BLOOMIN' ONIONS

We were able to make it to our next shipper a couple of hours ahead of schedule. After all, we were only 1 mile away, and thankfully, on Sunday morning they had some employees there to load. It was barely 6am, and already the temperature was getting close to 90 and heading upwards. The outside of the loading area said it was a potato barn, but we were being loaded with bloomin' onions and some plastic containers. This was going to be one of our lightest loads yet, and I was happy, not as happy as sitting at The Outback eating a bloomin' onion, but happy just the same!

There was some discussion as to what needed to be loaded first, even the shipper didn't know, and they also didn't know where we would be taking them. Like most Brokered loads, information is very limited, but it was finally decided to load the containers first and then the onions. Back in the truck we placed our loaded call and headed to the nearest truck stop about 5 miles away to scale out, just to be sure. No problems there, way under the weight limits, and with at least our first delivery location now available to us, we headed the heck out of Phoenix and towards the Company yard in Bloomington, CA.

We saw nothing but desert, unlike the more eye appealing southwest colors on our way into Phoenix. The temperature was well into the 100's and didn't show signs of cooling down the further we got into the LA area. We pulled into the yard and decided to take showers and do laundry and then get some sleep for our 3am wake up call.

This morning we took off for our first destination, the market area of down town Los Angeles, and weave our way through traffic to the warehouse district. We can't find the name of the place we are to drop, so I take the phone, and the paperwork, and go in search of, while Craig stays with the truck. I walk the entire length of the warehouses and as I make my way back, I decide to ask a driver who was sitting in his truck if he knew where Angelina's was. He pointed to the dock and said right through that door.

I go inside and check in with the forklift operator who points to an open dock and says "put your truck there". Never one to refuse an open dock when offered, I inform Craig and assist him in making a blind sided back safely into the dock.

We wait around, find another driver that once drove for our Company and then Craig's phone rings. Seems the broker now has the information we needed about 24 hours ago, in that, the onions which were sitting ready to be off loaded, should have been in the front of the trailer for the second drop and the containers needed to be dropped at Angelina's. Can you say " Oh Oh"

The way I looked at it, we had two options, pull away from the dock ( never a good option in my opinion) and go to the second delivery spot first, or walk up to the forklift driver and see if he wouldn't mind taking the 10 pallets of onions off our truck, unloading his 12 pallets of plastic containers, and then putting the 10 pallets of onions back on our truck.

As Craig said, "I'm sure glad you asked, instead of me". He seemed to think that me, being a woman and asking, had helped the situation. I just said, "You'd be surprised what a smile will do when asking for a favor", and about 30 minutes later we were on our way to drop off the onions at their rightful place.

Within seconds of putting in the empty call we received our next assignment. We are heading back to the Miller Brewing Company in Irwindale and picking up over 44,000 pounds of beer again. This time Craig is doing some math to figure out just where to start placing the beer so that we don't run into the same problem as last time being too heavy on the drive axles. As I told Craig, "I don't think being a woman and smiling would get me the same type of favor at the weigh stations", but you know? It sure couldn't hurt!