Tuesday afternoon I accepted an 813 mile load with 120 miles paid deadhead. The actual deadhead was 148 miles. I burned 3 hours driving and loading, leaving me with 13 hours to drive the 813 miles. That's an average of 62.5 mph. Unacceptable to the safety department and there wasn't enough time to take a 5 hour break and still make the (alleged) delivery time. Someone didn't take in to account deadhead distance and time when booking this load. I knew it was going to swap, just not where.
I proceeded along at my usual 63 mph fuel saving pace. I heard nothing from Safety about taking a 5 hour break nor from dispatch about swapping. After midnight I sent a QC message asking if this load was going to swap. This is the reply I got:
.
.
I was at a loss as to what this meant. My IRT decoder ring has been stashed in a cubby for months and hasn't seen the sun to recharge. It was deader than the Asian Beetle stuck where my windshield meets the dash. The Asian beetle has seen lots of sun but never recharged. I wanted to buy a vowel, an "i" to see if the S word really was what I thought it was. The "WE WERE GOING TO LET YOU TAKE IT THE WHOLE WAY" was also cryptic. We WERE? Now WE'RE not? WE'RE not, Now we WERE? WE'RE where and you WERE there?
Only thing left to do was embrace the stupidity and ask what the delivery time was, being that it may have changed to accommodate my lost time. Reply: 13:00. No change and no way I will make it. I drive a few more hours and take my 5 hour break. I have the good sense not to inform dispatch of this and vow to refrain from any communication with them until I deliver. I did get one QC message about 15 minutes after my 5 hour break asking: ARE YOU ROLLING TO THE SHIPPER. I didn't respond.
I delivered at 14:15, 1 hour and 15 minutes late. It was a construction site. I had a pallet of doors. I found the GC superintendent and was unload in less than ½ hour. This morning I checked my stats to see if I got dinged for being late. In 19 years doing this I have had 1 service failure. No dings. I checked the history of this pro number and found that not only was I not late in delivering, I was 15 minutes early. The load offer stated a 13:00 delivery time. Double checking with dispatch confirmed a 13:00 delivery time and yet I delivered at 14:15. How could this be? Were the doors I hauled magic doors? Were they a portal in the fabric of time and who were those dudes in the backseat of Calvin's car?
Why can't dispatch just give me the actual delivery time instead of plying these asinine games? That's a rhetorical question. I know the answer. It's because as an expedite cargo van driver I'm too stupid to manage time or much of anything else. If I knew I had an extra few hours I would probably squander it away picking up cigarette butts and chicken bones at a truck stop.
Why does my carrier lease with morons like me? Ooh, ooh! I know the answer to this question also. Because, to quote Horace Mayo, my former wrestling coach and teacher: "If you (me) had another brain it would be lonesome."
I proceeded along at my usual 63 mph fuel saving pace. I heard nothing from Safety about taking a 5 hour break nor from dispatch about swapping. After midnight I sent a QC message asking if this load was going to swap. This is the reply I got:
.
.
I was at a loss as to what this meant. My IRT decoder ring has been stashed in a cubby for months and hasn't seen the sun to recharge. It was deader than the Asian Beetle stuck where my windshield meets the dash. The Asian beetle has seen lots of sun but never recharged. I wanted to buy a vowel, an "i" to see if the S word really was what I thought it was. The "WE WERE GOING TO LET YOU TAKE IT THE WHOLE WAY" was also cryptic. We WERE? Now WE'RE not? WE'RE not, Now we WERE? WE'RE where and you WERE there?
Only thing left to do was embrace the stupidity and ask what the delivery time was, being that it may have changed to accommodate my lost time. Reply: 13:00. No change and no way I will make it. I drive a few more hours and take my 5 hour break. I have the good sense not to inform dispatch of this and vow to refrain from any communication with them until I deliver. I did get one QC message about 15 minutes after my 5 hour break asking: ARE YOU ROLLING TO THE SHIPPER. I didn't respond.
I delivered at 14:15, 1 hour and 15 minutes late. It was a construction site. I had a pallet of doors. I found the GC superintendent and was unload in less than ½ hour. This morning I checked my stats to see if I got dinged for being late. In 19 years doing this I have had 1 service failure. No dings. I checked the history of this pro number and found that not only was I not late in delivering, I was 15 minutes early. The load offer stated a 13:00 delivery time. Double checking with dispatch confirmed a 13:00 delivery time and yet I delivered at 14:15. How could this be? Were the doors I hauled magic doors? Were they a portal in the fabric of time and who were those dudes in the backseat of Calvin's car?
Why can't dispatch just give me the actual delivery time instead of plying these asinine games? That's a rhetorical question. I know the answer. It's because as an expedite cargo van driver I'm too stupid to manage time or much of anything else. If I knew I had an extra few hours I would probably squander it away picking up cigarette butts and chicken bones at a truck stop.
Why does my carrier lease with morons like me? Ooh, ooh! I know the answer to this question also. Because, to quote Horace Mayo, my former wrestling coach and teacher: "If you (me) had another brain it would be lonesome."
