I finally made the two deliveries in Des Moines this morning after spending last night in a hotel. This stupid load that should have taken at most three days has had me tied up for 6 days. Absurd. The final insult added to financial injury was when I called to check the balance on my fuel card as today is payday.
My payroll was a whopping $24. WTF? I got on the phone to the boss. I have bills to pay. It seems that we got screwed on the rate for the load I hauled up out of FL. Big time screwed. The boss wasn't even aware of the problem until I called to complain about the meager pay.
He said he would load an additional sum on my card to make up for the crap seeing as it isn't my fault someone didn't do their job when booking the load in the first place. We also discussed the current load problems as well as some of the other things that have been going on recently regarding some of the loads we've been hauling that in the past we wouldn't have even considered due to the low rates they pay. He's losing a few hundred bucks on that FL load. There's no point in booking loads that actually cost you money to haul when the whole point is to make money.
He agreed that he needed to get more directly involved in the load booking process and was going to be having a little discussion with the folks in dispatch about the way they've been booking loads lately. He apologized for the problem and assured me he would make things right for me. He also thanked me for tipping him off about the problem as he's been too busy with other matters to have noticed the problem soon enough.
We agreed that I would start reporting directly yo him whenever these issues come up so that he can address them immediately and get things back on track. He and I have worked together for a long time and I know his plate is full, but hell I have to make a living and can't continue here if I'm not going to make the kind of money I need to be making. I'm damn sure not going to work for $24 a week. That's insane.
I am now sitting at the truckstop waiting for them to find me a load out of here and back to WI. I mentioned to the boss that it's a bit stupid that I've been on this load for a week and they still haven't booked a return load. He said he would look into that too and see what the hell is going on there as every minute this truck sits still costs him money just as it does me.
He also mentioned that while he understands my frustration about the current situation that he hoped I wouldn't get frustrated to the point of quitting as I am one of his best drivers and he knows he can always count on me. I told him that was nice of him to say but that yes the thought of quitting had crossed my mind more than once recently, but if he was going to take steps to fix the bullshit I'll stick around a while to see if it does get fixed as I do like working here.
I have a feeling the folks in dispatch are not going to be happy campers by the end of the day.