2/25/08

A couple summers ago, while I was with my trainer, I pulled about the weirdest load I have ever had. We picked up a loaded trailer in Illinois and ran it a few hundred miles down to a Schnuck's warehouse in Missouri. When I opened the doors, I saw the following: One case of tomato paste. A cardboard box with a pineapple, about a dozen tomatoes, some celery, and some oranges. Two jugs of vegetable oil. That's it. It wasn't packaged, secured, or anything. It was just someone's grocery list bouncing around the back of a 53' trailer. Maybe 50 pounds total.

Today's load, if only for the distance traveled and the location of the drop, may have beaten that one. I called the hotel again this morning and got in touch with the engineering manager. He gave me a pretty good idea of what I needed to do when I got there. I got off the freeway, made a couple of wicked tight right turns, and pulled up in front of the hotel. I stopped and put my flashers on, so I could assess the situation. A guy from the construction company receiving the supplies came out and told me that I needed to back up a brick ramp toward the hotel lobby. I looked around for a minute. Heavy traffic, blindside, 24,000 pound posted weight limit on the ramp, overhanging trees, parked cars on both sides of the road. My general message to the guy was, "Go fuck yourself." Have no fear though. I used more friendly terminology. So there I stayed, blocking the right lane of the street. The crew had to wheel some dollies down and push them up the ramp. That probably sucked on the brick surface, but what was I going to do?

What did my trailer hold today? A bunch of pre-fab cabinets like the Sauder ones you buy at Wal Mart, with the assorted panels and hardware to connect them or whatever. They seriously could have taken a U-Haul down to Home Depot and picked up this stuff. It was a crew of hispanic construction workers. I'm pretty sure they know where Home Depot is. Instead it was shipped in a 53' trailer, taking up only about 10' of the length, from Kansas City to Providence. I have no idea what CTL charged these guys, but look at this way: Driver wages were somewhere on the order of $530. Fuel (at 7mpg and $3.40) would be somewhere on the order of $680, and that's a very conservative scenario. It was likely more costly than that. So, we're talking at least $1,200 just to break even, plus whatever profit margin they build in. For a couple thousand pounds of particle board that you can buy anywhere. Bizarre.

Getting empty in Providence left me with nowhere nearby to park. There's one truck stop in Rhode Island, about twenty-five miles south on I-95. I've picked up loads in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, but the majority of my northeast loads leave from New Jersey. If I had to drive a half hour to find parking, I figured I might as well guess I would be heading south to get my next load. Hopefully I wouldn't have to backtrack up I-95 for free. A half hour later, I was sent to pickup in Connecticut. Beauty.

The stop location, once again, had no directions. I know for a fact that this was a Menlo customer, as some of the instructions for the load specifically mentioned Menlo. I came up with a pretty decent route. It was decent at least until the last ten miles. That was crazy. As usual though, as long as I don't hit anything I can just be like Rain Man and say, "I'm an excellent driver."

(If we treat today's blog entry as my own little variety show, this next segment will be called 'Joey being Joey.')

I turned onto the street where the shipper was located. About a half mile down, the street veered to the right. I was not aware of this. There was no sign, so I continued straight. I wound up in the parking lot of a medical center, with no room for a truck to maneuver. I saw what looked like an open area around to the left of the building, but I couldn't make a left. There appeared to be a driveway going down the right side of the building and around the back, so I thought I could swing back around. I followed it to the dead end, which I hadn't seen from the front. Shit. Slowly but steadily, I backed my way out to the main entrance to the parking lot. I got my trailer angled far enough right to allow me to cut back to the left and drive forward toward the open area that I had seen before. Back there, I was able to turn around and head back out to the street.

So, following the veer that I missed the first time, I started looking for my customer's address. As I passed their driveway, I saw it. Shit. The road ahead looked ludicrous, so I stopped and looked around. Backing up looked to be the least terrible option, so backward I went. Cars kept approaching my bumper before it occurred to them that they would need to go around, so I had to keep stopping. Two feet at a time, I got far enough back to make the right turn into the driveway. "Shipping and receiving in rear of building." As I drove along the skinny little driveway, I wasn't liking what I saw. Yeah, another insane backing job was waiting for me. What the hell is up lately? I got it in there, they loaded one piece of equipment (about six feet long), and I got back out safely. I don't think I've ever been so relieved to get back on the interstate in my life.

For 99% of what goes on out here, I think experience is pretty overrated. Our greatest skill really seems to be the ability to stay awake. In all honesty though, I don't think I could have handled today's challenges when I first started doing this job. The downtown Providence part was tough, but it was fairly similar to downtown Detroit (where I learned to drive a truck). The customer in Connecticut was another story altogether. It required near perfection to get in their lot going forward, let alone the backing. Add that to the scene that I faced at the end of the medical center's driveway, and I have to look back and wonder how I managed to get by without hitting anything. I'm not much good at my job in general, but I guess I'm pretty good at maneuvering my truck. So I have that going for me... which is nice.

(Moving along to the 'Nanny State' portion of the program...)

This afternoon, something crazy happened. I was driving along at 4:59pm, feeling pretty good. Then the clock struck five and apparently I was suddenly too tired to drive. Fucking feds. So, I get to wait for tomorrow. Any time after 3am, I'll magically be rested again. Once I leave, I'll be tired again in four hours. Then at midnight I'll be ready to roll again. I deliver in Midland, Michigan at 8am Wednesday. This basically means that I'll have to do the bulk of my driving during the midnight-8am stretch. But hey, I'll get to wave to home on the way up. Seems to me that being able to drive home tomorrow and take the afternoon and night off would leave me more rested for Wednesday, but what do I know?