"Pull around to inspection bay #1 please"

The above is one of the last things a truck driver wants to hear when crossing a scale, and that is what I got yesterday morning.

I had just started my driving day at the Arizona / New Mexico border and the scale was a few miles further on along I-40. I wheeled my truck around back to bay #1 and was waved in. This is one of those with an open trench down the middle for the inspectors to use to check your brakes without having to work hard.

CDL. Medical Card. Truck registration. Truck insurance. Trailer registration. Bill of Lading. All of these were provided and when he got to looking at my log book I mentioned I logged electronically and if he wanted I could print him out a copy to peruse. "Oh no, you electronic logger guys are fine." I smiled -- on the inside of course.

Thirty minutes of my day wasted I finally got the green and scooted out of there.

The rest of the trip up to the Denver area was routine and this morning I made my stops in Parker and Castle Rock. Today's preplan had me heading up to Fort Collins for a load of Budweiser heading to Omaha after adding a bit of fuel in Denver. Everything was going swimmingly until I arrived at Fort Collins only to be told that they were backed up and my 1000 load time was going to be delayed. Grrrreat.

It took them until 1645 to get the trailer loaded and another 30 minutes to move it out of the door so I could hook up to it. By then, my hours weren't sufficient to make it to Omaha on time for tomorrow's delivery so I sent in the proper codes via satellite and stopped for the night in Big Springs, Nebraska.