Saturday, July 10, 2010

SO MUCH FOR A WIN WIN SITUATION

We really thought we had it easy with our latest dispatch, and by thinking that, we probably jinxed ourselves into what it has become.......back to back sessions of night driving.....UGH! Friday started great as you remember, a nice hot breakfast, and then plenty of relaxing time before our 3pm appointment. Little did we know that it would be more than 8 hours of waiting before our load would be ready, which put us head first into having to drive at night.

On top of that, when we finally did hook up to the trailer, guess what we found? I know we're not the only one this happens to, and really, I'd love to be able to personally talk to the driver that was more than happy to pass off a trailer with a tire in need of replacement. It's unprofessional, it's inconsiderate, and I can only hope that Karma comes back and bites that driver in the ass.

While Craig is calling in about the tire, I start looking over the paperwork, and find that there is no load information for our second drop in Fresno, CA. Back to the guard shack Craig goes, and finds out that the shipping manager deleted that load, presumably because it would put us over gross on our weights. So now we have just one delivery in Modesto, CA and only 36,000 pounds of frozen meat, and a bad tire in need of replacement.

An on call tire guy from the local Les Schwab shows up to replace the tire, and we are finally on the move around midnight. A fuel stop at Biggs Junction, OR finds us loading up with caffeine, and at the rest area just south of Shaniko, we pull in for a 3 hour power nap. Now that the sun has come up, it's a whole new ball game and we hit the road trying to get as far as we can before shutting down.

Our plan is to make it to Redding, CA and take our mandatory 10 hour break, then leaving once again in the middle of the night, make our way to French Camp for fuel, and then drop me off in Modesto on his way to his 8am delivery at WinCo. He has even received a pre plan to head to Fresh Express for a load on Sunday. As we have been known to say, it all looks good on paper, but we'll see how it all pans out as we go along. Trucking......not only a job....it's an adventure!

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