Running Long & Hard

I picked up a load in Grand Island, NE. I got there a day early and called their shipping department the next morning and asked if I could pick up early. It was supposed to load at 19:00hrs (7pm) local time and was looking to be a near impossible run and I was hoping to get out early. They said it would be ready at 14:00hrs (2pm). Great, I got there at 12:00 and checked in; I waited and waited and waited on the trailer to get loaded. This is the kind of place that makes you wait with your truck while they take your trailer over to be loaded. I kept up on the guard shack about my load and they kept saying it wasn't ready yet. 14:00 goes by, then 19:00 goes by. Now it's 23:30 (11:30pm) and the guard shack has a shift change. So I go check again and they say "Oh yeah, your bills are right here. I asked what time did they get there, they said at 16:36 (4:36pm). Needless to say, I was pretty upset. They refused to sign that I was held up so I refused the load. This is a meat load and is extremely time critical. Finally they agreed to give me a note but would not put their name on it, only that it was from the guard shack.
So now its midnight, I've had no sleep all day and I'm five hours late and its Saturday night. I contacted after hours, they are about as worthless as $%*#. They offered me no time solutions. Well, I took a 5 hour nap and headed out to Ohio at 5:00am. I can't exactly say how I did it, but I made it to my first drop 909 miles and 22 hours later. I have 4 drops on this load and after they got me unloaded at the first drop, I was sitting in my truck and it felt like it was moving, but it wasn't. I said to myself "Self, you’re not going any further". So I asked the guard if I could stay there and they said sure.
I woke up after 6 hours sleep and by now, my DM was in. I was expecting to have a dozen messages on the QualCom from him about why I was late. There was nothing but a weather watch. I called him and asked if he was aware of the situation and he said yes and said that it was okay and not to worry. He also got me detention pay for waiting and is working on getting me some extra pay for this whole mess.
I must have sent 20 messages to after hours and they never once told me what protocol was in this instance. That really pissed me off; here I was driving my ass off (not exactly legal). Anyway, it's all sorted out now and I am getting plenty of rest. But I have learned something thru all this, NEVER TRUST AFTER HOURS, and if you get a late load and it's not your fault, run it late and let your DM sort it out.

Category Posted: General