We all have good days and bad days on the job. Driver’s probably have a higher percentage of bad days due to the ever changing conditions from increased construction, traffic, shipper and consignee demands and the ever shrinking lead times provided by carriers for loads to be hauled.
Imagine this day:
A driver completes a run and returns to home base to get ready for his day off. When he walks into the office he is quickly hit up by dispatch to help with a “Hot Load”. He wants to say no but can tell that the dispatcher is out of options and it is an important customer. He checks his log book quickly and determines he does have time left to legally haul the load but will not have the hours to return home for his break. All and all it is going to be tight to get there but he accepts the dispatch. The dispatcher gives him all the information he needs and he is on his way to the shipper. When he arrives it appears that the shipper didn’t necessarily have the sense of urgency for this load as was expressed to him. Not only that, they were also on a break. He expressed that this load was critical and he was too low on hours to wait too long. Fortunately, they understood and got him loaded and out and he still had time to make it to the delivery. He hits the road and wouldn’t you know it he stops at the scales to weigh and was randomly selected for a DOT inspection. He explained he had to keep rolling with the hot load but they assumed he was just trying to hide something. Needless to say they did the inspection and he passed and now time was getting low, one to make the appointment and two to do it within his legal hours. He gets back on the road and notifies dispatch of the inspection only to have it stressed how important the load was and that he had to make it. He gets within thirty minutes of the delivery and was on-track to be on time however he was out of driving hours. Once again, he calls dispatch who told him to do what he had to do. He moves on with the load and delivers on-time. Dispatch was grateful but the safety department was not. He was written up for using personal conveyance to complete the load and had to take his break on the road missing family time. Sometimes “No good deed goes unpunished” .
– Keith Carroll