By now the storms had passed, and we hauled our butts over to our shipper. Thankfully, all we had to do was drop an empty trailer at the shipper then pick up a pre-loaded trailer. So even though we would be late, it wasn’t a huge deal. By the way, our pickup was at a Budweiser brewery. Yup! A trailer full of beer. What a beautiful sight that was! Our gross weight was 79,800lbs. Legally we are allowed 80,000lbs. Cutting it close!
So anyway, after we finally arrived at the Budeweiser plant, we dropped off our empty trailer. We drove around the lot for about 10 minutes searching for our pre-loaded trailer among the hundreds that were in this lot. Finally, we found it. We had to hurry, because we were already behind schedule to deliver in North Carolina. We backed the truck onto the trailer, hooked up the airlines and electrical cable, then raised the landing gear, and we were finally ready to hit the open road! But of course, it can’t be that easy. Now the truck won’t start. Arrrrggg!!!
My trainer gets on the phone with “Road Assist” but of course had to wait on hold. First 10 minutes goes by, then 15, then 20, still no answer. This was the load that was supposed to finally get my trainer home, and now we couldn’t even move. You guessed it, once again he wasn’t happy!
But alas, the clouds parted. My trainer gave the truck one last try and it started. What a great sound it was to hear the truck start up! My trainer looks over at me with a priceless look on his face and says; “this truck doesn’t get turned off until I’m home!” Of course I was due up to drive, and I had to cross my fingers that I wouldn’t stall the truck. It might not start back up!
On the positive side, I got the green light to run the hell out of the truck so we could make it to the receiver on time. I didn’t have to really speed as the speed limits were mostly 70mph to where we were going. So I just set the cruise around 72 and passed up all the other big trucks. Hammer down! Since my trainer has a leased truck, we can run a bit faster. Once I get my own company truck, I’ll never be able to run anywhere close to 70mph. We ended up making it to the receiver with 2 minutes to spare. I still can’t believe we made it on time, but we did!
All in all, it was a royal pain of a trip, but everything sort of worked out. It could have been much worse! We survived the tornado, the truck started, we made our delivery on time, and my trainer is now in the comfort of his home. But it just goes to show, truck driving can be pretty hectic at times. My arm is a little sore today from cranking all those landing gears from all the different trailers we had to hook up to and disconnect from. What was supposed to be an easy short run to get my trainer home, turned into quite an adventure!
So, I have a couple days to sit around and be lazy. I was always told to do what you’re good at, and I’m real good at being lazy!
The one thing I took away from this whole experience, is to just chill. I understand my trainer was upset due to his home time being screwed up, but you can’t let little things bother you in this industry. Trucks are going to break down. Weather is going to cause problems. Roads are going to be closed. Favors will need to be made every now and then. This is all part of trucking. You just have to roll with it. If you get upset over being a little late or having to run a couple extra errands, it’ll get to you real quick.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have two days to get through 3 seasons of the show “Ice Road Truckers” on DVD. I told you I was good at being lazy!
Until next time, drive safely!
TruckerMike
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See, THAT’s why drivers get reeeeeally mad when dispatch says “I just need you to do a quick favor”. What happened to you guys happens 95% of the time – it’s never what they tell you it is, and you wind up exhausted, frustrated, and behind schedule, and for what? They pay you $20 to do it. Wow, thanks. And then the dispatchers all sit around in the breakroom going, “Drivers are such babies. I just asked them to drop a trailer off at a repair shop. It’s like a 10 minute job.” That’s because most dispatchers have never been on the road and think that driving their Ford Taurus to the grocery store in town is no different than what they just asked you to do.
You’re totally right – drivers all seem to become one of two types of people – they either develop the patience of a monk, or become miserable and full of anxiety. You really do have to have the patience and attitude of a monk, but I’ll guarantee you there’s nobody out there that’s so patient they won’t find themselves wanting to choke somebody at least a couple times a week.
You can probably see why after 15 years of it I’m happily living alone on a hill in the middle of nowhere! LoL!
And then when you do all of the above in Brett’s comment, your story, everyone is mad at YOU because you now have lost your time to deliver the load on time. Everyone is mad at YOU for things that are not your fault.
Temper/patience is tested daily and you will have a time where you have had enough and let everyone have it if you have not done it yet. It will happen. Been there,done it–mostly over the phone which was a lifesaver to the idiot I was yelling at. You have got to speak up or get walked on. I did not have to have many “let someone have it” days but again it does happen.
It may even be something like you are not going to wait 3 hours for someone to get to work to tell you what empty trailer to take, so you take it from a customer who has some of your empty trailers (St Cloud MN) and get a NEW trailers of course and NOT send it in on the qualcomm until you are miles down the road (Twin Cities and farther east) or the office contacts you as they can’t find your trailer # in the qualcomm for what you are doing NOW. Yup, they want you to keep moving, I will get a trailer if its not assigned to me when the office is closed. You might be told that trailer was assigned to Mike when he arrives at 8. Too bad, Mike can get another empty at that place. Now I only remember doing this 1 time as all got the point to give me my COMPLETE assignment of load/pick up/delivery/and TRAILER NUMBER.