is a shit hole. Dark, cold, wet and stark. No leaves on the trees. Where's the sun? There is too much traffic on the main drag through town. The right lane is closed because of construction and traffic has been backed up all day. There are too many trucks. I'm at the Marathon gas station/truck stop. There is free internet service. Screw Flying J. I've just had the worst experience with a broker. Not some hole in wall broker. One of, if not the, largest broker in the country. It involved a double blind bill of lading. I've been in this business for 30 years and I have no idea what this is. Obviously, it the creation of a broker. I'm a company driver, but sometimes in these times of scarce freight, I have to deal with these people. So, it seems, some trucking company somewhere, turned to another company to do a pick up of coils down in Columbus, MS. This company can't handle it so they give to this huber broker to take care of it. My company ends up booking the freight. So I enter the picture. I get to the shipper at 7:15pm. No go that night. Please wake until "the shipping lady" gets in at 8am. I'll make a long story short. No one knows anything about this load. 7 cell phone calls. Release numbers, purchase orders, this, that - they finally find what it is and who it is. 1pm. Loaded. Not coils. Aluminum ingots. They want it tarped. Yeah right. Are they going to give me new tarps when I get to the final and there completely torn. No. It is 365 paid miles. It is 516 real world mile. I have to and get 150 extra paid miles. 2 1/2 days wasted on this load. I hate brokers. Nothing they have done has ever changed my mind. And I should be an owner operator? No way!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Henderson, KY
is a shit hole. Dark, cold, wet and stark. No leaves on the trees. Where's the sun? There is too much traffic on the main drag through town. The right lane is closed because of construction and traffic has been backed up all day. There are too many trucks. I'm at the Marathon gas station/truck stop. There is free internet service. Screw Flying J. I've just had the worst experience with a broker. Not some hole in wall broker. One of, if not the, largest broker in the country. It involved a double blind bill of lading. I've been in this business for 30 years and I have no idea what this is. Obviously, it the creation of a broker. I'm a company driver, but sometimes in these times of scarce freight, I have to deal with these people. So, it seems, some trucking company somewhere, turned to another company to do a pick up of coils down in Columbus, MS. This company can't handle it so they give to this huber broker to take care of it. My company ends up booking the freight. So I enter the picture. I get to the shipper at 7:15pm. No go that night. Please wake until "the shipping lady" gets in at 8am. I'll make a long story short. No one knows anything about this load. 7 cell phone calls. Release numbers, purchase orders, this, that - they finally find what it is and who it is. 1pm. Loaded. Not coils. Aluminum ingots. They want it tarped. Yeah right. Are they going to give me new tarps when I get to the final and there completely torn. No. It is 365 paid miles. It is 516 real world mile. I have to and get 150 extra paid miles. 2 1/2 days wasted on this load. I hate brokers. Nothing they have done has ever changed my mind. And I should be an owner operator? No way!
