It’s Friday!

What kind of crazy week did u have? Last Saturday night I drove into Nashville at about 22::00 traffic was horrible. Right in the downtown section my navigo freezes. Thank goodness I had my steps wrote down. Then on Monday left Springfield with 44 in the box and drove 60 out of Missouri into Illinois into Kentucky. When I came upon that tiny bridge over all that water. I was ready to start praying however no time a log truck was crossing toward me. I just knew we were gonna swap mirrors. But, I survived! Hope everyone had an awesome week!

My week has been pretty relaxed, the two weeks before this week was busy busy since there are only 5 drivers in this dedicated account in my area, and one of them took their full two weeks vacation at once, so the other 4 of us had to take up extra work during that time, and on top of that one guy called in sick two days in a row so only 3 of us were working.

But lucky everything is back to normal now, and I'm taking my vacation next week so good luck to those guys.

I ended up running 2 back to back runs of forklifts down to Miami. First trip was uneventful. We typically get broker loads to get us back in our freight lanes. My loads getting out were completely messed up on this last one. Was supposed to have a load from South Bay to up near Cleveland Ohio... arrived to get loaded and sat and sat.. and sat as my appointment time came and went.. went back into see what the hold up was... pickup number was no good. Call the broker and they give me a 2nd number.. go back in, again.. no good. Call my dispatcher and he finally calls me back with a third number telling me its supposed to be for the next day but to check to see if it was a good number.. yay third time is a charm so I go back out to the truck to let him know.. signal was so weak out there my phone wouldn't work in the building. Prepared to sit another day (of course my dispatcher said they were paying me for the trouble) I was talking to another driver who told me.. if they've got the product they might load you today, even though they say they won't load anyone early. I go back in and convince them to load me but instead of Cleveland Ohio its going to Atlanta.

No biggie. So my dispatcher told me great job getting loaded early and was trying to get my delivery time bumped up a day lol. Wasn't able to get my appointment time moved up so again they threw more money at me. Fiddled around in Florida taking my time. Got delivered in Atlanta (villa rica) and went to get my next load in Duluth (NE Atlanta). Get there and they were like.. "where is this load going??" Looking kind of wide eyed and incredulous. Apparently another broker screw up and the load wasn't scheduled til this coming Monday. They didn't even have the product yet. It was a small tight little place so I just told them thanks, that I'd let my dispatcher know.

Called my dispatcher who was like soooooo frustrated. True to form.. another CH Robinson screw up and I wasn't the only one. I told him I was headed back 30 miles to the Petro and he said they were down to 1 load planner but they'd work on finding me something else to get me home. I just laughed and said on a Friday afternoon in Atlanta?? May the force be with you. Maybe there's something at our Conley drop yard I can grab. So my Qualcomm blows up with the typical array of messages with load information just a couple miles from the Petro... blank load information but a fuel stop and a load plan that says deadhead home lol. So yeah.. instead of having me sit in Atlanta they're paying me to go home. Driving around in Atlanta Friday afternoon rush hour traffic.. well you know what that did to my clock. My 10 is over now so it's time to head home.

The moral of the story is if you have a good relationship with your dispatcher they'll take care of you. Some days can be so messed up all you can do is laugh and say "Welcome to Trucking " I really wouldn't have minded hanging around Atlanta but it was time to go home so my company, despite all the screwups that were beyond our control, was making sure I get there on time and paying me to get there. Crazy stuff but I'm hoping I'll get another Miami run this coming week they're usually not so messed up.