8/15/07

I think this is the first time in quite a long time that I've been downright pissed at my employer. Most of the time, things just happen and it's best to take them with a grain of salt. Today, I'm pretty sure I got a hosejob and I'm not happy about it. The few times I've really gotten screwed out here, they seem to have made an effort to make it right. My fleet manager will have some splainin to do in the morning, so we'll see.

After waking up in the drop lot at Mercury Marine in Stillwater, I logged on to check my board status. Still #1. Okay, sounds like we'll be moving shortly. A couple of hours went by and I got my beep. Okay, pickup, Stillwater, Oklahoma, deliver, El Paso, Texas. Not bad, over 750 miles, should be a good trip. Pickup time 8/16 00:01, pickup location Mercury Marine? Now that's bullshit. I have to sit here all day and wait for a load, when anyone with half a brain knows we'll have other drivers headed this way. So, it's a drop/hook, maybe it's ready early. I headed over to the shipping office. "That load's for tomorrow." Tomorrow as in after midnight tonight, or tomorrow? "I don't know, it's not here today, I can tell you that much."

So, what to do, what to do? I headed over to Applebee's for lunch. Nicki was absolutely lovely and did a great job. Then to the movies. Nothing good playing, screw it. Over to WalMart for a few supplies. Um, wait a minute. Since when is WalMart a place to see hot young tail all over the place, and buying beer? Where I live, WalMart is a collection of toothless pregnant meth addicts. This was a strange occurrence to me. Yeah, the old Don can be a little slow on the uptake from time to time. Orange shirts, cowboys, I get it. It's a college town. If I were ten years younger, the folks at CFI might have gotten a free pass on the screwjob they pulled on me here.

Since I had to pick up at midnight and cover a lot of miles, I hit the bunk for a while. I woke up not long ago and headed back over to Mercury Marine. Yeah, when the guy this afternoon said, "Tomorrow," he meant tomorrow, as in not midnight. So now I'm pretty much fucked. I just slept most of the evening away, I'm wide awake, and I have to try somehow to get some sleep before tomorrow morning.

My paycheck is under $2,000 for the first time since I reached my current pay level. My miles are below 5,000 for the first time since I started at CFI. Neither of these is really a huge deal. In context, the fact that it took this long to have a subpar pay period probably reflects quite well on CFI and its ability to get its drivers the miles they need. The thing that pisses me off is that the last few days have been so poorly managed that I never should have had a subpar pay period in the first place. Even a marginally competent planner could have gotten me a few hundred miles somewhere along the way. Instead, here I am.