A Trucker and His Wife

Well it's been a fun few days. The fun all started a few days ago when I received a call from one of the load planners asking if I could swap loads with another driver and then drive an additional 25o miles. I checked how many hours I had left to drive for the day as well as how many hours I had left on my 14. I told him I had the driving hours but was running out on my 14 due to a lengthy delay earlier in the day. This didn't phase him and he put the load on me anyway.

I pulled off at the next truck stop and proceeded to wait for the other driver to arrive for four hours. Now with only three hours left on my 14 there was no way I could make it.

I called dispatch to inform them but, the day crew had left the building and now the drastically understaffed night shift was there. They don't have the man power to do much at this point. The chance of finding another driver in the area with available hours are slim at best during the day.

Their advise... Just get rolling with it and we'll try to find another swap.

If you guessed that the swap never happened. You're right!

I made it to the receiver seven hours late and ended up waiting til the next morning to get unloaded.

This started a domino - chain reaction for the next two days causing me to be late to every scheduled pick up and delivery. Causing yet another dreaded swapfest to ensure on time delivery.

This irks me every time this happens!