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Fri.May.11.2007

4:41 am EDT        55°F (13°C) in Du Bois, PA

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Although I’m not thrilled about still being with my current company, I am back on the road and on my way to Lewiston, ME with this load. I am continuing to look for a new job that will give me what I want in terms of pay, schedule, location, and so forth.

My dispatcher has picked right back up where he left off before I went home with his snide remarks and really unbearable attitude. As I prepared to pick up this load yesterday afternoon in Paw Paw, MI, I received a message from him asking if I would be willing to meet another driver six miles (10 km) away in Mattawan, MI for a load swap. The story was that the other driver in question would be unable to make it to Bridgeton, MO (just outside St. Louis) for a 7:00 am CDT delivery appointment this morning, and that my help would be needed to ensure on-time delivery of that load.

I thought about it for a bit, but I realized that if I were tapped to make a 7:00 am CDT delivery, I would have to take my required 10-hour break after the unloading was complete. As such, I would be unable to move until late this evening, and as a result of that, I would lose productivity relative to declining the swap and staying with the Maine-bound load. I sent a message back to explain this; I thought that was a rather simple, effective explanation.

Almost as if he was just trying to be difficult, he replied with a question: “What happens if we deliver a load late? That makes the customer less willing to give us loads, and it hurts everybody’s productivity in the long run.” I’m not sure I understand this: usually it’s all about my productivity, or lack thereof, when they want to bitch at me, but I’m just supposed to set my own productivity aside whenever they feel like it because somebody else within the company screws up? The hypocrisy boggles the mind — especially coming from the same dispatcher who had told me two weeks ago that he “doesn’t care about [my] needs.”

If there’s one thing in the world that I cannot stand, it’s hypocrites and their hypocrisy. Those of you who have been reading this site for a while have probably lost count of all my rants about hypocrisy by now. It’s almost as if this dispatcher knows exactly what will set me off, and then proceeds to do it with some kind of perverse glee. You get the idea why I’m looking to leave this company as soon as I can find something else.

OK, I really need to settle down and get to sleep here. I can already see the light starting to come from the eastern sky, so I’d better upload this and get my ass to sleep.