I'm a little frustrated today. I have been sitting here in DeSmet, South Dakota for going on eight hours now, waiting to be dispatched on my next load. This week has not gone well. I don't want to sound like a complainer, because I have really been blessed with a great job and a wonderful dispatcher. So, "what is the problem?" you may well wonder. It's just this: my dispatcher is on vacation this week. Normally we will have someone else who is a little familiar with this dedicated SAPA account handling our dispatching when Jason is on vacation, but this time none of the regular stand ins were available. We ended up being dispatched by our Gulfport Terminal Manager. He's a nice enough guy, but he doesn't like the way we normally do things, so this week he got to exert his authority over us.
The way this stuff is normally handled is that we have a "team of persons" in Phoenix, AZ who are supposed to be arranging back-haul loads for us so that we can get back to Delhi as quickly as possible. You see, the loads never stop getting loaded to go out from there, and Jason makes sure that he has got drivers there and ready to pull those loads out. If our back-haul team does not find a load for us then Jason dispatches us back, and we run empty to Delhi. Now, that is not the most efficient way to keep the truck running profitably, but he is charged with making sure those loads going out of Delhi are covered, and so that is the way it is handled, Everybody from the top corporate managers on down understands how this is done, and expects us to cover that dedicated customer's needs however we have to do it. That is everybody but this terminal manager!
That is the beauty of being on this account - it is predictable and steady. Your paychecks don't take wild swings up and down like many truck drivers might experience. I have tried on multiple occasions today to make contact with this gentleman who is dispatching me, with zero results. He knows I got unloaded first thing this morning, but refuses to answer my calls, text messages, and e-mails. For all I know I may be sitting here all weekend with nothing to show for it. Okay, while I'm whining I may as well just get it all out there... I was pretty frustrated the way I got dispatched on this load to DeSmet in the first place. I was in Gulfport to have my truck serviced on Monday, and it took them two days to get me in and out, which is completely unheard of in my past experiences at the shop - they are normally prompt and helpful. Then the manager told me on Tuesday at five o'clock to drive to Delhi and he would find me a load for that night or first thing in the morning. So I drove from Gulfport, without hearing from him again until 7:30 a.m. in the morning when he is angrily wanting to know why I haven't picked up that load he sent me. Well, I'm dismayed, I've not heard a word from him, and I certainly don't have any dispatch messages on my computer! No apology, no excuse, just "you need to go get that load now!" Oh, and on top of that he claimed he talked to me on the phone about it - well, I do know if someone talks to me or not - Puhhhleeeeaaase!
Well, it is a nice load, and I'm happy to do it, but just make it clear and easy on me by communicating it properly with me! Now here I am, Friday at the end of the day and not a word! I know the folks in Phoenix aren't going to be working over the weekend, I'm pretty sure this manager is working on finding his own loads just to show all the other folks how he thinks it should be done, and he has the authority to do that, at least for this week he does. The problem now becomes, "will I ever get out of here?" Well, I know I'll get out of here, but I really wasn't planning on spending the whole weekend in Laura Ingalls Wilder's hometown.
Okay, my rant is over, I feel better now. I'll figure out some way to settle in and be happy about it. I think I'll even eat dinner tonight at the "Oxbow" restaurant, a Laura Ingalls themed restaurant with pictures in the menu from the books, and menu items from the stories also. I hate that there are probably loads down in Delhi that are having to be given to other carriers because our drivers are not getting returned in a timely manner this week. This is all going to create a big bottle necked mess for Jason next week, but he expects it to be mayhem when he returns from his vacations, so we'll soon have it righted.
As I was running like crazy to get this load up here and delivered on time (it was a little tricky since I picked it up a day later than it was supposed to be) for some reason these word's of Robert Frost came up in my memory bank - they are from "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
"But I have promises to keep.
and miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep."
If there is one thing I want to be, and am determined by God's help to be, it is a man who keeps his promises.
By the way, I did get this load delivered on time, but I pushed every legal limit to make it here.
I'll do my best now to enjoy a little unexpected break, and be rearing to go when they call.
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