12/17/08

I awoke to the sound of a beep this morning. Nah, not the satellite thing. I forgot to shut my phone off last night. I got a text message saying, "Good morning," way the hell before I got out of bed. Where are the text messages from my fiance? She can get in touch with me anytime she wants to, if you know what I mean. I'm starting to suspect that she was never told about our engagement.

After I managed to get back to sleep, the satellite thing beeped and I was awake once again. It was a message from my fleet manager, asking about my trailer situation. I cruised across the lot to see if my empty was ready. It was. I sent a reply and then hooked to my trailer. I was #1 on the board by that time so I didn't want to drive too far in search of a parking spot. I was parked in the bobtail area at ConWay overnight, but they really don't like us hanging around there hooked to a trailer. There has been a whole lot of that going in the wrong direction crap lately, but I had to go somewhere. Luckily there was a Petro right down the street. I headed over there and hopped back in bed.

Not long after I started to doze off, I received my next assignment. As seems to be the case quite often in recent weeks, CTL pimped out my services to a broker. As the brokered loads tend to be, this one was 44,000 pounds of paper. I had to head down to the paper mill outside Mansfield for an afternoon pickup. I took a nice nap to finally finish off my night's rest and then drove down. I was a couple of hours early but they checked me in right away and sent me to the warehouse. The guys back there were on their lunch break at the time. Once they got back, I was loaded fairly quickly and sent on my way.

Toward Michigan, you ask? Not exactly. For those of you keeping score at home, I began the day in Shreveport, 1,058 miles from home. I ended the day in Oklahoma City, 1,021 miles from home. Well hell, I guess I am getting closer after all. There is the possibility that there is freight heading north from this area and that's why I was sent over here. Of course, if this is the case, I'm not allowed to know. The driver is required to be the least informed person involved with every load. I'm pretty sure that rule is in the company handbook somewhere. Then there's also the possibility that there is no plan and they just sent me wherever they could send me today. Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens soon enough. I got another decent day's worth of miles so I'll take it for what it's worth.

In what could be considered a minor coup on my part, I noticed that the consignee's receiving hours were listed on the bill of lading. They are open from 7am to 11pm with no appointment required. I was dispatched to deliver at 7am. Instead of waiting until tomorrow, I hauled ass to Oklahoma City and got rid of the load tonight. The traffic around Dallas was horrendous but otherwise I made pretty good time. The temperature stayed above freezing the whole way so that misty foggy crap never turned to ice. Good thing the shipper checked me in early.

I'm #3 on the board right now. Hopefully getting here tonight will give me a leg up on whatever the planners start assigning in the morning. I didn't have any bright ideas concerning parking tonight so I've pulled off to the side of the consignee's lot. They use this area to drop trailers. I might end up getting kicked out if I'm in someone's way. So far though, nobody has bothered me. I guess I'll hop in bed and see if my luck can hold out until morning.