By Ron Moore
Stafford County truck driver and columnist
Special to the Tribune

You have read many of my articles complaining about how truckers are treated. Following is a column written by Alan Roger Dykstra, a truck driver friend of mine. When I come across a situation like this, I will know that when I leave, I did my best and you can’t please everyone.

Yesterday morning, I picked up this load in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Secured and strapped

it down. Then, I looked at the paperwork and realized my delivery time was set for 7 a.m. in Findlay, Ohio. I did the math and called the lady on the other end to explain that it would be closer to 8:30 Eastern Time by the time I could legally get there. I asked if that would be okay. She literally came unglued.

“You can’t do this to me on a Friday delivery! We’ve got other trucks, and they’re all going to be here on time! We’re completely booked solid, and if you’re here one minute after seven, you’re going to sit here all day, and maybe not get unloaded until Monday… blah, blah, blah!”

All I could say was, “Yes, ma’am, never mind, I’ll be there on time.”

I called my dispatcher to tell him what she said, but he didn’t quite understand what I was trying to say. He thought I was complaining about getting too many miles, which wasn’t the case at all. So, I told him, “Never mind, I can do a sleeper berth split and get there on time.”

From then on, it was go-time. Staying exactly on the speed limit—not more than 1 or 2 over—is no easy task. I had to do a “sleeper berth split” to pull it off. That’s when you split your mandatory 10-hour break into 8 hours of sleeper berth in a rest area and then finish the other 2 hours at the receiver. I got here at 6:10, started unstrapping and wrestling with the frozen tarps, and got everything ready for their precious 7 o’clock appointment.

Then, at 6:30, the guy who unloads the trailers showed up when I was halfway done untarping. He started giving me the “for future reference” speech about how they don’t want you to untarp until after you check in, and that they don’t open until seven.

I asked, “Do you want me to stop untarping and wait until 7 to finish?”

He replied, “No, this is just for future reference. Next time you come here, you’ll know not to start until you check in… blah, blah, blah.”

OMG. Thirty-two years I’ve been doing this, and I still get talked down to like I’m some rookie. I’m so sick of people.

So, I check in at 7 a.m., and they tell me to drive around to the other side of the building and back into an unloading bay. Here’s the kicker: I have to keep my speed under 4 mph so the e-log thinks I’m sitting still. Part of doing a sleeper berth split means I can’t move my truck for two hours. It’s complicated, but that’s how it works.

I did eight hours in the rest area and two hours here to make my ten-hour break. If I screw it up, I lose my safety bonus. I kept it under four miles per hour as I eased onto the main road, made the turn into the other driveway, and backed up to the spot.

Of course, the two forklift drivers were furious. They probably thought I didn’t know how to back up. In reality, I have more miles backing up than either of them has driving forward in their entire lives. I’ve been doing this since before they were born. But hey, I’m just a truck driver, not a forklift driver, so I’ll keep my head down and do what they tell me.