So yeah, had a wonderful breakfast with Katie on Friday, then I started feeling sick later that day. DAMN YOU KATIE! Ok, not really. Was probably my own damn fault. I didn't get much sleep Wed night. Time out, food is here.
Eating at a J in Haw River, NC...
Luckily I didn't have to drive that hard to make it down to Mt. Olive, NC. Even if I had wanted to drive hard I didn't have the hours of service to do so. So I spent the weekend eating tons of food and getting lots of sleep. I still feel ill now but I'm on the mend.
The pickup at Waconia, MN went fine but I was a little worried about one pallet with three machinery pieces on it. I let the other driver there do most of the strapping down of my freight because he had more experience with this kind of freight than me. After driving a little over halfway I stopped in Walton, KY for the night and checked my load. The pallet had vibrated to the side during transit but worse than that, one of the machine pieces that was attached to the pallet had come loose. That sort of thing isn't my responsibility thankfully. It's up to the customer to make sure that their freight is securely attached to the pallet, but I still didn't want to show up at the customer with a unsecured piece of freight, particularly when the load is insured for $380,000.
The piece was too heavy for me to move but I wrapped a bunch of straps it and secured them to the wall. I also contacted dispatch to get the number of the other driver. I gave him a call and warned him about the tendency of the pallet to vibrate around. Sure enough, when he checked his pallet had moved as well.
Contacting the customer was fun as well. I gave them a call on Friday early afternoon and got the wonderful automatic recording. None of the options sounding particularly promising except for "press 8 for directions to our facility". Sure enough I couldn't get in touch with a human being the first try. Then I couldn't get in touch with a human the second try. Does anyone work here? Third try security answered and he transferred me to a phone that just kept ringing. Fourth try security connected me to a guy who said he was transferring me to someone else, then the phone went dead. Fifth try I got back to the guy who had hung up on me because I heard the security guard mumble his extension when I was getting connected. He claimed the line had went dead. We talked for a bit. I learned nothing during the conversation. Then he said he was transferring me again and the call stayed connected for about ten more minutes...but I never did talk to anyone else.
In case you were wondering, I tried option 8 later on in the weekend when I started getting close, and the machine hung up on me.
The address was tricky too. The navigation program in my phone said that road didn't exist. So I used google maps to get close then just figured it out when I got there. It was after 2:30am when I rolled into Mt. Olive last night, so I didn't have to contend with any traffic. Unfortunately, I did have to get up before 8am for my delivery. I did get in a few naps while they were unloading me, but I am still sick so currently I feel sleep deprived and terrible.
I'm headed back up to Shelby, OH to get a load due in MD Wed morn. I stopped outside Raleigh to pick up a load headed to Columbus, OH so I do have something in my trailer.
Oh the life of a trucker.
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