AMonger
Veteran Expediter
Newbies and wanna-bes, pay heed.
I used to run a forum for wanna-be drivers (big trucks only). I got an email from one guy who was figuring how much he could make. ".xx per mile, x 11 hours a day at 70 mph = big bucks, right?" he queried. I had to shatter his dreams, telling him why and how he wasn't going to be running 70 mph, 11 hours a day. I gave him all the reasons, all the delays he'd encounter, etc.
Well, the same holds true in expediting, and I encountered them all this week.
My first load was the only normal one, and that was less than 300 miles. That delivered in Findlay, OH. From there, I DH'd to Toledo.
Then dispatch called, offering a short run from Toledo to Hebron, OH. Hardly worth doing, but it was late, I could deliver at 6 am and be ready for something better, and dispatch sounded like it would be doing a favor for a customer, so I took it.
Got there, and was told the logistics company (two cats) had faxed over the wrong authorization, so they couldn't release it to me. Further, the woman who had the right number was gone for the day, so... Well, detention, I guess...
It was after 8 am before it was fixed, but they finally loaded me and I delivered direct to an impatient customer.
From there, got dispatched on a load picking up in West Virginia going to the Bright Lights. Wasn't crazy about the deadhead, but I hadn't won any bids that day in several tries, so I took it.
When I got there, the dimensions were way wrong. This pallet was 6 feet tall. I had to get approval from everybody in the chain before they'd break it down onto an extra pallet. That took about 3 extra hours before everybody agreed to it.
The warehouse guy very slowly took enough bags from the pallet and stacked them on another. Then, he wanted to load them without any shrink wrap. I nixed that idea, and he grudgingly went around it twice, very poorly. I insisted on more, so another guy finished the job.
Delivered in the Bright Lights the next morning, went to bed, again after several lost bids, before finally winning one going to the Fort Wayne area. I get there, and this pallet is also six feet tall, instead of two smaller ones. They're busy and the foreman doesn't want to re-work them, but he does.
Loaded and on my way, I have doubts that the consignee will be open to receive it Saturday afternoon. It just didn't feel right. It would have been a little out of route but not too bad to go through the house over the weekend, but I'm told it delivers direct. So straight through, it goes.
Sure enough, the place is deserted. It's now not reasonable to backtrack through the house. Detention time, in theory, but these things have a way of not happening.
This isn't a normal week, but they happen.
I used to run a forum for wanna-be drivers (big trucks only). I got an email from one guy who was figuring how much he could make. ".xx per mile, x 11 hours a day at 70 mph = big bucks, right?" he queried. I had to shatter his dreams, telling him why and how he wasn't going to be running 70 mph, 11 hours a day. I gave him all the reasons, all the delays he'd encounter, etc.
Well, the same holds true in expediting, and I encountered them all this week.
My first load was the only normal one, and that was less than 300 miles. That delivered in Findlay, OH. From there, I DH'd to Toledo.
Then dispatch called, offering a short run from Toledo to Hebron, OH. Hardly worth doing, but it was late, I could deliver at 6 am and be ready for something better, and dispatch sounded like it would be doing a favor for a customer, so I took it.
Got there, and was told the logistics company (two cats) had faxed over the wrong authorization, so they couldn't release it to me. Further, the woman who had the right number was gone for the day, so... Well, detention, I guess...
It was after 8 am before it was fixed, but they finally loaded me and I delivered direct to an impatient customer.
From there, got dispatched on a load picking up in West Virginia going to the Bright Lights. Wasn't crazy about the deadhead, but I hadn't won any bids that day in several tries, so I took it.
When I got there, the dimensions were way wrong. This pallet was 6 feet tall. I had to get approval from everybody in the chain before they'd break it down onto an extra pallet. That took about 3 extra hours before everybody agreed to it.
The warehouse guy very slowly took enough bags from the pallet and stacked them on another. Then, he wanted to load them without any shrink wrap. I nixed that idea, and he grudgingly went around it twice, very poorly. I insisted on more, so another guy finished the job.
Delivered in the Bright Lights the next morning, went to bed, again after several lost bids, before finally winning one going to the Fort Wayne area. I get there, and this pallet is also six feet tall, instead of two smaller ones. They're busy and the foreman doesn't want to re-work them, but he does.
Loaded and on my way, I have doubts that the consignee will be open to receive it Saturday afternoon. It just didn't feel right. It would have been a little out of route but not too bad to go through the house over the weekend, but I'm told it delivers direct. So straight through, it goes.
Sure enough, the place is deserted. It's now not reasonable to backtrack through the house. Detention time, in theory, but these things have a way of not happening.
This isn't a normal week, but they happen.
