Well the Qc goes off, I look at it and notice we only have just enought time to make it to this pickup,so I rush in get a cup of coffee then head towards our destination.

Well upon pulling out of the gas station we were at I spill my cup of coffe, so I figure I will grab another one along the way. (Now I'm really flustered and feeling rushed) so off I go. I drove the 100+miles to the pickup, with no other coffee stops along the way just to get to our pickup to find out it was for the following day. Talk about pissed off at myself and embarrased, but funny now. I now pay closer attention to the pickup date.
And like many others here I'm sure there are a lot more stories than that but thats one I wont forget.

 

[Turtle]

I stayed with Panther when they bought Con-Way NOW.

 

[greywolf184]

I thought of another one, this time it was my husband who done something funny.

We dropped a load off in Lake Charles La. then was empty moving to Houston, Tx. well my drive time ended, so I laid down to get some sleep. We were in Lake Charles when I laid down. Well a couple of hrs. later I woke up and asked my husband what part of Tx. are we now in. His response was we arn't in Tx. yet. I asked why not when we were right outside of Tx. He stated he didn't know. Well I knew, .....He had went the wrong way. We were still in La.

The funny thing is he's telling me he is not going the wrong way and i'm telling him he is. After he finally noticed it, we were 150 miles out in the wrong direction. We finally made it there later that day after our 300 miles extra roundtrip sightseeing tour. LOL

I still tease him about it to this day.

 

[nightcreacher]

This is kind of a dumb and funny story,after loading Dow Chemical in Midland Mi. I drove to Flint,where we then switched drivers.Now this is where it gets good.We were going to Fargo Nd,we didnt actually have to deliver 'til the next evening,but I made arrangements to deliver straight thru,as there was a load picking up in Fargo,and straight thru would have put us there in the morning. so off we go,fast as possible,right? wrong.When the co-diver took the wheel,he was suppose to go south on I 69,then I94 for 250 miles and we would switch back again.well 5 hrs goes by,co-driver wakes me up,and we are on business 94. For those that know,there is no business 94 in chicago.by the speedometer,he had driven 266 miles,now if we went the way he was suppose to, we would be somewhere around Chicago,wrong.we were in Ann Arbor Mi.Now this is funny,dont care who you are.he drove from Flint to Ann Arbor non stop,took him 5 hrs and 266 miles.you say thats not possible,well it is if you go north on I69 to Port Huron,then go west on I 94,you will end up 266 miles to Ann Arbor.it was just lucky that our actual delivery was for the next evening,cause getting to Fargo by morning was now impossible,and load we were going to pick up wasnt going to happen either.no I didnt fire himat least not then.

 

[cheri1122]

Glad to hear you didn't fire him, Steve, for a dumb mistake, though you'd certainly have been entitled to deduct the fuel cost from his share - I would have. But we ALL make dumb mistakes, and here's one of mine:
Left the shipper after faxing load info to Canadian broker, but without calling to verify that it was received & all correct. Arrived at the border at 2300, no clearance found, broker closed till the following morning, Customs directed me to remain parked within their sight until then. It was below zero, I had to idle the van all night, then hoof it back & forth across the Customs parking lot in the gale force wind to get the broker & Customs paperwork done, along with several expensive roaming calls to the carrier.
It was a long, cold, frustrating run, and the miniscule profit wasn't worth it. I never again left a shipper without calling the broker, though.

 

[Tennesseahawk]

I stayed with Panther when they bought Con-Way NOW.

BWAAAHAHAHA!!! I think you won!

 

[theoldprof]

Here's another one. Had a PU at St. Mary's or Marysville, OH or something like that. Well, seems like there are two Marysville OH. You guessed it. I went to the wrong one. One is a wide spot in the road and the other is a real town. I went to the wide spot. I was SOOO lost. I think I was pulled off of that load. I blame the GPS. Have to blame somebody.

 

[RLENT]

Hmmm ....... lessee .....

How about this one - I'm in Franklin, OH at the Pilot and they call me about one picking up in Troy, OH going to Belvidere, IL. I tell her I'll it run and then she says "You need to go - RIGHT NOW !" so off I go flying to the shipper up through Dayton to Troy ..... eventually the shipper's info comes across the QC and I punch it into the GPS .... and make it with like a couple minutes to spare. The adrenelin is pumping pretty good at this point.

I run in and the girl at the desk hooks me up with what I'm hauling - a single roll of labels. She has me sign the copies and gives me mine and points to some additional papers laying there saying, "There are complete directions - I have no idea whether they are right or not." ..... hmmmm ..... great .....

So I run back out to the truck, hop in and punch the address off the BOL into the GPS and off I go to Belvidere. It had been my understanding that these were going to the Chrysler plant. I get to Belvidere and the GPS routes me ..... down thru town ...... and then out .... what the .... ? So I'm driving along and things are getting real rural ..... I finally get to the address and it's about 10 miles out of town way back in some allotment ..... on Squirrel Tree Lane ..... uh-huh ......

I pull in the drive and go up to the door and knock and the guy is surprised because 1. I'm like an hour and half early, and 2. I'm driving this big van to deliver a roll of labels. I have him sign off and I split and go down the road aways, pull off and pull out the QC to send my unloaded message.

But before I send it I just happened to look at the original QC message ...... all of it this time - particularly the bottom where consignee info is - which doesn't show up unless you scroll down ..... the consignee address is the Chrysler plant address - obviously different than the one I just delivered to.

Turns out it was fine - but I had to call Dispatch, they had me go back to the guy's house and ask him who exactly he was, then call them back and explain it - because Dispatch had no info whatsoever on this other address. Had I checked the BOL against the consignee address that came over the QC at the shipper, I could have avoided some unnecessary phone calls and disturbing this guy's evening at home a second time.

Ahem ..... I am somewhat embarassed to say ..... this happened just this past week.

 

[Moot]

Turtle, I didn't see that one coming. Lucky there was no food or beverage in my yap. I'm doing the floor thing!

 

[nightcreacher]

ok heres a dumb move by me,really dumb.This happened when I 1st started driving back in 1977.I loaded north of Detroit Mi,going to Alsip Il,well the cordinates,put this town south west of Evansville In,but I couldnt find it on the map.So off I go,and as im south on us 41,I get one of our drivers on the cb radio,and he lets me know Alsip is in Chicago,the reason I coldnt find it on the map.its on the Chicagao City map,talk about dumb move.

 

[Moot]

I'll go first: Got a load offer. Pick close by and deliver to Thief River Bend, Wis. Wow!!! 700 miles!!!

Prof, could that have been Thief River Falls, Minnesota????

 

[theoldprof]

And here's yet another: I delivered to a Japanese auto plant. The receiving lady sez to go to the second door south and deliver. Said she would be outside to sign my papers because she was going to chow. A truck covered up #1 door, so the second door I saw was actually door #3. I delivered, went looking for the lady. She asked me where I had been. "Delivering the goodies" sez I. "What door?" Annyhoo, I had delivered to another company that shared facilities. I had to go back and get my stuff back and deliver it to the correct door. She signed papers and I was on my way. Embarrassed, but on my way. Obviously Panther never heard about this from me!!!

 

[theoldprof]

Moot, it could have been anywhere with "Thief River Something" in it. This is coming from a memory that is shot.

 

[Suds43]

LOL.........terryandrene, we did exactly the samething......
I was running as a single with my wife as a rider. I would do the driving, truck stuff, she would do paperwork, qc messages, etc.
Can't remember where we were now but got a load offer thru the qc. She looks it over and scans down to the total pay for the load.......It was great pay for the miles we had to run. Load was ready now!
We accept the load right away.
Get to the shipper, back up to the dock, go inside with our paperwork. The girl on the dock was in a big hurry, was time for her to go home. She sends us to another woman on the dock who knows exactly where the freight is. She says all the paperwork isn't ready yet, but she'll get it on the truck.
All loaded, first woman comes back with our paperwork.........and more.. She says real quick as she's headed out the door "All the canadian papers are there too".
We say "What Canadian papers?" We're picking up a load going to Ohio". My wife decides we'd better go back and re-read the load offer..............about 10 minutes later we're all loaded headed to Ontario, Canada!! It's amazing how ON can look like OH on the QC!!

Same trip: We're in Canada, get thru customs ok......pull out of there and head down the road.......A few miles later the chicken coop is open.......I'm hauling real light, have a newer "Pete" straight truck, mechanically very sound, with no problems!! I pull in and the green arrow sends me thru the by-pass scales lane......Toward the end of the lane the overhead light is green, I look in my mirror to see what's comming down the road, grab another gear and start to boogie out of there...My wife screams. "YOU'D BETTER STOP!!!" I lock it down, look over at her and ask what's wrong?? She says the scale house turned on the red light.....It was green last time I looked!!! Nothing comming behind me I back up past the light and there it is......Red as all get out..........lol I pull back behind the scale house and go inside.....Luckily the young officer on duty was real nice. I told him what had happened and he laughed saying he was glad I stopped, he'd of hated to send the mounties after me.... He'd stopped me because we didn't have the green Ontario D.O.T. inspection sticker in our window. Ended up with a level 1 inspection.........passed with flying colors!!