Life Day 22303: Salt Lake Situation
August 4, 2008 on 7:50 pm | In On The Road | Comments OffThis morning, I drove back to Corinne to pick up an empty Swift trailer and say my farewells. I arrived at the Salt Lake Terminal a little before noon. I received a PrePlan to Chico, CA along the way, but it didn’t deliver until Thursday. Not a good start. I checked in at the office and met my new Driver Manager, Janis. We had a nice chat, then got down to business. I questioned the PrePlan to Chico and asked if there wasn’t something a little better. She found a load to Dolores, TX that delivers on Friday (coincidently, the load delivers to the Sam’s Club there). Much better. Over 1300 miles rather than the 750 for the Chico load. After I accepted that PrePlan, all that was left to do was sign my new Contract.
Here’s where I encountered a little snag. The transfer had to be approved by Corporate in Phoenix, then the new Contract e-mailed to the Salt Lake terminal to be printed out and signed. To make a long story short, the transfer was approved, but the e-mail had not been sent as of close of business today. So, I have to wait until tomorrow to sign it. That’s OK. My load isn’t ready yet either. It will be pre-loaded sometime tonight. When I’m ready to leave tomorrow, the load will either have been delivered to the terminal by a local driver, or waiting for me at the customer. Either way, it won’t be much of a hassle.
That’s the extent of my day. It reminds me of my time in the Air Force. Hurry up and wait.
Life Day 22302: Corinne Conundrum
August 3, 2008 on 2:22 pm | In On The Road | Comments OffOn Tuesday, July 29th, an incident occurred at the Corinne terminal which didn’t involve me, but does effect me. It is in regards to pets. It seems that a driver had his truck in the shop for repairs. He had his dog(s), on leash, outside the shop, waiting for his truck to be repaired. The dogs were incessantly barking. This caused the Walmart Site Manager to, once again, start enforcing the “no pets outside the vehicle” policy.
I was en route to Las Vegas & San Bernardino with a load when I received the message via QualCom about the change in policy. After considerable “naval contemplation”, I decided to end my affiliation with the Corinne facility. Remaining there would involve too many hassles. First, I would have to stop somewhere before I enter the facility and exercise the MMM. Next, I would have to depart as soon as I dropped the trailer and drive 10 to 15 miles to ‘hang out’ until my next load. The choices are limited. Tremonton is the only place with a restaurant (if you consider Denny’s a restaurant). Perry has the Walmart and a small truck stop, but only has “fast food” available. The town of Corinne ‘rolls up the sidewalks at 9:00 PM, so that is not a viable option. Anyway, after I recieved my next dispatch, I would again have to walk the MMM, then drive the 10 to 15 miles back, pick up the load, and leave. Like I said, hassle, hassle, hassle. That 20 to 30 miles (round trip) will add up to well over 100 extra, unpaid, miles per week, so there is the added expense to consider as well. Since I was planning on leaving around the middle of October anyway ( I had no intention of driving another Winter here), all this did was expedite my departure date by a couple of months.
At any rate, I’m currently sitting at the truck stop in Perry just hanging out until tomorrow (Monday the 4th). I’ll get myself re-instated at the Salt Lake City facility, and go back out ‘over-the-road’ for now. Dedicated runs that will get me to or through Las Vegas are few and far between, but I’ll keep looking.
Now for a quick ‘catch up’ on what I’ve been doing (besides the above) since my last Post; which is actually very little. I took that load to Las Vegas on the 26th, and did, in fact take a couple of days off. I returned to Corinne on the 28th. On the 29th, I took the above mentioned load to Las Vegas/San Bernardino. When I returned in the wee hours of August 1st, I agreed to take one last load (after taking a 10-hour break) to Grand Junction and Olathe, CO as a favor (they had 50 more loads than trucks available). The Olathe stop was a back-haul of ’sweet corn’. I arrived there (Olathe) about 0730 yesterday morning. As I drove through town to the customer, I noticed some “big doings” happening a half block away. It turned out that I had arrived right at the beginning of the Sweet Corn Festival. A FREE pancake and ham breakfast had just begun. You know me, after I was loaded, I strolled over for the free food. It was quite tasty, especially for the price. I also purchased 1/2 dozen ears of the local treat to take with me. They cost me a whopping $2.00. They were excellent. (Hint: 2 ears + 3 minutes in the microwave = Corn perfection) :=}
I left about 0900, just as the Parade was just beginning. I turned right to connect with the main highway (US-50) just as the first floats were 1/2 a block away heading towards me. I’m glad I left when I did. Had I stayed any longer, I would have been trapped for quite a while. The rest of the trip was uneventful. When I arrived back at Corinne, I dropped my trailer, left the facility and came here to ‘vegetate and geek’ until tomorrow.
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