I called dispatch in the morning. I had been scheduled to deliver a load in the greater Minneapolis region after all. Since the load wouldn't be ready until early afternoon, I got to see my mom and dad arrive with the kids (they had taken them for the previous day and evening).
Arriving at the warehouse later, I found out that I had been reassigned (again) to another load. At first glance, I was to take a load to Madison, WI then go up to Green Bay, WI and deliver a load to Chicago, IL. Good thing I double-checked the time delivery. This delivery schedule was for tomorrow--not today. If I would have taken off, I would have been sitting in Madison, WI until tomorrow morning.
Two things about this irritate me: First, dispatch should have called me and notified me that I didn't even have to come in today. I don't believe that a Fortune500 company (which this company is) has gotten this far without appropriate communication along the way. I've worked in a Fortune50 company and believe me--proper communication is a must! So, a portion of my time was wasted today. Since everyone makes mistakes, I'll chalk this one up to the accidental column and trust that it won't happen again.
Second, when the dispatch office hands me paperwork on a given day and the load is not to be delivered until another day, they should tell me so. I came very close to driving off with this trailer (I was all set to go but then something made me reexamine the paperwork). So, after hooking onto the trailer, I then had to unhook it and re-park the tractor until tomorrow morning. This could be another accidental "oops." Dispatch should take steps to inform a driver if an assigned load is not to be delivered on the same day. Otherwise, they could have a very irate driver phoning in from afar wondering why no one told them that the appointment was for tomorrow--not today.
The end result of today's actions is that my mileage for the week will not be close to where it should be. That is troubling. I sincerely hope another day like this day shall not be repeated again! In fact, I'm actually thinking of turning down all future "live unload" deliveries as they seem to seriously screw-up my weekly driving miles.
miles driven = .02
PostScript: Terry Schiavo died today. It really is a shame that a great nation such as the United States of America has a court system that promotes death over life. Think about it--Terry was not on a life-support system. All she needed was nutrition and fluids--just like the rest of us--to stay alive. Granted, she was in non-functional state-of-mind for the most part. But who are the courts--heck, who are we for that matter--to decide if someone should live or die? Are you or I God? Of course not. But the courts seem to think otherwise. Maybe it's time the American people take back the court system and wrest power away from judges who think they are there to make law rather than interpret existing law. Yes it's time to remind judges that they are in place to uphold law--not to create law.
5:58:00 PM
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