Come along for the Ride!

I am so glad you are here. Stay with us as we travel everywhere. I hope you will enjoy the ride.

Monday, April 4, 2016

Please be diplomatic

Our predispatch load makes me mad! The load offer stated that it was a secret load, and that it was also a refrigerated, hazmat load going near Chicago. The money was a little low so I negotiated the pay and accepted the load for a rate suitable for those conditions. Pops and I  have set rates for each thing and try to get close that amount.
However when the dispatch came out, it turns out that we are headed to a NUCLEAR PLANT!!!! We charge extra for that because of all the extra time consumed in the inspection process. And the notes say, "you will be thoroughly inspected. They will go through all belongings and may not put things back. Please be diplomatic."
We know from past experience that if you call to be taken off a load, you do not get another dispatch until that load is accepted by someone else. And then you only get offered the bad loads that no one wants. 
Now don't misunderstand. We don't mind the load, we are upset that we weren't told all the details.
I did call our company to let them know that we were upset and that we were not cool about our stuff getting ransacked and not put back. I am so very not cool about that.
We basically were told to just deal with it and not say anything.
😡😤😡😤😡😤😡😤
A whole lot of stress for no reason. The items we were carrying went into a warehouse on the outer perimeter of the plant and we had NO inspection.
😛😓😛😛😓😛😓😛😓
Our company is in the beginning stages of reorganizing internally. Our loads were groups by cat agonies before such as hazardous, refrigerated, government, airport, fine arts and delicates, etc. These were subgroups of two other groups called surface and white glove. 
Surface loads are basic freight with little or no subgroups except for perhaps hazardous. 
White glove are loads that require additional care, time, effort, paperwork, etc.
Now, however, they are reorganizing and many of the drivers aren't understanding the new concepts (us included) and there is little or no communication to explain the new procedures. So this is causing EXTREME FRUSTRATION. 
I am so glad that we are going home this week. I can't hardly stand these changes coming now on the heels of 3 of the slowest months we had, financially.

So it is apparent that under the new arrangements we will not know if we are going into a nuclear plant until AFTER we accept and are dispatched. 
We accepted what used to look like a plain WG load, meaning that a general (easy) load requiring a bit of extra care. But it came out as yet another pickup at a nuclear power plant. 
We were very upset but it was delivering in the state of Virginia on Thursday and we will just deadhead home from there.

I wish I could describe in detail the process of us getting into these favilities but security agreements and discretionary keep us from doing so. But let me tell you, it took us over two hours to pick up one pallet of material.
To us, that seems like more than plain WG, and we would have charged more to do this load under the former system. 
I drove in the drizzly rain for the rest of my shift. Pops napped after we got on the highway. 
During the night as Pops was driving we had a very close call. I was sleeping on my belly on the bed. And suddenly came awake. Pops had braked, hard. When my eyes opened there was a red car sitting, stopped in the road right smack in front of us.
Pops said the car was stopped at the light but then shot out right in front of us, almost seeming to be intentional. I did not fly off the bed and not one thing fell off our counters, yet everything that we store under the bed (gallons of water, case of bottled water, bag of potatoes and several pairs of shoes) all came forward to the front of the truck.
Thank goodness for good brakes and quick reflexes. However, Pops was so shaken by this that he pulled to the side of the road and sat for about an hour to regain composure.
Ugh! We are so ready to go home. We haven't been home since December 28th.
Getting the load off consisted of driving into a small business' gravel lot and having the forklift remove the pallet. 
Now we are going home. Yay!


Arrived at home late Thursday evening. I got to have some more ch needed pet therapy right away.
I am going to stop here and write two more separate blogs in a day or so about our home time including the birth of Mason!!
Continue to keep us in your prayers.










No comments: