STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 21827: On the way to Oxnard

April 16, 2007 on 10:31 pm | In On The Road |

Monday, April 16th:
Today was a long day. I was back at the consignee when they opened at 0800. I found out the hard way about a new Swift policy. Before you can deliver a load to a Broker, you have to first have your trailer inspected at the Swift terminal. When I went in to Recieving, the first thing they asked for was the inspection form. Not having one, I had to drive the 10 miles back to the terminal and obtain one (so much for an early start). If I would have known about this, I could have done it yesterday while I was goofing off at the Flying J. Because of the line for the inspection lane, it took about 2 hours to get the trailer inspected. After I got it, I went back to the consignee. I did the drop/hook delivery, then parked on the street to wait for my next load. About 1430, I recieved a PrePlan which picked up at our terminal here in Laredo and delivered in Oxnard, CA. I drove back to the terminal, fueled, picked up the load, and finally departed Laredo at 1545. I drove to Del Rio, TX. I took a short break, then drove to Fort Stockton, TX where I had to stop for the day. That pesky 14-hour rule strikes again.

Tuesday:
I left Ft. Stockton at 0830. I drove to El Paso, TX. I fueled, and took a nice long break. At 1500, I departed and drove directly to Phoenix, AZ where I stopped for the night. I drove 10.75 hours.

Wednesday:
I left Phoenix at 1100 and drove to Blythe, CA. The reason I stopped here was that between Quartzsite and Ehrenberg, I blew a tire on my trailer, and Blythe was the nearest repair facility. It took about an hour to replace the tire (mostly waiting for the On-Road department to issue the PO for repair). I then drove to our terminal in Fontana. I didn’t yet have a PrePlan, and I didn’t want to get to Oxnard without one. There is no place to park a “big rig” there. I checked with Dispatch after I had parked. They found me a load which picked up at the consignee and delivered in McCarran (just east of Reno), NV. I accepted it, then settled in for the night.

Thursday:
Since the PrePlan didn’t pick up until after 1500, I delayed my departure from Fontana until noon. I arrived in Oxnard at 1445. I did the delivery and pick up, walked the MMM, did the paperwork, and left Oxnard about 1600. I drove to Harris Ranch. I had dinner here (Chicken Fried Steak, naturally). I then drove to Santa Nella, where I decided to stop for the night.