Wal-Mart gives Hill Bros the finger... and gets away with it

All too early my door is being pounded on and it is the dock workers, there to get the trucks that have arrived already unloaded early. This is one of those laid back places where they sign the paperwork before you even open the doors of your truck, and they were fairly fast unloading as well.

I finally broke my streak of brokered loads at three with a plan this morning taking me up to Fort Worth for some frozen meat to be delivered in Council Bluffs Friday afternoon.

Since I have a van trailer on me, I am directed to head a few miles away to a Wal-Mart Distribution Center where we have an empty reefer and switch trailers, then head up to grab my new load. This was okay with everyone except the decision-maker at said DC who let us know it is Not Company Policy To Swap An Empty For An Empty. I explained that I had a plain van trailer and I needed a reefer for my next load, but they weren't buying that entire need argument.

Having secured from them the name and phone number of the person to be contacted, I used my trusty satellite unit to zap that to our headquarters. Certainly someone there would push the "easy button" and keep my day uncomplicated.

A while later, the results: forget getting the reefer a few miles away at the DC. Instead, travel to the farthest part of the DFW metroplex from you (Garland, Texas) to our drop yard and exchange trailers there. More than an hour's drive across town then back across town to Fort Worth to get to the shipper.

Wal-Mart extends finger, gets way.

I arrive a few minutes late for the appointment after a quick trailer wash-out. We're charged a certain amount per hour at this particular shipper when we're late, some the company encouraged me on to get there expeditiously. I personally think Wal-Mart should get billed for the extra 80 miles of shit I had to put up with but this isn't fantasy land.

Usual rigmarole at the shipper and I'm loaded. I'm spending the night here to get a good sleep cycle set up again then I'll do most if not all of the trip up to Council Bluffs, Iowa tomorrow.