Texas Sized Heartache
I'm getting tired of Texas.
Today I woke up, blogged a small blog and got on the road to San Antonio. I arrived at the TA where I fueled and showered and grabbed a bite to eat. Then I headed over to Converse to drop my empty and pick up the load I was relaying across town.
I get to the consignee about an hour and a half early and they take me right in. I went to the dock area I was told to go to and I get nearly backed in when I hop out and open the trailer doors. I bet the look on my face was priceless. I know the looks on the faces of the lumpers I'd hired to unload my trailer were priceless.
The jackass that hauled the load from it's origination point in Joplin Missouri to the drop lot in Converse apparently didn't know how to drive a tractor trailer. Or he was just a dumbass who didn't care. Flour was the food product in the trailer. Gold Medal All Purpose Flour. And it was all over the fricking place.
The skillz it took to f*ck up the load THAT badly can only be described as phenomonal. Seriously, I have no idea what the driver could've done to cause such chaos to occur. Short of doing a high speed donut and then slamming on the breaks.
But thankfully... NOT MY PROBLEM. I had already hired the lumpers and it was their problem at that point. So I backed up to the dock and waited. Thankfully, the 5 hour average duration I was told to expect wasn't even close to accurate. I was there about 2.5 hours, even with the mess the lumpers had to clean up.
Most of the pallets of flour were just toppled over and needed restacking. A pain in the ass but not too bad. I did end up with damaged freight that they rejected, but it wasn't much. 6 units was all that they left for me. Of course, those were the ones that had busted open packages in them.
When I was told it was safe for me to leave after I filed the cargo claim with my company and resealed my trailer, I headed over to the TA truck stop I'd stopped at earlier in the day. I figured I'd clean out the damaged goods (which i was told to do) and get a bite to eat while I waited for my next assigment.
As I was driving to the TA my next assignment macro's started coming through the Qualcomm. When I got to the TA and got settled I started doing my trip plan only to find that the dispatchers are smoking crack when assigning loads.
They expect me to drive back down to Pharr, TX four hours south... pick up a load and drive it to Columbus, OH by Friday evening. Not even humanly possible with the limitations on hours and such enforced by DOT. The earliest I can get it there is Saturday night. Which means... I won't be home in time for my family obligation on Sunday morning.
SUCK.
I'm pissed... and before I get all worked up again I'm going to end this blog. I need to get some sleep anyways. I'll blog more later when I have time!
Toodles.
(EDIT) by the way... I went into the TA here a little bit ago and asked the gal at the fuel desk if she could look up a number to any local food pantry that I might be able to contact to see if they wanted to come get the undamaged bits of the flour I had in my trailer as there were about 12-15 5lb. bags that were not damaged at all. I called the number she gave me but no one answered so she started asking around the employees there and there were four guys that were just delighted to come get the flour. They barely spoke english but I understood "tortilla's" and "yum". LOL I'm just glad I didn't have to throw it all away!
Today I woke up, blogged a small blog and got on the road to San Antonio. I arrived at the TA where I fueled and showered and grabbed a bite to eat. Then I headed over to Converse to drop my empty and pick up the load I was relaying across town.
I get to the consignee about an hour and a half early and they take me right in. I went to the dock area I was told to go to and I get nearly backed in when I hop out and open the trailer doors. I bet the look on my face was priceless. I know the looks on the faces of the lumpers I'd hired to unload my trailer were priceless.
The jackass that hauled the load from it's origination point in Joplin Missouri to the drop lot in Converse apparently didn't know how to drive a tractor trailer. Or he was just a dumbass who didn't care. Flour was the food product in the trailer. Gold Medal All Purpose Flour. And it was all over the fricking place.
The skillz it took to f*ck up the load THAT badly can only be described as phenomonal. Seriously, I have no idea what the driver could've done to cause such chaos to occur. Short of doing a high speed donut and then slamming on the breaks.
But thankfully... NOT MY PROBLEM. I had already hired the lumpers and it was their problem at that point. So I backed up to the dock and waited. Thankfully, the 5 hour average duration I was told to expect wasn't even close to accurate. I was there about 2.5 hours, even with the mess the lumpers had to clean up.
Most of the pallets of flour were just toppled over and needed restacking. A pain in the ass but not too bad. I did end up with damaged freight that they rejected, but it wasn't much. 6 units was all that they left for me. Of course, those were the ones that had busted open packages in them.
When I was told it was safe for me to leave after I filed the cargo claim with my company and resealed my trailer, I headed over to the TA truck stop I'd stopped at earlier in the day. I figured I'd clean out the damaged goods (which i was told to do) and get a bite to eat while I waited for my next assigment.
As I was driving to the TA my next assignment macro's started coming through the Qualcomm. When I got to the TA and got settled I started doing my trip plan only to find that the dispatchers are smoking crack when assigning loads.
They expect me to drive back down to Pharr, TX four hours south... pick up a load and drive it to Columbus, OH by Friday evening. Not even humanly possible with the limitations on hours and such enforced by DOT. The earliest I can get it there is Saturday night. Which means... I won't be home in time for my family obligation on Sunday morning.
SUCK.
I'm pissed... and before I get all worked up again I'm going to end this blog. I need to get some sleep anyways. I'll blog more later when I have time!
Toodles.
(EDIT) by the way... I went into the TA here a little bit ago and asked the gal at the fuel desk if she could look up a number to any local food pantry that I might be able to contact to see if they wanted to come get the undamaged bits of the flour I had in my trailer as there were about 12-15 5lb. bags that were not damaged at all. I called the number she gave me but no one answered so she started asking around the employees there and there were four guys that were just delighted to come get the flour. They barely spoke english but I understood "tortilla's" and "yum". LOL I'm just glad I didn't have to throw it all away!
Comments
Virgil here (going to England's school next month guy). Nice to see you blogging again after a short break; whew ! ..you been havin' a tough time though lately. It's encouraging to see how you are dealing with it all though. Thanks for keeping us all current with the gorry ? details. I appreciate the story about how you found someone to take the flour !..you see, for the past 12 years I've been making a living from selling freight salvage items purchased from a big freight salvage company here in Salt Lake City; I even had my own store until a number of years ago they opened their own outlet to the public. After that, it was only a matter of time that I would be brought to the point I am now (needing to find another line of work) because they have really cornered the market with retailing freight salvage stuff. They currently have almost 3000 items listed on Ebay alone, and their store square footage is well over 20,000 square feet. They have another whole warehouse where they process all their stuff as well as hold a weekly auction in a space of about 6000 square feet ! ...Every week ! Since not being able to have a store since several years ago; my sales have steadily declined to the point of needing to move on. Surprisingly though, now that I've sold almost everything in my inventory, I have a real good financial cushion going into trucking so if it's a slow start, I won't mind so much. Again, your blogging has been so helpful and encouraging; thanks again and keep those stories comin'.
Virgil