The Rest of the Story

Posted on 18-05-2006

UPDATE about the last post: That might have sounded like I was being trivial, but it wasn’t just counting cases on one pallet and multiplying by pallets. Some pallets had 16 some had 70. So, it wasn’t as simple as it sounded. The shipper had their count, I didn’t agree with it, but I signed it.

Later, I opened the side doors and counted again and came up with something different. When I get to the receiver, three people come up with different counts. We counted three times and we finally got together and went pallet by pallet and agreed on the count of each pallet, then added them up. Two pallets were packed “oddly”. The top row was different than the rest of the pallet. After all that we came up with something other than what was on the bill. The final count was over by 20, the receiver says, “I know the count is more, but I’m only signing for what’s on the bill.” Nope, you either sign for the count all three of us agreed on or you put 20 cases back on the truck. They said, “Nope”. I called the customer and get her involved.

Part of the “big deal” was that this was expensive stuff, over $500,000 of stuff in the trailer and the shipper can’t take responsibility for what they do? The suggestion came up to seal the trailer, but they didn’t like that one. And I find out later they are less than honest? And they want me to be responsible? So, if I came up with a different count when they were loading, you think they would have unloaded 25 pallets and started over? Don’t think so.

During the end of the ordeal at the receiver, they mention that there could be hollow holes in the stack (where cases should be) and there could be things missing from the cases. Oh, well! I’m not going to hang out till they count every single $50 dollar (small) bottle of shampoo. (Hey, it’s Vegas!) . The customer and the warehouse that received it and was going to ship it back out again must have come up with some kind of agreement and left me out of it.

I wouldn’t doubt if there was stuff missing because out of the entire trailer there were probably three maybe four different products, why did they have to stack it so deceptively? And if I have to count this crap, why make the driver stand behind a line like the one picture shows? (Which I just ignored anyway!) Or maybe it’s just me.

Comments

Perry Forsyth on 20 May, 2006 at 11:12 pm #

Hello everybody,

I was wanting to relate to you a simple story for you to read, and compare notes with what I did and what YOU may have done.

May 18, 2006, I just parked in Oakley, KS at the TA truckstop. After I got out of my truck really craving some coffee, a driver with Hill Bros. asked me if I could help him for a minute. Not knowing for sure what the problem was, I said, “Sure. What you got?”

“My reefer quit running. I believe I ran it out of fuel and can’t get it started. Would you help me?” he asked.

Would you help me? That went through my mind a few times with my mind already made up to help him. I didn’t have anything so important going on at the time I couldn’t take a few minutes to help a fellow driver.

I had him park his truck next to mine to get it out of the fuel bay and learned he filled his reefer tank until it was full of fuel. I was glad to hear this so I would have less pumping on the manual pump.

Once we had the fuel system recharged with fuel coming out of the bleeder port, I heard his starter solenoid jumping like it does with low battery charge.

This guy really had the luck! Out of fuel and a dead battery in the reefer.

After getting out his jumper cables and hooking them between his truck batteries and the reefer battery, he started the truck to recharge the reefer battery slightly before trying to start the engine.

It turned over really good and started right away. I noticed his reefer set temp was like 34 degrees and the inside temp was 57 degrees.

Once it was running, we parted the ways. He said thanks and asked what he owed me. I said, “Nothing. I did it to help you.”

I added, “We need to work together.”

The moral of this story is: All of this had taken less than fifteen minutes. As a direct result, it saved his load from going bad, saved the company from a major expense, and it taught the other driver how to do a few things to the reefer so when he has the same problems in the future, he will know what to do.

The next time somebody asks you, “Would you help me?” remember the time when you needed help and nobody wanted to be bothered to help you and the predictament it created for you and your company and how panicky you were getting until somebody had the time or took the time to help you.

Remember to old cliche, What goes around comes around. Are you ready?

Perry Forsyth on 20 May, 2006 at 11:36 pm #

I don’t know if it is me or what, but, I think it is safe to compare some of these politicians regarding trucking laws to that of a TURD!

Think about it. They linger and linger until you push them and then when they get to their resting place, they lay dormite and stink until they are flushed.

Have a safe journey!