Jackass.
Anyone who caught the comment thread on yesterday's post already knows that I got some bad news of my own. My poor little motor has indeed gone kaput. I made my call to AAA this morning, at which point I learned that I get 15 miles of free towing, not 5. The guy from the local Amoco (I thought it was all BP now?) shop showed up within five minutes and I was at my destination ten minutes after that.
Once my buddy picked me up at the shop and drove me home, it was time to get ready for work. Just before I headed out the door I got the call. This is broken... that's something else... the other thing is whatever. It's all Greek, dude. What I understood was that I need a new motor. That part was perfectly clear. The mechanic guy said that he had made several calls without being able to find a motor for me. He was going to check the internet and see what he could do. Pretty good idea, I say. Mr. Gore's fine invention will reveal numerous sites where I can get a remanufactured engine with a decent warranty at a decent price. I didn't hear back from the fella today though, so maybe he just doesn't have the same mad internet skills (aka Google) that I have... or something.
Work was another place where the inevitable laws of nature would have to bounce back in response to how smoothly yesterday went. I checked in at the terminal, grabbed a truck, and headed down the street to the dairy. Upon arrival, I parked and headed into the shipping office. It turns out that they had booked five of our trucks today and I was the fifth to arrive. Alas, there were only four loads. I was shit outta luck.
Back over at the terminal, the dispatcher set to work trying to figure out what to do with me. My union contract stipulates that I get four hours of pay if I show up on time and then get sent home through no fault of my own. That's not a very good way to spend the company's money and it wouldn't exactly make a very profitable day for me, so the best thing to do was put me to work. All of today's milk loads were already covered though. So I got to cruise around and pick up pallets of empty cases for a while. By the time I had spent six hours going to four stores and filling my trailer with empties, my day was done. My mileage and stop pay wound up coming in just over $130, so I'll get the guaranteed minimum of ~$140 for the day. Good enough.
After tonight's workout I'm feeling pretty run down physically, but for whatever reason I'm still awake. Tomorrow is my day off so I can sleep whenever I feel like it, but I would kinda like to catch up with a couple of friends before the day is too far gone. We'll see how it goes.
I have the same agreement different union and industry but no no work 4 hours pay.
ReplyDeleteGotta get something for those monthly dues, I suppose. You know, aside from the wicked expensive health insurance that provides all kinds of coverage that I don't need.
ReplyDeleteHey Joe,
ReplyDeleteRemember me? I resigned from Conway Truckload because of a high dollar load screwup in 2008. I posted in the CTL forum something like "I thought CTL was the perfect trucking job, I had no complaints and didnt blame CTL for asking me to resign.
Anywho after 19mos w/out a steady job I've been hired by a small local company (9 trks) as a dispatcher/load planner/log specialist/bookkeeper! I love it, variety=beauty. I began a blog about my experience tonight, check it out when you can, tell me what you think http://allniter89.blogspot.com/2010/09/good-news-at-last.html.
Glad things are going reasonably well with your somewhat new job, I still enjoy your blog and read daily!
In case you haven't chosen an engine you might consider this: www.jasperengines.com. A year and 11,000 miles ago I got a transmission from them and so far, so good.
ReplyDeleteHey Mike. Glad to hear that you got yourself settled into a new gig. (Clickable link)
ReplyDeleteSounds like they're throwing everything at you right away, so you'll be an old hand before too long. Then the drivers are officially allowed to call you names... or something.
I'm not sure which remanufacturer the mechanic dude uses. It may be Jasper but I don't think so. They list 3 years and 100K as their standard warranty. The guy told me that I'll get 3 years and unlimited miles.
ReplyDeleteThis is a distinction without a difference of course, since I'll never drive 100K miles in three years anyway, but it leads me to believe that Jasper is not the supplier.