Learning New Lessons

MikeJ

TB Veteran
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Hi guys what's up?
So today was Monday and what a fun filled day it was. I had 742 cases and I think 17 stops, but some of those were grouped together my first stop actually counts as 3 stops.

Anyhow loaded pretty good, not the heaviest 16,000lbs but 742 and 17 stops will keep you busy enough for sure.
So I did my first stop key stop got out of there about 5:15am got to my second stop down town which is kind of a hard back in, usually on a good day I can get it, in in about 10 minutes, today it took 20 yeah...has that ever happened to any of you guys?

What happened was I missed the dock plate the first time and thought oh I'll just keep going till I get it lined up. That never happened, I was in square but missed the dock plate and it really doesn't matter because were not rolling of pallets any how and the freezer comes out the side so I wasted time trying to make it work, never ended up getting there because I kept making the same mistake over and over again as far as when do I want to start following the trailer and eventually just lost my patience and put it in square but off and didn't use the dock plate anyhow. I told my self next time that happens and your in but square, but can't use the plate to bloody bad put it in and get the delivery going. So that was lesson #1 learned.

Lesson #2 wasn't as big of a lesson, I do this big time big money name brand all boys Catholic High School on Monday morning. The stop technically isn't hard, but for some reason I really don't like it. I mean the people who work there in the kitchen are okay and what not and were not there primary purveyor so it's not a ton of cases if we were there primary purveyor good goodness my truck would be closed to cubed out on Monday, but were not and will never be for reasons that I am not allowed to put on this forum it has nothing to do with drivers or our sales staff it's money related stuff.

Anyhow this stop is a back in, and it's not a huge deal have to watch out for some stuff, but it's easier then the stop I came from, except today I was running late and when I got there the parents were dropping off all the kiddos and I thought "gee I wonder if all these good people who send there kids here will show the love of god and let me back in." Well you all know the answer to that. Needless to say were running it in from the street.

So I was running it in from the street fun fun fun. Anyhow they did not get a lot of dry or cooler so no need to ramp it I just threw the stuff to the back door and and started loading anyhow one of the good church goers yells out the window of his van "Hey you can't park in the street like that what the hell's wrong with you!"

It does not happen often, but when people like that yell at me I ignore them like they don't even exist. I could also go on my rant about Catholics of which I am one, but the difference between me and those people is I don't claim to be a good Catholic and I don't put the stickers of these institutions on the back windshield of my car either and I never will, you know and here we are in the time of lent and all and this is what I get from a Catholic High School...all because I was trying to avoid an accident...

Anyhow moving along hustled the rest of the day and oh got held up at a few stupid stops truck in the dock at one and no security escort at another so on and so fourth annoying stuff.

Had a bucket of some kind of laundry detergent wettening agent start leaking on me and oh my what a mess did it make got all over my cloths got all over the truck the trailer was awful. I ended up throwing it away when I got back to the yard, the trailer was so bad if I didn't have a back haul I would have washed the trailer out at our yard and were not really a trailer wash that's how bad it was the trailer needed a full pressure wash inside and out side too. Actually it was so bad I thought the back haul was going to reject the trailer, but they loaded it. The transit driver who I share a truck with said "I'll flag this trailer Out of Service" when I get to the warehouse tonight and send it over for wash out. All that soap got on the trailer floor not good.

Anyhow by 14:40 I had it all knocked out though and actually it wasn't great, but by noon I only had like 4 stops left and I was like "Man I'm behind, but I only have 4 left so maybe I'm not as behind as I think I am."

So then I went to grab my back haul at the freezer waited for 30 minutes for a dock then waited longer to get loaded that whole ordeal took about 2 hours. Watched an OTR truck back in between a dropped trailer and another OTR truck, he looked like me this morning at my second stop so I felt a little better about my self when I saw him struggling too. I though gee a sleeper can and 53' shoehorend in between another sleeper and 53' and a dropped 53' if I was in that truck I would have been struggling hard core to make that maneuver work.

In fact when I was leaving I saw that driver out side emptying the garbage out of his truck and I said to him, "Hey I saw you backing in to here and well my second stop this morning I didn't do so hot at it, so I'm right there with you on that one."

He went "Yeah man hell on the highways out here." He looked like he had been driving for sometime too, it wasn't his first day, so you know him or I your not going to hit a home run everyday.

The transit driver who I share a truck with I met up with him when I got back and I said "I tried, but stop #2 took me about 10 minutes to long to back into." He said "Did you make it back in one piece? Did you get all your stops done?" I said "Yes and Yes and I also picked up there back haul." He said "Well that all sounds like you did pretty good to me."

I guess at the end of the day if the trailer is empty and you came back in one piece the day is considered a success and like Ted Ward's boss once said to him "Good now come back and do it all over again tomorrow."
 
Mike some days no matter how good you are at backing, you can't hit a particular dock straight. There are some places I go now that I either have to back in or out, therefore I always back in. If someone is irritated at having to wait for me to safely back in, they will have to get over it because I refuse to rush.
 
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