Friday, May 22, 2015

Tales from the Workplace, Trucking Edition, Part XVIII

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I am posting stories from my job, because I think they're funny.  I've done my best to disguise my company name, even the industry, and to keep the people I write about and even some details of the situation anonymous.  If you know me, and know where I work, please don't include details in your comments.  I'll have to delete your comment and reconsider posting these stories.
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So as I've described before, we often have loads that pick up on the weekends, when we're not here.  We pre-weigh them using a smaller "yard goat" we have to tow the trailers around, and leave a buffer, knowing that the real tractors weigh quite a bit more (plus shift the weight of the trailers themselves, as they're usually taller).  We stick the bill of lading (which includes the net weight of the product itself) into the back of the trailer, e-mail the trucking company with the trailer number so they can let the driver know which one to pick up, and it generally goes smoothly.

Well, Monday morning, we heard that one of the trailers that was picked up over the weekend was coming back because it was over weight.  There is a truck scale about 70 miles south that he could have gotten weighed on, and we had left "only" 500 pounds buffer, which apparently can sometimes be not enough (the boss was out of the office, so I was winging it and figured 500 pounds would be enough).

Sure enough, he appeared not long after we opened (at least THAT was efficient!) and we had him go over our scale to see what we weighed him at with his tractor.  The one axle that had been closest to the limit was actually LESS than what it had weighed with our equipment, and all of them were within the legal limit!  So we asked for the scale ticket from the weigh station he'd weighed at down south.  He didn't have one.

Apparently, he'd taken it upon himself to ASSUME from the net weight of the product that he'd be over the weight.  Without actually checking it.  So he'd waited around for us to open on Monday morning, holding up the load that is supposed to deliver in southern California on Tuesday morning.  What do you want to bet he's not going to deliver it on time, solely due to his own mistake (trying to think, when we actually do know what we're doing).

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