Its Been One Of "those" Days

Today I had what appeared a pretty chill day, a stop on the east side of town then head 170ish miles down to Fort Madison Iowa in the SE corner of the state, then pickup 4 pallets at a cold storage back in town. Figured 370 miles knock it out and get done on maybe 11 hours if I dragged my feet a bit. It turned into nearly 16 by the time I got done.

First thing that was annoying was the sensors in the truck were malfunctioning preventing me from using cruise control. With it being a 65 mph zone and being governed at 70 I struggled a bit to maintain a steady speed on the pedal. I ended up going 20 miles out of route on my way back to get on I-80 so I could keep the pedal to the floor. I'm very thankfulfor cruise control when it works =). Got to my backhaul and sat for 2 hours before they started loading me. Well, they loaded ONE pallet then went on their hour lunch at noon. Called dispatch to see what they wanted to do since according to Google (which isn't ever exact) I was 15 minutes back to our yard and my clock would run out at 130, giving them just 15 minutes to load the other 3 pallets, get paperwork etc. I was ready to take off with 16 minutes on my 14. They made the decision for me to sit on it and they'd send another driver in a company car to pick up the truck and id take company car back. I felt it was a much better option than getting as far as possible and sitting on the side of the road. Dispatch agreed. I didn't have my 16 hour rule available because I didn't meet the requirements due to being out overnight last Saturday. After I got back the other driver pulled the truck up front, I got logged back in and did yard move to get my trailer to the assigned area and finish up paperwork. Start driving to park the truck and its the office calling me. "Go see ******** in HR before you leave today". The only time we get those calls is for a random so I ask if thats the case and am told they can't discuss that but usually thats the reason. Of course id just used the restroom while waiting for the truck to get back to the yard so I was chugging water on my way to the test site. I'm expecting to be sent again next month as it always seems if I get popped for a random I get it the next month too.

Tomorrow got a 500 mile run that I need to clock in for as soon as my 10 hour break is up. Atleast tomorrow is my Friday

Keep the faith man!

Good GOSH, Rob T. !!!

Must have been the 'moon phase.' Tom had to work Saturday (one weekend every 5 he gets that) and the same darn thing w/the 16, because often times he brings the t/t home; null and voids that exception here, too. He sure has 'finessed' the PC and yard moves; pretty much from what we've learned on HERE, from Y'ALL ~!!!!

You sure earn your pay, I know that!!

Tom almost ALWAYS gets popped for a random after a holiday, which is funny; one would think they'd pick on the 'younger' drivers, for that .. haha! Us 'fifty somethings' don't go out 'partying' on the holidays (or ever, anymore!)

Nice post, good sir.

Thanks for sharing, & keep the faith, as Chief said!

~ Anne ~

You sure earn your pay, I know that!!

not really, lol. This job is such a gravy job for what they pay us. I have to unload my truck but everything is palletized and the stores have electric pallet jacks. To be honest I somewhat miss 2 wheeling. Used to be able to eat anything and now it seems if I just look at food I gain weight lol. However, this job is a heck of alot better long term.

The only way I'd say I earn my pay is starting usually between midnight and 2am. Also listening to all the senior drivers complain gets irritating, though hilarious. Today I spoke to a driver out of another DC that was in a bad mood because he's been there over 35 years, plus an additional 5 part time and isn't even in the top 10 in seniority. As a result he didnt get memorial day or labor day weeks off as he was outbid. Couple weeks ago someone typed out a fake notice using same language our VP does and said that we're getting driver facing and audio cameras in our trucks. To be honest it seemed quite believable. Many people threatened to quit which resulted in our VP sending out group texts on a Sunday afternoon saying its false. There was a video on zipline (our company uses it to send video messages, as well as our weekly video from the CEO of Hy-vee telling us the latest news) that was uploaded Tuesday trying to still convince people its not real. However he did say that its likely in the future we will due to the insurance cost getting outrageous despite our "extremely good" CSA score.

I feel your pain re: the cruise control going out… I hate it when mine isn’t working. It’s nearly impossible for me to maintain a steady speed. And I can always tell when the truck in front of me doesn’t have it, because the driver’s speed is constantly going up and down within 3 to 4 mph. It’s very irritating.