2/7/08

I make no secret of the fact that I am relatively clueless about trucking in general, and trucks in particular. I did, however, spend the bulk of my pre-driving life as a very successful businessman. The terminology and objectives may change, but smart business is just smart business. I'm having a tough time biting my tongue right now, but I'm hanging in there.

I took the shuttle from the motel to the Kenworth dealer this morning. Apparently the shuttle driver provides rides around Laredo to his family and friends, in addition to transporting motel guests, so the ride that took ten minutes last night was an hour today. I got a call from my fleet manager asking me how the truck was coming along, but I had no answer since I hadn't made it back to the dealership yet.

I hung out in the lounge at the dealership all day. At some point this evening, they moved my truck out to a parking space. Nobody thought it would be a good idea to tell me, but luckily that's exactly what I expected. Thus, I was checking on my truck every fifteen minutes or so. I talked to the guy at the counter, who handed me the keys and said the following: "It's probably not fixed. We were told by CFI that the truck is being sold and they don't want to sink a bunch of money into it. Hopefully you can make it to Joplin or something." That's a direct quote. Can anybody name the individual who suggested that CTL just bring me to Joplin two nights ago? It's just simple business, regardless of the industry, but it takes them two days of wasted time to reach that conclusion. Dumb. Then there was more.

I got back to the terminal and called the shop in Joplin. I needed a reimbursement number for my motel room, plus I wanted to see what bright ideas they had for me now. "If you have that kind of problem, your next load will probably go right through here." Are you fucking kidding me? Did I not just spend five minutes explaining that this truck isn't cut out for pulling loads and it hasn't been fixed? I asked if they could just bobtail me to Joplin. "I have no idea about that." Dumb. Yeah but hey, thanks for the reimbursement number.

So I told the story again, this time to the dispatcher at the terminal. Any chance of bobtailing to Joplin? "No, I can't do that." Well who in the fuck is going to have the problem when this truck dies on the side of the freeway? Not me. "I'll try to get you a light load." Anyone want to take bets on whether or not that was a straight-up lie? I'll throw my money on the side that says that guy won't be there when my turn comes up, and nobody will have any knowledge of our conversation. It's not only my time that has been wasted here for two days, by the way. A truck that isn't moving is a dead expense. This could have all been done by now. No motel expense, no dealership expense, no idling expense. Simple business is not the way they handle things in Joplin. They have to think about shit and waste money, then maybe they end up with the right conclusion or maybe they don't. Dumb.

So I'm #33 on the board. I asked the dispatcher if I was highlighted for Joplin and he said "yes" without looking at his computer screen. I'm biting my tongue and letting the people in charge run their company, but my patience is being tested. If I'm not out of here by tonight or tomorrow morning, my pay will become more of an issue and then we might have some words. Whatever man, I'm going to watch a movie.