The story of this trip starts the other day when I left home after they routed me there for a 34 hour restart. The load they gave be ran from Jacksonville, FL to Beech Island, SC. It was a relatively short trip, only five hours drive time. I never worry about short haul loads, because I know the planners use short haul loads to position me for a longer haul. And indeed, that is what the plan was. I would deliver in Beech Island and pick up only eight miles away in Augusta, GA. From there I would run 170 miles to Fletcher, NC. The even shorter run from Augusta to Fletcher would set me up for a load going from North Carolina to Arkansas, more than 700 miles away. Truckers love long hauls, because there is a relaxing day of solid driving without the stress of pickup and delivery. Additionally, if you push hard the first day, you might be able to get to the delivery a day early and either deliver and move on, or have a free day to do laundry and shower and whatever else you need to do.
I am no different. I was looking forward to getting that long haul load, and I still might get it; but this load I am currently working on has been nothing but a giant pain in the rear.
From Jacksonville I drove north on I-95 until it intersects with I-16. I got on I-16 for a few miles and they had to get off, and on to US-80. I don’t really like driving too far off the interstate, and for the most part I don’t have to… However this trip was an exception. On the interstate there is no good way to get from Jacksonville to Augusta when you are focused on taking the straightest route possible. Rather than going a hundred miles or more out of route, it was much better to cut across on US highways. My US highway trip on this load was 114 or so miles, which took me more than two and a half hours. With the time I spent at the pickup, potty breaks, lunch, and the five or six hours driving, by the time I got the load delivered and arrived at the next shipper I only had an hour and 45 minutes on my 14 hour clock. The folks at the place told me it would take longer than that to get me loaded, and instructed me to drop the trailer and head to a truck stop for the night. When I come back in the morning the load will be ready for me to hook up and go.
This was no problem for me. I’m pretty good at rolling with whatever comes. My plan was to wake up at 0530 and be ready to roll at 0630. I would pick up the load, and be at the next delivery before lunch. After lunch, I would pick up the load going to Arkansas. No worries.
Well, when I pulled into the lot the next morning my heart sank. I saw an empty orange trailer that looked a lot like mine sitting near where I had dropped it. I told myself not to worry, because it was facing the opposite way from when I dropped it. It was probably someone else’s trailer.
I read the numbers on the trailer and knew my heart was right to sink. It was my trailer sitting there with the doors wide open, empty as can be…
Mabey they used a different trailer. I thought to myself as I parked and walked in the guard shack.
The woman in the guard shack informed me that my trailer had been rejected because there was a hole in the side of it. Um… No, I inspected that trailer yesterday. There were no holes in it when I brought it here. She showed me the paperwork. “Tear in side scuff-skirt.” It said.
I went out and looked. Sure enough… Damage had been done. The quarter inch aluminium plate at the bottom of the trailer on the passenger side had been struck so hard that it not only cracked, but had bowed outwards visibly.
I am 100% sure it was not there yesterday… So… Yeah, here I am at the shop waiting for my folks to find me an empty trailer to pick up. I started work at 0608 this morning and now it is 1140 and I am still in Augusta, GA… Bollocks.
The shop here in an interesting place though. First place in a long time I have seen people smoking in the office areas of the workplace. The pack of feral dogs skirting the wood-line of the property gave it a nice touch too.
Well in the end I sat at the shop for two hours before they found me a trailer about twenty miles away. I drove to the empty trailer, getting fuel along the way ($300 worth, glad I’m not buying) and an hour or so later I was back at the shipper. The security guard and I inspected the trailer extra thoroughly, and found absolutely no defects. They took my trailer away, and I crossed my fingers. About two hours later they brought it back loaded… and unbroken… Yay!
But now I had a new problem. The delivery was about 3.5 hours away and I had 3 hours left on my 14 hour clock. There was no way for me to get to the delivery tonight… Twice Bollocks… So now I’m at a Truck Stop in Colombia, SC. The load going to Arkansas was taken from me. I have no idea where I will be going after the delivery tomorrow morning.
In the end I drove 155 miles and burned 12.75 hours on my clock… Triple Bollocks.
It has been the most frustrating day I have had so far… (In the last two weeks…) It will not be the last frustrating day I have this summer.
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