After going every wrong way, I finally found this place. This time, they had both the name and city wrong. Charming, hm? In any case, I have a 10 PM appointment, which means I won't get to finish my break before they get to me. I could be cute and just not log the time it takes for them to load the truck (lumping it into my break) but I'm not sure if I could get away with that. If I do it that way, it'll ensure that I can use another very full day tomorrow, if nothing else.
Anyway, as for that last load, I hadn't been taken off of it when I made my last post. I was told that by operations but I then received a message from the trip planner explaining that I was still on it and that I would make pickup and both deliveries on time, even after I explained that I couldn't possibly do it. I responded by explaining (again) that it would put me over both the 11 and 14 hour rules unless I averaged more than 57 mph and didn't stop for anything whatsoever; when trip planning, they tell us to normally plan on an average of 50 mph and to allow an hour for miscellaneous stops or delays. Only after I said that it would be illegal for me to do so and that I flat-out refused to do it did they take me off the load, though there was a note telling me to call in before I'd be assigned something else.
So I called in and talked to operations and explained the above. They were as bewildered as I was as to how the trip planner thought I could take the load legally. Even more unusual is that the trip planner claimed she wasn't the one to assign me the load, even though it was on her shift; the information about the load assigner disappeared after the load was canceled. At least ops had some good news: I get to go home next weekend because it'll be the one time this month I want to go home. I need to check the mail and such, especially because they mailed all the drivers a coupon for a free pair of boots, good in October only. Also, I found out that we're doing away with the trip planners entirely, which means I won't have to deal with this kind of load-related crap as often; I'll be dealing directly with operations and operations will handle everything that is normally done by trip planning. There was some bad news, though: I do not get a bonus for this month like I was previously told. At least she took the time to look into it and research the correct answer this time around.
As we were wrapping up the conversation, my current work assignment came in, complete with an appointment four hours after my time ran out. Since I was still on the phone, ops just put me on hold and called the shipper; they're allowing me to take my break here. Of course, what should have been a roughly hour trip here turned into nearly double that, resulting in me ending up in downtown of a small city and having to turn around in open lots twice. I'm finally here, I checked in, and it looks like they're just going to take me in the order I arrived. There are three trucks in front of me right now, so once I post this I'm going to get to sleep, since I don't anticipate them being ready for me within the next three hours. The sooner they finish my trailer, of course, the better; I want to get as close to a full night's sleep as I can.
This load is going up to Wisconsin and the route is easy enough, at least: I-55 to I-94 to the consignee. It shouldn't be a problem, since I can deliver the load any time tomorrow, but Chicago traffic is always horrible. I'll just have to cross my fingers on that front. It looks like one truck has been loaded in the time it took me to write this, which means these guys are working remarkably fast tonight. I might not even bother with a nap and just get eight (or more) solid hours of sleep after they finish the trailer if this keeps up. But for now I'm just going to post this and hope that I don't have anything else happen tonight that's worth writing about.
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