Wednesday, December 3, 2008

After a full eleven hours of driving we have... a cluster

I arrived at my consignee in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma right at the bitter end of my legal work day last night, 15 minutes before my appointment time. The food warehouse I delivered at is so huge, I saw it more than a mile away. As I glanced at my GPS for the distance to my next turn (on to the street next to the warehouse) it showed 1.3 miles and even at that distance I could tell that was one big-ass building.

Upon arrival I bring the paperwork into the guard shack where they punch in the proper codes to look up the order. It turns out, according to their system, this load was supposed to deliver two days ago. This despite the fact I picked it up last night, thus clearly paradoxical. The guards begrudgingly issued me a truck pass and showed me where in the lot I could park (wayyyyyy in the back along with the other appointmentless unfortunates) and they would "try to work me in."

I quickly parked and went to bed for some much needed rest. I had been driving for much of the past twelve hours with one break to fuel and one other short break for personal stuff. Okay, it was to grab a DQ Blizzard, I admit it.

The phone goes off at 0430 with the news: they just weren't able to work me in. Since this place takes deliveries only at night (then ships out during the day) I would have to wait until tomorrow night for another chance. Lovely.

I puttered over to a nearby truck stop and went to bed to finish my sleepy time.

This morning I'm told to just drop off the trailer there and bobtail out. Wish they had mentioned this idea last night. So, I trudge back to the guards who helpfully point out that my reefer tank is at just under 3/4ths and that isn't "full", technically, so I need to fix that before I can drop the trailer. I trudge back and forth to the nearest fuel stop and eventually they relent and let me drop the trailer.