Bad Decisions
Yesterday I made a poor choice, perhaps. Here's the run down.
The night before I had picked up a relayed load at our Carlise terminal that was scheduled for an 8 am delivery in Cranbury, NJ in the morning. My first bad decision was staying up too late playing on the computer when I should have been sleeping. So in order to make it from Carlisle to Cranbury, and fit a shower in, I had to wake up at 2:30 am. Five and a half hours of sleep... groggy but functional.
I scrubbed up and hit the road and made it to Cranbury with a half hour to spare. At quarter til eight I checked in and was irked to learn that "there was not a scheduled 8 am appointment for this load" after all and that my load was thus being refused until the following day (which would have been today).
I called my boss and explained. He gave me two options. Bad decision number two, of course, occurred at this moment. Option one was to sit on the load over at the Bordentown truck stops until an actual appointment could be scheduled for sometime the next day (today). Option two was to relay the load at our Jersey drop yard and hope for a load that would keep me rolling.
Miles = money so I chose option two.
So I head up to the drop yard and en route I receive a dispatch. After I arrived at the yard and backed the relay load into an empty space, I checked the messages to see what was up. I was to pick up an empty trailer and head up into New York to pick up a load bound for Virginia. Super!
I was about 15 minutes late for the scheduled noon pick up, which normally would matter somewhat, but this time... no problemo! I arrived to find very tight quarters packed full of trucks waiting to be loaded. The facility had overbooked themselves, kept running out of materials to produce the freight we were to be loaded with and all sorts of other nonsense. Most of the other drivers waiting were from the same company as I, so we all ended up just hanging out in the parking lot talking, in between shuffling our trucks around.
When I say shuffling trucks, I mean it... literally. The facility had very little space for the amount of vehicles accessing the lot and we kept having to shuffle the trucks around for cars and shuttles with those lacking materials they so desperately needed to make the products, to get in and out. It was like a rodeo in there. I should have taken video, it was truly something to see.
Because I had started my day so early I was on a time crunch with my 14 hour clock, which the powers that be don't like you messing with these days. So the longer I waited, the less time I had to drive, tick tock tick tock..... My 14 hour day ended at 5:15 pm... which was 1:30 minutes after I finally got docked to be loaded.
As the other drivers and I stood around talking and telling tales, as truckers are wont to do, I listened as the forklift driver loaded freight into my trailer with gusto. Freight was hauled in, the forklift then backed out, repeat....Finally after about 40 minutes of this I stopped hearing any movement in my rig and assumed I was done. Generally someone will come and get you when you're loaded so you can sign paperwork and such.
No one came out. So I just kept gabbing. Then it happened. I listened as freight was being removed from my trailer, the forklift drove in, hauled out. Crap. Assuming they had loaded the wrong freight in my rig, I just kept talking and laughing and sharing stories with the other drivers. They'd come tell me what was up eventually, I figured.
Finally I heard them begin to load my trailer again and in about another 20 minutes someone finally came out to get me to go in and sign the paperwork. They were less than jovial when I got inside, but of course I managed to make them laugh and smile being a total goofball. I don't like tension in the work place, you see... and any opportunity I have to lighten the mood I'm gonna take it!
At this point my 14 hour clock had ended, with a vengeance, and I could not legally leave the premises. So after some begging I got them to allow me to break on site. Trouble was, as I mentioned, there was very little space to begin with on site. But I managed to find a nook and cranny and parked my 65 happy feet just enough out of the way to not be in the way for the rest of the drivers needing to get loaded.
I then promptly feel flat on my face and got a good 8 hours of sleep. I awoke to a nice light rain and made my way to the closest truck stop for a quick bathroom break and to grab some coffee. Thankfully there was a Pilot about 15 miles down the road.
Now I'm sitting in Virginia chillin' until morning when I'll drive the last 80 miles to my delivery location for my 9 am appointment.
This life is always full of adventure. So I guess really it wasn't a bad decision after all. If I'd ended up sitting in Jersey on the other load I might not have had anything to blog about today!
The night before I had picked up a relayed load at our Carlise terminal that was scheduled for an 8 am delivery in Cranbury, NJ in the morning. My first bad decision was staying up too late playing on the computer when I should have been sleeping. So in order to make it from Carlisle to Cranbury, and fit a shower in, I had to wake up at 2:30 am. Five and a half hours of sleep... groggy but functional.
I scrubbed up and hit the road and made it to Cranbury with a half hour to spare. At quarter til eight I checked in and was irked to learn that "there was not a scheduled 8 am appointment for this load" after all and that my load was thus being refused until the following day (which would have been today).
I called my boss and explained. He gave me two options. Bad decision number two, of course, occurred at this moment. Option one was to sit on the load over at the Bordentown truck stops until an actual appointment could be scheduled for sometime the next day (today). Option two was to relay the load at our Jersey drop yard and hope for a load that would keep me rolling.
Miles = money so I chose option two.
So I head up to the drop yard and en route I receive a dispatch. After I arrived at the yard and backed the relay load into an empty space, I checked the messages to see what was up. I was to pick up an empty trailer and head up into New York to pick up a load bound for Virginia. Super!
I was about 15 minutes late for the scheduled noon pick up, which normally would matter somewhat, but this time... no problemo! I arrived to find very tight quarters packed full of trucks waiting to be loaded. The facility had overbooked themselves, kept running out of materials to produce the freight we were to be loaded with and all sorts of other nonsense. Most of the other drivers waiting were from the same company as I, so we all ended up just hanging out in the parking lot talking, in between shuffling our trucks around.
When I say shuffling trucks, I mean it... literally. The facility had very little space for the amount of vehicles accessing the lot and we kept having to shuffle the trucks around for cars and shuttles with those lacking materials they so desperately needed to make the products, to get in and out. It was like a rodeo in there. I should have taken video, it was truly something to see.
Because I had started my day so early I was on a time crunch with my 14 hour clock, which the powers that be don't like you messing with these days. So the longer I waited, the less time I had to drive, tick tock tick tock..... My 14 hour day ended at 5:15 pm... which was 1:30 minutes after I finally got docked to be loaded.
As the other drivers and I stood around talking and telling tales, as truckers are wont to do, I listened as the forklift driver loaded freight into my trailer with gusto. Freight was hauled in, the forklift then backed out, repeat....Finally after about 40 minutes of this I stopped hearing any movement in my rig and assumed I was done. Generally someone will come and get you when you're loaded so you can sign paperwork and such.
No one came out. So I just kept gabbing. Then it happened. I listened as freight was being removed from my trailer, the forklift drove in, hauled out. Crap. Assuming they had loaded the wrong freight in my rig, I just kept talking and laughing and sharing stories with the other drivers. They'd come tell me what was up eventually, I figured.
Finally I heard them begin to load my trailer again and in about another 20 minutes someone finally came out to get me to go in and sign the paperwork. They were less than jovial when I got inside, but of course I managed to make them laugh and smile being a total goofball. I don't like tension in the work place, you see... and any opportunity I have to lighten the mood I'm gonna take it!
At this point my 14 hour clock had ended, with a vengeance, and I could not legally leave the premises. So after some begging I got them to allow me to break on site. Trouble was, as I mentioned, there was very little space to begin with on site. But I managed to find a nook and cranny and parked my 65 happy feet just enough out of the way to not be in the way for the rest of the drivers needing to get loaded.
I then promptly feel flat on my face and got a good 8 hours of sleep. I awoke to a nice light rain and made my way to the closest truck stop for a quick bathroom break and to grab some coffee. Thankfully there was a Pilot about 15 miles down the road.
Now I'm sitting in Virginia chillin' until morning when I'll drive the last 80 miles to my delivery location for my 9 am appointment.
This life is always full of adventure. So I guess really it wasn't a bad decision after all. If I'd ended up sitting in Jersey on the other load I might not have had anything to blog about today!
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