Hurry Up And Wait!

I,m sitting at one of our regular shippers with just a little extra time on my hands so, time for another post.

When I received the preplan for this load last night, I sorta knew this would be the case, based on previous experience with this particular shipper.

I'm at a paper mill in Arkansas. And they have such a reputation for not being ready, our dispatch puts a little note in the comments section of the dispatch to note what time you arrive, get loaded (if it's not a preloaded trailer) and what time you depart so they can bill them for tying up one of their trucks for an unnecessarily excessive amount of time.

Today they're having a "production delay".

I arrived around noon after a three hour drive from my previous drop and check in at the trailer inspection area (they inspect all the inbound trailers to ensure they're clean, odor free, don't have any sharp protrusions into the cargo area and no signs of leaks) and after waiting 20 minutes for the trailer inspector to finish up a personal phone call, I was informed of the a fore mentioned delay.

No explanation for the delay. Just come back at ten p.m. and they'll check and see if the product is done and ready to be loaded.

Great! A ten hour wait and no guarantee it will even be ready. And now it's a live load to boot. Guess I'm not making any forward progress today!

Watermelon Anyone?

I'm spending the night in a little mom & pop truck stop just outside of Boston, MA. Or a they say around here Bawston. It always amazes me, traveling around this great nation of ours. We live in the same county, speak the same language, yet different parts of this county sound so different from one another.

I've been a little busy the past few days so, I try to catch you up on all the fun.

After finally getting rid of the three mystery pallets they sent me up to Illinois, just outside of Chicago to pick up a load of frozen pizzas. The take and bake kind you find in your grocery store freezer already precooked ready to eat, that is, after you reheat them slightly.

Only they're not frozen when I get them. Nope they're still fresh from the oven and we get to cool them down in the trailer as we drive them from point a to point b.

Which means two days of listening to that reefer running on high trying to achieve -10 degrees. which it never did. Almost, but not quite.

The reefer unit has two speeds, high and low. Low speed sounds like a lawnmower at idle. Not too loud and after you get used to it, can actually lull you to sleep. It's a constant droning sound that blocks out all the other noises from all the other trucks.

On the other hand, high speed sounds more like a chainsaw and can wake the dead! I've had many a night trying to fall asleep with that thing in high speed and have found it to be quite difficult. I've tried earplugs which work well, sometimes a little too well, causing me to sleep right through my alarm the next morning. So they have to be used cautiously.

After the pizzas I picked up a load of watermelons right out of the field. It's only the second time in three years of doing this that I've picked up a load from the field. Usually the load goes from the farm to a brokered warehouse and we pick up from that warehouse but, I guess this time someone decided to cut out the middle man.

Rather interesting watching how they get the product on the trailer when there is no loading dock.

They would bring the melons in a flatbed trailer towed by your standard John Deere tractor, then offload them with two distinctly different forklift trucks.






The yellow forklift always went first. Sometimes he would pick up one box and some times two and then the green forklift would pick up one or two depending on how many the yellow one had.
I never quite figured out a pattern but, they seemed to know what they were doing, even if those observing them didn't.

I never asked them why they didn't just pick up three at a time so I can only assume that it would be too heavy for either forklift to handle.

What the photos don't show is the poor guys in the back of that trailer. Their job was to take the boxes of the tail where the forklifts would deposit them and move them into position with a hand pallet jack. I felt for them. It was 107 degrees that day! So when it was my turn in the loading position, I kicked the reefer on for the guys in the back. They were most appreciative.


---------------------------------Lunch for the crew----------------------------------

What A Day That Was

Or should I say days? If you read the previous post before you read this one, I left off thinking I was empty and without a load going anywhere. You see, I typed that post as I was being unloaded. Before any of what follows transpired.

The facility I was at doesn't want you in their way so they instruct you to stay in your truck and they will bring your bills out to you when they are finished.

So... when one of the lumpers (the people that do the unloading) came out and asked me to move my truck so they could get another one in that particular door and, he didn't have my paperwork, I knew something was up. I just didn't know what.

So, I obliged them, moved my truck out of the door, and found a spot out of the way so I could go back inside and find out where my paperwork was.

I went to the back of the trailer to close the doors and found out why they didn't have my paperwork ready. There were three pallets still in the trailer.

At this point a few scenarios ran through my head. There is another stop on this load that dispatch forgot to mention. The product is somehow damaged or is the wrong product. Or they weren't done unloading me and they moved me out of that door so they could get one of their trucks in there and I'll have to wait God only knows how long til another door opened up so they could take those last three pallets off.

As I was walking across the parking lot to the receiving office, I convinced myself that it was the latter. I could feel my blood pressure rising with each step.

I went inside about ready to pop, but I kept it in check when I checked in at the receiving window. I told them one of the lumpers asked me to pull out but there were still three pallets on the trailer.

The lady on the other side of the glass informed me that the pallets in question were overage. Whoever loaded it at the other end apparently couldn't count and they double loaded those three pallets.

Which begs the question. Where was the driver? Our company policy is that we're to observe every load to ensure we don't get shorted and also to make sure some hotshot forklift operator doesn't punch any new holes in the inside of the trailer.

Either way, somebody somehow, somewhere didn't do their job and it looks like yours truly is going to get to deal with it, like it or not.

I breathed a sigh of relief that I wasn't going to have to wait around all night for another door to open up but, having to deal with the extra merchandise is no picnic either.

I said that this happens all the time and that most places just keep the extra product and add it to the bills. It was then that she rather rudely informed me that they only order what they need to fulfill their customers orders. They are not a storage facility, nor did they have the room to store it. She gives me only the coversheet back which has none of the product codes I'll need and refuses to give me any of the detail sheets with said product codes on them or make copies of them... I'll be back!

OK then. Let the fun begin. A quick call to my people to report the overage and the first question they have. "What's the product code on the first item?" I tell her what just transpired inside and she tells me go back inside and they will give them to me.

I'm beginning to feel a bit like a yo yo but, back inside I go. Only this time I get the detail sheets, a slightly nicer attitude and a smile. I don't even want to know what they said to her.

Well by this time it's too late for them to call the shipper to see what they want to do with the extras so, off to bed to wait for daylight.

The next morning I'm stirred from sleep by my phone ringing. It's OS&D (Over/Short and Damaged) and they want me to take the extras down to an LTL (Less than TruckLoad) company in Terre Haute, IN about 60 miles away and they'll haul it back to the shipper.

A quick drive down to Terre Haute, check in at the office and they ask "It's not a refrigerated load is it?" Nobody thought about this til now? I didn't think I needed to mention this because the people that sent me here already have all this information, and nobody likes it when some dumb driver tell them how to do their job.

No surprise here. They refused to accept the freight. I already figured this when I pulled in and not a reefer trailer in sight, no refrigered storage section in the warehouse. I sorta saw this one coming.

Man the phones. We ain't done yet. Call OS&D yet again to see what we do now. I'm told to sit tight while they figure this one out. Oh gee, I can't wait.

A couple of hours later their big solution, take it back to the original receiver. What, they suddenly have room now? I don't know why but, I just knew this wasn't going to happen.

Drive back to Danville and they won't let me in. I'm told I have the wrong PO#. So I call receiving to try to get this straightened out and guess who answers the phone. Oh she remembered me. Attitude and all.

It's obvious at this point this is not going anywhere with her so I call my people again but, this time I'm too late. They've already taken off for the day so another night of waiting it out to see what the morning will bring.

Fast forward through all the boring sleeping part and it's now the morning of the 18th. This load was supposed to finalize on the 16th. I've accumulated a whopping 120 miles in the past two days going back and forth. I should be a thousand or more miles into the next run but, I can't seem to get this one off my back.

I call OS&D and and they don't have a solution yet. Again I'm told to sit tight. Oh I heard that one before. It's five o'clock in the afternoon before they call back.

Go back down to Terre Haute. Back to that same LTL company. They contacted the shipper and the product that is still on the trailer does not require refrigeration so they can take it.

Are you sure? It's mayonnaise and sauerkraut. Yep, they're sure. OK then. Fine by me. If it means I get to get rid of it I don't care if we dump it in an alley at this point.

Back down to Terre Haute one more time. This time they do unload me and finally, finally, I'm empty.

Off to the nearest truck stop to lick my wounds and call it a night. Hopefully tomorrow will bring something new. Something to... I don't know. Texas maybe.

Not Texas Again

The last post left off with me in Texas. Anyone who knows me knows I loathe Texas. Not that it's a bad state or anything. I'm just always there. I was lured to this line of work with a promise of seeing the country. Not just Texas.

Anyway, Since Texas, I took a load from Conroe, TX (about an hour north of Houston) to Panama city, FL. From there I deadheaded up to our drop yard in Orlando to pick up a load of condiments going to Danville, IL. The bulk variety for the food service industry. I specify, because last time I hauled condiments, it was the little single serving packets for McDonald's. The wife got a kick out a whole truck filled with nothing but little packets of ketchup, mustard, bar-b-q sauce, etc.

Back to the point of this post... I'm driving along today about an hour or so out from my receiver when the Qual-Comm lights up with the next load. Pick up in Franklin, IN going to... Houston, TX

Not Texas again! I about through the Qual-Comm unit out of the window in disgust.

As I'm muttering to myself "I just came from Texas! Don't they have something going to one of the other 47 states?!? " The Qual-Comm beeps again, and just like that, no more Texas.

Makes me wonder if they could hear me... Hmmm...

About the only thing worse than going back to Texas is no load at all. Which is where I'm at now.

But hey, now the odds are back to 1 in 48. A really big one, but still, 1 in 48

South Dakota. Been there. Done that.

If you read the previous post, you know I was on my way to one of the two states I've yet to visit. Well I'm happy to report, I made it! It took a little longer than expected due to a pesky bearing on the reefer unit, but I made to and through South Dakota.

Now if I could only get to Maine.

The wife mentioned to one of her friends that I was going to SD and she said to see if I could find Wall Drug. Well I never actually saw Wall Drug but, you couldn't miss the signs.

Here's just a few...

































I know I haven't blogged in a while but, I have to tell you why. The "N" key on my keyboard was barley working. I had to push down on it extremely hard and wiggle my finger back and forth to get it to produce about 50. And then go back and delete the other 49 I didn't want.

By the time I did all that I forgot what it was I was going to type. Just a little frustrating. So... I didn't.

I've been back out since the 2nd and work has really picked up! Kinda a nice change from the absolute slowness that was the first four months of the year.

So far in the past eight days I've gone from San Diego to Bolingbrook, IL. From there down to Indianapolis to Pick up a load going to Atlanta, GA (AKA Hotlanta). Then a quick jaunt from there to Griffin, GA to pick up the next one going from Griffin to Flowood, Mississippi, Houston and San Marcos, TX

Only I didn't get to go to San Marcos. I completely ran out of hours upon arriving in Houston, so another driver had to take it the rest of the way.

I can't remember the last time I ran out of hours. It's been a while.

So I'm sitting and sweating in Houston. It is HOT HOT HOT. and HUMID. I don't do well In hot n humid. I'm from southern California. Where we do get our share of hot but, as they say, it's a dry heat.

I'm empty now with no preplan yet so, we'll have to wait to see what tomorrow brings. I hope something, anything. I don't think I can take another day of this.

So' Cal' hot is nothing compared to this!

Oh! I almost forgot. The bird count is up to 26. It was holding steady at 24 for over a year but, all of a sudden, two in two days.

South Dakota Here I Come!

I've been at this trucking thing for nearly three years now and yet somehow, I've never been to South Dakota. Ive been on all four sides of it but, have yet to set foot within that state.

It was a goal of mine to try and hit all 48 contiguous states within my first year of driving but, when that didn't happen I started counting months. When the months get to be too many, you start counting years. Kinda like when a toddler gets old enough to hold up three fingers, you stop saying how many months old they are.

I've gotten really close. I delivered to the west side of Sioux City, Ia just across the river from South Dakota a year or so ago. My wife probably still remembers me saying something like I could sneak over there and tell SRT I missed my turn or something.

Of course, as fate would have it, my dispatch sent me another load 300 miles away with only five hours to get there, back the same way I just came from. No time to lolly gag around on the other side of the river just to say I've been there.

Well that all changed today when they sent me a sweet run from Washington state to Georgia. Routed down the usual route through Oregon, Idaho, Utah...

Ahh yes Utah. I love Utah. It's one of the most beautiful, scenic states to drive through any time of the year. Right at the top of my list.

But today I love Utah for another reason. You see they have this law that you have to have a license plate on your trailer or they get to fine you 350 dollars. Seeing as this trailer doesn't have a license plate, I fired off a quick message to dispatch to remind them of this little fact, and seconds later a new route.

So now instead of heading South to Utah and turning East in Salt lake, I get to head East through Montana and straight down the middle of South Dakota before eventually making that turn to the South.

How does that song go... Oh yes... I fought the law and the law won.