Tuesday - mid afternoon
So my manager put 2 second loads in my tablet today and when i saw them? I immediately texted him. You put 2cd loads in there. I didn't say I don't want to do them, he knows I don't want to do them. AT ALL.
"Call me" was the text I got back and so I did. I have no qualms speaking my mind, especially to a trucking employer. It's invariably true in the trucking industry, if you give them an inch, they'll take a mile. Or 20 miles. He went off on to how I had 6 early loads and 2 late loads in the last 8 days.
It took me zero seconds to come back with: " Yes, and I worked 9 days in a row and have had to work 4 weekends, 3 of which were the entire weekend. Further, you called me on a day off and asked me to come to work that day, so I did. I don't see the issue here, all of what I have done equalizes and early load nonsense".
He backed wayyyy off after that. I will not be abused by this or any other company, even if it means having to quit. I have allowed myself to be used endlessly to the expense of my own well-being and having a life outside of trucking forever, I will not allow it to happen anymore. IF he needs me to work 2 second load shifts in a row, the company can pay me a fee for the second run of at least $100 extra to do it.
You think I'm kidding.....I didn't have to go there, however. He always has some backup plan. Well, I can't trust him - whoever him is, he didn't name the individual - to show up on time. I don't really know how that equated to him getting the first load twice in a row, but I didn't interject with such thoughts, for the next part was acceptable.
You can come in early if you like. Early means getting up at 4 am to get out of the house no later than 4:40 am. That gets me to the washout at 6:30 am, half an hour for that and 30 minutes to the loading plant. That also gives an extra half an hour for wiggle time. Especially necessary if that particular washout dude shows up who takes twice as long as everyone else.
So, tomorrow I'm doing regular second load. I'll do one, I just don't want to do 2 in a row. Friday I'll get up early to load and up early to deliver. My manager can count on me to confront anything like that, every..single...time.
Not only that, but this guy that was allegedly supposed to be there early today - which I knew nothing about but sort of guessed since he was there early yesterday - was still there when I arrived. I contacted the manager about that. I don't care what anyone thinks, I have never seen such ridiculous nonsense with schedules in all of my trucking career until I got to this place. No one plays these games. If the manager approved this, why wasn't I notified?
After I texted him, he called. He said it's a temporary OTR driver - another driver quit last Monday - and he is going to load today after delivering. All well and fine, I have asked numerous times in the past to be notified of such changes so I can plan accordingly. But I abruptly changed the subject - that driver, I said, is on top of the trailer. Not on the ladder, he's on top of the trailer. This plant doesn't allow anyone up that high without fall protection and he will get into trouble if either safety or a manager sees him up there. "Well what is he doing up there?' I have no idea, messing with the hatch it appears.
Then the manager went off on how that plant doesn't allow anyone up above 4 feet without fall protection. This is a giant lumber company with plants all over the United States, you don't want to piss them off. Is he still up there? Yes, he's been up there several minutes. They have giant signs that say flatbed drivers can't even get up on their trailers to tarp their loads much less a tanker driver climbing up 10 feet to open a hatch. Well can you go over there and tell him to get down? I would have done it, but at that point the man got down off the trailer.
That's been my day. It's over and I didn't feel like working at the park, I was late returning. I have second load tomorrow so I don't have to leave out of here until around 7:45 am. I won't try to get there too early for there have been too many hangups lately with the loading plant taking it's sweet ole' time getting to us, especially second load.
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No longer mid afternoon, lol. 10 pm. I don't have to get up until 7 so that's not a big deal. I got work over with and just went straight to - not thinking about work. I'm very good at that. I can completely eliminate it out of my mind when I want to. I have hardly watched any news today so I have no idea what the latest drama is excepting Democrats telling the right to F*** off about "thoughts and prayers". I just can't believe they are back on that one again! Their party is in a crisis, I'm quite glad they have no direction or any substantive leadership, they will continue to lose more seats in areas that they were once strong in.
The only thing is, and I've heard this for many decades now, voters don't want one party in power, they want power to be held by both sides in order for there to be checks/balances. Well, I'm not sorry to say that I see absolutely nothing redeeming or good about the Democrat party at this point in time. I could go into a very long list from memory about that subject, but why? I'm going to bed!
