STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 21525: Phoenix Phrustration

June 18, 2006 on 10:13 am | In On The Road |

On Monday, the 12th, after spending an extra day in Vegas due to a lack of freight, I finally recieved and accepted a PrePlan which picked up in North Las Vegas, NV and delivered in Cheyenne, WY. The load was a “live load” and didn’t pick up until 1500. I called the customer, and was informed that I could not be loaded any earlier, so I just waited at the WWW. At 1400, I drove to the Flying J in NLV where I fueled. I then drove the 2 miles from there to the Shipper, arriving precisely on-time. It took 1 1/2 hours to be loaded. At 1645, I departed. I drove to the MMM’s favorite Rest Area on I-15 at mm-88 in Utah. They had a nice untethered romp there. Then I drove to our terminal in Salt Lake City where I stopped for the night. The most direct route would have been I-15N to I-70E to I-25N to I-80E to the consignee, but I had to go to the SLC terminal to take the Swift HAZMAT Test, and put my rickety old truck in the shop. The Transmission Cooler is leaking again. It was not that far out of route going through SLC.
On Tuesday, I got a late start. The shop was busy, and it was 1500 before they got to my truck. On my daily inspection, I noticed a bolt in the right rear outboard (RRO) tire of my truck. It wasn’t leaking, but I had the shop pull it out. When they did, it did start leaking, really fast. It was 2-inches long. Naturally, they had to repair the tire as well. While I was waiting to get into the shop, I took and passed my HAZMAT test. At 2000, I finally left SLC and drove to Rock Springs, WY. I stopped here for the night.
On Wednesday, I left Rock Springs abound noonish. I awoke with a PrePlan on my QualCom. It picked up at the same customer to which I was delivering in Cheyenne, and delivered in Mesa, AZ. I accepted it. I drove directly to the Consignee in Cheyenne, arriving at 1630. The PrePlan wasn’t scheduled for pick-up until 0300 tomorrow AM. Upon checking with Shipping, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was already loaded, so I was able to just drop/hook. Much more expediant, and also, it saved me having to “wake up the chickens” at 0300 to get the load. I left Cheyenne at 1830 and drove to Denver, CO where I called it a day.
On Thursday, I left Denver at 1000. I drove to Raton, NM and took a nice break here for lunch. I made a couple of hot dogs in the new Burton “stove to go” that I purchased in Denver this AM. It worked well. After lunch, I drove to Albuquerque, NM where I stopped for the night. The weather was windy all the way from Raton, and I arrived at sunset in another dust storm.
On Friday, I left Albuquerque at 1000. I drove to Winslow, AZ. I took a lunch break here. At 1530, I drove to Mesa, AZ. By the time I arrived in the Phoenix area, most of the evening commute traffic had discipated and it was smooth sailing all the way to Mesa. I arrived at 1915. I could have made this run in 2 days, arriving in the Phoenix/Mesa area on Thursday night, but since the load had a ‘firm’ delivery time of 2000 on Friday, I decided to just mosey to Phoenix/Mesa. This way my work day on Friday is ending at 2000 rather than beginning. Anyway, I made the delivery, which turned out to be drop/hook at 1900. Many of Swift’s larger customers will set a firm appointment time, usually in the evening or early AM when the store is closed, then have the driver spot his loaded trailer after they determine that the door seals are intact, and hook to the empty trailer from the previous day. These are usually companies that have a large volume of inbound freight. This way, they can unload the trailer at their leisure.
After the drop/hook, I secured a secluded spot in the corner of their parking lot and called it a day. I set my PTA for tomorrow AM at 0700.
On Saturday, I was ready to roll at 0700 as promised. At 0900, I still had no PrePlan, so I called my home terminal (SLC). The DM du jour sent a message to the Planner in Phoenix. I repeated this process again at noon. I am really beginning to hate the new “centralized dispatch” system thast Swift adopted at the first of this year. My home terminal can no longer find a load for me, but has to go through the Planner in Phoenix. At 1700, the Planner offered me a load which picked up in the Phoenix terminal and delivered Monday AM in Richmond, CA. After some close scrutiny, I turned the load down on principle. This load had been sitting in the terminal in Phoenix since Thursday. Had the Planner offered me the load earlier in the day (like before noon), I would have accepted it, but since he/she saw fit to ’sit on’ this load for 10 hours before offering it to me, I turned it down. I had enough time to make the delivery if I wanted to, but if I had accepted it this late in the day I would have had to rush to make the delivery on time. I first would have to drive to the terminal in Phoenix, pick-up the paperwork, go into the ‘yard’, and try to find a parking spot for my empty, which on a weekend is quite a task. Then I would have had to locate my loaded trailer among all the vast acerage and trailers and general congestion. In all probability, I would have to move a trailer or two just to get to it. Then, I would have to go weigh the load since it was over 40,000lbs. Then, I would have to go back and fuel, then go re-weigh to make sure the load was legal after taking on the fuel. With all this rigmarole, it would have been 2100 before I was ready to leave Phoenix. Since I had already been up since 0700, I wouldn’t be able to drive very far before I got too tired to drive and had to stop. If I drove a full day on Sunday, I would still be short of my destination by about 150 miles. That means that I would have to get up in ‘the wee hours’ on Monday, fight my way through the Monday rush hour clear across the entire Bay Area to get to the customer. It just entailed way too much B.S. for my liking. Anyway, I digress. The bottom line is that I got no load today.
Today, Sunday, about noon, I recieved and accepted a PrePlan which picks up in Rio Rico (Nogales), AZ and delivers on Thursday in Forsyth, IL (170 miles empty and 1554 miles loaded). Much better!!!! As a bonus, I have been off for enough consecutive hours to re-start my 70-hour clock. Look out Land of Lincoln, here I come.