Profile For Freight N.

Hello, first time poster and 4 year dock worker here! I want to open a discussion between the two of us, dock worker and driver. I think that there's something to learn from sharing our experience interacting with each other.

Although, I've been a dock worker for four years, last year, by a sort of fluke I guess, I found myself dispatching road drivers. We called them purchase drivers ( or PT) as they were from different companies (I worked at fedex freight at the time). It was always the PT drivers that seemed to be stressed or impatient. Not to say that all PT drivers were angry or that fedex road drivers were always happy, but when someone came into dispatch all grumpy, it was usually a PT driver.

Chief complaints were usually:

Time - driver already started their clock and their box is still being loaded/unloaded OR we had no available empties.

Hazmat- This one never ceased to amaze me. So many drivers would arrive, wait patiently for me to get to them, we go through the process, I hand them the paper work and they begin to scratch their heads. “I can't take this I don't have a hazmat endoresment." Well your company is a hazmat carrier. “Ok but what am I supposed to do?" Call your dispatch see what they want you to do. I've always wondered if this situation is the result of a lack of communication between driver and their dispatch or between me and their dispatch.