Hey Folks, if you are going schedule a delivery, make sure the receiver knows it’s on the way! Twice now I delivered a load for a client and the receiver stated he did not know the shipment was arriving. This was my third delivery for this client. The first went off without a hitch. However, that run had loads goings both ways. These last two were one-way deliveries, with items only being shipped from the warehouse to the maintenance shop. Now, my dispatcher is a 3rd party logistics company. So, I doubt they are involved in coordinating the shipments. In any event, I have contact information for both the shipper and receiver. So, I always call to give them an ETA before I arrive. For the last two runs, I called the receiver as I was getting loaded to give him a heads up that I was on the way and to provide an ETA. Both times, he stated that he wasn’t notified of the shipment. For the previous load, I had to wait about 20 minutes after I arrived before he showed up with a forklift operator and unloaded the truck. This last time, however, he never showed up at all. This was after we talked on the phone twice, confirmed arrival time, and he told me where to park the truck for unloading. I call the number I always call for the POC and got a different person. He sounded clueless about the shipment as well. After un-tarping the load and waiting over a hour and a half, two guys with a forklift finally showed up to unload the units. They told me that my main POC had left for the day. They were the nightshift, and he is on day shift. My primary POC failed to notify the nightshift that I was onsite waiting to get unloaded. Fortunately, I was able to get unloaded. But, the lack of communication between the shipper and receiver, along with the failure of communication between the receiver and the rest of his department shows a lack of professionalism. Typically, it is the folks down the chain that suffer from shortcomings at the upper levels. In this case, it’s the truck driver who has no association with either organization. But, it’s the truck driver that is the critical lynchpin in their program. Shippers and receivers remember that the next time you rely on transportation assets to make your program run smoothly.