With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility..

[Mahnarch]

It's been quite an interesting couple of days around my neck of the woods.

On Monday I got a promotion, of sorts, and I wasn't expecting the influx of related things that come with it.

My new title is "Second Shift Leader", or, "The Mahnarchy" as we affectionately call it.

Actually..Only I call it that. But, still....

Anywho, my job description hasn't really changed.
I run the warehouse at night (sometimes via cell phone). I assign trucks to drivers at the warehouse (dispatch still handles the main campus) and I cross-dock, re-route freight and field calls from lost drivers and ones who have freight questions at their locations ("They wanna put an extra skid on my truck. Is that O.K.?")

This is all stuff I did, anyway, for the past few months. I just took it upon myself because our dispatchers have enough on their plates running the main campus and don't have a clue as to what's going on over at the warehouse.

So, the promotion is just a name-sake thing, but now I get called for ALL the problems that occurs with our drivers.
Oh, and I get my own office with a view........of the warehouse.

Actually, I get a desk in the warehouse with a view.
And a chair....with lumbar support.
Nice!

**

Anyway. The last few days we've hired on a new driver (we'll call him 'Joe', cuz that's his name) for a new dedicated run and I've been teaching him how to load his own truck, recognize his freight, and which isle is his.
That will free up some time for me, and in case I'm sick, I won't have to field a call from bed.

He's doing pretty good, and catching on quick but, he's still at a point where I'm double checking his work, just to make sure.
He insists on it, which is good.

Tomorrow I was going to teach him how to run the paperwork and create a manifest....

**

The rest of the week's been little things, here and there but, tonight was absolutely the worst!

First thing, I get to the warehouse after my 'morning run' (1:30pm - 4pm) and start clearing up the floor by loading some of the trucks.
I get everything tiered in (tall stuff/double stackable stuff in front) and stop when there's only short skids on the floor.

Now, I have to wait for one more truck to come in.
It's got more tall stuff that has to go into the trucks before the rest of the stuff on the floor can be loaded.

It's an outside carrier (a truck from another company) that's supposed to be at our warehouse by 5pm - 5:30 at the latest - so I can load my own truck and be in Grand Haven before 7pm to drop a trailer full of stuff and head to Alto and Newaygo, then back to Grand Haven to drop some stuff that I picked up from those two.

Joe shows up at 5:30 and I have him load what he could on his truck 'until TT's gets here', which didn't take him very long.

Well, the outside carrier didn't show up before my cut-off point - where, whether or not he's there, I have to get what I DO have up to GH.

I have to get scootin', so I ask Joe to hang out a bit and see if the truck shows up.
I give him an abbreviated paperwork "How-to" - leaving out the finer details that'd blow his mind - and I get moving down the road.

Sure enough, I get 5 miles away and the outside carrier passes me on the road.

A little bit later I get a chirp from Joe...

I figured that the regular outside carrier was driving, and he's got a good idea of how I do things around there so I thought that would help Joe - at least in the the 'recognizing-freight-and-where-to-put-it-department'.

Turns out Sean is sick today and the replacement driver doesn't have a clue.

Now I've got the blind leading the blind and I'm trying to explain everything over two-way while I'm 10 miles away and driving a full length semi-trailer down the road.

I had gotten to GH and left for Alto before they got what Joe needed on his truck and everything else on the floor 'in their general area'.
Good thing I gave Joe a good pre-view of the paperwork.
He flew through it pretty smoothly but,,,,wouldn't you know it....PAPER JAMB IN THE SCANNER!!

Why me?!

Got that fixed with a talk through and Joe was on his way.

**

Just get off the phone with Joe and I call dispatch.

Me: "Hey, You got anyone available to run the rest of my stuff from the warehouse to GH?"

Dispatcher: "No. I'm out of drivers tonight."

Me: "Well. What are YOU doing tonight?"

Dispatcher: "Ha! Nice try. I'll see what I can come up with."

He looks and it happens that the next available driver he has won't be in until midnight and I'm not going to try to talk someone I've never shown - and someone who's never been to the warehouse - how to load and do paperwork.

I'm on the highway, half way between GH and Alto. I have to get to Newaygo and back to GH in order to get back to the warehouse but I've only got 4 hours to do it in.
It's a 5 hour loop. 4 and a half on a good day and quick hi-lo drivers.

I busted tookis to get to Alto and get there just in time........to watch one of our drivers shred the fender on another company's semi with his trailer......

I wanted to turn around and leave, right there.
Since I'm man in charge, I have to fill out an incident report (time) and be witness to picture taking (time), talking about it (time)....

Finally, I left there and headed to Newaygo where I met up with Joe (who should've been there and long gone by then, but "The Line" was slow.)

"Hey Joe! Got room for two more?", I ask.
"Sure."

So I take my one skid off from Alto that was supposed to go the GH and I told Newaygo to put 'my' skid Joe's truck.
Joe drives right past GH plant on his way back, so it's no biggie but, he has one more stop in between Newaygo and GH. They never load more than a couple of skids, so he had plenty of room.

This way, I could cut out that leg of my run and scoot back to the warehouse, post-haste.

I get back to the warehouse to find a confused and bewildered midnight driver trying to decipher paperwork and skids.
I start his paperwork and show him how/what to load on his truck (he usually just drops trailers and never loads them).

I'm doing the paperwork when I suddenly hear something that sounds like thunder and someone dropping a box full of silverware on a glass table.

The midnight driver dumped a skid over.....
Thousands of tiny metal bits that go inside your power mirrors on your car.

Not really damageable, but there were thousands of them (12k, to be exact - as per the shipper paper)

So, I'm helping him pick them up when my phone cuts loose.

"Yeah, It's Joe.....I'm here at *place* and the hi-lo driver just put her forks through that last skid you put on my truck. Busted up some mirrors pretty bad. What do I do?"

I wanted to tell him to make a run for it, but I refrained.
Now, I'm picking up tiny metal bits from one driver and telling another how to fill out an incident report on that companies letterhead - all the while I hear a frantic female hi-lo driver in the background. ("Oh my god. I can't believe I did that...etc.")

Turns out she was new to driving a hi-lo and was almost in tears.
I had Joe comfort her by telling her the stand-by "It's only freight. It's replaceable. At least no one was hurt...etc." after we hung up.
Don't want to do it while he's ON the phone, otherwise it sounds fed.
(I'll have Joe bring her something tomorrow. Some candy from my stash, maybe. Everyone likes Tootsie Rolls.)

Meanwhile, I still have a half-frantic midnight driver telling me the same apologies to my face.

"No worries, man. It's only freight. Just be glad it's not glass..etc."
Nothing's damaged, so we don't even have to fill out any additional paperwork.

Number one is reassuring the person who the accident happened to. After all, it really is ONLY freight and it CAN be replaced if it had to be.

So, we get this cleaned up and Joe settled into what he's supposed to do.
I finish loading what I have to onto the rest of the trucks, now that that outside carrier's stuff was finally there and get ready to walk out the door when I scan the overall warehouse one last time....

"Waaaiiit a minute....Where are my B.L. Downey empties?" - a skid of empty totes that goes out on another truck in the morning for Chicago.

Dang it! The midnight driver grabbed that skid in his post-frenzy confusion and put them on his truck.

Not really a big problem. I two-wayed him and he'll bring them back to the warehouse when he gets back,,,,which is probably right about now, as long as it's taken me to type this all out.

**

So, how was everyone else's day?

[Phil]

More responsibility also comes more stress. And you really find out how incompetents can be.

That's the worst part of higher responsibility comes you being held responsible for someone else's screw ups.

[Classicblast]

What's worse is you can actually be judged on how other people do their job. How many managers get fired because a team loses?

If you call for a hit and run and it's poorly executed and ends up being a strikeout throwout and now your team is out of the playoffs, you may lose your job on account of other peoples' poor execution.

[Blastgirl]

More status also means more headache. But ultimately it's a compliment that you are given a promotion.

[Mahnarch]

The stress and judgements are exactly right.

Things are getting better, though. As I said, I already did most of the stuff I'm now 'responsible for', just adding in more phone calls and keeping closer tabs on who's where and when.

As I get used to it, it's starting to blend into subconscious thinking - auto pilot, if you will.

I did have one driver almost trick me into leaving freight on the floor on friday, though.

I started loading his truck when that outside carrier showed up and I stopped so I could off-load him.

Then another one of our drivers showed up on a 'hot run', so I quickly loaded him and sent him on his way and then went over to my desk and started the paperwork.

Roger shows up and chats with me while I finish his papers and hand them to him.

Roger: "Thanks. I'll see ya later!"

and he heads for the door.

Me: "Yeah. Have a good night.........Hey, wait a minute!"

I then finish loading his truck and he's off.

Everything else went pretty smooth.
We worked out a deal with Alto about their truck - they'll repair it on their dime and the next week's worth of 'Shipping' that I bring them will be no charge.

A drop in the bucket for both of us, really. We're talking about two multi-million dollar companies negotiating over $2000.

It's like you and a friend negotiating who's going to pay the tip after breakfast at the restaurant.

MMMm, breakfast at the restaurant.
Denny's has breakfast all day..........I'll be right back!


.....but Denny's is so far away.
I could make my own, I suppose.

[Demona]

Good luck!

[Mahnarch]

Good luck about my home made omelet?

I'll need all the luck in the world - lol.

I usually make Omelet soup. HA!

[Blastgirl]

Omelets are GOOODDDD.

Anyway I hope the omelet and the job work out.

[dannyboy]

Good on the promotion, bad on the crap that comes with it. But if its a bigger paycheck it will be worth it.

Sometimes I get a kick out of how Phil and Mahnarch go off on dumbasses they have to deal with because incompetents just seems to be everywhere.

[Mahnarch]

The omelot was more 'Uhm', more so then 'let'.

'Frank's Red Hot' doesn't go on EVERYTHING........

***

Danny, the worst part, so far, isn't the 'incompetents' that I work with. It's the 'incompetents' that I work with.

Gah! I never got calls like this before!
It was always, "Where can I fuel up?", or, "The truck is making a funny noise.." , from the drivers.

Now it's, "They want me wait for 3 hours for the freight.", or, "The shipper just destroyed my trailer....."

We deal with a lot of people that I'm not legally able to slap upside the head.

....now, if I was actually there?....that's a different story.....

*knock knock knock* "Hello! McFly? Anyone home?"

[Phil]

I think you work with the same people I do.

Most of them could do better. It's just that they're not about to deal with something that is 'not their department.'

So, it doesn't get done when a lot of times it could if someone bothers to give a darn.

[Mahnarch]

I probably do work with the same people.

Do you know Kathy?! lol.

***

Oh, man, some people I work with are great.

There's this guy, John, at MD-GH (initials only because that company hasn't given me express consent, but you can gather that it's based in Grand Haven, and if you can see the guy behind you when you're driving down the road, it's most likely because of this company....) who's so awesome - he's got the mail tote ready. He's locking my truck and setting up the loading dock.
He's got my 'empties' wrapped and ready to go and he converses with me as he unloads my truck........

....and he's a 'temp'.
Been there since mid July.

The regular Receiver, Brian, won't say a word to you.

You can come up to him with a bright smile and be all, "Hey! How's it going?"

Nothing.

He even rammed a cart full of boxes trying to get me unloaded, once...
and He was mad at ME for being there to be unloaded!
I'm just some 'nobody' who drives a truck.

"If it weren't for you I wouldn't have to pick these up!.....etc"

I've been trying to get that as......err, butthole fired for months.
He makes an entirely pleasant day turn to sour milk in a second.

Nobody likes him.

[Kimm]

Some people just come into work or whatever situation looking for bad.
Bad is easy to find you might not find big trouble but you can always point out something thats not quite how you hoped.

Theres people like that where I am too. I just started as an in house sub that means a babysitter who may land a teaching job within a year or 2.