8/1/07

Today had a different feel to it, right from the start. It was a half hour, get loaded, hour and a half, get fuel, hour and a half, get loaded, hour, get loaded, hour, drop and hook. The short stints on the road were a neat change of pace. The miles don't rack up that way, so I wouldn't want to do it every day, but it was still pretty cool.

I got to the first stop and my communication system wouldn't respond. I had to pull the fuse and wait for it to reboot. In the meantime I went inside to check in. The lady was kind enough to say, "I need you down there in dock 15. We never use that one because it's pretty tricky, but we're moving some things around now so that's where we'll load you." Thanks lady. I came back out and sent in the form messages that I couldn't send while the unit was rebooting. Then I got scolded by my fleet manager because, apparently, the computer showed that I was late making the pickup. I was there on time but couldn't send the forms until after I came back out to my truck. So yeah, whatever... The dock wasn't as tough to reach as it looked at first, but the bees trying to get at me while I hung my head out the window added a new challenge.

I was quickly loaded and rolling to Sandusky for stop 2. I cut across Monroe Street in Toledo to get to 280, passing my old restaurant along the way. The "Red" was lit on the neon sign, but the "Robin" was burned out. There were weeds around the trees. There was garbage in the shrubbery. Ahhh, to not be the person who has to notice that shit anymore... priceless. When I got to Sandusky, the lady told me to go to door 8. Well, door 8 was wide open, right in the middle of the building, with nothing near it. Wouldn't you guess I had the damnedest time getting my trailer straight? Sometimes when things seem too easy you get a little out of sorts I guess.

They put on one pallet and sent me on my way to Wooster. About the only thing I ever knew about Wooster was that the College of Wooster were our rivals during my freshman year at Kenyon. The Rubbermaid plant there required me to drop my trailer at the dock and then wait out front while they loaded it. I was about eight hours early for my appointment, but I was only there three hours. Not too bad I guess.

Then on to Warren to make my drop. Nice, no-nonsense drop and hook. The empty that I was told to pick up was actually there, all of the lights were working, there was no garbage in the back. How nice.

After my drop I headed to the local truckstop. I had received a pre-plan earlier in the day for a load picking up tomorrow afternoon and heading to New York. But then things took a turn. As I anticipated the dispatch for the pre-plan I had received, I instead received one to pick up a relay in New Stanton, Pennsylvania at 6pm? Where is the time travel gear on this truck? And it was to deliver in Canton, Michigan at 5:30am? I'm not a real heavy sleeper, but really? I had to make some inquiries and see what in the hell was going on.

Apparently the driver who picked up this load in Jersey had truck problems and was stuck at a Kenworth dealer. There was nobody, other than me, available to re-power the load. Well then, if we wanted to be accurate, there was nobody available to re-power the load. I told them I could get down there before my 14 hour clock ran out, then I would need a nap before I could get it up to Michigan. Since I had three hours of down time in Wooster, an eight hour break would get me enough hours to get somewhere in the neighborhood of where I had to be. I could work out the difference, but 5:30am wasn't going to happen. They said "thanks a lot" and I headed to New Stanton.

I got down there and swapped my empty for the loaded trailer, then headed back west to use up the rest of my 14 hour clock before laying down for a spell. The dispatch came through for 5:30am. I rolled my eyes and sent a message reminding them that there was no way I could make 5:30am. Then the gentleman on the other end was kind enough to point out that it was 5:30am Friday! The customer couldn't move the appointment to a later time on Thursday, so it was moved to the next day. What the hell? I could have been picking up tomorrow and heading to New York, but instead I'll have nearly 24 hours to kill on this load after I busted my ass to go get it. First reaction - furious.

As tends to be the case as I get older, I took a little time to think the situation over after I calmed down. In reality, even if I ran the load up there in the morning, I wouldn't have hours to go anywhere after that, so either way I'd be waiting until Friday for my next assignment. If I have to get stuck killing a day, doing so at home is probably as good as anywhere else. I made over $200 today, the first of the month, so I should keep it all in perspective. Plus, I'll get a full night's rest this way, which is nice because I'm exhausted. Goodnight.