Shop Talk

DATELINE: DEXTER, MI, 9:45 p.m. EST

Miles Yesterday: 180
Miles Today: 195

A couple of short work days to start the week, but they sure weren't short. Here's the story.

Yesterday (Sunday) I got up at 5:00 to get my day started. I was at the TA in Monroe, MI, and I went inside to start the day with a shower and shave. However, their showers were unavailable at the time. Grrr! So I went to plan B. I returned to my truck (after grabbing some quick grub for breakfast at their convenience store) and hit the road. 90-ish minutes later on my trip down southbound I-75, I came to the Flying J in Beaverdam, OH. I pulled in there to use their facilities to clean up. Once presentable, I zipped across the street to the Pilot for Second Breakfast at their McDonald's. Then it was time to go make my delivery.

The Beaverdam truck stops are at exit 135 along I-75 in Ohio. My delivery was off of exit 74, in Troy, OH, so it took just about another hour to get there. Being Sunday, the place was deserted, except for the security guard at the gate. Except he wasn't at the gate. He was at the company's facility next door, and obviously saw my truck at the gate via security camera at his post. A couple minutes after I had pulled up to the gate, he arrived in his company security car to check me in. The delivery was a drop-and-hook, so after backing the loaded trailer into an open slot in the lot and dropping it, I found an empty USA Truck trailer, hooked up to it, and made my way out.

Since this delivery was only 10 miles up the highway from USA's Vandalia, OH terminal, I had made an appointment to get my truck's regular maintenance (every 15,000 miles) done. The appointment was at 1:00, and I arrived at the terminal around 10:30. That left me time to grab a quick lunch (I didn't need much because of the 2 breakfasts) and clean up my cab before turning it over to the shop, which I did at 12:30.

Oh, I forgot to mention that before surrendering my truck to the shop, my next assignment came in: grab a loaded trailer from the Vandalia yard and haul it to a town just south of Atlanta, GA for delivery Monday morning at 8:00. I had hoped that I'd have an easy day and be able to sit in the drivers' lounge and catch the NFL's conference championship games on TV. However, if I was to get to the Atlanta area by that delivery time, I'd have to sleep most of the afternoon and evening so I could make the drive overnight. A couple of problems were evident:
1. I only had 1-1/2 hours remaining to drive yesterday, so I couldn't leave before 10:30 p.m. (Actually, 11:30 because my hours log is on Central Time) Since the delivery was over 530 miles away, that made it extremely unlikely that I could get there on time.
2. I only had 8-1/2 hours available for today, so with the 1-1/2 for Sunday, that meant I only had 10 work hours (driving plus "on-duty-not-driving", such as fueling) to complete the trip. Also highly unlikely.
But I thought I'd be a good soldier and give it a shot (heck, I need the paying miles).

A couple hours after I had dropped my truck off with the shop, I ambled over there to check on it. When I turned it in, I had noted a couple other problems I'd been having with the truck for them to check out. Anyway, they gave me some interesting news. They found a couple serious problems that they had to fix--the brakes needed replacing and a valve in the exhaust system had been incorrectly replaced the last time, which broke another part, yadda, yadda, yadda...so they had quite a bit of that system to replace. The long and short of it was that with those repairs to make, it'd take them until "the wee hours of the morning" before they'd be done.

Well, that meant I didn't have to worry about the Atlanta drive anymore. I called in to dispatch to let them know so they'd find someone else to cover the load. It also meant I'd get to watch the games. Awwww-right! However, it also meant a long time sitting in uncomfortable chairs. Vandalia doesn't have the large, leather recliners in the drivers' lounge that most of the other terminals have. They just have a variety of metal folding chairs and a couple non-folding ones with molded plastic seats around two round tables. It's also a fairly small room, so management probably figures it's too small for the recliners.

Fast-forwarding: I finally got my truck back around 5:00 this morning. I pulled it away from the shop area and parked in the truck lot. I sent in a message to dispatch letting them know that I was back in the truck, I needed some sleep (I'd been up for over 24 hours), and that I'd send a message when I got up so they could send me my next assignment. However, I promptly got a load assignment message. I was to grab another loaded trailer from the yard and deliver it in Highland Park, MI at 10:00 that morning.

Well, that wasn't going to happen because I needed sleep. I don't know who decided to assign me a load when they knew (or should have known) that my truck was in the shop and didn't know for sure when it'd be available again. Chalk another one up for the weekend load coordinators and dispatchers. Whenever I have load problems like that, it's always the weekend crew (or a replacement when my Fleet Manager is on vacation). My Fleet Manager usually does pretty well by me when he's in during the week. Anyway, I sent in a message that I'd have to sleep before heading out, and their reply was to suggest I call my FM later in the morning. Then I hit the sack.

Around 10:00 this morning a message from my FM woke me up. He let me know that the delivery was rescheduled for 9:30 Tuesday morning, so today I'd just drive up to be nearby, ready to deliver in the morning. That gave me the chance to go a little bit out-of-route and spend the night at the TA near my home. Happily, Mrs. R.T. was not scheduled to work tonight, so I could meet up with her for dinner and some time together. So we did.

And that's how my last couple of days have gone. I didn't take my laptop with me into the terminal and drivers' lounge yesterday to blog for y'all because I can't get a signal in that building, for my phone nor the laptop's phone card. (No, I can't hear you now.) It must be shielded with lead or something. Hence the double-duty update today. Thanks for taking the time to follow along. Please send me a comment or question--or both--and keep on truckin'.