Hoo boy. Sometimes so many things get screwed up in such a short period of time that I'm not even sure where to begin a post like this! My last work assignment looked pretty darned good at first glance: pick up something by 10 PM and deliver it by 2 AM Monday. Things fell apart pretty quickly once I got to the customer at 11 AM though; they told me to go away because I was too early and that the load would not be ready until at least 4 PM. Given the hours of service rules involved, 4 PM just wasn't going to work well, since I'd have to find parking almost immediately after picking it up, then drive 560 miles in one shot, drop the trailer off, and somehow find parking near Boston in the evening. So I called in and tried to get things changed.
Operations, however, didn't want to budge on any of it. The first person I talked to insisted that I have enough hours and, therefore, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to pick up the load and deliver it on time. Never mind the fact that I'd have had to go to sleep immediately and get moving immediately after ten hours. I tried explaining that but he wouldn't listen at all, though he begrudgingly said he'd work on it. On my way to find parking, I got a message saying that the pick up deadline was moved back to 10:30 - just a half hour added - and that I had plenty of time to get it done so I should stop complaining. I called in again ,hoping to get someone else who actually understood what the problem was.
Amazingly, the second person did actually get where I was coming from. He looked around for someone else to cover the load, since he recognized my concerns about falling asleep at the wheel to be valid, but it turns out that I was the only available driver within 200 miles with a hazmat endorsement. So much for that endorsement being a requirement to work for the company. He just said get there when I feel like I can safely get there. So I had lunch, tried to sleep, and managed to get two separate three-hour naps in. I felt pretty decent when I woke up the second time around 9 PM, so I just decided to go run with it anyway.
Pretty much everything went smoothly with regard to picking up the load and driving it to my destination near Boston. It was lighter than expected so I didn't have to scale it out, traffic was a complete non-issue since I was driving at night, all the weigh stations were closed... as such, I arrived up here about an hour ahead of schedule. Good thing, too, because it all went sideways after I got off the freeway. I made a wrong turn due to incredibly confusing signs. Twice. This is a big problem in a semi. The first time I nervously crawled the truck down a residential road to get back onto the main highway, clearing power lines by terrifyingly slim margins, but managed to get it turned around. The second I had to back up a couple feet to make an ambiguously labeled turn, complete with a posted twelve-ton weight limit. Why a trucking facility is behind such a slim limit is beyond me, as the tractor alone weighs nearly that much.
Upon arriving at the consignee, I looked around for someone to sign the bills so I could be rid of the thing, but apparently everyone was home for the weekend. There was a toll-free number to call in that event though, so I called in the load information, got permission to drop the trailer, left the paperwork on the box, and took a look at my next load.
The next load I have is a ... well, I don't have a family-friendly word I can use to describe it. I have to pick up an empty trailer from a drop yard and stop at two separate places near Boston tomorrow morning, then try to head to New York state to get my third pickup by noon Tuesday and make it to Columbus Wednesday morning. This wouldn't be so hard if my 70 hours were nearly up; I have only nine hours for tomorrow and just six rolling off the day after that. As such, I might only be able to get halfway to the third shipper tomorrow, use most of my remaining time getting there Tuesday morning, and have to start obscenely early on Wednesday to make things work out. I don't have things planned out very well, mostly because it all hinges on how much driving time I have left after I pick up the first two-thirds of this load.
Overall, the only good thing is that I have about fifteen hours to try regain my composure and catch up on some sleep. I really wish I were taking a 34-hour restart somewhere instead of being pushed to the limit day after day.
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