12/16/08

Whenever people discuss these OTR outfits, the conversations tend to follow a predictable pattern. Sometimes a given person is trying to get a recruiting bonus by highlighting the good things. Other times a person is trying to make a former employer look bad by highlighting the bad things. Either way, you fall back to so many cents per mile and so many miles per week and this kind of truck or that kind of truck. None of that matters a whole lot to me. I am inclined to believe that 90% of us in this line of work earn within a few thousand bucks of each other over the course of a year. 90% of us could probably convince ourselves that there's a reason for choosing one company over another, even though they're all about the same. If I had to point to one thing that I really liked about CFI (and subsequently CTL), it would be that they leave me the hell alone. Unless something unforeseen comes up, there is rarely a reason for me to communicate with anyone in Joplin. I like that.

Then, every once in a while, something unforeseen comes up. My broken truck was unforeseen, for example. I spoke with the people on the weekend shift before checking into my motel on Sunday. They appeared to have everything all squared away. But it wasn't all squared away, at least not for my fleet manager. After getting a ride back to the Kenworth dealer and getting my truck back this afternoon, I hopped inside. There was a message waiting on the satellite unit. My fleet manager was wondering why I haven't been on the board for the last two days. Huh? I was told quite specifically that some chick was typing all of that nonsense into the computer on Sunday while I was talking to her. She said that she saw the notation from our road service guys authorizing my motel. She said that the relay had been set up to get rid of my loaded trailer. She said that I was all set. Somehow this information didn't get passed along to the Monday-Friday crew, I guess.

I had to feel at least a little bad for my fleet manager, given the barrage of crap that I sent to him next. Since he hadn't known what was up with my truck, he must have been thrilled to get a bunch of extraneous messages from me after I got the truck back. A reply to his inquiry, asking him to put me on the board, was first. Then the form requesting my home time. Then the form requesting layover pay. Then the form requesting a reimbursement number for my motel. Then he asked for my trailer number. So I replied to that one. Then he asked if I had changed my mind about being home for Christmas, since he had me down as planning to be on the road. So I answered that one explaining that I just need a few days at home and I'll be back out before Christmas. Lots of communication today. That's not the strong suit for this company, so I guess that should just remind me of how good I have it most of the time.

I was #5 when I got on the board in Jackson. Before too long, I got an assignment. I had to bounce over to our terminal in West Memphis and pick up a loaded trailer going to... Shreveport. I guess we're going with the Christopher Columbus approach to home time. If I go south long enough, eventually I'll be further north... or something. At least I got in a good 435 miles of work today so I won't hang my head about the home time thing just yet. There's still plenty of time for me to get to Michigan from here by the weekend (as long as they don't really try sending me around the South Pole). If the choice was to roll south today or not to roll at all today, I would prefer to roll south.

The CB commandos were in full force on I-40. Tales of doom and gloom were coming across the radio every fifteen seconds or so. Apparently there was some messy weather in Arkansas to the west of Little Rock. For my part, the trip down I-40 onto I-440 and then I-30 was no problem. The bridges around Little Rock did look like they might be a little slick but I didn't notice any slippage. Fortunately things warmed up gradually as I made my way further south. I had to run about a ninety mile stretch on two-lane roads with which I wasn't familiar. I didn't have a lot of confidence that those roads would be easy to handle if they were indeed icy. By the time I got to Shreveport it was up to forty degrees though. A little rain here and there, but that was about it.

I rolled into the ConWay yard in Shreveport a little while ago to make my drop/hook. The drop part went as planned. The hook part, not so much. There are no CFI or ConWay Truckload trailers on the yard. I spoke with the guy in the dispatch office. He assured me that there were two CFI trailers out here. So I headed back outside. There are most definitely not two CFI trailers out here. So we reached the conclusion that I'll just go to sleep for the night and the trailer that I brought in will be empty by tomorrow morning. I'll take that one back and everybody will be happy. Simple enough. No problem.

And what was that thing that I like most about my job? Oh yeah, the communication (or absence thereof) thing. The computer system won't put me on the board without a trailer. My first inclination would have been just to send an empty call as if I had been live unloaded. Then the computer would have the trailer number that it needed and I could get on the board. That probably would have worked fine. I have a bit of an unlucky streak sometimes though. What would happen if I were on the board and they assigned something to me while my trailer was still full of ConWay freight and sitting at the dock? That would be bad. So I had to call Joplin. The nice young lady who answered the phone said that she would take care of it for me. In what I must admit was a surprising twist, she took care of it just like she said she would. Good lookin' out, my sister.

I'm #2 on the board and highlighted for home time. I'm guessing this means that I'll be moving pretty early tomorrow. Goodnight.