Like I said, it was an easy couple of days running over to Richfield WI on the holiday weekend. I guess it disrupts the flow of freight or something. I hoped that I would get a load out of that terminal on Monday before all of the drivers that live in that area, that went home for the holiday, come back out. It turns out that there were already about 20 drivers sitting there and more came in after me.
It was mid day Tuesday when they decided to give me a broker load to get me out of there. We don't usually take broker loads and when we do it is in situations like this. I don't like them much either and you will see why.
The load was to pick up 44,000 lbs (over 20 tons) of salt, on 18 pallets, In Kenosha WI going to Montgomery NY. First I had to find an empty trailer. Since I was so far down on the list there were no empty (mt) ones there. After coming up with several plans to drive somewhere to find one I was told that a driver in tractor #xxxx was sitting under one and to get that one. Well, he wasn't happy because he knew he would probably be in the same situation I was in when his number came up. Oh well.
It is one of our oldest wagons. I get hooked to it and discover a light that doesn't work. I also see that he didn't sweep it so I sweep it and pull around to the shop to get the light fixed. The next thing I know I'm in the shop bay and after fixing the light they find all kinds of other things to do to it. That's fine though because I want it to be safe and surly don't want any tickets.
I finally get rolling and get to the customer only 30 minutes late. I guess I could have been a lot later because the shipper tells me that the load has been pushed back 10 days because they don't have some of the product that was ordered. I let the broker know and get the response that every driver loves; "Just hang tight and I'll get back with you in a few minutes." Two hours later some kind of deal was cut and I had a different load number but going to the same place. After loading I look at the bill of lading (bol) and it says that it is two drops going to Menards stores in Indiana. I don't sign and tell them the bol is wrong so they scurry around and produce new papers. They say the load is right just the bol is wrong. So now I'm ready to roll but now its rush hour in Chicago so I did roll but at times in was hard to tell for sure. My truck will roll along at idle about 2 mph in 2nd gear and Chicago in rush hour is anything from 0 to 35 mph for about 40 miles. I shift about 500 times over the next 2 hours.
I got to the customer this morning at 0500 for a 0630 appointment. By 0730 I was empty. As you might expect the load wasn't exactly what they wanted but fortunately they took it anyway. They didn't seem surprised. The shipper made a mess in the wagon when they loaded it so I had to go get it washed out.
I have been sitting in this TA truck stop since around 0845 and still no load.
I would have normally gone home by now but I have put off requesting ht because I have some business coming up and I'm not sure exactly what day it will be on. If I get stuck sitting much longer I guess I will go ahead and go home anyway.
As an old man I used to know always said; "some time it be's that way.."
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