7/17/09

If you had to draw up a blueprint for how to completely screw a truck driver's day, you would do well to observe the following.

Up at the crack of dawn, I was able to get to my consignee in Richmond before the traffic got too heavy. That's always a plus. There was a sign on the road indicating that the warehouse held two street addresses - 4870 and 4830. I needed to go to 4870 so I took the first entrance. Around the back of the building, I found a door labeled 'receiving' and parked in front of it. My dispatch was for 7am but I had left a little early to make sure I wouldn't arrive late. I got there at 6:15am so I thought that I would have to kill 45 minutes. The sign on the door said that they opened at 7:30am. Okay, whatever. I sent a note to Joplin advising them of the discrepancy and then kicked back for a while.

At 7:30am, as I was getting out to try the receiving door, a lady walked out of the building and toward my truck. She said that she had been waiting for me on the other side of the building (4830). I showed her the paperwork (with the 4870 address) and apologized for keeping her waiting. She was pleasant enough and directed me on which dock to take once I drove around to the other side. After I was empty, I went back to where I had originally been sitting and parked to await my next assignment. I was #1 on the board and the weekend assignments are usually lined up early, so I was expecting to move somewhat quickly.

After an hour I had no work so I decided to take a nap. Three hours of sleep this morning did me far more good than the four hours last night. That's for sure. I got my assignment around 12:30pm. Deadhead 101 miles to Annandale, Virginia and pick up a relay going 24 miles to Manassas. Eh? That right there is what we in the business call a real shit sandwich. I got to head into the DC suburbs during the Friday afternoon rush and then deliver to another busy city, all for a whopping 125 miles. Obviously, it seemed to me, someone had broken down and I was going to have to take one for the team.

It took a little over three hours to reach the K Mart in Annandale, meaning that I was a little over an hour late for the relay. Yeah, 101 miles in 3+ hours. Like I said, shit sandwich. It turned out that the other driver wasn't broken down. He had made the trip from Greensboro, North Carolina to Annandale this morning and then waited a long time to be unloaded. By the time the workers were finished, he had run out of hours. 24 miles to go. I was lucky enough to be the closest driver. Yeah, like I said, shit sandwich.

I swapped trailers with him and then headed for Manassas. Along the way I called Joplin and asked the payroll lady to throw a week of vacation pay on next Friday's check, since it didn't look like I would be making any money this weekend. Then I had to call my fleet manager and let her know that the 30 minute dispatch for the 24 miles was the stuff of pure fantasy. She said that she wasn't worried about the time, but that the consignee's receiving hours ended at 4pm. Our customer service people hadn't been able to reach anyone, so we weren't entirely sure if they would take the load tonight or if we would have to find a place to dump it for the weekend. Sweet. After an hour, I managed to cover the 24 miles and arrive at the final stop.

The guy tried busting my balls a little and I tried sweet-talking him a little. I suspect that he was going to take the load anyway but we'll just go ahead and pretend that my apologies did some good in the matter. The consignees on this account are allowed two hours to unload their freight. Right at two hours, the same guy brought me my paperwork with the in and out times written at the bottom. He said that they needed five minutes to wrap up. They worked for another half hour. In light of the situation, I didn't see a need to be a dick about it. Take your free half hour dude. My day is blown anyway.

By the time I was empty, my 14 hour clock was expired. I sent in my empty call indicating that I had an hour, just to see if an assignment might come up. One didn't. I was #1 on the board though. After a little while, having seen nothing come across the satellite, I decided to send in my 'on break' form and call it a night. Apparently the powers that be are going to be checking our log books against GPS data starting within a couple of weeks. No need to try sneaking an assignment tonight and get myself in trouble, right?

So there we go. 125 miles. 5:15am start. 7:15pm finish. Oh yeah, I did get $6.25 in northeast pay. Can't forget about those big bucks. That, my friends, is how you completely screw a truck driver's day. I'm at 1,056 miles for the week so far. Maybe I can get a decent dispatch tomorrow or something before the pay period ends. We'll see.

Spending the night behind a shopping center isn't exactly a typical Friday occurrence in this line of work. As long as no cops bug me for parking here, I don't think it will be all that bad. A little change of pace from the truck stop life I guess. My Swedish buddy Sjoe seems to think he's found a local place to obtain some refreshment. I'll have to take his word for it. The Tigers are playing New York so maybe they'll be on ESPN or something.