HOMEWARD BOUND

With a little bit of team driving, or "super solo" as they like to call it in the training world, Craig and Don made it into the Company yard in Bloomington, CA late Monday night. It was a bit difficult to find a parking space, but Craig whittled one out by the fuel pumps and called it a night. Don drove them to Mira Loma to the Costco to deliver the boxed meat at 7:45am Tuesday morning.

After going empty, once again they were given a load which was going to be picked up by another driver and the loaded trailer left for them at the yard. So off they went back to the yard to await their loaded trailer, and wait, and wait, and wait some more. The load was bananas which were to have been loaded that morning and at the yard, even with traffic, they figured by 6pm at that latest.

When 6pm came and went and still no trailer at the yard, Craig started thinking that something must have gone wrong. He called road service first to find out if the truck or trailer had been called in with mechanical problems. When that turned up negative, he then asked to have them check the GPS to find out where the truck and trailer was. Turns out it was somewhere in the Ontario area, about 15 miles from the yard, and wouldn't you know it, the driver did not have a cell phone listed on the roster.

With nothing left to do but wait, they watched for incoming trucks until 10pm and then called it a night. Being restless in his sleep, wondering where this phantom truck and trailer was, Craig got up around 3am and walked into the driver's lounge to use the restroom. Wouldn't you know it, on the way, he finds the trailer, and no truck. He checks for paperwork and can only find the Bill of Lading and not the receipt from the previous driver.

I don't know what prompted him to start looking around on the ground, but he found that little half page receipt about 25 feet from the trailer. With about 1000 miles to go and a delivery on Thursday, Craig knew they needed to get started on their journey, so after pre trip inspections and paperwork, off he started driving, but now without first sending a message into dispatch explaining what had just transpired with the mystery truck and wondering why it took over 12 hours from loading to get the trailer into the yard.

Craig used up the rest of his driving hours and got to Avenal, CA before Don took over the driving. From there Don drove them to Medford, OR where Craig took over again late last night. He was planning on getting them about 80 miles from Pullaylup, WA by 4am this morning where there is a truck stop he was planning on stopping at and get a few hours of sleep before their 10:30am delivery.

The only question now is, after going empty, will they get a load going into Spokane for a delivery tonight, or for Friday morning? It really doesn't matter too much for us, as Craig will remain with the truck until Friday regardless, as the APU is acting up and he wants to make sure that it gets looked at by the shop while the truck is parked during home time. With warmer weather on the horizon, that's one of the things Craig just can not live without, especially with a truck that cuts the engine off after 5 minutes of idling.