7/30/10

I think that the oddsmakers at the Fenian Godfather Handicapping Service might want to start updating their resumés.  "The risk would be that they end up pulling me in early again and I've only had a few hours of sleep, but I'm under the impression that the manpower is more lacking on the late shift this time around. I'll play the odds."  I'm such a sucker.  At least the dispatcher dude didn't call until 10:30am today.

I was expecting to pull my first trailer at 6pm today and then return to the dairy for a second load on the overnight shift.  Not so fast, my friends.  A special order came up and I was going to need to cover it.  Once I heard the details, I was quite content to get out of bed and get ready for work.  Three pallets to Ferndale and another three pallets to Sterling Heights.  The load was scheduled for 1:30pm and paid $84.58, plus my $15 incentive for taking a second run.  After I had made the two quick and easy stops, I would return to the dairy and pull my originally scheduled load.  Instead of running until 7am tomorrow, I would be wrapping up around midnight tonight.  Not bad.

The paperwork wasn't ready when I got to the dairy, so I had to hang around for twenty minutes or so.  As I watched the time ticking off the clock in my truck, it occurred to me that I would be crossing Detroit right in the middle of rush hour.  Bummer.  Still though, catching almost a hundred bucks for a few hours of work couldn't be too terrible.

My drive over to Ferndale was pretty straightforward.  The store is located at the corner of 8 Mile and Wyoming so there's plenty of traffic in the area, but I had been there once before.  On that first trip, I made the mistake of entering the store's parking lot from 8 Mile.  Bad move.  There was no room for me to spin around and face in the correct direction once I got into the lot, so I wound up having to back around the corner of the store and between parked cars in order to get pointed the right way.  Thank God it was late at night, giving me a sporting chance of navigating the parking lot without running over anyone.  No such drama today though.  I came in via the side driveway on Wyoming and circled behind the store.  Once I got around to the loading docks I was already pointed to the south, as I needed to be.  Beauty.

Getting from Ferndale to Sterling Heights on a Friday afternoon... if you don't know, I'm not gonna tell you.  Seriously.  The freeway was pretty much a parking lot from Royal Oak to Troy.  I got to my second and last stop eventually though.  The dairy guy basically did all of the work for me, although it really was only three pallets.  I grabbed three stacks of empty cases from outside so that I could shove them into the trailer after homeboy was finished.  He got all the milk out and I got all the empties in.  Fifteen minutes - sayonara.  Beauty.

As I headed back toward the dairy to retrieve my second load, I got a call from the dispatcher.  I've essentially concluded at this point that I should never answer the phone, but I answered it today.  The dispatcher was wondering how far I was from Livonia.  Around 10-20 miles was my best guess.  That was perfect, I was told.  There had been a change in plans.  Instead of pulling my three-stop load and spending seven or eight hours delivering milk, I would be taking a trailer from our other dairy and making a Grand Rapids turn.  Six bucks more in pay - good.  One fewer hour of work - good.  No dealing with insane loading docks or pallet jacks for the rest of the day - excellent!  I probably wouldn't mind phone calls from dispatchers if they always made my life easier like this one did.

I rolled into Livonia and dropped off my trailer full of empty cases a short time later.  As I rolled past the guard shack, my phone rang again.  Yep, it was work calling.  Dude, don't even tell me that I'm getting stuck back on a milk delivery run.  "Hey Joe, one more change in plans..."  Shit.  What now?  This call actually turned out to be another one that made my life easier.  Instead of taking a trailer from Livonia to Grand Rapids, then bringing another one back to Livonia, I would be bobtailing out to G.R. and then bringing a loaded trailer back with me.  Beauty.

My drop/hook (without the drop) went perfectly and I got back to Livonia by 11:15pm.  Inspection done by 11:30pm and we have ourselves a ten-hour day.  For another $250 in earnings, I think I can handle that sort of schedule.

Wait a minute.  The estimate for a small dent and some scratches on my car is $1,400?  Damn.  Maybe this trucking stuff is just completely the wrong line of work.  Maybe I need to start scamming insurance companies.