Uncertainties Before Heading Home

DATELINE: HOME, 12:00 p.m. EDT

Miles Yesterday: 197
Miles Sunday: 668

After reporting to you Sunday morning, I sent another message to dispatch asking about a load to take on my way home. A while later I got a response: "U R still on the load to TN" (the one I had picked up in Dallas). Apparently the dispatchers on the different shifts don't communicate with each other. So I got ready, hooked back up to the trailer, fueled up the truck, and headed out. The problem with that load was its delivery time of 3:30 p.m. on Monday. I was scheduled to go home on Monday, and if I had to make that delivery, just south of Knoxville, TN, I would not be able to make it home then. (Plus, I'm sure they'd want me to pick up another load in that area--which I'd probably have to drop at Vandalia--so I wouldn't be driving several hundred miles without a load, also delaying my arrival home.)

Just after I got on the highway, a new message came in. Since I was moving, I couldn't read the message; I would have to stop to do so. However, there are no rest areas or truck stops in western TN along I-40 for 42 miles. So after an hour of driving, I finally got the chance to read it, "Don't leave yet, I may have a solution for you." And a second message, "Head back to West Memphis." And a third message with the load assignment: grab a loaded trailer at the West Memphis terminal that needs to go to northwest Ohio for a Monday morning delivery.

So I turned around, returned to West Memphis, and switched trailers. There were a couple slight problems with this new arrangement:
1. West Memphis to Vandalia is a 10-hour drive. I had already driven 2 hours in my aborted start, so I was destined to violate the 11-hour driving regulation.
2. The new load's delivery appointment was 10:00 Monday morning, and the customer is located about a 3-hour drive from Vandalia. Since Dispatch was so late getting me the load assignment, I would not be able to get in the required 10-hour break at Vandalia before I'd have to leave to make the delivery on time. I made sure to alert Dispatch of that problem, and it took a few messages and responses to get them to see the light about that. Still, I wouldn't know 'til I got to Vandalia and asked again whether I would drop the load there or make the delivery and violate the 10-hour break regulation. They did let me drop it.

The drive to Vandalia, other than the uncertainty about the load's disposition, was uneventful. I arrived at 10:30 p.m., fueled up again, did my logging paperwork, and got ready for and went to bed. Another reason I couldn't deliver either of my weekend loads was that I had an appointment for regular maintenance service on my truck at 6:00 Monday morning at Vandalia. I had been getting messages for 2 weeks reminding me to set up the appointment whenever I would be routed through a terminal. Well, over that period all of my loads were either too short on time or not near a terminal, so I couldn't get in for the service. So I figured I'd get the chance at Vandalia on my way home and made the appointment. By that time my truck was 3000+ miles overdue for the service.

Therefore, after getting to bed at 11:30 p.m., I woke up at 5:30 to get my truck to the shop. Normally, this maintenance work, known as "E Service", takes about an hour. This time, however, the mechanic doing the work was new to the job and a bit slow. In addition, he found a coolant leak and low batteries, so another mechanic would have to deal with those issues. To wrap up this portion of the story, the work on my truck wound up taking 4 hours.

Did I mention that I had been woken up in the middle of the night by a load assignment message coming in? (The infernal box beeps when a new message arrives, then beeps again every 5 minutes 'til I read the message.) The assignment was to take a loaded trailer from Vandalia to the Detroit area for a Tuesday delivery. Since I was headed home and wouldn't be working on Tuesday, my Fleet Manager pulled me off that load and told me just to find an empty trailer at Vandalia and head home. However, there weren't any empties there, so I just "bobtailed" (driving the tractor without a trailer) home, arriving at the yard where I park the truck at around 4:00 p.m.

And that's where the story of my latest tour of duty ends. I'm very glad to have gotten home on Monday as scheduled, since it was my birthday. I'll be busy for a couple of days taking care of things at home before I have to head back to the truck and the open road on Thursday morning. But I'm always glad to be home to see my family.

Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to take a peek at my blog. Check back next on Thursday night or Friday after I start my next deployment and get the chance to report about it. And don't forget to keep on truckin'.