Green Bay, WI - Exercises in futility

Though the facility I spent the night at last night was allegedly open 8 AM to 4 PM, there was still nobody at the shipping office when I rang the bell at eight in the morning. Twenty minutes of ringing and a frustrated call to support shift later, I ultimately wandered through an open door of the warehouse and flagged down somebody manning a printing press; he sent someone to the shipping area to meet me. Unfortunately, the weekend people are just there to man the presses and know absolutely nothing about the shipping and receiving department. After a series of phone calls we found out that I was just picking up a preloaded trailer but the paperwork for said trailer didn't exist. The guy there just made up some stuff, asked me to provide a fax number for the consignee, and sent me on my way.

The trip through the snowy midwest was relatively uneventful. The snow plows in Iowa seemed to focus entirely on the right lane, which led to lengthy lines of cars behind every plow and a precarious mess in the left lane for those trying to pass. I skated by several groups without losing significant speed as I tried to make it to Green Bay as quickly as practical. That went mostly well and I arrived here a good hour earlier than expected. However, the place I'm delivering to is open 24/7 except when they aren't. I went to the gate clearly marked as shipping and receiving, pulled onto the scale... and got nothing at all. Nobody at the receiving department was paying any attention.

Between the mess there and the next load I was assigned - one that I couldn't conceivably deliver on time - I'd had quite enough. I called support shift, told them that I was dropping this load at the Green Bay OC, and called it a night. I'll be chewing out first shift in the morning and telling them that they really need to find some practical way of getting me home soon, because I'm seriously doubting their ability to get me anywhere productive right now. But as nobody who is capable of helping me will be in for another eight and a half hours, that sounds like a good reason to get eight and a half hours rest.

Carroll, IA - Freezing my @#*( off

After getting that air leak fixed in Chicago, I was given a couple of local assignments. First I picked up my load from the OC and delivered that as a live unload, then I received another assignment in Chicagoland. I didn't even get on the Interstate for it; I went straight up one of the state routes to the facility, got the trailer loaded, and started heading toward a logistics yard to drop off the relay. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have even bothered getting on I-55, as traffic was starting to back up around 3 PM. The end result is that it took me over an hour and a half to go just 30 miles. The guy who was bringing in my next load as a relay was even more backed up and didn't arrive until after I'd run out of hours for the day.

Since I couldn't go anywhere last night with the relay, I had to get started around 2 AM this morning. I found the relay trailer quickly enough, but just scaling the load out turned into a significant problem; I had to take a detour to avoid various DOT scales, then came to a Pilot only to find that their scale was out of service. I tried a TA next and discovered that they didn't even have a CAT scale. It was another thirty miles to a Love's that actually had a working CAT scale; I had to pay the $9 out of pocket but found that I was legal weight wise and continued on my way.

Upon arriving at my delivery point, I checked in at the guard house, then proceeded to the receiving office and was told that I was only dropping the load, not waiting on a live unload. Fantastic, I thought, as drop and hook deals are generally much faster. I dropped off the trailer, grabbed the empty I was assigned ... and discovered that I could move it absolutely nowhere. In the process of doing my pre-trip inspection I'd managed to pack the snow down into nothing but ice, making it impossible to move that trailer at all. At the suggestion of the shipping office I unhooked and managed to somehow wiggle my way out from under the trailer. They assigned me another empty; I grabbed it and worried about doing my inspection after I got it off the ice. Everything checked out, so I called ops about a load, but they only said they were working on something.

While I waited to get a work assignment I went and grabbed lunch from a diner. After food I found I had a load that I can't get until tomorrow morning, but it's at a place that allows overnight parking. I had just enough time on my 14 to get there today so I just got behind the wheel and got moving. Finding the place was a challenge, though, as none of the warehouses on this block have street addresses visible and the facility's name on the street doesn't match what was on my work assignment or their voice mail. But I'm in the right place now, there's nobody here in the shipping office, and I'm far enough out of the way that I can't imagine they'll complain about me being here until they officially open at eight in the morning.

Once I get this load, I have the pleasure of going 470 miles to Green Bay, WI. Of that, none of the route is on the Interstate, though portions in Wisconsin have been built up to Interstate standards and much of the route in Iowa is a four-lane divided highway. I'm just hoping that I don't run into any inclement weather and that the roads are clear and dry, as I'd prefer to have enough time to go somewhere else after I deliver the load. In the best-case scenario, I'll have at least two hours to run and can get somewhere south of Milwaukee. At worst, I'll have to shut down early and deliver it Monday instead. Kinda hard to say, though, until I actually get on the road and assess things. 

Gary, IN - Air leaks

Yesterday was a pretty simple day, though it again reaffirmed my dislike for a particular corporation. I drove straight there from Evergreen, pulled up to the gate, told them I was there to drop a trailer... and told that I was not dropping it but instead had to wait on a live unload and that I'd have to go to a facility a good 10 minute drive away to do it. They assured me that it would take fifteen minutes tops; in reality, I wasted over an hour to that crap. While I was being unloaded I called in to ops to find out about another load and got assigned something out of the same facility. So after being unloaded I headed back over them, gave them my information... and once again was told to go somewhere else, to a third warehouse this time. The load wasn't supposed to be ready for me to get live loaded until the next morning, but they'd actually preloaded a trailer and had the paperwork ready. Once that was done, I went to the nearest truck stop and called it a day.

This morning started off early enough; I was on the road before 3 AM and just ran straight through except for a brief stop in Indianapolis to check on a tire. Aside from that, I continued to Gary and arrived here around 12:15 this afternoon. Upon arriving I pulled straight to the shop as the trailer's within its inspection window and I apparently damaged an air line in the dash during my pre-trip inspection yesterday. Rather than writing it up there, they sent me directly over to the express bay, which certainly didn't help my mood; Gary has the slowest "express" shop in the entire company. I was waiting in line almost 45 minutes before they even got me in here, then had to spend several minutes explaining to the tech why an annual inspection sticker that says "due 1/10" means the trailer's within its maintenance window right now.

It's going on 1:30 now and I still am waiting inside the shop for them to finish repairs. After the guy finished the trailer job, he was ready for me to leave until I said my truck's still out of service. They identified the problem quickly enough, but it's going to take an hour to fix it and they're not even going to start working on the thing until they get another truck out of the way first. I still haven't eaten or showered yet today, so I'm really losing my patience for this stuff. At this point I wish they had just written it up so I could get out of the darn truck!

Evergreen, AL - Come hell or high water...

My first day back on the road after a weekend off got off to a particularly rough start. Not because of anything in the truck, mind you, but because it was nigh impossible to even make it to the pumpkin! As a result of major flooding in southern Alabama, I had to go about a hundred miles out of the way to make it here, more than doubling the distance. This led to me being nearly five hours late getting to the truck and left me little time to do anything other than grab an empty trailer and head to pick up my first load.

The trip to the shipper was pretty easy: a straight shot west on US 84. It took roughly 45 minutes to make the trip, leaving me just 45 minutes to spare on the pick up window. Once there, things went incredibly fast. I was in and out of the facility in under twenty minutes. Rather than take back roads through rural Alabama, I decided to just come right back here and call it a day early. I just didn't want to chance running across any other flooding, nor brave unfamiliar roads at night, nor do much of anything on relatively little sleep. Tomorrow's another day after all.

Gary, IN - Inside the winter storm

The weather around here has taken a serious turn for the worst in the last eight hours. This afternoon was quite pleasant, if overcast, with temps in the low 40s. Then a hailstorm rolled through, followed by freezing rain, which has left an inch-deep slush across the entire lot here. My next assignment came across during that time: pick up a load from a place 50 miles west of here and take it down to Indianapolis. If the weather and traffic conditions were more favorable, I could have probably picked that up and either came back here or driven all the way down to Indy. Instead, I'll be trying to leave from here around one in the morning, pick up the load, then drive straight down to deliver it. On top of that, my work assignment says this is a full driver unload; I'll be spending two or more hours manually taking down boxes and rearranging things at this place. Once that's done I have to head over to the Indy OC to get my windshield fixed; they replaced it during my PM, but the thing leaks profusely all over my dash so they'll probably have to redo the whole job. I'm supposed to somehow make it home for the weekend, but I'm starting to doubt that's even possible due to all these unforeseeable delays.

New London, WI - Uncluefulness

While waiting at the consignee for the last load, I received another assignment, this time to pick up a load from here and take it to a place just north of Chicago. It's not due for delivery until Monday, so I asked if they were intending for me to go to Gary for my truck PM. I instead got back a message saying that I was supposed to wait on the load after I got it, deliver it Monday, then go get the maintenance done. That would not only keep me from doing anything useful over the weekend, but it would leave me stuck in Gary for a day or two after that, pretty much guaranteeing that I'd accomplish nothing useful. I asked for confirmation of that, pointing out the lengthy wait if they expected me to follow that plan, but didn't get a reply before I left the facility.

An hour later I arrived here at the shipper, only to find the guard shack unoccupied. They had a snowed-over sign instructing drivers to call security on the CB, which I did... they had no idea where the security guard went, so they had to send someone else out there. Ten minutes later someone showed up, grumbling about the guy who was supposed to be there, and checked me in. I finally made my way to the shipping office to get my load, but there was just one problem. They have no more loads for us tonight as another driver picked up the last of our freight earlier today.

To try and get things sorted out, I called ops. After ten minutes on hold, I got someone, gave them my driver number, and was hung up on after a brief pause. Then I called back, had to wait another five minutes, explained the situation, got put on hold for ten minutes, then was told that the shipper must be the one that made the mistake and that all we really need is a trailer number. They repeated this information despite me pointing out that there's no more loads at all for us. None. They have no freight for us. And yet I'm still expected to wait here half an hour while they figure out why because the person paying for the load is supposedly going to get right back to us. This is not cool; it's freezing cold.

Random Lake, WI - First Frost

The last few days have been quite ... something, to say the least. It started off simply enough, with a delivery near Scranton, PA late Monday night. Then, Tuesday morning, I found that I still hadn't received a work assignment, so I called in to ask about it. They ended up assigning me something that I could have easily picked up six hours ago, driven most of the way to the consignee, taken a break, then delivered at my 3 AM appointment. Instead, since they took so long to give it to me, I had to drive through the night Tuesday and arrived in Maine around 2:30 AM Wednesday. They assigned me a dock immediately and told me it would be "a couple hours, at least" so I backed in and promptly took a nap.

It was around 9 AM when they finished and brought the paperwork out. Things weren't so hot; three problems were found with the load. Two were just between the consignee and the vendor - I just had to acknowledge that we were aware of it - but the third was a delivery of 40 cases of a product that the customer doesn't even carry and that they placed back on the truck. They gave me permission to wait as long as necessary to get things sorted out, so I called cargo claims to explain the situation, got instructions to take it to another facility a few miles away, and went back to sleep for a couple more hours until my break was up.

Upon arriving at the LTL facility, I checked in, opened the trailer, backed in, felt a forklift... then double-checked my presumably empty trailer only to find that the pallet was spilled all over the floor. They blamed me for it in a completely unprofessional and condescending manner; I made another angry phone call to claims because I knew the product hadn't been like that when I backed in. Ultimately, I was assured that the staff there would "assist" in restacking the pallets, but they told me off again when I asked. Adding to the frustration was that there weren't 40 cases; there were 61 and there was no way it was going to fit on one pallet. I ended up having to restack it onto two, made yet another phone call asking for a correction to be made on the load information, then ultimately just had the facility scratch out the old number and write in the new. What should have been just a simple, 15 minute stop ultimately became an hour and a half ordeal. The net result of all this was that I was still a good three hours ahead of schedule. Good thing, too, since that meant I could afford to average "only" 56 mph on the run instead of needing to do at least 60 the whole way. The rest of things that day went pretty smoothly, even if I did have to drive considerably later than I'd have liked; I shut down in Lamar, PA around 2:30 AM.

Ultimately, though, it proved obvious that there was no way that I could get this delivered on time without sticking to the Interstate and, unfortunately, the toll roads in Ohio and Indiana. Normally we're not authorized to take those, but after a short phone call explaining the situation, I got it approved. I left the moment my break was up, made a single fuel stop, and arrived in Zion, IL just after midnight this morning. The end result? I did over 750 miles yesterday, all legally, easily setting a new record. I also provided myself about a half-hour cushion on the delivery, while I'd otherwise have had to relay the load off in Gary, IN for lack of time to deliver. I arrived here perhaps half an hour ago, backed in to a door, and typed all this while they're unloading me. It sounds like they're just about done now; I have one more stop to make on this run, then probably will be routed to Gary, IN for routine maintenance. I'll be posting another update from there at the end of the night.

Pittston, PA - Here we go again

After getting significantly more time off for Thanksgiving than originally planned, I'm out on the road again. Things have started off easily enough, at least for the most part. I picked up a load in Mobile, stopped in Charlotte Sunday night... then had the displeasure of arguing with the mechanics there as they flagged my trailer as being out of service for a tire issue that they outright refused to identify. That's right: they refused to let me leave but wouldn't tell me why. I lost over an hour due to that crap, leaving me just enough time to drive 580 miles with a single stop for dinner.

Upon arriving around 10:30 PM last night, I dropped the loaded trailer, called operations, and found out that they didn't have anything up here. A short drive later, I parked at a truck stop for the night. Now, almost fourteen hours later, I'm still sitting here and waiting for something from ops. I just called them once more and was told I should have something "in five to ten minutes." I'll double-check the Qualcomm shortly, but I'm hoping they give me something that takes me over toward Indianapolis or Chicago; my truck's due for maintenance in a couple days and it'd be nice to get it done at one of our better shops.