1/26/10

On January 17th, I picked up a pre-loaded trailer full of paper in West Point, Virginia. I drove all day on the 18th and spent the night in Elkhart, Indiana. My trailer full of paper was unloaded in nearby New Carlisle, Indiana on the morning of the 19th. From there, I headed to Kouts, Indiana and picked up a load of steel in the same trailer. I hauled the trailer full of steel through Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine in less than two days. After that breakneck run, I delivered the load of steel in Milbridge, Maine on the morning of the 21st.

Following my early morning delivery in Maine, I pulled that same empty trailer down to New Hampshire. There I picked up various pieces of furniture and such on the morning of the 22nd. I then drove the loaded trailer through New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. On my way through Ohio, I stopped to get an annual inspection on my truck. I also had a turn signal issue that needed to be addressed. The service writer at the Petro asked if the inspection was only for the truck or if it was for both the truck and the trailer. "They may tell you to do the trailer too," I replied. "All I was told was that the truck was due." So he took my information and sent an electronic message to our road service department for approval. 'E-shop,' they call it. Fancy. Then he told me to pull into Bay #4. I asked if I was bringing the trailer into the bay or just the truck. I was told to pull only my truck into the service bay, as the folks in Joplin had said nothing about the trailer.

I spent that night (the 23rd) in the Toledo area and then had a short trip across Indiana on the 24th. On the morning of the 25th, my trailer was unloaded and then I pulled it over to the Kenworth dealer in Joliet, Illinois, where I needed to have some work done on my truck. The work on the truck was finished late in the day on the 25th.

All caught up now? That's nine full days with the same trailer, before today. Rarely do I have a single trailer for nine straight days without a drop/hook at some point along the way, but here we are.

After I got back on the board this morning, it didn't take long for a new assignment to come across the satellite. I had to pick up my next load this afternoon in Peoria, Illinois. My appointment was for 3:30pm, so I hung around in Joliet until 11am and then headed out. I arrived in Peoria, with my same trusted trailer in tow, right around 2pm. The guy in the shipping office directed me to a dock right away, so I took this as a good sign. The process of loading my trailer took a while, but I was rolling by 4pm so everything was looking pretty good.

My loaded run was taking me from Peoria to Waverly, Nebraska. Since I hadn't left Joliet too early, I still had enough time on both my 11 and 14 hour clocks to reach Waverly in one shot. Straight across Iowa on US-34, up to Council Bluffs on I-29, and then into Nebraska on I-80. Nice and neat.

Since I've filled far too much of this space with a bunch of mundane information regarding the travels of a given trailer, I'll bet some of you can guess what came next. Apparently the aforementioned trailer was due for an annual inspection and it had to be done right away. Well isn't that nice? After pulling the damned thing all over the eastern half of the country for nine days, I find out that I have to get it inspected just as I embark across a vast stretch of nothingness. And, of course, this delivery will be a drop/hook so I can't just get the inspection done afterward.

As I sat stopped at a red light outside Peoria, I took a quick look at my truck stop directory and saw that there wouldn't be jack shit in terms of major truck stops until I got to Council Bluffs. No problem though. I would hit the T/A in Council Bluffs, get my inspections done (truck still needs one too), and then hopefully finish the run before my 14 hour clock ran out. I pulled into the T/A at 11pm and checked with the girl behind the service counter. She said that I could get a D.O.T. inspection... at 4am. So I was basically screwed as nearly as I could tell. 14 hour clock runs out at 1am, scheduled delivery for 11am, nowhere to park at the crappy little T/A, etc. I couldn't stay parked at the fuel island all night, so I hit the highway and dialed our road service department to let them know what was going on.

I'm not suggesting that these actual words were spoken (as the conversation itself was professional enough), but the message that I came away with was, "Tough shit, dude. Deal with it." They didn't care that I was supposed to deliver the load in Waverly tomorrow morning. I was not to drop the trailer until it had been inspected. And, believe it or not, we're not even to the part that really made my blood boil yet.

Not only had I been dragging around a trailer for ten days before learning that it needed an inspection... and not only had I told the guy at the Petro in Ohio to see if it needed an inspection... and not only did I find out that it needed an inspection as I started a trip across a route with very few truck stops... and not only did my dispatched ETA fail to account for any time spent in a shop... and not only did the (24-hour) T/A shop not have a mechanic on duty at 11pm... All of those factors certainly came into play, but get this - I was told that the trailer had been due for an inspection since December. You have got to be fucking kidding me. Sometimes it is a very, very good thing that nobody is around me while I'm working.

After some back and forth on the phone, I was told that I could try the Speedco at Exit 1B in Council Bluffs. There was only one problem with that advice - I was crossing the bridge into Nebraska as I received it. Exit 1B already had disappeared from my rearview. I didn't have a bunch of extra time, so doubling back and driving in circles wasn't going to help my cause at all. One last shot then. I could try the Sapp Brothers at Exit 440 in Nebraska, but the road service guy wasn't sure if they would be open so late at night. I ducked off the highway and took a look. Nope. Closed. I found a parking space and backed in, then made a call to the dispatcher people to see what would come next. I had been told that I couldn't deliver the load without having the trailer inspected. I couldn't have the trailer inspected until the shop opened. By the time the shop opened, I would be on a legally mandated rest break. By the time my break was over, there wouldn't be time to have the inspection done and still make my dispatched ETA in Waverly. Got all that? Good.

I made my phone call to Joplin and pressed '1' to speak with a dispatcher. The phone rang and rang with no answer. Thinking that perhaps I just got a bad line, I hung up and tried again. It rang and rang with no answer. On the third try, thoroughly pissed off about the whole ordeal at this point, I decided that I would let the damned phone ring all night if I had to. It disconnected me after four or five minutes of uninterrupted ringing. So the next step was to try distilling everything into a brief satellite message. I did my best to bullet-point the situation and concluded by saying that I would need a new ETA. I got a quick reply saying that I just needed to let them know when I would be in Waverly. Fair enough, but I really can't say for sure. That part will depend on how quickly I can get in and out of the shop tomorrow.

Assuming that I don't hit any major snags in the morning, I'll actually have to concede that today was fairly productive. The weather was fine, the traffic was fine, and the miles were good. When it comes to the piss-poor communication end of things, I suppose that I should heed my own frequent advice and just let it go. I can only do what I'm told, to whatever extent the law allows, and then leave the rest for the important people to figure out. Now it's time for this peon to get a little sleep.