OH-GA-VA-NY-Almost MI

Sitting on the Cleveland board when dispatch called at 1300 with a load from Valley View, OH to Smyrna, GA. with a p/u tim e of 1500. Load was direct and consisted of three lawn mowers and a tiller. That grass must really need cut in GA. Drove all night and arrived at o600. Consignee didn't open until 0800. So much for the rush in getting it there. Unloaded and went to a nearby truck stop to sleep number #3 on the Atlanta board.

Dispatch calls at 1500 with a load from Atlanta to Roanoke, VA a transfer shipment with the ultimate destination being Wall, NJ. It was another direct load and the transfer driver was already in Roanoke. Load was five links of elevator chain weighing 1200 lbs. Drove all night again arriving at the Overnite terminal in Roanoke at 0230. Transfer was made and I headed off to the truck stop in Roanoke, #5 on the board. Didn't think I'd get out that day.

Having a Sprinter got me another load ahead of the other vans on the board. Picking up at 1800 in Altavista, VA going to Auburn, NY. I was enroute to the shipper when dispatch called saying that a line went down and the shipment wouldn't be ready until 2100. Found a Wal Mart and picked up some supplies and sat in their parking lot until time to leave. Arrived at the shipper at 2100 only to be told that it would be another hour before the load was ready. Finally got loaded and left at 2200.

It was a direct load so I drove all night (is there a pattern here???) and arrived in Auburn at 0851. Unloaded and went to a real nice truck stop off of I90. #2 on the Syracuse board. Now it gets dicey.

I had a real nice parking spot away from everything, buster was running to keep me warm, and I was just getting ready to fix dinner when dispatch called at 1930. They had a load from Elma, NY (103 miles away) to Auburn Hills, MI. There were no other vans in the area and I had moved up to #1 on the board. P/U time was 2200.

Packed up and jumped on the horse. Arrived at shipper at 2205 despite customer service sending QC messages saying I was 40 minutes behind schedule. Shipping clerk tells me that another T/S driver had already picked the shipment up. Needless to say, I wasn't a happy person when I called dispatch. They knew nothing about it, and the clerk confirmed that it was picked up. Apparently, dispatch had orders for TWO shipments from this shipper, when in fact there was only one. The other driver grabbed it and took off without contacting dispatch like he was supposed to, or at least it looks that way. I was told to submit a request for a dry run. That I won't take lying down. I sent a message to the Fleet Coordinator asking him to check the QC and phone logs to see what happened. If the other driver didn't contact dispatch, he violated protocol and in my opinion shouldn't be paid for the load. If dispatch screwed up, I should have been notified prior to going into the shipper's location, and there should be more compensation other than the dry run charge.

So here I sit in a crowded truck stop outside of Buffalo, NY for what appears to be for the weekend. I am certainly going to enjoy blowing stuff up on my Playstation.