Today we are back on track with trucking news. After all isn't that what most of you come to this blog for? I may be wrong, and if so, I'll be sure to throw in a few mundane things we do while off the truck. Oh and when I say "we", I really mean just me, because let's face it, it seems like Craig is never off the truck. But before I start rambling too much, let's get back to the subject matter.
Monday while on his way to Fresh Express in Salinas, CA, after I jumped ship and headed back to my Mom's house, Craig was called several times wanting to know just how long it would take him to get there. Seems they were having a shortage of trailers and his empty trailer was in hot demand. After having it washed out and then dropped in the yard at Fresh Express, he was given an assignment, which after doing the math, it was determined the load would take 42 hours of driving and break times and if he was able to leave right then, there was only 36 hours left before the first appointment. Sometimes no matter how you do the math, it just doesn't compute.
With what hours he had left on his 14 hour clock, he was asked to take it as far as the company yard in French Camp where another driver would have the honors of getting it just that much further down the road. It seems to us that freight is way up lately and everyone we have talked to, including Craig, are rapidly running out of hours to drive, but that is always a good thing for the paycheck.
After spending the night in French Camp, he was again told to head back to Fresh Express to drop yet another empty trailer and await a dispatch on another load going out later in the day. By 7pm, he finally had his loaded trailer and an assignment which again, doing the math, was impossible for him to complete with the hours he had left on the books over the next few days. Trust me, Craig will rack his brain trying any number of combinations of driving hours and required breaks before he will admit defeat and inform dispatch he can not legally complete the run.
So, leaving Salinas around 7pm he was told to drive as far as he could and check back in the morning. He made it as far as Weed, CA around 3am and called it a night. This morning when he called to ask what the plan was, they still didn't know what they would do, but with his remaining 7 hours that he had to drive today, he was told to make it to drop yard just south of Aurora, OR and that hopefully by then, some type of plan would have been formulated.
It's now around 4pm and I have yet to hear from Craig about a swap or a drop. We do know that he can not even come close to getting it delivered by the first appointment time of the three drops assigned to this load. No doubt he will be spending the night in the drop yard and receive a new assignment sometime tomorrow. Too bad for him he didn't get to come back through town, because that left over corn beef sure tasted good today at lunch, with a side of that bread pudding!
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