Things with work have actually being going remarkably well lately, which is why I haven't written much in here. After all, it's more interesting to write about conflict than to just go on about a perfect day after a perfect day.
In the interest of keeping this brief, I've had three weekends in a row in Gary, IN, but finally broke out of that streak with a run heading out west. I detoured to Denver and took a day off there instead before delivering in Ogden, UT yesterday, capping off another 1200 mile run. My next assignment? Pick up a load in Wyoming and go 1200 miles back east to... wait for it... Gary, IN. Well, not really, but it's fewer than ten miles from the operating center there and I plan on waiting at the OC on Wednesday for my delivery appointment Thursday morning.
Though things overall are going well, that's not to say that there haven't been a few snags along the way. This morning I managed to grab an empty trailer with a small hole in a top corner; it was completely impossible to see in the dark due to the awkward position but pretty obvious once the sun came up. They had me take it to the customer anyway, though; they'll have someone go out there to fix it, sooner or later. Less than two miles from the customer, though, I heard a sudden shattering - no impact, just a shatter - as a golf-ball sized crack materialized in the driver's side of my windshield. It doesn't impact my visibility thankfully, as it's in the lower right corner, but it is an item that I'll have to get fixed once I make it to the operating center. My day was cut a bit short by a tire blowout, further adding to the maintenance bill; there's a 24-hour shop only eight miles up the road, though, so I should be able to limp there in the morning to get it replaced.
All these issues have thrown some significant doubts on my trip plan, but I still have an outside chance of making it to Chicagoland a full day early and banking yet another day of layover pay. It all depends on whether or not the shop can actually get me out of there in under an hour as the emergency maintenance hotline claimed. Hopefully the place will have somewhere I can get a quick bite to eat so I can at least save an additional stop.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Gary, IN - Another weekend in dystopia
Things actually have been going well the last couple of days. Once I finally got out of Gary to deliver that load from last weekend, I had a quick run up to Maine and a trip straight back here to Chicagoland. They've actually had decent information on these loads, decent directions, and all that good stuff. This has been the kind of week that exemplifies what things should be how things are more often. As such, there's really nothing that dramatic to write about; I could talk about the weather, but that's about it.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Gary, IN - A couple days of nothingness
The last few days could most politely be described as frustrating. I started off in Indianapolis, waiting for a load that delivered Wednesday. I had originally been told it wouldn't even be there until Tuesday evening, but when I went to pick up the paperwork, it turns out that it was dropped off Monday evening and I could have saved a lot of time and hassle by getting there earlier than I did. But, since nobody bothered to tell me, I spent an extra day sitting around and doing nothing.
In any case, I knew it was going to be a long run; I had to go 600 miles and still leave enough time to find a truck stop to park at. I left early enough to avoid Chicago's rush hour, but a truck fire on I-90 north of the city had traffic backed up for a couple miles and cost me most of the time I had to spare. To further add to the annoyance, my Qualcomm went on the fritz so I couldn't send in a message about it; I had to call while stopped in traffic. My DBL said he was going to look into it and that I should call him back later in the afternoon to find out what we could do.
So I keep driving along and it becomes quite obvious that I'm going to get to this place with zero hours to run and not have anywhere to park there. Of course my DBL never told me that they were going to be in a meeting in the afternoon so rather than talking to him I get someone at support shift who insists I can continue to drive over my 14 legally just because the customer doesn't allow parking. She refused to even look into rescheduling or making other arrangements.
With no way of talking some sense into the support shift person, I proceeded to the customer and arrived just as my 11 and 14 ran out. They had multiple signs up saying "no parking" and "violators will be towed" so it was pretty obvious I couldn't park there despite the insistence of the support shift person. I did find a truck stop 15 miles away, but that left me 45 minutes over my 14 as well. This is the second time in under two weeks I've been forced into a logging violation because nobody in operations listens when I say that I can't legally deliver a load and find a legal parking place.
So, having gotten that mess sorted out and finding that my Qualcomm was still acting up, I called in to see what my next work assignment was. It was certainly a decent one: just over 800 miles delivering in Columbus by Saturday morning. So I went to bed, slept in a bit, and woke up to get it. While I was driving there I received messages asking me when I was going to pick up; I still couldn't read anything so I could only guess I was on the same load. That turned out not to be the case, though; the load I was on was canceled and I was given something with half as many miles that I needed to have picked up four hours ago. I called in, furious about it, but got met with a dismissal of "I don't want to argue" when I called them on the crap. Ultimately I was just told to go pick it up anyway and to call when I got there to find out what freight was like for the weekend.
The directions I had to the shipper were pretty bad and didn't account for a road being closed to trucks due to construction. I lost nearly 20 minutes just trying to get around that mess and find the correct entrance. Once there, though, I was in and out under an hour, which helped make up quite a bit of time I'd lost earlier in the day by running 75 miles in the wrong direction to pick up that canceled load. From there it was just a race against time to try deliver it by 10 PM. While caught in traffic on Minneapolis' Interstates, though, I received a message telling me that the load had been reconsigned to another location 30 miles from the old one. No other information was given; they just sent me a customer code and omitted an address, appointment number, or any other useful information.
I arrived there just after 10 PM (slightly later than I was supposed to but I had to get fuel) and they seemed very confused to see me. My bill of lading listed the original consignee and had no information at all about delivering there. They unloaded me anyway and let me park there overnight; if I had to drive to the Gary OC I would have once again been stuck logging a violation as I had zero hours left on my 14 by the time they finished unloading the trailer.
This morning I woke up to a message saying that freight is incredibly soft across the country - presumably due to the holiday weekend - but that they were going to look for anything they could. I called to find out what my options were, but I was told to go to Gary and call when I arrived. Two hours later, I called from the OC and found out that there are 27 loads in the computer here, all of which are live unload appointments for early next week. All the ones delivering Monday were under 250 miles. The one I got is a live unload Tuesday morning at 8 AM Eastern about 650 miles away. The loaded trailer will be ready to grab by midnight tonight, but I don't have to get it right away; it's an open pick up appointment.
So, since another driver I know just arrived here in Gary and neither of us has a load for the next day or so, I have time to kill and someone to get food with. I suppose it could be far worse for the weekend.
In any case, I knew it was going to be a long run; I had to go 600 miles and still leave enough time to find a truck stop to park at. I left early enough to avoid Chicago's rush hour, but a truck fire on I-90 north of the city had traffic backed up for a couple miles and cost me most of the time I had to spare. To further add to the annoyance, my Qualcomm went on the fritz so I couldn't send in a message about it; I had to call while stopped in traffic. My DBL said he was going to look into it and that I should call him back later in the afternoon to find out what we could do.
So I keep driving along and it becomes quite obvious that I'm going to get to this place with zero hours to run and not have anywhere to park there. Of course my DBL never told me that they were going to be in a meeting in the afternoon so rather than talking to him I get someone at support shift who insists I can continue to drive over my 14 legally just because the customer doesn't allow parking. She refused to even look into rescheduling or making other arrangements.
With no way of talking some sense into the support shift person, I proceeded to the customer and arrived just as my 11 and 14 ran out. They had multiple signs up saying "no parking" and "violators will be towed" so it was pretty obvious I couldn't park there despite the insistence of the support shift person. I did find a truck stop 15 miles away, but that left me 45 minutes over my 14 as well. This is the second time in under two weeks I've been forced into a logging violation because nobody in operations listens when I say that I can't legally deliver a load and find a legal parking place.
So, having gotten that mess sorted out and finding that my Qualcomm was still acting up, I called in to see what my next work assignment was. It was certainly a decent one: just over 800 miles delivering in Columbus by Saturday morning. So I went to bed, slept in a bit, and woke up to get it. While I was driving there I received messages asking me when I was going to pick up; I still couldn't read anything so I could only guess I was on the same load. That turned out not to be the case, though; the load I was on was canceled and I was given something with half as many miles that I needed to have picked up four hours ago. I called in, furious about it, but got met with a dismissal of "I don't want to argue" when I called them on the crap. Ultimately I was just told to go pick it up anyway and to call when I got there to find out what freight was like for the weekend.
The directions I had to the shipper were pretty bad and didn't account for a road being closed to trucks due to construction. I lost nearly 20 minutes just trying to get around that mess and find the correct entrance. Once there, though, I was in and out under an hour, which helped make up quite a bit of time I'd lost earlier in the day by running 75 miles in the wrong direction to pick up that canceled load. From there it was just a race against time to try deliver it by 10 PM. While caught in traffic on Minneapolis' Interstates, though, I received a message telling me that the load had been reconsigned to another location 30 miles from the old one. No other information was given; they just sent me a customer code and omitted an address, appointment number, or any other useful information.
I arrived there just after 10 PM (slightly later than I was supposed to but I had to get fuel) and they seemed very confused to see me. My bill of lading listed the original consignee and had no information at all about delivering there. They unloaded me anyway and let me park there overnight; if I had to drive to the Gary OC I would have once again been stuck logging a violation as I had zero hours left on my 14 by the time they finished unloading the trailer.
This morning I woke up to a message saying that freight is incredibly soft across the country - presumably due to the holiday weekend - but that they were going to look for anything they could. I called to find out what my options were, but I was told to go to Gary and call when I arrived. Two hours later, I called from the OC and found out that there are 27 loads in the computer here, all of which are live unload appointments for early next week. All the ones delivering Monday were under 250 miles. The one I got is a live unload Tuesday morning at 8 AM Eastern about 650 miles away. The loaded trailer will be ready to grab by midnight tonight, but I don't have to get it right away; it's an open pick up appointment.
So, since another driver I know just arrived here in Gary and neither of us has a load for the next day or so, I have time to kill and someone to get food with. I suppose it could be far worse for the weekend.
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