1/27/10

It usually takes quite a bit to push me across the line from indifference to annoyance. For whatever reason, it takes substantially less to push me from annoyance to anger. The best part, however, is that which always seems to follow anger. Time after time, year after year, in situation after situation, I find myself thoroughly amused for no apparent reason at all.

For instance, I was awakened by a satellite message this morning. Given the aggravation of last night and the late hour in which I finally fell asleep, this message was quite unwelcome. The message said that we've had people crashing and losing control and so forth. We need to be careful. Fair enough, but then the one that came two hours later actually made me laugh out loud. Congratulations to all of our drivers on our record-setting low accident frequency. Two separate metrics being discussed, of course, but it still was pretty funny to me.

After checking in with the service desk at the truck stop, I headed back out to my truck and waited for a phone call. The guy writing up the work order said that he would call me when he had an open bay. After an hour or so of waiting, I got my phone call. The Sapp Brothers shop had called the CTL road service department and gotten approval... to do an inspection on the truck only. Obviously this didn't square with what I was told last night so I made a call of my own to Joplin.

In true trucker story fashion, I now say to you - Y'all ain't gonna believe this shit. Remember how I was absolutely not allowed to drop that trailer last night without getting it inspected? Remember how it was due for inspection in December and not another day could be wasted? Remember how my delivery schedule was not at all important when compared to the need for that trailer inspection? Yeah, it turns out that the trailer in question had been inspected... in December... by our mechanics in Joplin. Priceless.

So I pulled in and got my D.O.T. inspection on the truck. Part of the reflective strip on one of my mud flaps had broken off some time ago, so they had to replace that. And, according to the inspector guy, I needed new shocks on my steer axle. It's a good thing I don't own a truck because I am usually inclined to think I'm getting scammed by these mechanics. I don't know exactly what a bad shock absorber looks like, I guess. They both looked fine to me. Anyhow, I got new shocks and then they sent me on my merry way with a passing inspection report. The bumps in the road don't feel any less bumpy, but whatever. I'm not a mechanic. I just do what I'm told.

After making my drop at the warehouse in Waverly, I pulled around and hooked to my assigned empty trailer. When I walked around and checked it over, I found that someone had banged the left door against something. I could get it closed, but the bottom edge was curled outward and didn't really make a seal with the floor of the trailer. Not necessarily a catastrophic issue but, depending on the type of freight being hauled, it could be a problem. A long drive on wet roads certainly would have brought a lot of moisture into play. So I got to call the road service guys one more time. They called a shop in Lincoln to see if I could get the repairs made today and then called me back to say that I could not. So I had to leave that trailer at the customer and grab a different one. The next one that I tried had a twisted frame or something, as the doors were very difficult to close. You know what? Screw it. I had seen my fill of maintenance issues by this point, so I had no desire to deal with a banged up trailer. I drove over to the newest one on the lot and took it. My patience only extends so far.

By the time all of the trailer hooking and unhooking was done, I had been at the customer's location for almost an hour. I expected that my next load would be picking up at the same place, but I didn't know for sure. The fact that an hour had gone by without a new assignment made me think that something else might be in store. I was getting hungry in any case, so I drove ten miles back to the east and got some lunch at the truck stop in Ashland. After hanging out there for an hour, I was sent back to Waverly for my next load. No great surprise, I suppose.

On the way back to Waverly, I received yet another in a long line of awesome satellite messages. Apparently, if our paid routing would take us through the rock slide area on I-40 in North Carolina, we need to notify the dispatchers before going out of route. You know, so that they can adjust the paid miles and such. "Please help us help you," the message concluded. In light of a recent pissing match, I find that one to be rather hilarious. My paid miles did get corrected in that case, but only after a few days and not through the normal channels. But who knows, maybe we're all on the same page now.

After the rest of the short drive to the warehouse, my drop/hook was quick and easy. I'll have a delivery in Minnesota on Friday morning and then another in Wisconsin at noon, so I didn't need to do a whole lot of driving this evening. I stopped for fuel in Council Bluffs and then parked for the night at the big truck stop in Avoca, Iowa. The drive from here to my first delivery is only around 310 miles and I can park at the consignee. No need to arrive early, so no need to start early. I do believe we'll declare tomorrow morning an alarm-free zone. Can't wait to see what kind of satellite message wakes me this time.

Oh yeah, one more thing makes me laugh out loud... big speech tonight. Good luck.