09/29/2009

Weellll. Last night there were 2 other trucks when I got there. Walk in talk to security. Security says "They'll take care of you on 3rd shift". OK my appointment wasn't until 1am no harm, no foul. Set my alarm for 11pm. Gotta use a "Screamin Meanie" no wimpy cell phone alarms for me. There's a DGL (takes about 2 hrs from start to finish) and a Step deck (2.5-2.75 hrs) in front of me. Set my alarm for 3:30. About 4:45 the step deck rolls out and I back into the bay. Not sure who was slow, but someone was. One of the dock worker walks by and ask me if I was their 1am load. I said "Yes and that I was a bit late". This would come back to haunt me. Why I said I was late is beyond me. Maybe I was trying to hard to be a nice guy or something. All I know is as soon as the truck in front of me pulled out I pulled in. The dock worker said it was no problem. I'm thinking I didn't have a choice in the matter, so it was a good thing it wasn't a problem.

Apparently some big cheese didn't get his latte served fast enough or the mocha wasn't creamy enough. He ask the dock worker why they were still unloading a truck at 6am in the morning. He (the dock worker) then proceeds to throw me under the bus because I said "I was late". Knowing full well that I pulled in as soon as the previous truck pulled out. Somehow there was overtime involved and the big cheese wasn't pleased and being a truck driver and not at that facility everyday I got a big red bullseye painted on my back. It perked through their system and then over to our system. And about noon I'm trying to explain to my boss why I was late. Which after explaining it all it was determined I wasn't late, but that I shouldn't have admitted fault.

Anyway it didn't effect my service record in the end. But it did serve to remind me that the ass I'm getting ready to kiss could actually be a big greyhound bus.

Enough with the negativity.

Grabbed my load from the drop yard about 11am. It weights in at a hefty 46600 which is very close to the upper limits of this trailer. So off to the scale I go. Over on the drives 260lbs and the rears are over 120lbs. Slide the fifth wheel time. This is only the second time I've every had to do this and the first time was over 10 months ago. It had to be funny at least to driver sitting in his cab watching me. It broke free easily enough it was trying to get the pins into the right set of holes that provided the comedic relief. Back and forth over and over again. Finally got them into the holes I wanted. Re-wiegh steer good, drives good, and the rears were upto 180 over but I was authorized that much so all is good and away I go.

Made it through Joilet and Chicagoland without a hiccup (sweet). And the rest of the journey proved just as painless. Entering Canada especially compared to getting back into the states was especially easy today. Pull into the consignee at 8pm and off to bed 3:30 am comes early

Have a nice day

Bookerz out