Driver refused to wait 20 minutes for a crane, now I'm rethinking my whole scheduling approach

Last month in Tulsa I had a flatbed driver show up 3 hours early for a steel delivery. Site wasn't ready, crane was booked for 2pm, and I asked him to wait maybe 20 minutes. He just laughed, said his dispatch had him on a tight window, and backed out of the driveway with the whole load still on. Cost us an extra $450 in re-delivery fees and a half day of lost labor while the crew stood around. On one hand I get it, drivers get paid by the mile and waiting kills their numbers. On the other hand, we gave him the appointment time in writing, and showing up early shouldn't mean we have to bend over backwards. So is the fix better communication with the shipper, or should I build a 2-hour buffer into every delivery slot? Has anyone else had a driver bail like that and what did you change so it didn't happen again?

2 comments

2 Comments

keithbutler7d ago

Man, that stings. I had the same thing happen with a lumber haul a couple years back. What finally worked for me was adding a hard 90 minute window to every delivery time I give anyone, and I tell the driver upfront they can wait up to an hour or we reschedule for a fee. That cut the surprise early shows way down. Also, I started calling the dispatch the morning of to confirm the window, not just the shipper. It doesn't fix every idiot, but it saved me way more than the couple of lost loads since.

alice897d ago

Ugh, that’s brutal, and I feel like @keithbutler is onto something with the buffer window. But I’m curious, did you ever try just calling the driver’s dispatch the day before to confirm they actually had the right appointment time in their system? Seems like a lot of these “early show” problems come from the shipper giving them a different window than what you set.