STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 22319: Seething in Sin City

August 20, 2008 on 1:53 am | In On The Road |

Where do I begin? Freight is still SLOW. After I delivered the load to Spring Valley on the 13th, I accepted a load which picked up in Aurora, IL and delivered in Lenexa, KS; a trip of about 550 miles plus the 80 mile deadhead. It turned out to be an “all-nighter” to get there. After I delivered the Lenexa load in the “wee hours” if the 14th, I drove to our terminal in Edwardsville, KS, about 10 miles away, and went to bed. When I woke up about noon, I had my new Swift contract e-mailed to the terminal,  so I could sign it. Just after I finished that, I received a Pre-Plan which picked up in Salina, KS and delivered in Reno, NV, with an additional stop Denver, CO. The problem was that the Denver stop delivered on the 15th at 0700. Yep, another “all-nighter”. The only way to do it legally was to wait 2 hours, until about 1800, to leave Edwardsville and pick up the load. The pick up in Salina was at a truck stop because the driver who originally picked up the load had some kind of mechanical problem with his tractor and couldn’t continue. I arrived in Salina about 2100, hooked to the load and started out for the Denver stop. I arrived at the consignee around 0400. I didn’t dare to go to bed for fear of not waking up in time, so I just napped on the steering wheel until the delivery time. The unload took about 15 minutes. I then drove about a mile to the Pilot truck stop, had breakfast, and went to bed. It rained steadily all day. Good for sleeping, but bad for “doggie walking”. I left Denver about 1700 and drove to Rawlins, WY where I stopped for the night. The delivery window in Reno was basically any time Saturday or Sunday, so there was no rush to get there. No need to do a 3rd consecutive “all-nighter”.
On the 16th, I drove from Rawlins to Mill City (Pucker Brush), NV, about 150 miles from the customer in Reno.
I delivered the load about noon on the 17th. I then received 2 PrePlans. The first was a short trip from Fairfield, CA right back to Reno. The second was the load on which I am currently, from Sparks, NV to Las Vegas. I encountered a problem on the first load after I arrived at the shipper in that it wouldn’t be ready until after 2000. My 14 hours expired at 1030, so there was no way I could make the 0700 delivery. I informed those concerned and drove until I ran out of hours for the day, then went to bed.
I finally delivered the load about 1100 in the 18th, then went to the next shipper. It took about an hour to “live load”. When I was done, I drove on to the customer in Vegas, stopping only once for a snack and doggie walk in Hawthorne, NV.
Now, for the reason I’m SEETHING. This load, according to the Dispatch, was scheduled for delivery at 0600 on the 19th (yesterday). When I arrived at the security gate, I was told that I didn’t have an appointment. After over 3 hours of B___ S___, it turned out that the customer had changed the appointment for today, the 20th. They e-mailed their Customer Service Representative with Swift with the appointment change, but the CSR neglected to inform me. The Bottom Line is that I wasted over 3 hours of what could have been a relaxing day off, and I still have to deliver the load later this morning. Since I’m technically home (in Las Vegas), I receive no Detention Pay either. Never mind that the customer is 20 miles from the WWW. Due the the gerrymandered, convoluted way Las Vegas is laid out, it’s still technically Vegas. After all the B.S. yesterday morning, I drove to the WWW anyway instead of ‘hanging out’ all day at the near by Petro Stopping Center being bored to tears. It cost me over $20.00 in fuel to do it (40 miles round trip at 6.5 miles per gallon with fuel costing 4.70 per gallon here), but it was worth it to me. I’ll deliver the load in a couple of hours, then take the rest on my home time. Fun, fun, fun.