Communication, how important it is...

Today was yet another day here in transportation that really shows me how important GOOD communication is.

You see there is a huge difference between communication and 'good' communication.  I'll give you an example.

I have a load that is scheduled to pick up at 1pm today.   I got a message at 12:15 that it was ready so I head to the receiver.

When I get to the receiver there seems to be some confusion as to when this load should be ready.  At first, their schedule shows that it won't load til 2200 (10pm) tonite.  Uh, nope it better not be.  They then start to check further and see that it was a load that was rescheduled to load today at 1pm....but......  It's not ready.  I'm not sure if the load is even pulled and staged yet.  Where I'm at they have to do this to verify that everything is correct.  So here I sit with a pager waiting for them to let me know when it will be ready.

This is a prime example of sloppy communication.  I'm sure someone might have called and was told the load was ready, but did they verify the fact?  Did they talk to the right person for the information.  It seems that the customer service side with the company has been slipping.  I realize that I too perform customer service as a driver, but I can only do so much.  Where do our office people think they get their paycheck from? The tooth fairy?  I swear most don't consider the fact that if the load gets screwed up and I can't take it I can't get paid.  If I can't get paid, they don't get paid.  It's called a circle people, your in the circle so quit screwing up things to where it gets broken, then wonder where the business is going.

Another thing that our office people don't realize is that delays like this COST.  My 14 hour clock for my logbook started this morning when I went and unloaded at my last customer.  Right now I have 2 1/2 hours to be loaded which will leave me with barely enough time to reach the next customer and deliver, on time.  If they take more than 2 1/2 hours, they will either have to reschedule the load or get someone to take it in the rest of the way.  I wish corporate would EDUCATE our customer service reps and load planners that we are on some tight time margins now with electronic logs.  We can't 'fudge' them like you could with paper logs in the old days so accurate pick up and delivery times is now critical.

Like I said, communication is a huge key to all of this, and its easy to spot where the failures are.