Massive Stupidity in Louisville...

This has got to be by far the stupidest thing that's ever happened to me at a shipper or receiver. Actually, in this case, this consignee just happened to be my next shipper. Zero deadhead miles. Woot.

So I got this load on Saturday to pick up at our contracted drop lot in Bensalem, PA. Delivers Monday at 0200 in Louisville, KY. No problem. I pick it up and drive down to the TA in Elkton, MD to call it an early day on account of laundry.

No sooner did I get my clothes in the wash than dispatch called me asking how soon I could get the load to Louisville, preferably in the morning. Uh, no. Still 650 miles to go, clothes in the wash. Try 1700-1800. Reason he was asking was that the consignee has a load ready to go (pick up no later than 1200) bound for Romulus, MI and it would be good to get the load squeezed in and get another one in after that before payday cutoff. He tells me that 1700-1800 will work ok, and that it will be a drop and hook. Well, it would have been ok, but...

Next day, I haul ass to the consignee. Get there at 1730. There is ONE person working the entire building and the full crew isn't due to arrive until midnight. They can't unload me until 0200, the appointment time.

Me: "But I was told it was going to be a drop and hook!"

He: "Uh, we don't do drop and hooks any more. All unloads are live. And I'm not showing a load to Romulus as being ready yet."

Fine. As I was heading back to my truck, I noticed a flammable placarded Prime trailer sitting in one of the ready pads. I walked around it and saw that it was all sealed and everything. Nothing unusual, but I just had "that feeling" that my destiny would be intertwined with this trailer somehow later on.

Now the story starts getting good.

So I come back at 0-dark-thirty as instructed. Check in, assigned door, open trailer, back into door. Unloading commences. Unloading finishes. Check out, ask for next load, and HEY!! It was loaded all the time on that trailer that I noticed earlier and rather bluntly foreshadowed for you.

That's not the good part. Here is the good part.

In order to hook up to the loaded trailer, I had to drop my empty one. Drop and hook, which the consignee doesn't do for incoming loads for some reason. So when I backed to the door, I had to disconnect from the original trailer while being unloaded (safety reasons), wait to get unloaded, hook back up, move the now empty trailer to another spot in the yard, drop it, and hook up to the new loaded trailer.

You mean to tell me that I couldn't have just left the loaded trailer in the door, hooked up to the new load and been on my way? They had yard goats, for crying out load! Basically, I was sitting around waiting to move an empty trailer for them.

Ugh. Needless to say, ontime delivery in Romulus, MI was no longer possible, and had to be rescheduled for tomorrow because they can't take loads after 1200.

This is not a job for hotheaded people, that's for damn sure. Ugh.