‘This was just one guy's way of feeling powerful’: Semi truck driver gets denied by building supply store clerk for being 6 minutes late after driving a Drywall delivery from New Hampshire to New Jersey

Author image for Etai Eshet
Etai Eshet • Editor
Sep 2, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

A long‑haul driver reached a building supply yard at 2:06 for a drywall drop, the posted delivery window ended at 2, and a clerk refused to unload even though the crew stayed until 4 and the bay was open.

This is small power dressed up as policy. Six minutes becomes a morality play where a laminated sign outranks common sense and still time sits in the sun pretending to be scarce. Forklifts are parked, nothing else is on the lot, and the whole job could be done in half an hour, but the number on the sheet wins because it is easy to defend and easier to weaponize.

Advertisement

  • 6 minutes? Really?

    Cheezburger Image 10548811776
    via adriaticfoto

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • I drive a semi for a "living" atm. I'm in. The first 1-2 years of bulls stage before switch to towing these monsters.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • I work for a company we will call "welfare expedited." They s_k. But it have to take crop till other companies will take me.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481

  • Workers know the difference between protecting a boundary and flexing it for sport. Protecting a boundary gets people home. Flexing it for sport burns someone else’s day so a rule can feel tall. Freight has its own math. Miles pay only when wheels turn, and a six-minute no can erase hundreds, a run, a weekend plan, and the thin patience left after traffic and split breaks. The quiet fix most places use is grace inside empty time.

  • So I get a load of drywall in New Hampshire and sh ot it down to New Jersey to a building supply store.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • did everything legally possible to get it there in their timed window, including "cooking my books" a little bit.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • As soon as my legally required split sleeper berth break was done, I drove straight there without stopping.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • I got to said sleep spot with 20 min to spare the night prior. Gps said I would be there at like 12:30.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • But the truck GPS doesn't have traffic. And I'm heading through the bronx and over the G.W. All said and done, I arrived at the drywall spot at 2:06.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Cheezburger Image 10548812032
    via Aleksandar Malivuk

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Their delivery window is 7am- 2pm.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • So far no one has even sweat 30 minutes at these places. I generally call if it's gonna be more than 15 minutes.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • I just assume no ones gonna be a about 6 minutes.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • I was wrong.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • I walk in and give the usual "hey I'm the welfare expedited guy, where do yall want me to park up"?
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • The guy behind the counter, guy #1 looks to another guy "what do you think?"
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Cheezburger Image 10548811520
    via f.t.Photographer

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • I don't hear/see what guy #2 says back But guy #1 says "sorry the cuttoff is 2pm."
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Me: "it's 2:06."
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Guy: "sigh.....yeah the cutoff is 2pm."
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Me"... "you're serious? I have to come back tomorrow over 6 minutes?"
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Guy: "yeah...sorry..."
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • He kinda seemed like he thought it was absurd too but didn't speak up.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Me:" WO00000000W."
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Now it's not that they can't unload me. The forklift drivers are right there. Nothing is going on.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • And they end their work day at 4pm. They've got 2 hours. The actual unloading with their forklifts will take them ~10 minutes.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • And me getting the heavy tarps and securement off and out of their way? Alone? If they asked me to rush it? I could have that sh out of the way in 20 minutes.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • I couldve been out of the way by 2:45 easy. It's not ideal for me to do things that way, but I can,
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • they know that this is their business they have 5 flatbed delivery trucks themselves.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • When a Karen wants to buy a product after closing and the underpaid retail workers wanna go home, I'm with that, go home Karen.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • I'd never show up to a restaurant within even 30 min of their closing time. I don't order pizza within 30 min of closing time.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • This is worker to worker. And I'm the one being made to go home late.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • These dudes were gonna be here for 2 more hours anyway.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • This was just one guys way of feeling powerful.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • The power of feeling like a theoretical 6 minutes of their time is worth more than a *minimum* of 16 hours of mine.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Where I am not paid. And they know that.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • They know I'm paid by the mile. They know they are costing me a day of pay.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • They still say no. I literally thought they were joking.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • So I miss out on hundreds of dollars. Over 6 min.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Well my company takes my next run off me because of this and now what would've been:
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • drop Thursday, pickup Thursday night, drop Friday morning, pickup Friday whenever, go home, deliver Monday.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Has become drop on Friday. Pickup on Friday. Go home, Drop monday.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • So I headed to a rest stop ten minutes away. And hung out.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Until ~1:40pm friday.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • pulled in at 1:56pm.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Just to really show how these people were being. They just hung out and told me where to park, at 2:20.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Thats...way after 2:06.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • It truly wasn't about their time. They f ed me over just to feel powerful.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • So the cutoff for deliveries is 2pm. They close at 4.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • So I took my sweet a time taking the tarps and securement off.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • The guy who made the call to tell me no, he twice came out and asked me to hurry up.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • "Can you take the tarps off now and roll those straps later"
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • "Nah"
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • "Well just warning you we leave at 4"
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • "K"
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • So there these guys are, in the hot sun.(Thursday had been nice and cool cuz of rain, we could've done this comfortably) sitting on forklifts.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Waiting for me. Who takes a 20 minute sh in their bathroom, takes multiple water breaks in my truck.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Eventually the guy who I'd noticed in the back office this day, but didnt see the day before, comes out and gets all the plastic wrap off for me, seems real frustrated.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • But I just roll up my straps all nice and neat.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • And I admit I screwed up here, they start unloading me at like, 3:30. I was shooting for 3:50.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • I notice the back office guy talking to the guy who made the call that 2:06 was too late the day before and he seems *animated*.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Then I take my sweet sweet time doing the paperwork in my truck. That they brought back to me all crumpled up for some reason??
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • I wonder if there was like some behind the scenes crashout where one guy was like "f this dude *crumples paper and throws it out" and it has to be fished out of the trash or something.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • And I and hang out waiting for a safe way to pull out of their lot, so they can close their fences and leave etc. Till 4:06.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • I'll never get the hundreds of dollars I lost or that day back.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • But on day #2, I noticed the hot parking lot smelled like reason. for some
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Edit: some of yall seem to not get it. They still had a 2 hour window to get 1 hour of work done.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481
  • Their cutoff is 2pm to be done by 4pm and there weren't other trucks there wasn't other sh going on this was a small dirt lot.
    via Aromatic-Scratch3481

  • If the clock says two and the dock is clear, you wave the truck in and keep the world moving. When that fails, consequences teach slowly. People remember faces that turn a window into a wall. They come back inside the line and let the clock carry the message. They stage the world’s most compliant slowdown. Straps rolled neat. Water breaks taken. Paperwork read twice. No rules broken, no favors asked, only the full cost of a petty decision paid in heat and waiting. Boundaries are real. So is judgment. When they split, the lot starts to smell like August and everyone learns what six minutes can buy when pride is running the schedule.

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

management boss workplace-stories hr manager bosses work PTO managers supervisor workplace Horrible Bosses work-life balance new hampshire New Jersey
Scroll Down For The Next Article