STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

VEINTE Y NUEVE DE MAYO (Life day 21140)

May 29, 2005 on 6:10 am | In On The Road |

I awoke at 5:30 this AM, the 29th, with a Pre-Plan. According to the time stamp on my QualCom it was sent at 4:12 AM. The load picks up anytime today before 11:00 AM (actually yesterday as well) in Woodburn, IN and delivers anytime before June 2nd in Reno, NV (153 miles empty and 2064 miles loaded). Naturally, I accepted it. What I don’t understand is why I didn’t recieve this Plan YESTERDAY?? The time frame for the pick-up is/was 05/28, 00:01 to 05/29, 10:59?? I could have already picked up the load and been en-route. We (Swift) have been utilizing an AUTOMATED Dispatch system for over 2 months now, and so far, I’m NOT impressed. I’m not getting as many paid miles as I did under the ‘old’, antiquated system when actual PEOPLE did the Planning. I could “game” the system then, talk to them personally. Now, they don’t want to hear from you. “Just let the COMPUTER do it’s job.” Call me a techno-phobe if you want, but I still like working with actual warm-blooded, reasoning, homo-sapien types. ANYWAY, about 6:00 AM, I drove to the ‘drop yard’ to look for an empty trailer. This load is Pre-Loaded, but requires an ‘empty’ to replace the trailer you take out. There were no ‘empties’ there, so I messaged my DM and asked for some help in finding a trailer. He said that he would message the Planner. After an hour with no response from the Planner, I messaged the DM again. He repeated the same “montra” about messaging the Planner. This rigmorole went on every hour until about 10:00 AM. At this time, I suggested that he use “more strident” measures to find a trailer for me because “obviously”, the Planner had us on “ignore”. I suggested that he ACTUALLY pick up the telephone and CALL the Planner to see what the problem was. The load was “supposed” to have already been picked up by now (I’m still 153 miles away), and I didn’t want any “grief” from the Shipper when I FINALLY show up to get the load. At 10:45 AM, with still NO RESPONSE from the Planner, serendipity interveened. A driver showed up, WITH AN EMPTY TRAILER, to pick up another load. I ’snagged’ his empty as soon as he dropped it. It took another 30 minutes to get me Dispatched on the load because the COMPUTER was slow and we had to wait for his L-Call to go through before I could be Dispatched with his empty. Another 15 minutes for a final BCC walk and paperwork, and I FINALLY departed Indianapolis at 11:30 AM. I arrived in Woodburn at 1:45 PM. No “grief” from the Shipper. In fact the woman in Security was quite friendly. She liked the doggies. I guess that the 10:59 AM time in the “pick-up window” was simply a computer generated time based upon the distance to the Consignee and the scheduled appointment time, and not “carved in stone”. The Shipper had a vast lawn area, so the doggies got to “help” daddy do the ‘drop & hook’. They do this by “exploring” the grass while I drop the trailer, then getting back into the cab while I drive to the loaded trailer (they don’t like daddy moving the truck without them inside), then “exploring” the grass again while I hook to the loaded trailer. After the “exploration” and doing the L-Call, I left there at 3:15 PM. I drove to our Terminal in Gary, IN, where I fueled, walked the BCC, and turned in some Pay Envelopes. They can be turned in at “Trip-Pak Xpress” kiosks located in most major Truckstops, but Swift prefers that they be turned in at Terminals whenever possible. Those turned in at the truckstops have a higher risk being lost or delayed. The sooner Swift gets paid, the sooner I get paid!! It’s that simple. I left Gary at 7:15 PM and drove to the Flying J in Davenport, IA. I still have a couple of hours remaining to drive, but I decided to stop here for the night. It’s already 11:00 PM. I can’t make it all the way to Des Moines and another WiFi hot-spot. I can start from here in the AM. The remaining States that I have to drive through on this trip all have 65+ MPH speed limits so I’ll make good time from here on. I drove 445 miles in 8.75 hours.