Good night from...

Indianapolis, IN.

Got to the shipper this morning, went to open the trailer doors, and the left door almost fell on me.
The top hinge was holding on, but the other 4 were broken.
I hadn't noticed anything amiss when I picked it up yesterday, but I may not have been paying close enough attention because I was frustrated from looking for a trailer that this shipper would accept.
But I do know that they were not obviously broken.

So more time getting that fixed before I could get loaded.

All the trailer hunting and fixing has left me short on hours, so there's no way I can deliver tomorrow.
But the bol has a delivery date of Monday, so maybe it'll be alright.

 

At one of the Pilots @ exit 129 off of I-75 in Georgetown, KY. Neither of them will make my "A" list.
Made the 150 miles from the Columbus terminal to my drop in Fort Wayne, IN this morning with 5 minutes to spare. Except for some jerk in a company truck the pickup at Campbells went as smooth as expected. I could deliver this load tomorrow but customer service refuses to call Walmart and see if they'll accept it because some planner put comments on the load "not to deliver early". I see a hotel room, a 6-pack of beer, and a 34 hr reset in my near future. My delivery window is for Tuesday from midnight til 10:30 PM. If I can get another load to pickup Tuesday morning I'll drop it smartly at midnight, if not the'll get it when feel like checking out of the hotel and delivering it.

 

Walmart doesn't take loads early, and very rarely deviates from that. If you miss an appointment, generally you'll wait 24 hours until their scheduling sofware will generate a slot to generate a new appointment. BTW... the appointment time is the time you must be at the receiving window in the CTO.

 

Billings MT at the Peelot... Last night was the first night in over a week my truck wasn't idleing. Found a nice spot at a former pilot in the back, no one around, slept like a baby!

 

I got one of those bulging preloaded carpet loads out of Dalton GA this morning. You know, they just jam as much carpet as they can in these trailers. So heavy the sides of the trailer looks strained and about to burst. But who am I to make a comment, just a truck driver. They've been abusing trailers like this long before I came along and will continue to do so after I leave...

Not sure where we are, I know it is a T/A because I have showers on the card lol. Could have made Roanoke up the road with minutes to spare but yanked it over here because I don't know what parking would be like after sundown up there.

I don't remember my last 34. I know on the Clocks screen the Canadian hours are way in the negative so it's at least been 3 weeks.

 

Lewisburg, WV at Walmart.

So my load that was 'scheduled' to deliver today at 1500, which I Mac 22'd with an ETA of tomorrow morning, is lot of hurry up and wait.

I called the consignee last evening just after 1700, but could not get a human.
So I called back today and spoke with security.
It seems they are closed this weekend for the holiday and won't be back until Monday morning.

So another Mac 22 to explain that I won't be delivering until then.

 

It's a drop! Why do I need an appointment for a drop? The time on the dispatch was 07/10 0001-07/10 0001. I had to send a message to find out what the "hidden" drop window is.

"Receiving window in the CTO"???
Educate me please! I made sevral drops at Walmart DCs and maybe I'm already doing this and do not realize it.

No biggee, found a hotel 10 miles from the DC with truck parking.

 

I seldom get a 34.
I'm usually chasing hours from day to day until a home time. And all to often I have only a couple minutes to spare on my 11/14/70, and I really hate being pushed that close on loads.

My current load, I was an hour or so short on my 70 - so, a Mac 22.
Then, well, I said how it's going. So now I have some time to actualy gain a few hours.

I still won't get a 34 out of this, though, so no reset.

I could have run my hours out and made it to the next Pilot, where I also need an unscheduled fuel stop.
But I would have gotten there after 1930, and I didn't think there would be a spot available. There are very few truck stops in this area.
I could have sat there, and possibly completed a 34. But then I would have had to start driving in the very wee hours to make my delivery early Monday morning. And I hate driving at night in a Volvo. They have such horrible headlights.

So I pulled in to a Walmart to restock. Tomorrow I will get to the Pilot that is closest to my destination, which is only a couple miles away.

 

Tripple T truck stop in beautiful sunny Arizona.

 

Steve you can run that right in. An 0001 to 0001 window is no scheduled appointment time. WalMart will take a drop as soon as you get it there.

What Ironpony is referring to is scheduled appointments for live unloads. Now for those WalMart can get quite pissy.