Is it football season yet? These long Saturdays on the road are a freaking drag at this time of year. I'm back on my boycott of political talk radio and the news is generally worthless on the weekend anyway. The hosts on the other channels all suck on the weekend, which is likely why they're stuck working weekends. Oy. Long, boring day. I had to take a nap about halfway through, and I wasn't even tired, just to break things up a little bit.
I was also disappointed to see that my eleven hours of driving didn't even get me out of New Mexico. I looked at my map before I left Kettleman City to see which way I was going, but I guess I didn't really give it much thought beyond that. I would have suspected that a full day would get me to Amarillo or something. Nope. San Jon it is. I managed to knock out 680 miles despite the fact that half of New Mexico is under construction, so I guess that ain't so bad.
My pay week wraps up with a tidy 3,872 miles. It wouldn't have killed anyone to get me an extra stop or something to kick it over $1,500, would it? Obviously I'm not complaining though. I don't seem to remember the month of July being a very profitable one for me in years past. The first part of this month is going quite nicely. I decided to sit on my vacation pay for at least another week since this week's pay is already on the high side. I usually prefer to collect my vacation pay as soon as possible each year when it comes around. If I crash my truck tomorrow and get fired, I would hate to leave a couple thousand bucks on the table. The tax withholding is already going to be a whopper this week though. Adding in the vacation pay would dramatically increase the percentage that gets loaned interest-free to the feds until next year. Guess I'll just have to stay employed a little longer.
My chances of getting to my final destination before Monday's hours run out aren't looking too good. I think I'll run a full day tomorrow anyway and take stock of where I stand at that point. Even if I have to finish out on Tuesday morning, it will be best to get my remaining hours used up as quickly as possible so I can take a ten hour break Monday Evening, before 12am Tuesday rolls around and the all-knowing feds decide that I'm rested enough to drive again. Idiots.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
7/10/09
I am generally among the very few drivers who don't mind the 55mph speed limits in the states that impose them. Since everybody else tends to ignore the lower speed limit anyway, I'm able to kick back and relax without a whole lot of braking or lane changing. Days like today remind me that there's one major qualifier to this viewpoint - covering only 600 miles in eleven hours is bullshit. So... I only like the 55mph states for shorter distances. That'll do.
The trip down to the Con-way terminal in Kettleman City took a little over three hours. That wasn't bad. That terminal only operates at night, so my loaded trailer was sitting on the lot waiting for me this morning. After getting my paperwork from the security gal, it was back out to the highway. The drive across CA-58 through the desert wasn't crowded or anything, but damn was it a long one. By the time I got onto I-40 I was struggling to stay motivated to keep moving. Fortunately the Tigers were coming on the radio so I had something to keep me occupied. I slugged out my full eleven hours and made it to the T/A in Kingman, Arizona. And the Tigers won a pretty entertaining game to continue their streak against the Tribe.
The paperwork from Con-way says that this load is due in Alabama by 5:30pm on Tuesday. My dispatch from Con-way Truckload says that I'm due at 3:43am on Tuesday. So they're trying to say that I need to get there as soon as possible, but the computer's reckoning will have my 70 hours running out at some point on Monday. I have no desire to drive those last four hours after midnight Monday night, so I'm hoping to make good time over the next couple of days. If I'm going to run out of hours anyway, I would prefer to get the trip done by Monday evening and then start fresh with the hours that I'll pick up on Tuesday. The computer figures the trip at 52mph and I'll be able go a lot faster from here on out. It's going to be tight but we'll just have to see how it goes. That 55mph business today sure wasn't helpful.
The trip down to the Con-way terminal in Kettleman City took a little over three hours. That wasn't bad. That terminal only operates at night, so my loaded trailer was sitting on the lot waiting for me this morning. After getting my paperwork from the security gal, it was back out to the highway. The drive across CA-58 through the desert wasn't crowded or anything, but damn was it a long one. By the time I got onto I-40 I was struggling to stay motivated to keep moving. Fortunately the Tigers were coming on the radio so I had something to keep me occupied. I slugged out my full eleven hours and made it to the T/A in Kingman, Arizona. And the Tigers won a pretty entertaining game to continue their streak against the Tribe.
The paperwork from Con-way says that this load is due in Alabama by 5:30pm on Tuesday. My dispatch from Con-way Truckload says that I'm due at 3:43am on Tuesday. So they're trying to say that I need to get there as soon as possible, but the computer's reckoning will have my 70 hours running out at some point on Monday. I have no desire to drive those last four hours after midnight Monday night, so I'm hoping to make good time over the next couple of days. If I'm going to run out of hours anyway, I would prefer to get the trip done by Monday evening and then start fresh with the hours that I'll pick up on Tuesday. The computer figures the trip at 52mph and I'll be able go a lot faster from here on out. It's going to be tight but we'll just have to see how it goes. That 55mph business today sure wasn't helpful.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
7/9/09
♫ ...The cock, he crew in the mornin'
He crew both loud and shrill
I awoke in California
Many miles from Spancil Hill... ♫
I managed to go to bed early enough to get some sleep before this morning's 2am alarm. And I think I finally reached dreamland maybe an hour before the alarm went off. That sucked. Then, to add insult to injury, my load wasn't ready until the last second. I could have used that extra hour and a half of sleep. Oh well. Off to the big road...
I managed to hit Sacramento right at rush hour in the morning. Then I realized that Sacramento is largely irrelevant in the world of rush hour traffic. I didn't hit any slowdowns so I had time for a fuel stop and a bite to eat in Dunnigan before finishing the trip to Redding. This was my first trip to the Con-way terminal in Redding. And, right on cue, I passed the terminal as I turned onto the street where it is located. That's a tiny little rinky-dink facility and you have to make an immediate left into the lot once you reach the street. So I continued onward, looking for somewhere to turn around. And I continued... and I continued. There was nowhere that I could turn around and the road got progressively skinnier and skinner. It was starting to look pretty bleak when I spotted a little dirt path that seemed like it might do the trick.
I passed the path (moving toward the southwest) and backed my trailer into the opening in the trees, then used the wider area near the road to swing my tractor back toward the northeast. If not for that opening, I suspected that I was going to find myself in an impossible situation. This evening's review of the satellite image of the surrounding area seems to confirm my suspicion. Not lucky. Blessed.
Back at the yard, I got checked in and settled at the dock. The lady giving the instructions was clearly new at this game but she was quite beautiful, so somehow I didn't mind. My assignment said that I would be getting unloaded and keeping my trailer, but after an hour or so a guy told me that I could drop my trailer and pull the one from the next dock. Good deal. While I was sitting at the dock, one of my colleagues came over and mentioned that he had been given a damaged trailer and that the doors wouldn't close. I had some time to kill so I went over to see if the two of us could manage to get them shut so that he could take the trailer to a repair shop. The corner of the door on the right had been banged pretty hard and the hinges were all bent to hell. I was thinking that I could push on the top of the door while he tried to secure it and maybe we would have some luck. It turned out that I could climb up on the back of the trailer, but couldn't really apply a lot of force to the top of the door while still holding myself up. With a few tries, we managed to time it such that I swung over and gave the top of the door a shove and he engaged the latches before I lost my balance and had to jump down. Good deal. He still had to take the trailer to the shop but at least he wouldn't be going down the road with the doors halfway latched.
I found that I had a pre-plan waiting for me when I got back in my truck. There were essentially two questions to answer when I looked at the screen. Would I be getting away from the West Coast and would I get enough weekend miles to have a decent paycheck. Yes and... hell yes. I got a nice long deadhead back to the Con-way facility in Kettleman City and then a 2,131 mile run to Alabama for the weekend. Beauty. The usual Con-way routine would be to arrive at the terminal, drop my trailer, and spend the night, then leave with the load tomorrow. The mathematicians among you may already have figured out that this couldn't happen today. Seven hours of driving from Kettleman City to Redding would leave another seven hours of driving to get back to Kettleman City. We're allowed eleven hours in a day, so... yeah. I got down to Lodi tonight before hanging it up. I'll have to finish the drive down to Kettleman City in the morning and then make my drop/hook. I'm not due to pick up until 10am, so hopefully I'll manage to doze off for a few hours tonight before I have to get back on the road.
In following up on something mentioned in one of the recent comment threads, I fully recommend the BBC's series of Sherlock Holmes DVD's to those of you who are into that sort of thing. Jeremy Brett, in my humble opinion, is the quintessential Holmes. Think you can guess what I'm doing tonight?
He crew both loud and shrill
I awoke in California
Many miles from Spancil Hill... ♫
I managed to go to bed early enough to get some sleep before this morning's 2am alarm. And I think I finally reached dreamland maybe an hour before the alarm went off. That sucked. Then, to add insult to injury, my load wasn't ready until the last second. I could have used that extra hour and a half of sleep. Oh well. Off to the big road...
I managed to hit Sacramento right at rush hour in the morning. Then I realized that Sacramento is largely irrelevant in the world of rush hour traffic. I didn't hit any slowdowns so I had time for a fuel stop and a bite to eat in Dunnigan before finishing the trip to Redding. This was my first trip to the Con-way terminal in Redding. And, right on cue, I passed the terminal as I turned onto the street where it is located. That's a tiny little rinky-dink facility and you have to make an immediate left into the lot once you reach the street. So I continued onward, looking for somewhere to turn around. And I continued... and I continued. There was nowhere that I could turn around and the road got progressively skinnier and skinner. It was starting to look pretty bleak when I spotted a little dirt path that seemed like it might do the trick.
I passed the path (moving toward the southwest) and backed my trailer into the opening in the trees, then used the wider area near the road to swing my tractor back toward the northeast. If not for that opening, I suspected that I was going to find myself in an impossible situation. This evening's review of the satellite image of the surrounding area seems to confirm my suspicion. Not lucky. Blessed.
Back at the yard, I got checked in and settled at the dock. The lady giving the instructions was clearly new at this game but she was quite beautiful, so somehow I didn't mind. My assignment said that I would be getting unloaded and keeping my trailer, but after an hour or so a guy told me that I could drop my trailer and pull the one from the next dock. Good deal. While I was sitting at the dock, one of my colleagues came over and mentioned that he had been given a damaged trailer and that the doors wouldn't close. I had some time to kill so I went over to see if the two of us could manage to get them shut so that he could take the trailer to a repair shop. The corner of the door on the right had been banged pretty hard and the hinges were all bent to hell. I was thinking that I could push on the top of the door while he tried to secure it and maybe we would have some luck. It turned out that I could climb up on the back of the trailer, but couldn't really apply a lot of force to the top of the door while still holding myself up. With a few tries, we managed to time it such that I swung over and gave the top of the door a shove and he engaged the latches before I lost my balance and had to jump down. Good deal. He still had to take the trailer to the shop but at least he wouldn't be going down the road with the doors halfway latched.
I found that I had a pre-plan waiting for me when I got back in my truck. There were essentially two questions to answer when I looked at the screen. Would I be getting away from the West Coast and would I get enough weekend miles to have a decent paycheck. Yes and... hell yes. I got a nice long deadhead back to the Con-way facility in Kettleman City and then a 2,131 mile run to Alabama for the weekend. Beauty. The usual Con-way routine would be to arrive at the terminal, drop my trailer, and spend the night, then leave with the load tomorrow. The mathematicians among you may already have figured out that this couldn't happen today. Seven hours of driving from Kettleman City to Redding would leave another seven hours of driving to get back to Kettleman City. We're allowed eleven hours in a day, so... yeah. I got down to Lodi tonight before hanging it up. I'll have to finish the drive down to Kettleman City in the morning and then make my drop/hook. I'm not due to pick up until 10am, so hopefully I'll manage to doze off for a few hours tonight before I have to get back on the road.
In following up on something mentioned in one of the recent comment threads, I fully recommend the BBC's series of Sherlock Holmes DVD's to those of you who are into that sort of thing. Jeremy Brett, in my humble opinion, is the quintessential Holmes. Think you can guess what I'm doing tonight?
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
7/8/09
Easy start to the day, eh? Yeah... easy my ass. I only had to drive six miles or so in order to arrive at what seemed like it may or may not have been my consignee. Turns out that it really was the driveway for ole Bob and Jeanne's alpaca farm. There's some sort of agricultural work going on in the field out in front of the farm. Those agricultural guys were my customers. I swung wide to my right and started to make the left into the driveway. Shit. Not gonna happen. The gate also happened to be locked but that was a non-issue at the moment. Gotta get into the driveway before you can pass through the gate. You know what's worse than trying to make a turn and then realizing that it ain't gonna happen? Backing out of the same turn onto the street while people are trying to get to work.
So much for the easy start. Backing out didn't turn out to be quite as tough as it normally would have been. I hadn't made it far enough into the forward turn to give up my dominion over the street, so the traffic had no choice but to sit and wait while I reversed my course. I just had to keep a really close eye on my right side as I cleared a wooden post by a few inches. Then I had to figure out what would happen next.
It took me about five miles of driving before I found somewhere to turn around. As I got situated and started back toward the scene of the crime, I made a call to my fleet manager to see if there were any further instructions. Nope. So I was going back to a driveway that was too skinny to enter and delivering to a customer who wasn't there. Good deal. We concluded that I would try to get as close as I could and wait for the customer to show up, then take it from there. As I got back to the consignee's street, I started looking for somewhere to pull my truck over so I could walk to the gate. The road had no shoulder and I never did see a suitable spot to pull over.
As I approached the customer's driveway from the west, I saw that the gate had been opened while I was getting turned around. Ergo one of my issues had been resolved. All that was left was the matter of the skinny driveway with wooden posts on each side. I paused for a second and then arrived at my usual conclusion - "Ah, what the hell, why not?" The left turn was slightly sharper than 90º on my initial approach from the east, so coming from the west would theoretically make the right turn slightly easier. I swung all the way to the far side of the road and took a look to my right. Then I swung off the road as much as I could while keeping the majority of my tires on the asphalt. It's generally not too smart to drive off the road, since there's no telling how firm the off-road surface is, but I was feeling adventurous. The extra couple of feet and the slightly more obtuse angle gave me just enough room to get into the driveway. Beauty.
A bunch of guys came toward the driveway as I pulled in. It seemed to me that one of two things was likely. Either they had been expecting me and they were coming over to unload the trailer or they were simply wondering what in the hell such a big vehicle was doing on their little dirt driveway. Thankfully it was the former and not the latter. The first guy apologized for having the gate closed when I arrived the first time. I probably could have let him think that this was the reason I had to back out, but I went ahead and told him that I hadn't cleared the turn anyway. Leave the fella with a clear conscience. That's what I say.
Those guys had me unloaded in short order and I received a less than desirable pre-plan in the interim. There was no logical place to turn around a truck and trailer, so they told me to swing around into the empty field in order to get headed back toward the street. I wasn't sold on that idea at first but the boss man informed me that the surface was plenty firm. Armed with the knowledge that the ground probably wouldn't swallow my tires, I decided that I could probably get away with going further off the road than I had previously gone. Thus, I chose to give that sharper eastbound turn a go as I exited. I had to take both steer tires and one drive tire completely off the road to make it, but I managed to get back onto the street without flipping my truck. Small victories, my friends, small victories.
My next load assignment is one picking up at the Con-way terminal in Kettleman City at 3:30am tomorrow so I had lots of time to kill. I drove back over to Casa de Fruta to kill some time in the comfortable mountain air before heading back down into the valley. Since I had already eaten dinner before I arrived last night, I decided to try the restaurant for breakfast today. Not bad at all. Western omelet with roasted redskin potatoes... bueno. As a gentleman of Irish extraction I certainly appreciate the potato in all its glorious forms, so I mean no disrespect to the hash brown. Hash browns serve a noble purpose at fast food restaurants and cheap diners all over the world. A good roasted redskin with peppers and onions is a far better complement to a nice omelet though. There's simply no comparison.
The carousel is closed down presently but you bet your ass I caught a ride on the choo choo before I took off. Then it was back out to the highway to do that bothersome little job of mine. The drive to Kettleman City consisted of 130 miles through lightly populated areas with an empty trailer. I guess we got the easy finish to the day instead of the easy start. It's pretty warm down here but not quite as hot as it was yesterday. I'm not too uncomfortable just yet. We'll see when it's time to go to bed. Both the state of California and the Con-way Freight company prohibit idling the truck. Of course the three other trucks here (two of them CTL trucks) are idling away. If I have trouble sleeping... well, hang on, that just sounds stupid. I always have trouble sleeping. If I have more trouble sleeping than I normally have on account of the temperature... that's more like it... I might end up firing up the engine and joining their rather noisy expression of defiance.
Tomorrow's trip will take me straight up I-5 to Redding. Hopefully it will be ready before the scheduled 3:30am, since I'm being given until 11am to cover 380 miles. Can't absorb too many slowdowns or potty breaks on that kind of schedule in a 55mph state.
So much for the easy start. Backing out didn't turn out to be quite as tough as it normally would have been. I hadn't made it far enough into the forward turn to give up my dominion over the street, so the traffic had no choice but to sit and wait while I reversed my course. I just had to keep a really close eye on my right side as I cleared a wooden post by a few inches. Then I had to figure out what would happen next.
It took me about five miles of driving before I found somewhere to turn around. As I got situated and started back toward the scene of the crime, I made a call to my fleet manager to see if there were any further instructions. Nope. So I was going back to a driveway that was too skinny to enter and delivering to a customer who wasn't there. Good deal. We concluded that I would try to get as close as I could and wait for the customer to show up, then take it from there. As I got back to the consignee's street, I started looking for somewhere to pull my truck over so I could walk to the gate. The road had no shoulder and I never did see a suitable spot to pull over.
As I approached the customer's driveway from the west, I saw that the gate had been opened while I was getting turned around. Ergo one of my issues had been resolved. All that was left was the matter of the skinny driveway with wooden posts on each side. I paused for a second and then arrived at my usual conclusion - "Ah, what the hell, why not?" The left turn was slightly sharper than 90º on my initial approach from the east, so coming from the west would theoretically make the right turn slightly easier. I swung all the way to the far side of the road and took a look to my right. Then I swung off the road as much as I could while keeping the majority of my tires on the asphalt. It's generally not too smart to drive off the road, since there's no telling how firm the off-road surface is, but I was feeling adventurous. The extra couple of feet and the slightly more obtuse angle gave me just enough room to get into the driveway. Beauty.
A bunch of guys came toward the driveway as I pulled in. It seemed to me that one of two things was likely. Either they had been expecting me and they were coming over to unload the trailer or they were simply wondering what in the hell such a big vehicle was doing on their little dirt driveway. Thankfully it was the former and not the latter. The first guy apologized for having the gate closed when I arrived the first time. I probably could have let him think that this was the reason I had to back out, but I went ahead and told him that I hadn't cleared the turn anyway. Leave the fella with a clear conscience. That's what I say.
Those guys had me unloaded in short order and I received a less than desirable pre-plan in the interim. There was no logical place to turn around a truck and trailer, so they told me to swing around into the empty field in order to get headed back toward the street. I wasn't sold on that idea at first but the boss man informed me that the surface was plenty firm. Armed with the knowledge that the ground probably wouldn't swallow my tires, I decided that I could probably get away with going further off the road than I had previously gone. Thus, I chose to give that sharper eastbound turn a go as I exited. I had to take both steer tires and one drive tire completely off the road to make it, but I managed to get back onto the street without flipping my truck. Small victories, my friends, small victories.
My next load assignment is one picking up at the Con-way terminal in Kettleman City at 3:30am tomorrow so I had lots of time to kill. I drove back over to Casa de Fruta to kill some time in the comfortable mountain air before heading back down into the valley. Since I had already eaten dinner before I arrived last night, I decided to try the restaurant for breakfast today. Not bad at all. Western omelet with roasted redskin potatoes... bueno. As a gentleman of Irish extraction I certainly appreciate the potato in all its glorious forms, so I mean no disrespect to the hash brown. Hash browns serve a noble purpose at fast food restaurants and cheap diners all over the world. A good roasted redskin with peppers and onions is a far better complement to a nice omelet though. There's simply no comparison.
The carousel is closed down presently but you bet your ass I caught a ride on the choo choo before I took off. Then it was back out to the highway to do that bothersome little job of mine. The drive to Kettleman City consisted of 130 miles through lightly populated areas with an empty trailer. I guess we got the easy finish to the day instead of the easy start. It's pretty warm down here but not quite as hot as it was yesterday. I'm not too uncomfortable just yet. We'll see when it's time to go to bed. Both the state of California and the Con-way Freight company prohibit idling the truck. Of course the three other trucks here (two of them CTL trucks) are idling away. If I have trouble sleeping... well, hang on, that just sounds stupid. I always have trouble sleeping. If I have more trouble sleeping than I normally have on account of the temperature... that's more like it... I might end up firing up the engine and joining their rather noisy expression of defiance.
Tomorrow's trip will take me straight up I-5 to Redding. Hopefully it will be ready before the scheduled 3:30am, since I'm being given until 11am to cover 380 miles. Can't absorb too many slowdowns or potty breaks on that kind of schedule in a 55mph state.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
7/7/09
A proud day for all Minnesotans, I'm sure. Really though, why not? What's one more clown out of 535? Congratulations, Senator Franken. Best of luck to you.Allowing for the fact that the low speed limit tacked on an hour to my day (compared to the usual 65mph pace), I have to say that things went rather smoothly. I hit Pasadena right at noon so the traffic in that area was about as light as it will get. Then I was up well past Grapevine before the afternoon rush kicked in. For the most part I was able to sit in the right lane and watch the traffic pass me. The news updates on the radio indicated that the cops had to stop traffic in L.A. after the big memorial shindig but I was long gone by the time that happened.
I see that they're still having water issues in the San Joaquin Valley. You can't go half a mile without seeing a sign or billboard referring to the "Congress Created Dust Bowl." 40% unemployment? That's pretty rough, man. I'm no expert on California matters, but the folks in that area have always seemed like decent, hardworking people to me.
I caught up with CA-152 westward and decided to pass on the Petro in San Luis, instead taking my chances on finding parking at the truck stop in Hollister. Good deal there. This place is actually more of a winery/deli/bakery/restaurant/convenience store with truck parking. Casa de Fruta, if you happen to be passing through. Nice place. And it's up in the mountains so I get to enjoy a nice and comfortable 70º evening instead of the 95º that I saw earlier in the day.
I'm somewhere around ten miles north of town right now, so I'll have a nice easy start to the day tomorrow. My directions say that I'm delivering to some kind of research company, but they kinda make it sound like I'm going to someone's house. When I type the adress into Google... I don't know. Hopefully Bill and Jeanne have room for me to maneuver a big truck around their driveway. The freight itself shouldn't be much of an issue, even if it has to be unloaded by hand. I would just hate to run over an alpaca or two while I'm there.
I wonder if Obama and Putin had a chat about this chick. Yikes.
Monday, July 6, 2009
7/6/09
And so it comes full circle. I was spared a trip to the People's Republic last week on account of an illegally loaded trailer in Laredo. Then I had a pre-planned assignment that ostensibly would take me back eastward after I delivered in Nogales. That load never made it across the border, so now I'm once again bound for California. This load weighs about five hundred pounds though, so I don't think we'll be having any axle issues.
Under our antiquated layover system, I am entitled to a whopping $60 any time that I'm on the board for at least 48 hours. So after waking this afternoon and finding that my assigned trailer was nowhere to be found, I took note of the fact that my 48 hours would be up before long. In my 45th hour I was re-assigned. Yeah, go figure. A mere coincidence, no doubt.
My newly assigned trailer was among the twelve on the list that I sent to the bosses on Saturday evening. Anyone who has spent a weekend at one of our border drop lots can tell you that this is hardly a surprise. There seems to be some kind of statutory requirement that we can't get an early start with loads that are sitting on the lot. They have to sit there for a while and we have to sit there right next to them. In this weekend's case I had a pre-plan, which changes the narrative slightly, but that didn't exactly work out either. Usually we'll be on the board for a day or so and then they'll tell us to pick up a trailer that has been there the whole time. In any event, I was given my new assignment today and I got all hooked up and ready to go.
One quick thing to do first though. I needed to go to another broker down the street and pick up a check before I could leave Nogales. I've never had a C.O.D. load before, but it didn't seem like a complicated issue. (Doesn't the 'D' stand for 'delivery' though? I guess 'C.O.P.' might have been too confusing.) I went over to the other broker and checked in with the guys in the office. Not surprisingly, they had no idea what I was talking about. Come on guys. People don't always stop by and ask you for a few thousand dollars, for loads that have nothing to do with you? So I had to exchange a handful of phone calls with my fleet manager, who then had to exchange a handful of calls with our customer service people, who then had to exchange a handful of calls with whomever they are inclined to contact.
First step - make sure I was at the right place... Yep. Next step - find some dude named Mario... Nobody named Mario here. Next - confirm that I'm at the right place... Yep, and I'll do you one better. I'm at the Valencia Warehouse (as directed) and I happen to be speaking with Jose Valencia (the owner). How 'bout them apples? Next - let the guys at the warehouse know that I don't need a check directly from them. Rather they're supposed to be holding a check from some other company to give to me... Nope.
I went out to my truck and hung out for a while. After hearing nothing further from anybody, I sent a message via satellite and asked if the folks in Joplin had any news. No sooner did I push 'send' than a guy came walking out of the warehouse with a check in his hand. It was dated June 16th and printed out for the exact amount that I had been told to collect. He asked if I was going to California and if I would be able to make it by tomorrow. I guess you could say that he seemed pretty well-informed. But nobody knew anything about the damned check the first five times I asked? Weird. Maybe it showed up in today's mail or something. I don't know.
The delays had left me with some hard driving to do. My load was set to deliver in Hollister, California by 4pm tomorrow. I had enough time to make it, but getting past the L.A. area and enduring the double-nickel routine for half the trip wouldn't leave me a whole lot of wiggle room. A few minutes after my dispatch I received a message saying that the consignee couldn't take the load at 4pm tomorrow and that my appointment had been changed to 9am Wednesday. Good enough then. With the new schedule and a little more flexibility, I decided to stop in Quartzsite for the night and avoid the environmental Gestapo for at least one more day. It's hard to reconcile the notion that we want well-rested drivers on our highways with the notion that it was 100º when the sun went down and we can't idle our trucks in the People's Republic.
I'll have a pretty long day of driving tomorrow, but I think I've had plenty of rest over the last couple of days. My directory says that there's a truck stop with a medium lot in Hollister. As long as I don't drag my feet too much in the morning, I imagine I can get there early enough to snag a spot. These people do operate on that weird Pacific Time, you know. Think I should try to scalp a ticket?
Under our antiquated layover system, I am entitled to a whopping $60 any time that I'm on the board for at least 48 hours. So after waking this afternoon and finding that my assigned trailer was nowhere to be found, I took note of the fact that my 48 hours would be up before long. In my 45th hour I was re-assigned. Yeah, go figure. A mere coincidence, no doubt.
My newly assigned trailer was among the twelve on the list that I sent to the bosses on Saturday evening. Anyone who has spent a weekend at one of our border drop lots can tell you that this is hardly a surprise. There seems to be some kind of statutory requirement that we can't get an early start with loads that are sitting on the lot. They have to sit there for a while and we have to sit there right next to them. In this weekend's case I had a pre-plan, which changes the narrative slightly, but that didn't exactly work out either. Usually we'll be on the board for a day or so and then they'll tell us to pick up a trailer that has been there the whole time. In any event, I was given my new assignment today and I got all hooked up and ready to go.
One quick thing to do first though. I needed to go to another broker down the street and pick up a check before I could leave Nogales. I've never had a C.O.D. load before, but it didn't seem like a complicated issue. (Doesn't the 'D' stand for 'delivery' though? I guess 'C.O.P.' might have been too confusing.) I went over to the other broker and checked in with the guys in the office. Not surprisingly, they had no idea what I was talking about. Come on guys. People don't always stop by and ask you for a few thousand dollars, for loads that have nothing to do with you? So I had to exchange a handful of phone calls with my fleet manager, who then had to exchange a handful of calls with our customer service people, who then had to exchange a handful of calls with whomever they are inclined to contact.
First step - make sure I was at the right place... Yep. Next step - find some dude named Mario... Nobody named Mario here. Next - confirm that I'm at the right place... Yep, and I'll do you one better. I'm at the Valencia Warehouse (as directed) and I happen to be speaking with Jose Valencia (the owner). How 'bout them apples? Next - let the guys at the warehouse know that I don't need a check directly from them. Rather they're supposed to be holding a check from some other company to give to me... Nope.
I went out to my truck and hung out for a while. After hearing nothing further from anybody, I sent a message via satellite and asked if the folks in Joplin had any news. No sooner did I push 'send' than a guy came walking out of the warehouse with a check in his hand. It was dated June 16th and printed out for the exact amount that I had been told to collect. He asked if I was going to California and if I would be able to make it by tomorrow. I guess you could say that he seemed pretty well-informed. But nobody knew anything about the damned check the first five times I asked? Weird. Maybe it showed up in today's mail or something. I don't know.
The delays had left me with some hard driving to do. My load was set to deliver in Hollister, California by 4pm tomorrow. I had enough time to make it, but getting past the L.A. area and enduring the double-nickel routine for half the trip wouldn't leave me a whole lot of wiggle room. A few minutes after my dispatch I received a message saying that the consignee couldn't take the load at 4pm tomorrow and that my appointment had been changed to 9am Wednesday. Good enough then. With the new schedule and a little more flexibility, I decided to stop in Quartzsite for the night and avoid the environmental Gestapo for at least one more day. It's hard to reconcile the notion that we want well-rested drivers on our highways with the notion that it was 100º when the sun went down and we can't idle our trucks in the People's Republic.
I'll have a pretty long day of driving tomorrow, but I think I've had plenty of rest over the last couple of days. My directory says that there's a truck stop with a medium lot in Hollister. As long as I don't drag my feet too much in the morning, I imagine I can get there early enough to snag a spot. These people do operate on that weird Pacific Time, you know. Think I should try to scalp a ticket?
Sunday, July 5, 2009
7/5/09
Still in Nogales. Still no trailer. Blah. At least my logbook will reset. I was going to be bumping against the 70 hour rule within a day or two without a 34-hour restart. Maybe I'll drive somewhere tomorrow... or something.
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