5/22/08

You know, off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that I like about waking up at 5am. As such, I wasn't feeling too chipper this morning after I drove the last twenty miles to my customer and checked in. Then I was reminded that at least I don't work in a warehouse. The employees were in line, waiting to sign in for the 6am shift. Something about seeing a couple dozen grown adults, shuffling into work with blank expressions and lifeless eyes... never me, man. Never me. People can tell me how stupid OTR drivers are all they want to. The day I give up my individuality will be the day I'm six feet deep.

Once I was empty, I pulled across the street in front of a vacant warehouse and went back to bed. A little after 10am, I got my next assignment. I had to shoot over to Lancaster and then run down to Greensboro, North Carolina. That's a pretty decent day of work. The only catch was that the load was scheduled to leave Lancaster at 3pm. Since my 14 hour clock had started early this morning, I decided to head to the shipper and see if my load may be ready early. It wasn't. I dropped my empty and went into town for some lunch. (Silver Spring Restaurant - good stuff.) Back at the shipper, it was time to get back to my reading and watch the clock tick away.

Once I got my loaded trailer and sent in my forms, I got the message that I expected from the folks in Joplin. They were asking how far I could go tonight, so they could set up a relay to get the load delivered by 7am. I replied, telling them that I would handle it and they need not worry. Much to my (pleasant) surprise, they trusted me and let me keep the load. It took some log book gymnastics, but I was able to get eight hours of down time, turning my 14 hour clock into a 22 hour clock. Then I had just enough time to get to Greensboro within my 22 hour clock. If this doesn't sound like it makes any sense, that's because it doesn't. Your tax dollars at work.

At the UPS facility in Greensboro, my assigned space was occupied so I had to drop in another spot. Typical. Then I headed out to grab an empty. There was one CFI empty on the lot, with a package truck parked right in front of it. Beauty. I went back in and asked the dispatcher to have someone move the truck. The yard dog went over to take care of it, but the truck had no keys in it. Perfect. So they wound up having one guy put the package truck in neutral and steer it while another guy pushed it out of the way with the yard truck. Good enough.

On a positive note, this trailer wasn't full of shit when I picked it up. Since my employer is apparently unable to pay me for cleaning out trailers at UPS facilities, I really wasn't in the mood to unload five hundred pounds of cardboard tonight.

So then the focus shifted to finding a place to park. The industrial park to which I delivered had a few signs that said 'available,' but none of those buildings appeared to have room for me to park. My next best option was to head east on I-40 a little ways to a rest area outside of town. All of the spots were full, but there was room to parallel park along the side where I shouldn't be bothering anyone. I'm #1 on the board right now, but my hours are up so I'll have to come off the board and go to bed for a while.