10/28/09

One more reason that I should never be forced to wake before 10am - If I happen to go for a walk in search of something to eat, my options may very well consist of a candy bar or a jar of peanuts from Home Depot. Later in the day my choices would have been numerous. One more data point in a well-developed hypothesis, I'm afraid.

The unloading in Hot Springs went fairly quickly, after which I was dispatched to deliver in Benton. In a pleasant surprise, the segment of US-270 looping past the south side of Hot Springs was a freeway and, while it was a little curvy compared to the interstates, it was nothing like last night's approach on AR-7. My appointment in Benton was for noon but I headed straight there. Since my day had already begun and the 14 hour clock was ticking, there was no reason to sit around. And more importantly, those retail deliveries can be a bit of an adventure when one has to navigate around parked cars. I was hoping to find an empty lot by arriving before the store had opened. The lot did turn out to be empty and I lucked out by guessing correctly as to the orientation of the loading dock. It was still a tight environment but approaching from the right direction made a huge difference.

The forklift guy said that he was busy when I arrived and that I should check back with him around noon. So we arrive at my ill-fated search for sustenance. I took a walk across the shopping area and saw a few restaurants, so I doubled back and started checking the hours of operation. 11am-..., 11am-..., 11am-... and so on. Okay then, one more trip across the complex brought me back to the Home Depot. Open at 6am, of course. Peanuts for breakfast. They were pretty tasty peanuts though, so that's good.

As I sat reading the news of the day and waiting for noon to come around, I received a pre-planned assignment. Apparently I was supposed to go back in time to pickup in Pine Bluff today at 8am and then drive 763 miles to Laredo by tomorrow at 8am. Can't confirm that schedule, right? No way I could keep those appointments, after all. Of course I confirmed the schedule. We all know how the game is played. 8am is almost always a generic placeholder, even if a few individuals are not aware of this.

Around 11:30am, the same forklift guy from earlier came out and told me that he was ready. We opened up the doors and he got to work. My trailer was empty around an hour or so later. When I hopped in the back to sweep it out, I found some sort of yellow goo that had been spilled on the floor. I grabbed a couple of shop towels and some degreaser and did what I could in terms of cleaning it out. The yellow stuff was all gone but a pretty large greasy spot remained in its place. Shouldn't be a problem, I thought, as long as I didn't have to pick up any rolls of paper. Those paper people are some picky SOB's.

My dispatch to Pine Bluff gave me an hour and a half to cover the 46 miles from Benton. The trip turned out to be more like 65 miles (to the port on the far side of Pine Bluff) and it took the full hour and a half. Good enough. I went into the shipping office to check in and found one of my CTL colleagues at the window ahead of me. His pickup number was no good, so he had to go back out to his truck and get a different one. In related news, my pickup number was no good so I had to go back out to my truck and get a new one. Armed with our correct pickup numbers, we got checked in and then proceeded to the end of the lot to await our door assignments. The loads were brokered by another trucking company and we had no appointments, so we were in the "work in" pool - first come, first served.

Sitting down at the end of the lot, I caught a glimpse of the freight that was being loaded on the trucks at the docks. Rolls of paper. Oh boy. After a while, my colleague was sent to the dock. He backed in. The forklift guy engaged the dock plate and stepped into the trailer. The forklift guy disengaged the dock plate and said something to my colleague. My colleague closed his empty trailer and drove away. Flashbacks ensued. Freaking paper mills. My turn was next, so I backed my trailer (with its greasy spot on the floor) into the loading dock. They loaded me without incident and then I got to sit in the shipping office for another half hour as I waited for my paperwork.

Keeping in mind the original goofy schedule, we arrive at the loaded portion of this trip. I sent in my information and took off for the nearest CAT scale. I hadn't received a dispatch right away so I was getting suspicious. Just before I reached the truck stop with the scale, I got a message saying that the load was scheduled to deliver in Laredo by 3pm tomorrow and asking if I could "legally" make it. Good to see that they're including legality in the communications these days. The answer was 'no,' but I couldn't type while I was driving. I just figured that I would take a minute and come up with an ETA and respond once I got to the truck stop. By the time I got onto the scale (and before I responded) I had received a dispatch. 6:45pm tomorrow. Given that the thing was supposed to deliver by 3pm, I'm not sure what I should expect when I arrive later in the afternoon. Maybe the place will be open and maybe it won't.

I was originally under the impression that the time burned up on today's 14 hour clock had contributed the issue with the scheduled delivery. After thinking it through though, this isn't the case at all. I was sent on my way at 4:30pm Central. 3pm on the following day would be 22½ hours later. The 763 dispatched miles could not, under any circumstance, be completed in one shift. Thus, it really made no difference if I could drive a full eleven hours tonight or if I could only drive three hours tonight. I would have to take a break either way. So you have to toss in a ten hour break and you're left with 12½ hours. At least one inspection plus the stop to scale the load knocks us down to 12 hours. In a perfect world with flat terrain, no traffic, no fuel stops, and accurately dispatched miles... maybe. Even then the required 63.58mph pace would be a tough one to swing. Just a poorly scheduled load, it would seem. If it had been picked up a few hours earlier, all would be well, but I was stuck in Benton this morning with a noon delivery appointment. Surely the folks assigning the loads were aware of this, no?

As it stands there's no way I can make it by 3pm. I'm going to do my best to make it close though, just in case the place is only open until 5pm or something. I had to weigh the prospect of staying on the interstates against the prospect of dropping out of Texarkana on US-59. The US-59 route would have some towns along the way, slowing the pace somewhat, but it's around 30 miles shorter than taking I-30 over to I-635 and then down to I-35. In addition, the all-interstate route would require me to get past Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio all in one trip. The odds of covering that entire route without encountering a mess would seem pretty slim. The US-59 route would involve Houston though. Pretty good chance of a traffic jam there too.

By the time I reached Texarkana, I had decided to trust my instincts and take US-59 southward. There are a whole bunch of 65mph stretches on this road and yesterday's photograph from I-35 was still fresh on my mind. I'll take my chances with Houston tomorrow and let the chips fall where they may. As I rolled down past I-20, I realized that the damned 14 hour clock was about to work its magic on my log book. I snuck a peek at my truck stop directory and saw that there was a Shell station in Carthage with a medium parking lot. If I couldn't find a spot there, I would be SOL in terms of complying with the law. As tends to be the case, the patron saint of the Fenian Godfather seems to have put in a good word for me and there was one open parking space in the back. Not lucky. Blessed.

I'll have around 520 miles left to cover tomorrow. Since I will be legal to get moving at 7:30am Central, I'm hoping that I can reach Laredo between 4pm and 5pm. It looks like I'm a good three hours from Houston as well. If there's a decent time to get through there on a Thursday morning, 10:30am is probably that time. Here's hoping that I can make my delivery whenever I get down to Laredo and then get the hell out of town before the weekend. Here's hoping...