Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Perhaps You Should Have Hired An Airplane, Not A Truck

So, this week we took a load from Connecticut to Florida.  Apparently, the agent and their customer thought our truck had wings.  Because they called us several times wondering why we weren't there yet.

Really??

Let me give you the basics about the trip.

The number of miles we drove, from our pickup in Connecticut to our delivery in Florida, was 1,430 miles.

At our average speed of 58 miles per hour, if we weren't to take ANY breaks whatsoever and calculate pure driving time, it would take 25 hours.

But, because we have to make stops, inevitably extra time is going to be added to the trip.

One of the biggest time suck is the required load securement check we have to do every 150 miles.  This is a giant pain in the ass, but it has to be done, and has to be logged.

On this trip, we made 10 stops to do load checks.  It takes about 10 minutes to do the check, which meant 100 minutes or 1.66 hours, so about 1.5 hours worth of stops.  Legally we have to log those stops in 15-minute increments, so it would actually be 143 minutes, which translated into 2.38 hours (or 2 hours, 45 minutes) of our log time.


We have to take three mandated 30-minute breaks, which came to 1.5 hours of break time.

And we made one fuel stop, which took only 15 minutes.

So, not counting traffic (we went through NY, Washington DC, Baltimore), stops to pee, getting a snack, making a cup of coffee, or just stretching our legs - which are all perfectly normal and not considered lollygagging at all - the amount of time to make this trip, if you added up all of the above, would be 28.25 hours.

We did it in 29.

I'd say that's pretty damn good time management.  So it would be nice to not be bothered by someone wondering when we're going to get there.  Especially when we gave them an arrival time and arrived within 15 minutes of that time.  Hell, I can't even get my friend to meet me for dinner on time and she only lives 10 minutes from my house.

It always makes me wonder what's going on in the head of the agent that continues to "check in".  Sure, anything can happen along the way (which we'd call and report) and sure, we could goof off and take more time than we should, but generally it's just simple math.  They have mapping programs and a calculator.  They know the minimum time needed to make the journey.  They can make several calculations to figure slower and faster driving times, and give their customers a range, "They should be here in 24-29 hours."

But instead, they interrupt my late night Beyonce jams to find out where I am.

We do everything in our power to deliver on our promises, and have an excellent record of doing so, but sometimes agent and customer expectations are unrealistic.  And until we sprout wings, the only way I can think of to get their freight there sooner, is to put it on a plane.

Here are ten they can start with.



~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2014: Another Good Reason For Time Off

2013: I'd Follow Him Anywhere
2012: Yes! We Have No Bananas
2011: Investing In Your Investment – Part One
2010: A Tank Full Of Freightliners
2009: The Sad, Sad Future Of Our Young People
2008: Sighting The American Idiots
2007: Orbiting Out Of Control
2006: Passing Through Life
2005: Texas Pride?

2 comments:

Belledog said...

Do you think the agent was new? And maybe they're cutting it too close on "just in time." Maybe they needed to plan better.

You were engaged by a micromanager. Alas.

And applause on the speedy, almost jetstream delivery. Well done.

Gil said...

Too bad you couldn't tell them that you stopped to try out mattresses on the way South! I feel sorry for that agent's spouse and/or children!