The Great Western Disaster
Well how do I start this horror story off. I got a call last monday telling me that there was a very hot load out of Chattanooga going to Denver Co. for the next day. Here comes the first piece of bad news. First the load has to be in denver by Wensday at 2 oclock local. OK iI say I'll have to call my backup driver and find out if he is avalible...He is. Number two , When will the load be ready I ask. They'll call an hour and a half before they need you to load they say..Ok.
Well tuesday rolls around I get up bright and early, load up my gear, my co-driver arrives about 8am and we saddle up and are ready to roll. Then we wait. 10am comes and goes, noon comes and goes, 2pm comes and goes and then about three they finnally call. So we haul butt up to load and guess what? That's right it's not ready. Three parts are either being built or are in the paint booth.CRAP... Not good.
So we load and secure what is ready and then wait...Finally about 7pm we're finally loaded and off we go, West bound with the hammer down. Until we get to the Love's at Chistiana Tn. Somehow the girl at the fuel desk screws upand after thirty minutes I pay cash for the power service and we finally get on the road. Well we drive all night fighting moron four wheelers and construction but to no avail. we are thirty minutes late and they refuse to unload us until the next day. Sound familure anyone?
So the next day per their instructions we get there after 9am local and finally get unloaded. Now the real fun begins...Trying to find a load that actually pays...SOMETHING. NOPE WON'T HAPPEN. There isn't a load out of that part of the world that pays. Sure the loads we were offered will pay for the fuel to haul it but if you want to actually make any money you are S.O.L. So we wait and we call every listing on the load board and every agent for the company to try and find a desent load headed anywhere. Like I said no such thing exists. S.O.L. for thursday.
Friday rolls around and dispatch doesn't have anything...not one single load within an 800 mile radius. To give you a little perspective that is as far east as Jackson Ms. So there we sat on a Friday burning money at the Flying J when I deside to do something I had only had nightmares about until now. I agreed to haul a load of ONIONS...on my 48 foot flatbed. Can you say braindamage. This has to be in the top 3 dumbest things I have ever agreed to do in my life . o.k. NOW I HAVE AGREED TO GET SCREWED LET THE FUN BEGIN. First to my shock we cann't load the damned thing until saturday morning. So late that evening we take off to Lamar Co. and stay the night at the very nice AMBEST truck stop there. Then within an hour of our arrival at the truck stop the bottom falls out of those dark foreboding clouds..If I had only known.
The next morning we get up grab a cup of coffee and off we go to Granada co. about 17 miles up the road. Guess what. The onions haven't even been gathered out of the field and the rain shot that down, SOOOOOOOO, now we have to wait until sunday.Damn! So all day saturday we sit in the truck in the 100 degree heat and roast
Sunday finally rolls around and once again we take off for Granada to load. We load up no problems and then the next piece of bad news No Tarp pay......B.S. I asked the guy if he worked for free and he looked me straight in the eye and said "That's Your Problem". Needless to say I was livid and really wanted to beat the guy to a pulp..Long way from home for momma to visit me in jail though.
So we tarp the damned onions and off we go again only thing is weekend dispatch isn't answering the phone and I cann't get fuel until I give them the bill of laden information. We make it down to Boise City OK. to the LOVE'S and just before we pull in dispatch finally calls and puts some money on my card. One bright spot in this trip...Those ladies at the Love's are Great, they really did an outstandng job taking care of two hot tired and pissed truckers. Our whole day changed after being in that store for 15 minutes. So we didn't run out of fuel and got our bellies full and away we went again.
Everything went smoothly until the next morning when I realised that the money for fuel would not be enough to make on into fl.So here we are in Jackson Ms. and we have another 850 miles to go and I only have enough fuel to make half that. Did I mention that this load didn't pay any fuel surcharge? So Ihave spent 50% of what the load pays to the truck and will fall roghly 450 miles short of our destination bummer. I have to get more money from dispatch knowing that, that is coming out of my pay.crap damn shit.
Well we make it to the Florida panhandle and we run into the rain from the tropical storm that came ashore that morning. No biggie atleast I know how to handle that. The next morning we finally get down to Custom pak in Immakolee Fl. just as they are going to lunch. No problem, we untarp while they are gone and get ready to unload. After lunch this yahoo comes by and tells us he will have to restck the last two pallets bacause they are leaning and that he is going to charge us $35.00 a piece to do it. B.S. iI told the scroney little twerp cuban S.O.B. I would call I.N.S. ON HIM AND THE DAMNED PLANT IF THEY TRIED TO CHARGE ME SQUAT. I also told him "IT'S YOUR PROBLEM ". Just like the jerk out in Colorado told me. Pay back is hell. Well they of coarse didn't have any loads in Fl. so I said enough is enough and just deadheaded home over 600 miles but it was worth it.
The load was 1858 miles and paid the tyruck 1720 bucks and of that I spent 1000 on fuel. In other words I lost my ass. Never again will I allow myself to feel desperate enogh that I agree to haul such a rip off of a load. Doom on you thieven ass brokers
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