8/27/07

"True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing." I'm pretty sure that one was Socrates, although I can't remember if I actually read it or just saw it on Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. It's been a long time, but I don't seem to remember Socrates Johnson doing a lot of talking in the movie. Anyway, yeah, the day didn't go quite as expected. I knew I would get something this morning, but the morning started a lot earlier than I thought it would.

I got a message from the people in Joplin at some point last night asking when my break would be over. I informed them that I could wrap it up around midnight (at least an eight hour one). They sent me to Toms Brook, Virginia to take a load from another driver and run it down to Greensboro, North Carolina for this morning. Sounded fine to me, plus they tacked on a pre-planned pickup in Raleigh for this afternoon, headed to Lincoln, Nebraska. I don't know man, maybe I just get pre-plans now. That makes more pre-plans in the last week than I had in the first seven and a half months of this year. Now, in the case of last night, I was cutting my rest a little short and helping them out in a pinch. In these cases, I have gotten pre-plans to follow up quite a bit of the time, even before my newfound pre-plannability.

Going through mountains with a heavy load = bogus. Going through mountains with a bobtail = excellent. This ride on I-70 was far superior to the ride yesterday morning.

I didn't get a dispatch to Toms Brook, so I sent a message indicating that I was headed that way. I received a message asking which trailer I had. Here we go... don't even get me started on night/weekend dispatch. They had sent me a message no more than fifteen minutes earlier saying I would be bobtailing to a relay, now they were asking what trailer I had. "No trailer, just rolling to Toms Brook," I replied. I got within twenty miles of my destination and sent another message, again asking for a dispatch to Toms Brook. Got to Toms Brook shortly thereafter, still no dispatch. So I called in and got that squared away.

I woke up the guy from whom I was taking the relay. I looked at the paperwork - picked up at 3pm, deliver by 10:30pm. Hmm... "Ran out of hours eh?" Yep, he had a mechanical issue with his truck and then screwed up calculating his hours. That was a time-sensitive load and his mistake most likely cost CFI a pretty penny. Hopefully they won't be too hard on him though. He said he's only been driving for a few months. Mistakes are bound to happen. Faced with the prospect of admitting a mistake and complying with the law or just ignoring it and driving illegally, I think he made the right call.

I got a chance to drive a stretch of road that I've never driven, which is usually pretty cool to do. US-220 heading south from Roanoke was a hilly and twisty ride, but my load was light enough that I was able to enjoy it. In fact, given the short rest the night before, that kind of road was good for me because it forced me to stay alert. There was no prospect of setting the cruise control and zoning out. The fog got pretty dense, so I had to crank up the heat on my defrost and sweat it out for a bit, but what can you do? When I got into Greensboro, I missed a turn to stay on 220. Luckily, in the wee hours of the morning, there was little traffic so I was able to get turned back in the right direction.

At the UPS facility I was told to drop in a given spot, only to find the spot already occupied. Pretty typical for those guys. I dropped in a neighboring spot and went inside to get the bills signed. Then the empty that I picked up was full of cardboard. On the UPS loads, it's pretty common to find pallets or boxes in the empty trailers. For whatever reason, they don't clean them out. We usually have to take ten or fifteen minutes, throw a few pallets in a dumpster, and collect our $35. The trailer this morning took more like forty five minutes, but $35 is still well worth the trouble.

I sent in my empty call and my request for the unloading pay, then headed toward Raleigh. I had until 1pm to pick up and I needed to take a two hour break to complete my split-sleeper break, so I pulled into the first rest area east of Greensboro. I never got a dispatch to Raleigh. I never got my $35. I never got placed on the board. Don't even get me started on night/weekend dispatch. I set my alarm for 11am and took a nice nap. When I woke up, I sent my fleet manager a message asking him to take care of the things the night crew failed to address. I was put on the board, dispatched, and paid for unloading within a couple of minutes. Why the night crew can't seem to handle these things, I have no idea.

The drop/hook in Raleigh was nice and easy. By the time that was done, I had just enough time left on my 70 hours to reach a truckstop and scale my load. I got a message from my fleet manager asking if I could make the 1pm Wednesday appointment. My first reaction was, "No way," on account of my 70 hour issues. After re-checking my log, I think I can pull it off so I told him not to worry about setting up a relay. I'll have to get rolling at midnight, drive until the hours run out, sit until midnight, and get rolling again. I should make it, but I will need some cooperation from the traffic to get the job done.