You Cant Makey Money Saying No

And... here’s the irony.

I just turned down a load.

I have less than 3 hours left on my 70 and it was going to the other side of WA.

I’m heading home for my reset.

Cheers,

G

I never turn down loads unless I don't have the hours required to make on time delivery and then I inform my asset manager and they either say we will repower it or to turn it down. When I was at Schneider, I did a 2 mile load. One mile down the road to pick it up, one mile back to get live unloaded which took 3-4 hours. Didn't say a word about it, since someone had to do it.

Generally they will give me something better once they have something better, if not oh well. I just do the job I'm paid to do.

Lol Last week,we get another load out of Jersey City. Same place I drove into last time. Told my co driver "ok I am not going into grab this load, its your turn".....He ****es a fit saying we ain't taking this load (I already committed to it, too bad) Well, he QC's the DM sub for the day whines n moans blames it on me, tells her HE wants a Fed Ex or XPO load to Cali, not this Jersey City run ?? I tell him dude we CANT turn down ANY loads, and the world don't revolve around his wishes !

Hour or so later QC beeps, we been unassigned this 2200+ load back to SLC, and assigned another load.....Well guess what?? hahahaha The new load is near Cape Code p-up, stopping by the SAME shipper IN Jersey City! Then on to their other location here in Dallas area 600+ LESS miles Kinda defeated the purpose of getting long run loads like my DM has given me since day 1. But he is fine with it?

Turn's out Jersey City, or NJ period has bad juju......Evenings coming, he pulls into a flying j goes around an island in the center of truck stop towards fuel islands....Scrape n crunch noise soon heard. He stops asks me if he hit something? I say yeah ! I think you just hit that truck parked there since you weren't paying attention !! He looks YEP mid trailer has shoved driver fender of this guys truck in ! I told him stop do NOT move nothing!

Guy is walking his dog and comes up to see this and calls the cops. They are there in under 5 minutes! Dude was double parked by bobtail tractor under the lights on this island, in the No Parking/fire lane.....Once reports made and guy backs his truck up it dont look as bad as it did when we were jammed into his fender. Headlight and mirror still intact, I seen cracks and scrape marks on the fender. Who knows what damage isn't seen I stayed in the truck letting them handle business.....

So all I have heard is my co driver whining and listening to his brother etc saying it was the other guys fault for being parked in bad place hahaha As I have learned here long ago, and lived by always, he won't just suck it up and accept FULL responsibility for his lack of paying attention and running into another truck! And he thought he was going to be a trainer HAHA He can't even straight back and has been here 7 or 8 months.

I told him to just tell safety he messed up, and realized he needs to be more careful from now on and not have a 2nd such incident. But Noooo he goes on and on he is going to let the police report say it all, he wont send in pics he took so not to self incriminate himself (I already sent in the 2 pics I took to my DM) Talking to safety and insurance woman who called him about it, he went on and on about the other guy being really the reason he hit him pffffffft I was sitting right there lol he never even turned to look in his mirror he was focused on the fuel islands.

He got cited for "careless driving,likely to endanger persons or property" not sure if other guy got cited for being in a no parking/ firelane spot or not

See if pic loads or not

^^^^ Oh...WOW. I'm just a driver's wife, and all I can say is... 'oh WOW.'

Maybe that solo gig coming through would be a good thing, eh?!?!? ;)

See if pic loads or not

Whoops!

Bet you will be glad when you can get away from him.

Laura

I've only had to decline two assignments because of Maintenance issues . (Radiator leak, emissions system ) The second issue my DM forgot that he has messaged me earlier in the week about bringing my tractor in to the shop. A quick phone call cleared up the problem. Like everyone has said in this post "Do what you got to do to keep them wheels turning". I've done long and short hauls for a while I thought I had been exiled to Northern New Jersey because all of my assignments were to that area hauling in and a back haul out averaging about 250 miles in and back out. I did this for about 3 weeks only good thing was most places I delivered to or pick up were the same so I could get in and out without much fus. Now I'm starting to get longer runs mile wise. Keeping the wheels turning.

T Samuelson wonders:

I guess my question is when is an appropriate time to say no?

I can think of at least four "no" situations.

• You've already requested home time and a planner wants you to go in the opposite direction and miss out on your time off.
• You really don't care to be one of your DM's go-to drivers who can help solve problems.
• You don't mind sitting in truck stops waiting for your DM to find you a trip to your liking. (As if DM had time to cater to your "needs".)
• You believe "short" trips are a waste of your valuable time.

Only one I agree with is the 1st one... I'm always out for over a Month for when I request home time so I'm gonna get my Home time. I will be over the road for 2 years with the same company in July and I never had a run less than 3:00 miles until the last month. And I've had several that were around 200 miles. I didn't complain And I was rewarded with great runs After those… Sometimes you gotta be a team player. Trust me they notice.

Junkyard Dog suggests

Sometimes you gotta be a team player

I hope this isn't just a phrase to say. I suggest keeping the attitude that all the time you are a team player if you want to stay busy. Nobody can argue about messing up your planned home time and turning down a load, though.

BTW, for newbies, keep this in mind: just as in playing pool, sometimes one shot is simply a setup for the money shot. You may be expecting to get home to St Louis, but you get a dispatch that delivers the day before in Rockford, IL. Double check with the DM , you may be getting set up for a load going from Chicago to Ft Worth, with enough time to stop at home on the way to Texas.

Junkyard Dog suggests

Sometimes you gotta be a team player

I hope this isn't just a phrase to say. I suggest keeping the attitude that all the time you are a team player if you want to stay busy. Nobody can argue about messing up your planned home time and turning down a load, though.

BTW, for newbies, keep this in mind: just as in playing pool, sometimes one shot is simply a setup for the money shot. You may be expecting to get home to St Louis, but you get a dispatch that delivers the day before in Rockford, IL. Double check with the DM , you may be getting set up for a load going from Chicago to Ft Worth, with enough time to stop at home on the way to Texas.

Interesting that you mention getting "home to St. Louis" for the newbies. Because I live in St. Louis and a lot of freight moves through St. Louis, I am hoping that I might be able to get some 34 hour resets or even a 10 hour break there every so often. In fact, I plan to mention to my FM that the more he can get me through St. Louis to see my wife, the less home time requests I will need to make. To be clear, I intend to propose it in such a way that I am trying to be a team player; not that I EXPECT him or her to do it. But rather, as a cooperative relationship: swing me through St. Louis regularly and I'll stay out longer.