As I was lounging around last night, I got a pre-plan for a load picking up after this morning's drop. That allowed me to get an idea of how to route myself and set up for today. Beauty.
When I woke up this morning, I shot a message to Joplin, asking if anyone had spoken to the consignee about the fact that I had no bills. I got a reply indicating that the customer service people had contacted the consignee, and that a delivery receipt on its own would be fine. Of course, there was still one small catch. The information that goes on the delivery receipt comes from the bill of lading. I could get an order number and load number from my load assignment. I had the information of the consignee from my stop location. I didn't, however, know what I was hauling, who sent it, or from where it came. So I called in and my fleet manager told me that it was copper from the mine in El Paso. Okay, that'll do.
It was an easy drive over to Vincennes. Once I got there, I filled in whatever information I could on the delivery receipt and headed inside. The forklift guy grabbed the MSDS and the packing list from the back of the trailer and, of course, there was a spare copy of the bill of lading. So he made me a copy and the whole issue turned out to be a non-issue.
Once unloaded there, I headed down to Evansville for my next pickup. My appointment time was noon, but it was a drop/hook location so I decided to try getting it early. That didn't quite work. The empty that I dropped when I got there and the loaded trailer that I hooked a couple hours later were one and the same. I still got out before noon, so it wasn't so bad.
Then it was eastward across Indiana and then up I-71. Just outside Louisville, I stopped to top off the tanks and grab some cheap cigarettes for my father. Another five miles up the road, traffic started slowing to a crawl. I flipped on the CB to listen. Of course, nothing on my side other than gawkers looking across at the southbound side. As I approached, it was quite a scene so I grabbed my phone and snapped a quick photo. Once I rolled past and saw what I saw, I deleted the photo. That was, man, that was one of the worst things I've ever seen. I won't get into the details of the scene, because it left me a little shaken up to be honest with you. If the gawkers hadn't been holding up traffic, I wouldn't even have looked. Now I wish I hadn't. You see a few accidents almost every day out here, but not like this. According to people on the CB, a northbound car blew a tire and flew across the median, slamming into a southbound truck.
After getting past that area, I was in one of those reflective modes that I guess we should all experience every now and then. Who's to say its not me next time? I don't know if this blog was going at the time, but I actually had a pickup truck fly across the median and land in front of me on that same road once. I was able to stop, but what if I had been five seconds further down the road at the time? He would have slammed right into me. The truck in today's instance looked to come out a little banged up, but otherwise okay. What about the driver though? It appears that he couldn't have done anything to avoid the crash. Does that lessen the impact of getting out and finding dead people at the back of your trailer, while your truck is being kept from rolling down the embankment by only a guard rail? When was the last time any of the people involved in the crash had a chance to tell their loved ones how important they were? How about the first people to stop at the scene? How about me? How about anyone reading this posting? How about the sense of relief that I felt, not in knowing that I was okay, but in knowing that I wasn't on the side of the road that would be parked for several hours? What does that say about me? How significant is my driving timeline, given the perspective of the situation?
Anyway, I guess my mental issues are my own. No need to belabor the point. It was just a bad scene. I got to the rest area north of Columbus tonight before my hours ran out. I'm scheduled for a drop/hook in Wilkes-Barre tomorrow afternoon, so an early morning is in store for me. The deadhead and loaded miles kicked me over 1,800 for the week so far. I'll have a few hours available tomorrow after my drop/hook, so let's hope the good streak continues.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
6/17/08
Shortly after I got rolling this morning, I happened upon a slow-moving vehicle in the right lane on I-35. There was a nice long parade of traffic in the left lane. As I began to think, "Here we go...," he took the next exit and I kept cruising along. That's pretty much a metaphor for how my day of driving went. Merging, exiting left, exiting right, construction zones, hills, all of it. I was one with the motoring universe. Beauty. Once empty, I was assigned to my next load even before I finished inspecting my new trailer. I caught a nice steady 400 mile run to deliver tomorrow morning. Crossing Illinois on US-50, there was hardly a car in sight. Things just seemed to fall right into place all day. I like that.
Even better, I was actually on my game today. This happens a handful of times over the course of the year, if I'm lucky. My timing for passing and such was impeccable. I didn't miss any exits or make any wrong turns. The consignee, located down some skinny street after a ridiculous U-turn from the exit ramp, was a piece of cake. There was one very tight spot left in the drop yard. I nailed it on the first try, without even pulling up to straighten out. When my intended route to the next pickup proved not to exist, my instinctive re-route on the fly worked perfectly. As I approached St. Louis on I-70, I saw the traffic getting pretty heavy so I dropped down I-170 to I-64 and ran that through town. No traffic in sight. Everything I did was solid today. I even found the shitty little truck stop in Olney, Illinois to have plenty of parking this evening. Beauty.
There was one minor snag that may prove to be a major one in the morning. Once I made my drop/hook in North Kansas City this morning, I had to bounce over to our drop yard in Kansas City and swap my empty trailer for a loaded one. The trailer was there, but the bills were not. The security guard guessed that they had been sent to Joplin. You see, the security people at the drop yard use TripPak envelopes to hold the bills. Perhaps, he surmised, someone had inadvertently placed the TripPak envelope holding my bills in with the actual TripPaks being sent to Joplin. Here's a thought - Go to Office Depot and spend a few dollars on some fucking envelopes. Anyone think a standard white envelope might not be mistaken for a TripPak to be mailed? I swear you can't make this stuff up.
The security guard called some guy at CTL. That guy said that I should head east and that they would work on getting a copy of the bills to the consignee. Not satisfied with that, I called operations and spoke with a nice young lady to make sure that they were aware of the situation. If someone was getting the paperwork to the customer, I wanted to know names of the people involved in the communications. "Harry spoke with Sally at 11:30am yesterday" sounds a lot better than "Uh, they said it was okay." She checked on it and, while not really having any solid answers for me, at least confirmed that CTL was aware of the situation.
As I rolled across Missouri, I got a message saying that I should definitely not try to deliver this load early. Apparently this would cause major problems with the customer. I replied that I don't plan to deliver early, and asked if there was any news on the paperwork. I never got an answer. If the customers are going to be pissheads about an early delivery, why should I think they'll be any happier about my having no bills? What am I hauling? Dunno. Where did the load originate? Dunno. Who is the shipper? Dunno. How much does it weigh? Dunno. Pretty damn heavy. I can tell you that much. I've had the 'no bills' thing come up once before, in Seattle. The consignee up there kicked me out and wouldn't take the load. Tomorrow? Dunno.
Notwithstanding whatever I'll face when I get there, I have a little over thirty miles to cover by 8am, taking me to Vincennes, Indiana. I'm now sitting at a little over 1,000 miles for the week and it's only Tuesday, so we're definitely poised for a decent week. I know better than to expect too much, but it's nice not to be using half of this week to finish out last week's miles. If and when I get empty in the morning, I'll have about seven hours or so left on my 70. Then I start picking up the long hours from the days when I left home last week, so I should be set up to run pretty well.
Z
Even better, I was actually on my game today. This happens a handful of times over the course of the year, if I'm lucky. My timing for passing and such was impeccable. I didn't miss any exits or make any wrong turns. The consignee, located down some skinny street after a ridiculous U-turn from the exit ramp, was a piece of cake. There was one very tight spot left in the drop yard. I nailed it on the first try, without even pulling up to straighten out. When my intended route to the next pickup proved not to exist, my instinctive re-route on the fly worked perfectly. As I approached St. Louis on I-70, I saw the traffic getting pretty heavy so I dropped down I-170 to I-64 and ran that through town. No traffic in sight. Everything I did was solid today. I even found the shitty little truck stop in Olney, Illinois to have plenty of parking this evening. Beauty.
There was one minor snag that may prove to be a major one in the morning. Once I made my drop/hook in North Kansas City this morning, I had to bounce over to our drop yard in Kansas City and swap my empty trailer for a loaded one. The trailer was there, but the bills were not. The security guard guessed that they had been sent to Joplin. You see, the security people at the drop yard use TripPak envelopes to hold the bills. Perhaps, he surmised, someone had inadvertently placed the TripPak envelope holding my bills in with the actual TripPaks being sent to Joplin. Here's a thought - Go to Office Depot and spend a few dollars on some fucking envelopes. Anyone think a standard white envelope might not be mistaken for a TripPak to be mailed? I swear you can't make this stuff up.
The security guard called some guy at CTL. That guy said that I should head east and that they would work on getting a copy of the bills to the consignee. Not satisfied with that, I called operations and spoke with a nice young lady to make sure that they were aware of the situation. If someone was getting the paperwork to the customer, I wanted to know names of the people involved in the communications. "Harry spoke with Sally at 11:30am yesterday" sounds a lot better than "Uh, they said it was okay." She checked on it and, while not really having any solid answers for me, at least confirmed that CTL was aware of the situation.
As I rolled across Missouri, I got a message saying that I should definitely not try to deliver this load early. Apparently this would cause major problems with the customer. I replied that I don't plan to deliver early, and asked if there was any news on the paperwork. I never got an answer. If the customers are going to be pissheads about an early delivery, why should I think they'll be any happier about my having no bills? What am I hauling? Dunno. Where did the load originate? Dunno. Who is the shipper? Dunno. How much does it weigh? Dunno. Pretty damn heavy. I can tell you that much. I've had the 'no bills' thing come up once before, in Seattle. The consignee up there kicked me out and wouldn't take the load. Tomorrow? Dunno.
Notwithstanding whatever I'll face when I get there, I have a little over thirty miles to cover by 8am, taking me to Vincennes, Indiana. I'm now sitting at a little over 1,000 miles for the week and it's only Tuesday, so we're definitely poised for a decent week. I know better than to expect too much, but it's nice not to be using half of this week to finish out last week's miles. If and when I get empty in the morning, I'll have about seven hours or so left on my 70. Then I start picking up the long hours from the days when I left home last week, so I should be set up to run pretty well.
Z
Monday, June 16, 2008
6/16/08
Golf is not exactly the kind of sport that works very well on radio. That match today was an exception. With two guys trading haymakers for 19 holes, and the enthusiastic calls from the guys on XM Radio, it was very entertaining. If you were in front of a TV today, I am truly envious of you. That had to be awesome to watch.
I got unloaded in Garland and then had to go down to Arlington for my second drop. I was given a dispatch of 34 miles and I had an hour to get there. Doesn't sound too bad, right? After thirty miles of fighting my way around construction barrels and rush hour traffic, I had fifteen minutes remaining so it still looked okay. Then it was apparently tea time in Dallas or something, as everything came to a screeching halt. Long story short - It was 46 miles, not 34, and it took an hour and a half. By the time I realized that my appointment time just wasn't happening, I had to call in and let CTL know. It was pretty close to the appointment time by then, so I couldn't exactly give them a lot of notice, but until things completely stopped I had no reason to think that I would be late. Oh well. What can you do?
The second store had a nice easy dock setup and the people worked quickly, so that was cool. I was #8 on the board when I got empty, so I pulled over behind the building and got ready to watch some golf. Two minutes later, I got a message saying to deadhead 352 miles to Winfield, Kansas and then go back on the board. Huh? I don't care to ask a lot of questions, so I just headed north.
As I rolled up I-35, I took a look at my truck stop directory to see if there might be a place to park in Winfield. In the past, whenever I've gotten one of those weird undetermined deadheads, they've sent me to a place with a big truck stop. There was no such place in Winfield, so I had no idea what was going on. I sent a message asking where exactly they wanted me to go. In response, I got a "planned load summary." I would be picking up in Winfield and running to Kansas City. So, as I understand it, this was just a traditional load assignment (deadhead to the shipper and deliver to the consignee). Why I was given the deadhead and told to board, I have no idea. Why I got straight to the head of the class from #8 on the board, I have no idea. Like I said, I'm not the question-asking type. All told, it was a 600 mile day plus $35 for the second drop, so I ain't complaining. Last week was a little slow.
The pickup in Winfield turned out to be a drop/hook, so I was able to get in and out fairly quickly and then make it up to I-35 before my 14 hours ran out. It looks like I'll have just enough time for a ten hour break and then around two and a half hours of driving before my dispatched arrival time. This is one of those drop/hook deals where I can get more time if I need it, but I would prefer to get empty as early as possible anyway, so hopefully the traffic will cooperate. My luck hasn't been so good over the last few days.
I got unloaded in Garland and then had to go down to Arlington for my second drop. I was given a dispatch of 34 miles and I had an hour to get there. Doesn't sound too bad, right? After thirty miles of fighting my way around construction barrels and rush hour traffic, I had fifteen minutes remaining so it still looked okay. Then it was apparently tea time in Dallas or something, as everything came to a screeching halt. Long story short - It was 46 miles, not 34, and it took an hour and a half. By the time I realized that my appointment time just wasn't happening, I had to call in and let CTL know. It was pretty close to the appointment time by then, so I couldn't exactly give them a lot of notice, but until things completely stopped I had no reason to think that I would be late. Oh well. What can you do?
The second store had a nice easy dock setup and the people worked quickly, so that was cool. I was #8 on the board when I got empty, so I pulled over behind the building and got ready to watch some golf. Two minutes later, I got a message saying to deadhead 352 miles to Winfield, Kansas and then go back on the board. Huh? I don't care to ask a lot of questions, so I just headed north.
As I rolled up I-35, I took a look at my truck stop directory to see if there might be a place to park in Winfield. In the past, whenever I've gotten one of those weird undetermined deadheads, they've sent me to a place with a big truck stop. There was no such place in Winfield, so I had no idea what was going on. I sent a message asking where exactly they wanted me to go. In response, I got a "planned load summary." I would be picking up in Winfield and running to Kansas City. So, as I understand it, this was just a traditional load assignment (deadhead to the shipper and deliver to the consignee). Why I was given the deadhead and told to board, I have no idea. Why I got straight to the head of the class from #8 on the board, I have no idea. Like I said, I'm not the question-asking type. All told, it was a 600 mile day plus $35 for the second drop, so I ain't complaining. Last week was a little slow.
The pickup in Winfield turned out to be a drop/hook, so I was able to get in and out fairly quickly and then make it up to I-35 before my 14 hours ran out. It looks like I'll have just enough time for a ten hour break and then around two and a half hours of driving before my dispatched arrival time. This is one of those drop/hook deals where I can get more time if I need it, but I would prefer to get empty as early as possible anyway, so hopefully the traffic will cooperate. My luck hasn't been so good over the last few days.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
6/15/08
Dude, since I couldn't get back to sleep after waking this morning, I just started driving. I had lofty plans for today. I was going to get to the customer, park the truck, grab some dinner, watch some golf, maybe do a little shopping, maybe catch a movie, and just generally enjoy the afternoon and evening.
I got to TX-78 off of I-635 in decent shape. All I had to do was run north a few miles and the day was done. Oops. TX-78 takes a right turn somewhere along the way. Your blogger was not aware of this. After driving a lot further than I was supposed to drive, and without seeing a shopping center, I knew I had screwed up. So I meandered along on whatever road that was, looking for an easy way to get back on course. I managed to find a way to get back on I-635 southbound (or eastbound or whatever) and double back. No big deal. Yeah. No big deal.
Traffic on I-635 was cool, for about a mile. Then it came to a dead stop. People in passenger cars were going off the on ramps and driving up the grassy knolls along the highway to get off the road. In my 31.75 years on this fair planet, I've only seen that in Texas, but I digress. The situation looked pretty rough, so I flipped on my CB to see what I could hear. Piecing together first-hand and second-hand accounts, it goes a little something like this... A big truck and either one, two, three, or four other vehicles crashed at either 7:30am, 9am, or 10am. One, two, or all of the vehicles caught fire. The road was either closed or down to just traffic creeping by on the shoulder for the bulk of the day.
I guess they opened it back up after I sat there for about an hour, according to those intrepid CB reporters. It still was slow going for the four miles that I had to cover, but life goes on. I got back around to TX-78 and went north... again.
Now, nobody will suggest that I'm great at reading signs and following directions. I'm not the worst at it, but I'm certainly far from the best. That being said, I think the folks in Garland need some better signage for that route. I'll be damned if I didn't just about miss the turn again. I spotted it in time though, followed the right route, and got to the shopping center.
Holy shit! Well, it's a real nice place. I'll give them that much. Bringing in a tractor-trailer? Nah, not so much. So, my directions say turn here and turn there and the customer is on that side. Bullshit. Those directions left me on a crowded street that should never, from here to eternity, hold anything larger than an Escalade. Talk about an obstacle course. Luckily for me, the one thing that I actually do fairly well out here is maneuver my truck. I got out of that one.
There were no loading docks facing the street to which I was directed, but I managed to spot the customer's building, so I circled around to the other side. That left me in a spot that was almost as bad as the street from which I had just extricated myself. The loading dock was 100% impossible to access on account of parked cars, so I had to set my mind to getting out of a second tight spot without hitting anything. I made it out. Like I said, the actual controlling of the truck is my strong suit.
I guess, if I had checked my directions more closely, I would have seen the last sentence - "Don't go in early." I didn't check that closely, so I didn't see that, so I did go in early, but anyway... I had to find a place to park until the stores closed and things cleared out. Driving all the way down to Lancaster, just to drive all the way back to Garland, sounded like a really annoying option. It also sounded like my only option, unless I got lucky. Hey, what do you know? I spotted a Christian bookstore with an empty parking lot maybe half a mile to the south. I imagine they don't open on Sundays, but in any case there was room for me to pull in and park.
I got some delicious soft tacos with no lettuce from the fine folks at Taco Bell and started looking for a decent video stream of the U.S. Open. Some more fine folks (at channelsurfing.net) were happy to oblige, so I got to see the last six or seven holes. That putt that Woods hit on 18... holy shit. What else can you say? Easily the best 18th hole since Payne Stewart nine or ten years ago at Pinehurst. The 18-hole playoff on Monday might just be my favorite part about the U.S. Open. Screw TV, screw travel plans, screw it all. This game is played for 18 holes, and if you want to be the champ, you'll win over the course of 18 holes. I love it.
I hung out in that lot until 10pm or so, then headed back to try the loading dock area. That was just about the time the employees were filing out, so I got backed in within a few minutes. I decided to go for a walk and see if I could find anything to do. This shopping center has several restaurants, several stores, and a movie theater. Unfortunately, everything was closed at 9pm on Sundays. Story of life man. The theater was still open, so I got to check out Kung Fu Panda. Decent, I guess.
Now I have to wait for morning, get unloded here, then head to Arlington. Judging by where the employees' cars were parked when I got over here tonight, I'm not entirely sure how I am supposed to leave in the morning, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
PS: Tigers won and Sox lost. I ain't sayin', I'm just sayin'...
I got to TX-78 off of I-635 in decent shape. All I had to do was run north a few miles and the day was done. Oops. TX-78 takes a right turn somewhere along the way. Your blogger was not aware of this. After driving a lot further than I was supposed to drive, and without seeing a shopping center, I knew I had screwed up. So I meandered along on whatever road that was, looking for an easy way to get back on course. I managed to find a way to get back on I-635 southbound (or eastbound or whatever) and double back. No big deal. Yeah. No big deal.
Traffic on I-635 was cool, for about a mile. Then it came to a dead stop. People in passenger cars were going off the on ramps and driving up the grassy knolls along the highway to get off the road. In my 31.75 years on this fair planet, I've only seen that in Texas, but I digress. The situation looked pretty rough, so I flipped on my CB to see what I could hear. Piecing together first-hand and second-hand accounts, it goes a little something like this... A big truck and either one, two, three, or four other vehicles crashed at either 7:30am, 9am, or 10am. One, two, or all of the vehicles caught fire. The road was either closed or down to just traffic creeping by on the shoulder for the bulk of the day.
I guess they opened it back up after I sat there for about an hour, according to those intrepid CB reporters. It still was slow going for the four miles that I had to cover, but life goes on. I got back around to TX-78 and went north... again.
Now, nobody will suggest that I'm great at reading signs and following directions. I'm not the worst at it, but I'm certainly far from the best. That being said, I think the folks in Garland need some better signage for that route. I'll be damned if I didn't just about miss the turn again. I spotted it in time though, followed the right route, and got to the shopping center.
Holy shit! Well, it's a real nice place. I'll give them that much. Bringing in a tractor-trailer? Nah, not so much. So, my directions say turn here and turn there and the customer is on that side. Bullshit. Those directions left me on a crowded street that should never, from here to eternity, hold anything larger than an Escalade. Talk about an obstacle course. Luckily for me, the one thing that I actually do fairly well out here is maneuver my truck. I got out of that one.
There were no loading docks facing the street to which I was directed, but I managed to spot the customer's building, so I circled around to the other side. That left me in a spot that was almost as bad as the street from which I had just extricated myself. The loading dock was 100% impossible to access on account of parked cars, so I had to set my mind to getting out of a second tight spot without hitting anything. I made it out. Like I said, the actual controlling of the truck is my strong suit.
I guess, if I had checked my directions more closely, I would have seen the last sentence - "Don't go in early." I didn't check that closely, so I didn't see that, so I did go in early, but anyway... I had to find a place to park until the stores closed and things cleared out. Driving all the way down to Lancaster, just to drive all the way back to Garland, sounded like a really annoying option. It also sounded like my only option, unless I got lucky. Hey, what do you know? I spotted a Christian bookstore with an empty parking lot maybe half a mile to the south. I imagine they don't open on Sundays, but in any case there was room for me to pull in and park.
I got some delicious soft tacos with no lettuce from the fine folks at Taco Bell and started looking for a decent video stream of the U.S. Open. Some more fine folks (at channelsurfing.net) were happy to oblige, so I got to see the last six or seven holes. That putt that Woods hit on 18... holy shit. What else can you say? Easily the best 18th hole since Payne Stewart nine or ten years ago at Pinehurst. The 18-hole playoff on Monday might just be my favorite part about the U.S. Open. Screw TV, screw travel plans, screw it all. This game is played for 18 holes, and if you want to be the champ, you'll win over the course of 18 holes. I love it.
I hung out in that lot until 10pm or so, then headed back to try the loading dock area. That was just about the time the employees were filing out, so I got backed in within a few minutes. I decided to go for a walk and see if I could find anything to do. This shopping center has several restaurants, several stores, and a movie theater. Unfortunately, everything was closed at 9pm on Sundays. Story of life man. The theater was still open, so I got to check out Kung Fu Panda. Decent, I guess.
Now I have to wait for morning, get unloded here, then head to Arlington. Judging by where the employees' cars were parked when I got over here tonight, I'm not entirely sure how I am supposed to leave in the morning, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
PS: Tigers won and Sox lost. I ain't sayin', I'm just sayin'...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Visits to this here blog dohickie.