1/13/09

The first thing that I saw this morning when I looked out my window was a CRST truck parked nearby. I don't suppose that the presence of a CRST truck has any intrinsic value, but it was good news as far as I was concerned. My bill of lading had CRST listed as the carrier, then crossed out and replaced with Menlo. So, at the very least, I wasn't the only one who had been sent to the 'For Lease' warehouse. A couple of cars pulled into the parking lot a short time later and the guys confirmed that I was indeed at the right place. Beauty.

Once I was empty, I was dispatched on the pre-planned load that I received yesterday. I had to go ten miles to the east and get a loaded trailer from our Atlanta drop yard and take it... back to the 'For Lease' warehouse. At least I knew where I was going. Our Atlanta drop yards seem to get less and less desirable as time goes on. The latest incarnation is in the same general neighborhood as the last one, but it's down a skinny residential street with a couple of blind turns mixed in. To leave and return to the freeway, you have to make a left turn from a stop sign onto a six-lane road. The angle is such that your view is obscured by trees and signs and so forth. But hey, I'm a truck driver, right? This is what I do, or something. I checked in with the guys back in Forest Park for a second time and kicked back for a bit.

Once I was empty the second time around, I headed over to the local truck stop. There was a sign with some mumbo jumbo about paying for a parking permit and other assorted nonsense. No thanks. I ran into the convenience store to grab some food and then went back over to the warehouse where I spent last night. I was #1 on the board and nothing was assigned right away, so we can safely conclude that there was no bigger plan behind that local run. There was just a trailer that needed to be delivered today and I was in the neighborhood. After a nice and peaceful nap, I was jolted back to consciousness by the Qualcomm's lovely chirp. I rolled out of bed expecting to see a recruiting contest update or some other bullshit. (So cynical these days. Terrible.) No, this time it was actually an assignment.

I had to drag my empty trailer back over to our Atlanta yard and set up for a ConWay relay leaving tomorrow morning. It's going to Orlando, so at least I can continue to assume that an 'Alberta clipper' is a Canadian hairstylist for another couple of days. My pay currently shows 36 miles for the week on the company web portal. I sent a message requesting my local pay for this morning's run and got the dreaded reply about "submitting the paperwork." The last time I heard that line was during the infamous UPS episode. We'll see what happens. I've never pulled local runs when I've been away from home before. They've given them to me a couple of times in Taylor, but then the local dispatcher just made a copy of my logbook and my local pay showed up the next day. Maybe it works the same way coming from Joplin. Just like with the UPS thing, we're not talking about enough money to make anyone freak out, but I did the work. I'll trust that my compensation will be processed properly this time around.

A Tuesday delivery, combined with a 36 mile day, has us looking at the all-too-familiar shitty start to this week. I'll be somewhere in the mid-400 mile neighborhood by the time I deliver in Orlando tomorrow night. Then it will likely be Thursday before anything else comes up and the weekend will be staring me in the face. Oh well, what can you do? Maybe I'll get a nice surprise tomorrow and end up with a decent week somehow. At least I can play The Bailout Game and remind myself that I'll probably be paying 90% income taxes at some point in my life. Things are looking pretty good today from that standpoint.