There are drivers, at my company and every other company, who give 100% to their jobs and try to make their companies the best that they can be. I'm not one of those drivers. I really don't care much about anything and my job is just a job to me. That being said, I do make sure to always pick up and deliver, on time and safely. So, in an effort to do my job properly, I decided to act like an adult last night. I went out and had some dinner, then came home to get a good night of rest before this morning's run up to Brighton. I didn't stay out drinking all night, much as I would have liked to. I didn't spend the night trying to find a piece of ass, much as I would have liked to. I watched the last part of the ballgame at home and I was in bed at a decent hour. And then... I slept through my alarm this morning. Son of a bitch.
When I woke up and saw that it was after 10am, I grabbed my duffel bag and rushed out the door. I turned on my phone and saw that I had two messages. One was from my fleet manager and another was from someone at the Taylor terminal. So, I called my fleet manager to receive my necessary scolding. He was apparently indisposed at the time, but the guy with whom I spoke said that he was letting my fleet manager know that I was on the way to Brighton. A few minutes later, in my truck, I got a message saying I need to call my fleet manager ASAP. I just called a minute ago. Whatever, might as well call again and face the music since it was my fault I was late. Where is my phone? Shit. I must have left it in my car as I was rushing to get in my truck and go.
About halfway to Brighton, I got a message from the Taylor terminal saying that my delivery was set for 5pm. The customer is a little Mom & Pop delivery place, so they must have had to go out and do their thing before I got there at 12:30pm. I had to hang out and wait until 5pm for them to get back, but like I said, it was my fault so no use complaining. As I sat in the parking lot and tried to get my shit together, I got a plan summary for my next load. It was to be picked up in Howell, Michigan at 4am and taken to Ironton, Ohio by 11am. 4am pickups usually mean either beer or ConWay freight and neither one has much wiggle room on the delivery times. I was hoping for something allowing enough time to stop by Taylor and grab my phone and a couple of other things that I left behind. That timeline didn't look like it would work. 335 miles in seven hours of Michigan and Ohio is fairly tight, so adding the extra 20 or 30 miles to swing by the terminal would be ill-advised.
I wanted to take a nap while I waited but, without my cell phone, I had no alarm clock. I had to actually learn to work the alarm on my truck. It turned out to be pretty simple, so now I know how to do that too. I walked over to a little restaurant for some lunch and then laid down for a while.
The guys pulled their boxes off my trailer by hand, but it only took a half hour or so. Then it was only about fifteen miles to the next pickup. I stopped to clean out my trailer (yeah it's a beer load) and then checked in. They gave me a door and said that the load was staged, so I should get loaded some time tonight. Not too long ago, they started putting kegs on board, so it's looking like I might be able to pull off my stop by the terminal after all.
In almost a year and a half, this was the first time a late delivery was my fault. As I said before, I'm not the most conscientious employee in the world but it sucks just the same. Whatever shortcomings I may have, I could always point to the fact that I'm never late and I never hit anything. Now I have a mark against that record, but I guess there's nothing I can do about it now. Shit happens and life moves along.
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